Blurry eyes stared down the insides of a small refrigerator. The pronounced empty spaces were punctuated here and there with a half loaf of cold bread, a tiny, plastic container a few slices away from being empty of its honey ham, and half of a bag of swiss cheese. All of this was accompanied by a sixteen fluid ounce bottle of vanilla coffee creamer.

The only beverages in here were a half gallon of milk and a plastic wrapped set of plastic bottles missing three of its brood taking over at least one of the shelves.

"Not much in the way of breakfast," she sighed, grabbing the container of honey ham. “I guess I can substitute bacon with this.” She shrugged and closed the door, and upon doing so, she screeched and jolted so suddenly that even her soul might've left her body for just a brief moment.

Joining in her screams was a young man grabbing his chest as his blood ran cold from the block of ice that dropped into his stomach. The next couple of seconds was an eternity, but in that time, he recognized the screaming voice. “Jade?” Klaus gasped.

One word was all she needed him to say to recognize his voice in kind. “Klaus?” They stared each other down as their heart rates returned to normal. “Wow, this is awkward. How did I end up here?” Jade looked around the kitchen. “I knew something felt off about my kitchen. It’s not even mine!”

Klaus sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he let out a shy giggle. “Well, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened in this house.” He started to yawn and look at the time on the stovetop; six in the morning. “It’s funny because me and Skye had this crazy dream that you were some sort of car and that we saved you. I know, it’s dumb.”

Jade looked down at her hands; they shuddered when she did so, as if nervous under her scrutiny. She was distracted by Klaus’s body nudging her to the side as he opened the door to the fridge, grabbing the vanilla creamer. “Do you think some dreams can be so vivid that you wind up at another house?”

Klaus stared at her with baggy eyes. “Who knows? Did you have a crazy dream yourself?” He snickered as he retrieved the light bottle of creamer, taking it towards the coffee machine. He took a moment to glance over at his guest; she was staring into the ceramic floor. “If you’re worried that I’m going to call the cops over you being here uninvited, you should know I’m not the biggest fan of hypocrisy.”

Jade watched as he prepared his machine brewed coffee, noting how simple it was to just put a small pod in and let technology do all the work. It was a welcome distraction from the dream replaying in her mind over and over. “I never knew you had a devious side, Forelock. Color me impressed.”

Klaus chuckled. “Ah yes, I truly am a devious one. Oh no, look at me, I’m making coffee.” He chuckled at himself again. His laughter at himself was a respite from his deadpan tone. He reached over to open a plastic jug. “‘Oh, Klaus, don’t pour us in!’ Too bad!” He poured a small spoonful of sugar into his coffee.

Jade couldn’t help but let out a small giggle herself.

“Now, watch as the evil overlord brews a coffee for his guest-” Instead of closing his hand around the handle of the clean mug as intended, his open hand pushed it off of the edge. Its collision with the floor was anything but gentle - the mug splintered into countless shards that bounced and slid across the floor.

The shattered mug forced Jade’s memories to replay in her head. Images flashed across her mind in quick succession. These ranged from the gems falling from the ceiling and crashing down on some sort of giant monster lady, to quick flashes of her in-dream death from a drunken car accident.

Klaus heard her scream and cover her eyes. His own eyes quickly darted about her body to check for visible injuries. “Oh, no! Jade! I’m so sorry! Are you all right? Are you hurt?” He rapidly fired his questions and concerns. “Don’t move, I’m going to get a broom. Just stay right there.”

Though the sides of her feet stung where stray pieces of mug bit her skin, she was too distracted by pain caused by muscle tension, in turn caused by her dream resurging vividly in her mind. She bit her tongue to fight back the tears that threatened to prick the corners of her eyes. It was just a dream. Everything’s going to be fine.

Beyond the darkness of her covered eyes, her ears picked up on the sound of clumps of ceramic being pushed along the floor, and her feet were brushed with a straw like material. “I’m really, really sorry!”

“Relax, will you?” Jade breathed. “I’m fine. It just spooked me, that’s all.” She wore a sheepish smile. Scared of glass breaking? What’s up with me today? “If I cut myself on any of that, you’ll end up owing me your lunch money, got it?

She didn’t see it, but Klaus rolled his eyes. “Like I’m not broke enough.” He mumbled, perhaps in the language of keeping a measly hundred dollars tucked away for a rainy day. Knowing Skye, he would probably have to kiss a portion of that goodbye to go towards a new mug.

Sweeping as many edges off of the floor and into a dustpan that he could see from a bright light attached to the ceiling fan above, he carefully stood back up and took it all to a trash can.

“Here’s to hoping no hidden pieces torture us.” Putting away the dustbin and small broom, he sighed. “All right, so is there anything else I could get you? Bottled water? A sandwich?” He looked over to his mug and picked it up by the handle, holding both sides with each hand this time. “My coffee?”

Jade’s heart dropped, but decided against outwardly protesting against handling more glass. She breathed before Klaus could get too concerned by her widened eyes - or did he even notice? “I’m fine, I can head over to my place or Raina’s place and get myself something. Sorry about coming into your house like this.”

Klaus shrugged. “Well, it’s better to have a familiar face show up than some guy in a ski mask. See you when college is back in session?”

“See you when college is back in session, Forelock.” She turned away, walking towards the front door, letting out a small wince as she hopped on one foot. Klaus hid a smirk coming from the instant payback for that unwanted nickname. Then again, maybe he should use some black hair dye one of these days.

As soon as the door’s opening and closing marked the redhead’s departure, another set of footsteps marked the awakening of another familiar face. Skye stared at him with eyes baggier than his. She softly took Klaus’s coffee from his hands and drank out of it like a child would out of a sippy cup.

Without a word, she trudged to the living room for her morning dose of local news. “What? Hey..” Klaus groaned, finding himself deprived of his caffeine.

~ ~ ~

The silence of the house was broken by a loud click and a long, high pitched squeal as the front door was opened by a redheaded figure who let out a heavy sigh upon entry. She winced and held her head. “Just what I needed,” she mumbled under her breath.

Jade stumbled into the kitchen and leaned over a countertop. She opened one eye, which was all she needed to see into the cabinet she just opened. Medicine packages were disorganized and flooded the shelves, mostly containing old medicines that had long expired.

Despite having all of the diet supplements and herbal medicines to last a leg of lifetime and half a jar of honey for an ailing throat, she couldn’t eye a single bottle of pain medicine. “Hey, Mom!” Jade called out. “Where did you put the pain meds?”

Not a soul responded to her. She hummed to herself and rummaged the cabinet in one more attempt to find what she needed. “She must still be asleep.” She looked over at the clock; eight-thirty in the morning wasn’t an odd time to still be sleeping, she thought.

“Ah-hah!” Jade quietly exclaimed, eyes beaming at the nearly empty bottle of pain medicine. She decided to leave the bottle out on the counter for her mother and made a mental note to buy more later that day. “Nevermind! I found them!”

She let out a yawn, then more images of the dream flashed across her mind. Her exhaustion reminded her of her powerlessness of being merged with a monstress, making her breath quicken ever so slightly. It was just a dream. I’m okay. Everyone’s okay.

It was enough to calm her down, and yet vigilance remained present in the back of her mind, as though a part of her just couldn’t find it in her to let her guard down. Nonetheless, she took a deep breath and stepped out of the kitchen towards the living area.

She found a place to sit on a couch as her eyes glued themselves to the television screen. She couldn’t help but curl her lips into a thin smile just from reading the headline, which had to do with small shelves being erected in low income neighborhoods for food that could be taken and donated at any time.

I wish the news had more fluff pieces like this. She looked towards her smartphone and squinted at the text boxes on the screen. Jade hummed inquisitively at the notifications, but quickly lost interest in them, not recognizing the number that attempted to call her several times within the last two hours.

She looked up at the television screen again. She hadn’t realized it was on mute the whole time, otherwise she would have changed the channel minutes earlier when the coverage switched to reporting a car accident that happened just the other night.

And change the channel she did, switching it to the next one over. She slowly let her guard down again as she unmuted the set, letting the sound of the massive crowd’s loud cheers and boos at a football game serve as background noise.

She glanced at her favorite book on the in-table next to her, then switched the lamp on to give her a soft light to accompany her reading session.

Just as her hand reached for it, an obnoxious tone pierced the calm air. Jade’s heart raced with a jumpstart as her breathing quickened. Her eyes darted about the room to look for a place to run to and to look for the source of the sound. As they landed on the source, Jade simply stared at the device to reclaim control of herself. It was the home phone plugged into the wall. It was ringing incessantly, demanding Jade to answer it.

She frowned. All that for a number that was eerily familiar, but not enough to compel her to answer it. She slowly reached over for her book, snatched it, and reeled it back like the phone was a cat about to pounce at her.

As she opened up to a random page she had already read, she managed to get her heart to calm down just enough to start understanding the story from where she last left it. The answering machine next to her played a recording. “Hi, you’ve reached the Sanders residence. I can’t get to the phone right now, so leave me a message and maybe I’ll get back to you.”

The redhead's lips curled into a small smile. There was always something about her mother's gentle tones and inunciations that sailed smoothly through her voice that always put Jade at ease.

The answering machine let out a small beep as a voice started to play in realtime. “Hey, Mrs. Sanders?” Jade perked up, pulled out of the world held between pages. “I wanted to call you and ask you about Raina. Maybe she stayed over at your place last night because she didn’t come home. Please call me back, thanks.”

Raina didn’t come home last night? Maybe she was sleeping at her place after all. It wouldn't be the first time she stayed the night, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She sighed and resigned her book to its previous position, yet leaving it open this time to find her place in its world again. She ventured down the corridor and into a room.

“Hey, Mom? Raina’s father called, and..” her voice trailed off to find her mother’s bed empty. It was unmade, yet with not a soul to be found. She chuckled to herself, venturing further to the bathroom door to knock on it. “Hey, Mom! Raina’s father tried calling you earlier.”

The force of a slow knock was enough to make the door creak open slowly. It was a small bathroom with only enough room to fit one person, so she would’ve seen her mother even before stepping foot over its threshold. “Okay, that’s weird.” Despite this, Jade stepped through and looked about the small space, letting out a disappointed sigh upon not seeing a sign of her mother.

Images of a car accident flashed in her mind again. The unmistakable sound of metal being crushed against rocks and trees being backed up by the screams of those closest to her as their bodies violently thrashed…

Jade shook her head viciously. Bad thoughts! That was only a dream! I’ll prove it!

She stormed off to the other room, and for the first time able to ignore the images that were slowly creeping to the forefront. She ground her teeth as her hand wrapped around the knob of the door to the room across from her mother’s.

Her whole hand was like a snake, squeezing its prey, as if just holding it will tell her if Raina was awake. It was still early by her standards, but maybe she’ll know where her mother is. Please be here..

She twisted the knob and forced the door open, letting it collide with the wall to make books and a variety of souvenirs fall onto the beige carpet below. “Raina!” Jade wailed as she burst into the room with a start.

The only sounds in this room were racing breaths, her heart trying to keep up with the adrenaline flooding her system, and the quaint ticking of a wall mounted clock whose arms read eight-fifty in the morning. “Raina!” She called out again, pulling the blankets off of the bed to find nobody there.

She looked around for a sign of her, looking about the room at the many photos that covered the walls attached by clothespins and string. The earliest these photos dated back to when they were still in high school.

The images her mind wanted to bring forth were momentarily quelled by the happier memories that poured in just from looking at the graduation photos. That occasion was one of the many times that Raina’s and Jade’s families were together as the two graduates were front and center, smiles all around as they carried scrolls tied in red ribbon.

It took a few long seconds to pull away from the pictures and her high school graduation certificate framed in ebony just next to the bed. Her own name was penned in cursive dating back to just only a year ago.

She made her way to the closet, opening it up and turning on the light inside, frowning at the lack of Raina inside. The only thing in this space that remotely belonged to her was her birthday present to the redhead; a used, fleece sweatshirt that she never wore, but always hung.

A sudden pressure built in her chest as tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She went to hug it, wrapping its arms around her as if it were Raina doing just that, enjoying her scent that she left behind.

Her hand strayed towards her pocket, only for her eyes to open when a papery object slipped between her fingers. She pulled it out to see a makeshift card made of paper, but as stiff as plastic.

Written on it was an address and a quick, yet informative message. What? Raina’s birthday party! When? April 5th! Here’s a chance to celebrate amongst friends! Jade hurriedly put the address into her phone, fingers shaking wildly, requiring all of her willpower to correctly type the address.

She chose her set of directions and made a sprint for the door. “Navigation started; head south on..” the voice trailed off as Jade ran outside, leaving the house empty once more.