Zac
Zac was running. What he was running from, he wasn't sure. He just knew he had to run. And very fast.
Trees sped past. The long grass whipped across his legs. Yet the mountains seemed no closer.
Then, suddenly, the worst happened. He tripped over a tree root and fell sprawling onto the ground.
His pursuers came closer. He couldn't get away. He looked at his foes and screamed.
The Tickle-Me Elmos were upon him. And they tickled him. Tickled him and tickled him until...
"Ahh!" Zac shot up in bed, panting and in a cold sweat.
Zac decided to get up. He put on his dressing gown and walked up the stairs to the kitchen to get himself a drink before attempting to go back to sleep.
In the dark he was sure he could see little fuzzy red figures in the corner of his eyes.
Zoe
Zoe heard someone get up and walk up the stairs. She felt scared after all that had happened over the last few days. She wanted to go for her parents, but decided to just project into the kitchen, where she heard the noises.
Zoe closed her eyes and let her body leave and meet the person in the kitchen on the astral plane. It was only Zac. She astraled back to her body and got up, stopping only to put her slipped on.
"Hi Zac." She said quietly as she came into the kitchen. "Can I have some juice please?"
Zac
"Huh? Oh sure Zoe."
Zac walked over to the cupboard and pulled out and glass. On second though, he pulled out two. Then he opened the fridde, pulled out the apple juice, and poured it into the glasses. After putting the juice back he handed a glass to Zoe.
"What are you doing up?" he asked her after taking a sip of his own drink.
Zoe
Zoe accepted the drink and sat on one of the kitchen chairs, facing Zac. She set her drink on the table careful not to spill it.
"I heard you get up and I thought something else bad was going to happen."
Zoe took a sip of her drink. "Nothing else is going to happen, right Zac?"
Zoe's eyes filled with tears. "Because it's all been so scary, and I don't know what's happening."
Zac
Zac paused to give his sister a hug.
"Nope, nothing else bad is going to happen," he assured her. "The worse that can happen is that all the Tickle-Me Elmos in the world come alive and start tickling everyone else."
Zoe
Zoe clapped her hands after she'd hugged her brother. "But I like Tickle-Me-Elmos. I have one, remember silly?"
She gave him a big smile. "And you press his tummy and he says 'that tickles!' and he laughs!" She smiled again and demonstrated on Zac by pressing his stomach.
Zac
Zac gave Zoe an amused smile.
"See? How bad is that?" He grinned.
"Yes, indeedly," he thought to himself. "Nothing to have nightmares about, stupid."
Zoe
Zoe gave Zac a cheeky grin but then her face fell. "Zac, I had some bad dreams about Tay and Avie. I'm scared."
She inched closer to her brother. "And I wanted to go see mommy and daddy, but I didn't want to wake them up and Ike's sleeping and Mackie threw his pillow at me."
Zac
Zac hugged Zoe.
"It's hard, isn't it, without Jess keeping an eye on our dreams. Guess we kinda got used to it," he said. "Come on, you can sleep next to me tonight, if you want."
He drank the last of his juice.
"And don't worry. Wherever they are, Avie and Tay are just fine."
Zoe
Zoe finished her juice and followed Zac, holding his hand.
They went down to his room and she jumped into his bed and scrunched herself up.
"Thank you Zaccy."
Zac
Zac curled up next to Zoe under the covers and went to sleep. Hopefully there would be no more tickling now.
Zoe
Zoe looked at her brother and smiled, happy that her favourite brother wasn't in trouble. Well not any trouble that she knew off.
"Night Zac." She whispered.