After a couple minutes, just to assure they were gone I grabbed Andy and held him to my chest. Quiet as possible, I opened the door and looked all around. It seemed that the creatures left. "Matthew?" I yelled out, waiting for a response. "Yeah?" Someone yelled. I ran twords the voice and found him in the kitchen. "Oh my God are you alright!" I screamed as I hugged him for a long time. "Yeah, I'm fine. They scratched my back though." I turned him around and lifted up his shirt. "Shit Matthew! This is bad, this is really bad." "Stitch it up! We can't let mom and dad know our they'll think we can't fend for ourselves." "We can't Matthew!" I argued back with him. "But do you want them to know that!" I shook my head and told Andy to go get mom's sewing kit.

When he came back I took out a needle, and pulled out the thread. Slowly, I sunk the needle into his skin. He didn't move a muscle. Andy watched in fear and he had tears in his eyes. "Tht looks like it hurts Matty." Matthew grabbed twords Andy behind him and held him under his arm. "Don't worry buddy it's alright." Andy nodded and then backed away from Matthew again, watching me stitch his back up. It was nearly four o'clock. I knotted the stitches and put the sewing kit on the counter top just as mom's car pulled into the driveway. When she ran in she looked scared, "What happened to your room!" She screamed at me. "Sorry. I threw something up there and it just...Broke, you know?" She looked at me odd, probably wondering what the Hell it was I could have thrown to crash my ceiling.

She hugged us all and started making dinner. When father came home he didn't say a word about the roof. He justlooked at me with pure hate and walked past, kissing Andy and shaking hands with Matthew. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me that he doesn't love me. Don't let it bother you Tobbi... Don't let it bother you. I rubbed away the tears that were starting to form in my eyes. My father looked at me or a second, one breif second I'll never forget without that smile in his eyes. When he realized he was looking at me, he stopped. "Mom. I'll be up in my room." Before she could answer, I ran upstairs and jumped face down on my bed. I thought for a moment about everything that had happened today and covered my mouth to bite my hand. I kept biting until my hand went numb and mom called me down for dinner. I didn't want dinner, I wanted to sit in my bed the rest of my life and starve to death.

Instead, I picked up my plate and ate in the living room instead. Matthew and Andy came to join me, I was surprised but not overwhelmed. Matthew let a cry of pain escape his mouth when he rested his back on the couch. "Watch it. You don't want to rip out your stitches." Matthew just looked at me like I was an idiot. I poured my food on his plate and headed back up to my room. I walked to the cushions on my window seal and reached in the drawer under them. I pulled out my heart-shaped box and  opened it. A tear rolled down my face as I looked at the picture of my father laughing with me when I was five and he had my hair cut like a boys so he could pretend he had all sons. As I got older and developed girl qualities, it wasn't so easy for him to say I was a son. He had four sons...and I was expected to be the fifth but I failed.

I'm sorry daddy, I'm sorry. I let the tears keep coming until I heard a tap on my window. I stood up, alert and ready to hurt soemone. It was Jackson. I opened the window and leaned on the window seal. "What do you want?" "I want to come in please?" "And rape me again? I think not." I tried o shut the window but Jackson stopped me, "No, please. Listen to me. Will you please let me in so we can talk? I swear I won't touch you." Hesitently, I let him in. "Thank you, I was about to fall." "Yeah..." I sat on my bed and motioned for him to sit with me. "I just wanted you to know how sorry I was for that day. I was drung and, and I didn't know what I was doing. I'm so sorry you had to go through that Tobbious." I nodded and he grabbed my hand, I jerked away and smacked him. "Please Tobbi, can you ever forgive me? I will do, whatever you want as long as I get your forgiveness. But first, I've got something to confess..." "What?" I felt the temperature raise in the room as he got closer to my neck. "I love you."

I froze as he pressed his lips to my neck and kissed down my shoulders. When I finally managed to move away, I grabbed him by the throat and held him against my bed post. "You said you wouldn't touch me and now you try to do what you didn last summer?" "I- I thought you liked it you didn't say anyhing!" "Get the Hell out of my sight!" I screamed as I threw him off the bed and he stumbled out of the window.

Trying not to scream, I grabbed onto Matthew's arm and headed for where the dumbwaiter should be. "Where's Andy...Where the hell is Andy!" I screamed. "Screaming is not going to help Tobbi!" Matthew screamed back. He grabbed my hand and ran for the funace. We both squeezed behind it and sat there, waiting for the horrible monsters to get one of us. We could hear them still, scrambling around upstairs. Then, I heard Andy scream. "Andy!" I screamed back, "Where are you!" Matthew covered my mouth and whispered to me, "If you don't shut up we're all going to die." I tried to get out of his grasp and run to Andy but he wouldn't let me go. After a while I settled downa dn Matthew let me go. I heard footsteps and I clutched my fist, ready to kill these damn monsters.

"Tobbi?" Said a little voice, "Andy! Behind the furnace!" I whispered back. But I must've whispered too loudly because the steps upstairs stopped for a moment, and then you could hear them running for us. "Andy!" I screamed as I grabbed his hand and we ran for the dumbwaiter again. This time, Matthew shoved Andy and I both in and told us to go up and hide in the closet. Before he could get the door shut the monsters were already running for him. I slammed the door shut and started going up. "Stop!" Andy said. "Listen..." There was a quiet sawing sound below us. Andy's eyes got big and he screamed, "Tobbi they're cutting the rope go faster! Faster!" I grabbed the rope along with Andy and we pulled and pulled as fast as we could until we reached the first level of he house, and as soon as I pushed Andy out of the dumbwaiter and I jumped out the dumbwaiter fell to the depth of the basement.

Tears ran down my face whe I heard Matthew's screams. He can't be dead. He can't be dead. He's not dead,...he's not dead. Andy grabbed my hand and pulled my twords the closet, he opened it and shoved me inside and jumped in. When I heard footsteps headed upstairs I grabbed Andy and pushed him behind me and burred him in the dirty clothes. I covered my mouth and waited for them. They were smart, smart enough not to coem runningup the stairs but to instead sneak up them as if they weren't coming and it was safe. But Andy and I knew better, we knew it wasn't safe. It tok a moment for me to realize tat the cloest door wasn't completely shut, so I slowly raised my hand to the doorknob to shut the door but Andy kicked me. I looked behind me and he was shaking his head, telling me not to do it. When I looked back I saw the lizard-like faces of the monsters and their razor sharp teeth that could tear through human flesh better than a knife.

I grabbed Anyd's hand and covered my mouth again so I wouldn't scream. I can't scream. I can't scream and let them find us. They would kill my little brother. Then, I remembered what mom and dad had said. I reached for my phone in my backpocket but I coudln't reach it, the space was too small. So I tried harder, and harder. Until I could touch the top of my phone, but when I did my foot slid out from under me and I kicked the door, drawing attention to us. I heard feet shuffling twords us now, I tried so hard not to scream and cry outloud. Andy squeezed my hand harder, it was hard to believe a five year old could hand more than a seventeen year old could. I kept as still as possible and squeezed Andy's hand back. I was afraid that I would squeeze it so hard that I'd hurt him and he'd cry out in pain so I stopped.

Nothing was moving outside the door anymore, but you could hear the quiet sniffing sounds of the monters' noses trying to smell us out. I guess it didn't work because they headed back downstairs away from us.

After I picked up the shattered pieces I headed back up to my room, slowly opening the door to see if anyone else awaited me. I walked in and flung myself across my bed, taking a deep breath of reliefe that I was alone now. I closed my eyes and listened very cloesly to the sounds around me. "Tomorrow...tomorrow we will come." For a second, I had thought I imagined the quiet hissy voices. But I heard them again. With frustraion, I closed my eyes and curled up under my covers. Waiting for tomorrow. When I woke up everything was fine and everyone was here. "Hey Tobbi! Take up!" Yelled Matthew's voice as he walked past my room. "Shut up butt head!" I yelled back as I crawled out of bed and ran down the strairs to the kitchen. Mom and my father sat at the table beside each other with concerning looks. They waited to speak until Andy came down the stairs and stood by Matthew and I. "Mommy? Daddy? Where's our lunches?" I laughed and then noticed the stern look I was getting by my father and stopped.

I looked back at my father with the same ammount of hatrid in my eyes as he had. My father hated me because I was a girl. He wanted all boys, four boys. He got three, but I was  ahuge disapointment. When he looked away we all focused on my mother's beautiful face. "Children, we hard on the news that...The Raloos were coming back. We need you to stay home today, all schools are closed. We will both be leaving for work but if anything goes wrong, call us." "If yor sister is being eaten. Let's hope they have a good meal while you run." My father snarled at me. My mother smacked his hand and kissed us all on the forehead, and left. When they were gone Matthew ran to the living room and turned on the TV. Before I could run after him, Andy was clinging to me around my waist. "Tobbi? Are we going to die? Please Tobbi, say we won't die." Tears were running down Andy's cheeks as I brushed away his brown curly hair from his eyes. "No. We won't die." "Promise Tobbi?" I nodded my head and kissed his forehead, "Promise."  

Andy wipped away his tears and  I gave him a piggy back to the living room and set him down on the couch between Matthew and I. "Sooo, who's ready to die!" Matthew yelled, trying to scare Andy. "Shut up Matthew. He'salready scared enough." Matthew rolled his eyes at me and mumbled to himself, "Tobbious is a fatious..." I stood up and punch him in the nose. "Shut the fuck up you little fat bastard!" Matthew ddin't say anything back. He just sat there and looked at me like I was insane. Maybe I was. I grabbed Andy's hand and led him up to my room with me. I layed down on my bed and motioned for Andy to lay with me. Slwoly, he put his head down on my stomach and curled up his legs to his chest. I love Andy, I might not showit. But I do. "We're coming, we're coming." I looked around for the voices, but no one other than Andy and I was there. Andy looked at me, worried. "Tobbi? Are you alright?" I nodded my head and smiled at him, I couldn't worry him more than he already had worried himself.

About an hour or so later the whole house shook. Matthew ran upstairs and flung my door open. "You guys alright?" Andy and I nodded as Matthew came over and wrapped his arms around me, who wrapped my arms around Andy. Matthew was scared, I think he knew they were coming too. "Almost there..." I screamed out this time in fear and burried my face in Andy's shoulders. "Tobbi! What's wrong? What's wrong?" "I can hear them coming!" Andy started screaming then too until Matthew covered our mouths and hushed us. BOOM. . . BOOM. . . BOOM. . . "What...was that?" Andy said in his smallest voice. "They're here..." I whispered back. Andy dug his fingernails into my arm an screamed. I covered his mouth and told him to be quiet, but it was too later. They had found us. Three huge, lizard like men crashed down through my ceiling. All of us screamed now. As the monsteres scrambld to their feet we all ran downstairs and shoved Andy into the dumbwaiter. "Go down!" I screamed as Matthew slammed the door shut. You could hear Andy's terrified screams thorughout the house.

Matthew and I ran as fast as we could, down the stairs and to the basement where Andy and the dumbwaiter should be now. The monsters were running after us, you coulnd't see them but you could sure hear their monsterous roars and screatches down the halls.

NEW STORY

"Can anyone tel me how many years ago the Raloos invaded?" I rolled my eyes and my teached called upon the girl next to me. No one cared, it's not like they'd ever come back. I looked at the clock, only seven more minutes to go and I'll be out of here. I tapped my pencil on my desk and started chewing on my cheek. As time went by I didn't pay attention at all to my class until the boy behind me tapped my shoulder. "What?" "Tobbi, the teacher is lookin' at you..." I looked up heitently and saw Mrs. Varen looking at me through her thick gold glasses. "Tobbi Rode. What is your assignment for tonight in my class." "I don't know. I don't care either because I won't do it." Mrs. Varen gave me a nasty look at then began to speak but the bell overpowered her small annoying voice.

                                                                                                                                                                           I jumped out of my seat and ran to my locker to get my bookbag. I didn't have anything to bring home, but I might need it; As I turned around the corner Jackson stopped me. "Hey," I snarled at him and looked meanfully into his eyes. "And what do you want?" I tried to seem as cool and hatefull as I could, but I don't know if it worked. "I just wanted to say I was sorry." "For what butt face?" He gave me a pittied look at then looked at the ground. "For, you know. Doing that to you this summer." "Forget it jack ass. I'm done with you." I pushed past him and headed for my bus so I could go home. I gritted my teeth and pinched my finger as I thought about this summer. I love you Tobbi, we can go this together. I promise. I shook his voice out of my head and walked up the bus steps.                                                                                                                                                                  I looked around and then chose an empty seat across from my brother Matthew. "What's up fart?" I rolled my eyes at him and flipped him off. "Well, somebody had a bad day huh?" I turned myself to the window and looked at the people in the parking lot getting into their cars. A second later, I felt someone sit down with me. I looked over and saw my friend Alexis. "Hey Tobbi, are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." She nodded her head and moved to another seat, just like I thought she would. Finally, we got to my stop. I stood up and pushed infront of my two brothers. When I stepped onto our drive way Andy ran past me with a little glass jar screaming, "Mama! Mama! Guess what I got today!" When I got up to the porch I grabbed Andy's jar and looked at it, "So, I see you finally got all the lint out of your belly button?" Andy snatched it back and glared at me, "No stupid! It's an egg." "What the hell...What kind of egg is that?" "I don't know! But I found it in my cubbie."                                                                                                                                               
I grabbed the jar again and opened the lid. "I'm pretty sure this isn't an egg Andy. Look at it." Tears filled in Andy's eyes as I handed back the jar. "You'll be tough someday ya little wimp." I said, patting his head and walking inside. When I opened my door my room was dark and my window was opened. When did I ever open my window? I thought to myself. Oh well. I went over to close it and started undressing. "Oh, I see I didn't have to ask?" Said a familiar voice behind me. I psun around and wrapped my arms around my bare chest. "Luke." I whispered. "That's right." Slowly, he walked over to me and put his hand on my face. "Don't touch me." I said in the scariest voice I could. He laughed, and moved my hair behind my shoulders. "Don't tell me what I can't do." At the moment Matthew flung the door open and ran twords Luke. One punch, that's all it took for Luke to fall down. "You stay the hell away from my little sister you here me!" I'd never heard Matthew yell like that, but I was glad.

                                                                                                                                                                    

After Luke left I sat on my bed and breathed slowly. You almost got raped. Again. You've got to be more careful. I closed my eyes and let tears run down my cheeks. Today, was not a good day. After my shower I got dressed in night clothes and headed downstairs for dinner. As I sat down my father looked at me sternly. "So, I heard someone was in your room?" "Yeah dad but you don't understand, it wasn't like that dad. I promise." My father picked up his plate and left for his room. No one spoke. When we were done I picked up my plate and threw it at the sink, hoping it would shatter. Instead, it bounced off and hit my toe. "Fuck! Shit!" I screamed as I held my foot. "You're a potty mouth Tobbi." "Shut the hell up Andy!"I screamed. I shouldn't have yelled at a six year old for knowing what to, and not to say in places. But I did, and I did it all the time too.

"No thank you. I can take care for myself." Gaven sort of shrugged and then turned around, and walked off. Before I thought anything could get any worse it began thundering as loud as possible. The thunder echoed in my ears until I was sure they were going to explode. I covered my ears with my hands and dropped to my knees on the wet, muddy ground. Sat there for a moment and looked at the sky, then dropped on my stomach. I made circles over my stomach with the tips of my fingers until the storm had stopped. There was nothing around me, just mud and dirt. No houses, no trees, and no people. I heard someone scream from behind me and I turned around to see Ryly running twords me with her hands out stretched. "Madiline!" She screamed as she flung her arms around me.

"Where have you been! Are you alright?" She ask me. Shouldn't I be asking you this question? I thought. "Yeah yeah I'm fine. What happened to you?" "Me? Oh, nothing. Nothing." "Are you sure?" She nodded her head, avoiding eye contact. I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at me and then spoke to her directly. "What happened to you when you were taken." "Nothing. I was just tortured for a while and then I was let go." She pulled back her sleeve and showed me her wrists. "See? Just some scratches." She shrugged and pulled her sleeve back down. She seemed more worn out, older, weaker then she was last I saw her but I pretended not to notice the difference. "So. I've noticed the tummy." "What?!" I screamed, looking down at my stomach. "Did you and Gaven finally decide to get married and have a kid?" I shook my head violently and pointed at her, "No! I am pregnant but not with Gaven! With another boy named Greg. I don't know him anymore." She gave me an odd look and then lifted up my shirt and placed her hand on my stomach.

"It's cold." She said. "Yeah. I guess." I rolled my eyes at her and then laughed. She grabbed my hand and started leading me somewhere. "Come on, we're going to go to my car and drive back to my new house to get your baby checked out." "Why?" "I'll explain later. There's no time." I walked to her car with her and got inside, playing along with whatever she thought was wrong with me or my baby. After about thirty minutes we got to a house that had one other car at it and people roaming around inside. When she got me out of the car she opened the front door and lead me to the couch. On the other end of the couch there was a little boy and an older man about in his twenties with his arm around the little boy. "Hey Kyle I need you to take Arthur into another room and call the doctor for her okay?" The older man stood up and took the little boy in his arms and carried him off into somewhere in the house.

An hour later another car pulled up in the drive-way and out stepped a small man dressed in a white cloak. He held a suit case in his left hand and held another silver object in his right. When he knocked on the door Ryly answered it and the small man stepped inside. "Where is she?" He ask. "She's right here, I think something is wrong with her baby." He nodded his head in a sort of slow way and then placed his hands on my stomach. He frowned and squinted his eyes real hard at my stomach for a long time like he was trying to see somthing. "I can't find anything, but I'll come back next week and check it out again." Before Ryly could even pay him he left and got in his car and drove off. The man who Ryly called Kyle sat down next to me and placed his hand on my stomach. "Ryly?" He began, "I don't think anything is wrong with her. I think you just want something to be." Ryly didn't say anything back but we all knew it was true.

"She's too young to have a child. It'll ruin her reputation." "Ryly, it's still not fair to claim that something is wrong with her baby just because you think she is too young. When you had your first child with that Thomas kid you were even younger than her so don't try and pull that." "I'm trying to prevent her from humiliation!" Ryly walked out of sight and into another room with the little boy Arthur I'm guessing.

I spent only about two weeks with them before I left. I planned on going back home, but on the way there I head someone following me. Whispering things behind me and then disapearing when I turned around. I looked around for a long time and then strated walking again. Hands grabbed my sides and whirled me around. One hand grabbed my wrist and another closed my mouth. A quick surge of panic went through me but when I saw his face my whole body relaxed. It was Layne. I smacked his hand off my mouth and then looked at him sternly, "Layne! Why are you here!" "I couldn't stand not seeing you." "Layne, we had a one percent chance of making it anyways." He shrugged and then tried to convince me, "Maybe we could be that one percent." Could we be that one percent that makes it? "What about if we have kids?" "Then we have kids." "But how will we keep them safe from the towns?" He smiled now and grabbed my hand, "We run away."

After that we ran, not stopping for any breaks or food. We ran until we came to a little cottage house. My house. I looked at him as he let go of my hand and nudged me twords the house. I slowly walked up and lightly knocked on the door. Seconds later a little boy with bonde hair opened a crack in the door. Madison. Tears filled in my eyes as I kneeled down to meet his highth. "Madison? It's me, Madeline." His eyes opened wide and the door flung open in a matter of seconds. At that point he was wrapped in my arms and another boy came running ou the door. Ragen. After a long time we stopped hugging and I pulled them back so I could talk to them. "Where's mom?" Madison turned around the pointed inside the house with a scary looking face. I stood up and reached for Layne behind me who was already at my side. I grabbed his hand and walked inside. "Mom? Are you here?" No one answered. I walked infront of Ferris' door and then knocked on the smooth wood. A weak "yes" came from the inside. I opened the door, it creaking all the way open.

"Mom? It's me. I'm back." My mom didn't move, she smiled. But didn't move. "Hello Madeline! Where have you been dear?" She ask in a very slow, weak voice. "Every where. I'm pregnant." I heard someone make a stuttering sound and then turned around to see Madison who was about ten now standing there. Jaw wide open, eyes too. My mom took her weak finger tips and ran them across my stomach. "To bad I'm not going to live to see it huh guys?" Madison and Ragen nodded their heads and they curled up into bed with my mother. Madison grabbed her hair and twirled it around in his fingers. "Mom's going to die soon. She's very sick." "Oh." I managed to say before choking on air. They were this young and already going to lose their mother? "Where are you boys going to live?" Madison shrugged his shoulders and looked back down at the hair in his hands. "It doesn't really matter." Ragen;s tiny voice spoke out. "Gaven comes to bring us food every day. We should be alright."

I held my breath until I started to get dizzy and the world began to spin, I didn't want to be here anymore. Layne grabbed my sides and pushed his lips to my ear, "Breathe." I let the air out of my lungs and began to function again. "So...You're dying mom?" She nodded her head but refused to actually say that she was. "It's a shame that you can't see the baby. It's due in about six months." She nodded and closed her eyes. Ragen covered up to her chin in blanket and Madison led us all out of the room and shut the door. "She needs some rest. You guys can sleep here for a while id you'd like." I looked at the couch, one of the placed that Gaven had protected me and I felt my body getting ready to cry. I landed in Layne's arms and thne began to cry. I didn't care who saw me anymore I just wanted this all to be over.

Madison and Ragen wrapped their little arms around me torso and held me along with Layne. After a while I stopped and sat on the couch with Layne's arm around me and the boys in my lap. "Maddie, we've all been really worried about you because came back here one day and told us everything that happened and we thought you wrre dead." I smiled at how mature Madison had gotten and I hugged him, "No. I'm very well alive."

For a minute, no one said anything. Not me, not Amy, not Nicole, or the little girl at the edge of my bed, who was named Leslie I discovered. Tears filled my eyes and ran down my face, still, no one said anything. I covered my face in my hands and felt the little girl crawl up beside me. "Don't cry June! We love you, and I'll help you with the baby if you want." But then she was removed from beside me, I looked up to see what had happened but all I saw was Nicole carrying Leslie out over her shoulder and Amy was leaving the room close behind her. A few minutes later my door swung back open and angry Nicole came barging in. "You took my little Layne's freedom! How dare you! Burn in Hell!" "Mum! I've had the baby for two months and I've only been here a week, how could it be Layne's!" She sat back a moment and actually thought about what I said before making further notes on the subject.

"It's another boy's. His name is Greg Stalk." "...Stalk? Does his father's name happen to be Gene?" I nodded my head, not sure where this convorsation would go next. "That boy? No, no! He was such a good little boy when I knew him! I grew up with Gene, up until the point he cheated on me with Jen his wife. They had five kids and the oldest was Greg, he use to baby sit Amy when she was a little girl." I didn't have anything to say, so I kept my mouth shut. She looked at me, waiting for a response she wasn't going to get. "Aren't you going to apologize?" I shook my head, "No. Because I did not ask. Greg asked me, and I only agreed because he seemed pretty embaressed when I didn't reconize what he was trying to do. So, no mum. I will not apologize." She didn't say anything else, she just stood up and left the room.

The next morning no one came in to wake me up, no one brang me break fast, no one even walked by my room. I slowly pulled back my blankets and walked very unsteadily to the door. Quietly opening it. I walked all around the house and found no one, before I actually let myself panic I walked into the kitchen, searching for a note or some sign of them coming back. Finally, I found a little slip of paper on the kitchen chair that I claimed as my own. "Dear June, we went to go get some food. Be back soon." I crumpled the note and sat down in the chair, allowing myself to rest. I picked up a strand of my now blonde hair and ran my fingers through it, twisting it this way and that. Attempting to braid it, then failing and trying again. It felt like only three minutes had gone by but when I looked at the clock, it had been over two hours that I had sat there playing with my hair.

I heard a loud bang and jumped up to the door to see what it was. Nicole was unloading Leslie and Amy from the car, but what was the bang? Then, Nicole grabbed the door and slammed it. Another bang. When they walked inside I had run to my room and was now pulling the blankets back up over my head, hoping they would think I hadn't woken up yet and they would come up to check on me. But no one came still. Finally, little foot steps stopped infront of my door. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping the door would open but nothing happened. The foot steps made no more steps, and the door made no  signs of being opened or even touched for that matter. After a while, the little foot steps wondered off again. I let out a sigh and sat up, "You're not even going to come wake me up?" I screamed at them. Soon enough, Nicole walked in my room. "June. I've decided that you staying here would not be the best choice for the girls. I don't want them to be influenced or, damanged by having an unmarried, young, pregnant woman in the house. You need to leave."

"You're kidding right?" Nicole looked down and shook her head. "I have no where to go! I'm eighteen almost nineteen, I can't go live in an orphanage!" "Maybe you'll be lucky and find another family." "No. No, I will not go live with another group of people that I'm going to get attached to and lose. I'm done." I grabbed my jacket from Layne's chair and walked out of the room, out of the house. Leslie called for me, but I just shut the door. I only walked about three miles before I began to get tired and dizzy, that's when I lost my dinner from the night before. I looked up and saw a muddy figure running twords me, running fast. So fast I turned around and tried to run away but soon stopped to puke again. Hands touched and rubbed my back and the muddy figure squatted down bside me. "You alright June?" I looked up at the person and tried to make out their face between the mud flowing down it and the rain pouring on it.

"Layne?" I asked, confused. The figure shook his head, "No. It's me, Gaven." I screamed in horror as he wiped the mud from his face. I started to back away but he grabbed onto my shoulder, "Maddie it's alright I love you!" "I don't love you though!" I waitied for him to hit me or something but nothing happened. He only let my shoulders go and dropped his head. "You want to come back with me Mad?"

After a minute Layne let me go and we walked out into the living room and sat down on th couch. Then, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it," I nodded my head and Layne walked over to the door. There where guards standing there trying to look inside. "Uh...Mum! I need you to come here..." Nicole came out of the bathroom and walked over to the door. The guards began talking but they were too far away for me to hear anything so I walked over to the door with Layne, who put his arms around me as soon as he saw me. "Miss Dorn. We need your son to go with us to war. We don't have enough men to fill the camps so we need your son to help. He is of age and qualifies for the job." Nicole didn't say a word, neither did I. Nicole stood there for a moment and then burried her face in her hands and began to weep.

"We will be back in the morning to retrieve him. Have a good sleep ma'am." How can we sleep when the boy we love is going off to die in the morning? He can't take this, he'll die.  Me and Nicole both knew it too. The guards waiting for a response but didn't get one so they walked away. Nicole didn't say anything but walked up the stairs and shut her door and didn't come out for the rest of the night. Layne wouldn't look at me, he wouldn't talk because every time he tried to say something nothing would come out the way he wanted it to. Nothing made this okay, nothing could ever make it okay. "Come on. Let's go to bed and sleep while we can." I agreed with Layen and followed him to his room. He pulled down the blankets and lay me down on the bed and then layed donw next to me. He began to kiss me, my neck, and then he stopped. "Are you pure?" He asked. I wanted to say yes, but I'd be lying to him if I did. "...No." I said as softly as I could, hoping he thought I said yes. "What!" He flung himself across the bed to get away from me and stared at me like I was some sort of disgusting creature.

"What? Layne what's wrong?" "You...You're filthy!" "No it's okay Layne." Now I was crawling across the bed to get to him and kiss him again but he shoved me away and leaped off the bed. "With who." He demanded. "A boy named Greg...Greg Stalk." Layne nodded his head and then slammed his hand into his forehead. My head began to spin and I felt sick. I began to run for the bathroom but only made it a foot away from the bed before I gave away my dinner on Layen's floor. I expected him to run away in even more disgust but instead I felt him wrap his arms around me and  rub my back until I stopped. He got up and left the room for a minute and I thought for sure he wasn't coming back but a few moments later he came back in with a towel and wiped the puke from my mouth. But as soon as he was done, I began throwing up again. He sat there with me through it all though.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "I, I don't know." Then, I passed out in his arms. When I woke up in the morning he was packing his things and getting ready to head out the door until I called out for him. He turned around and smiled to see me up. He dropped his things and rushed over to me, "Were you going to leave without telling me good bye?" He laughed and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. "I was going to let you sleep. You needed some rest." "So you were going to leave me?" "I guess so." I tried to stand up but didn't have the strength or ability so I fell back down. Then, the sound of cars coming twords the house and Layne looked at me in a good bye way. He kissed me on the forehead and walked out of the room. I screamed after him and forced myself onto my feet, running down the stairs after him. "Don't take him away from me! You can't do it! Don't leave me Layne!" But by the time he turned around the soilders had his shoulders and were hauling him into the large box shaped car.

I screamed and then began puking again, I felt horrible. Last thing I remember was Layne blowing a kiss back to me and waving, then I passed out. When I woke up I was in Layne's bed, covered up in blankets and a sweaty body that soaked through the sheets. "Mum!" I screamed before puking onto the circle rug on the floor next to the bed. Nicole came rushing in with a bucket of steaming hot water and a cloth. She quickly, seeing what state I was in, rushed back out and brang in am empty bucket and a cold drink of water. She soaked the cloth in the boiling water and placed in on my forehead. It was so painful I began screaming at the top of my lungs until she took it off. "Sorry sorry sorry!" "It's okay mum." "I called a doctor and he's going to come in and see what's wrong with you. He'll be here soon."

A few hours later there was a knock at thedoor and Nicole went running to open the door. Soon enough there were foot steps coming up the stairs and a young man stood in the doorway, looking at me. He looked at me a moment andthen sat on the bed next to me. He poked my stomach and stuck a wooden thing in my mouth. "You're pregnant." "Wha...What?" "You're pregnant. See you guys later. You're due in six months." Then, he walked out.