We Are Not Alone

Daniel James

   "Mom! I need help!" Dan yelled from behind his locked bedroom door. All of his toys had somehow fallen off his shelf at the same time.

   His room was painted a baby blue color, and almost every inch of the wall was plastered with some sort of poster. Whether is was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a picture he had drawn of his friend. Well, his ex-friend.

  Dan didn't know it, but his mother had used a charm to enter the locked room. As she entered, she saw her son crouched on the floor, holding a broken Captain America action figure.

  "Oh, Dan. What have you done?" His mother shook her head disapprovingly, but an outline of a smile was on her face.

   "I don't know! It's not my bloody fault that the toys decided to fall! You should have seen it; it was like...magic," Dan looked up at his mother, and she sat on the floor next to him.

   "Dan, tomorrow's your eleventh birthday, are you excited?" Dan immediately forgot about his toys falling, and shot upright. He started jumping around his room excitedly.

   "YEAH!" Dan jumped around for another minute, until finally he plunked down on his bed and sighed in wonder. His mother got up from the floor and sat next to him. She put her arm around her son lovingly, and whispered to herself, "I am too."

   "What did you say, mom?" Dan suddenly looked up at his mother with his big, brown eyes. She quickly shook it off and got up from his bed. She walked over to the door, and standing in the doorframe she simply said, "Get a good night's sleep." And shut off the lights.

  Dan was left in darkness. His mother had gone, the door was shut, and Dan was surrounded by the darkness. Then, the thoughts came in.

   What if I'm mental? What if they're going to wheel me off to the asylum? What if...

  These thoughts dogged at Dan, until he lie facedown on his bed, and went to sleep.