As the boy, Louis, drifts off to sleep, he begins to dream about a fictional world. He spawns in a magical forest where the trees talk, there are gnomes all around, and most importantly, the castle entrance is prohibited. Louis, being the curious boy he is, starts walking toward the castle, until a tree stops him. 

 “Boy! What are you doing? The castle entrance is absolutely forbidden.” Louis turns back around, slumps, and is feeling gloomy as his adventure is being stopped. Still full of curiosity, he decides to start digging in the ground with a nearby shovel he found lying on the ground. Surely there are underground chambers to the castle, I’ll just start digging, he thought to himself. While he was digging, he stumbled across a gnome, that didn’t look exactly like a gnome. The gnome had a small hat, and a pointy nose, and was a tiny bit taller than regular gnomes. 

 “Where are you going?” the gnome questioned.

 “The castle,” Louis replied.

 “Well, I will go with you!”

 “Ok.” Louis skeptically replied. Louis and the gnome were set on the adventure to the castle. It took a few days, but the gnome always brought extra food with him so they stayed full. After all that digging and talking they made it to the secret entrance of the castle. They soon realized that they were in the underground chambers which rarely anyone goes in. As they approached several corridors, they saw one particularly peculiar. It had a door at the end of it that was made out of thousands and thousands of gems. They turn the knob and see something extraordinary…

There was once a bird named, Crystal. Crystal had an owner named Ann. Crystal stayed inside the house since Ann was always scared they’d fly away. But one day, Ann was nowhere to be found, and Crystal began to panic not knowing what to do. Two days passed in a blur, Ann was officially gone. Crystal was too devastated to do anything, doing something was too much effort. The next day, Crystal came to their senses that they should look for Ann. Crystal hesitated, this was the first time they’d ever been outside. Flying out, Crystal checked outside the house. It was no use. They decided tomorrow would be better then looking for Ann in the dark. Crystal decided to sleep. The bird woke up, someone was in the house! Who could it be? Crystal went down and found. Ann? How did she come back? At least she is here.

A couple of weeks later… Crystal was happy and all, but they missed going outside. It was really nice flying and being free that night they went searching for Ann. They made a promise to never leave Ann. Crystal was happy, but they wanted to be outside instead of being trapped inside the house. Crystal knew what to do and promised to never leave Ann no matter what. 

It’s told that the bird decided to stay with Ann all night, but sacrificed some of its soul to always be apart of the house. The bird could fly wherever they wanted until the afternoon where they came back and rested on the wallpaper. Thats why in the picture, there is a bird coming to life from the wallpaper.

RINGGGGGG! “Yes, finally, our nightmare is over.” I say to Monika 

“I know! This is probably the best day of my life.” she replies. 

“Hey guys, SCHOOL IS OVER!” Brook says. I am so excited that school over 6th grade was worse than 5th. In 5th grade I was the new kid and got bullied and yet 6th grade where I had a bunch of friends still seemed to be the worst thing in the world. I am ready for summer. “Carol, come over we're gonna have a celebration in the basement in honor of 6th grade being over.” Monika says. 

“Ok!!” I responded. We grabbed our backpacks and said goodbye to our teacher Mrs. Stagin and sprinted out the door for freedom. I sent my mom a text telling her that I was going to Monika’s. Like always she responds with a thumbs up emoji. I ran to catch up with Monika, Brook, Megan and Stephaine. My best friend is Monika. She was the first one to come up to me and introduce me to all the girls who are now also my best friends. Brook, well she didn’t like me at first she spread a rumor to people that I moved all the way from Spain. First of all I moved from California and second what’s wrong with Spain. She then apologized and I forgave her. Once we arrived at Monika’s we immediately dropped our bags and ran down stairs sounding like a herd of horses. Monika’s basement is like a whole other room. I love it though. When we have sleepovers we love to tell scary stories about this “haunted basement.” We quickly closed the lights, shut the blinds but kept one window open because it was hot, slammed all the doors, shut and held hands so that we won’t scare one another. Then we each told 2 ghost stories. Meghan was in the middle of her story when we heard a noise. We all screamed and felt my heart drop down all the way to my stomach. There was this creature unknown and we couldn’t see due to it being dark. Monika jumped up and turned on the lamp. There was a raccoon with his mouth wide open and claws digging into their carpet. We all screamed startlingly at the little fella we jumped up onto their pool table. Monika screamed “DAD,DAD HELP US HELP US!!!!” 

Stephaine screamed even louder “DANI DANI WERE GONNA GET EATEN ALIVE.” By this time Megaine and Brook were crying and I stayed quiet not knowing what to do. In a few moments Mr Jones ran down the stairs saying “Girls, girls what’s the matter?” He looked down and saw the raccoon was now under their carpet. He grabbed the closest thing to him which was a broom and tried to hit the raccoon. He crushed a lamp, broke a vase, hit everything but the raccoon. Finally he relaxed and waited for the raccoon to come to him. After 5 minutes of waiting the raccoon came out and he smashed it with all his might. Everyone cheered and then Moikna said “Wow guys what a start to a cruel summer!” Everyone laughed and gave Mr Jones a high five.

The old man was about to go to bed when he suddenly received a call from the hospital. His wife had died. The love of his life, the only person he thought would ever love him. So he drowned his sorrows with alcohol​​. Eventually he got drunk and started expressing his anger on everything around him. Including the chair she sat in whenever they ate dinner, and the lamp she always read under before bed. After he beat the lamp with the chair, having broken the table and chair too, he proceeded to wallow. Crying till he had no tears left, whining till he could whine no more, and feeling sadder than he ever had before. He had received the call on his home phone, so he couldn’t pick up the phone while he was at work. That's what made him feel worse, he could’ve been there to help her, but instead he wasn’t, making him bask in his own guilt. On his face the man wore a stern expression and was obviously guided to his actions following the rage on her death. They hadn’t even lived life to the fullest yet, they were planning to have children, renew their vows, go on their first family vacation. Even though the call didn’t state the specifics he knew what had happened, she was on her way back home from work when suddenly a drowsy tow truck driver hit her car. Since he didn’t want to get in trouble, pay for the damages, and eventually lose his job, he decided to run. It was a classic hit-and-run, one that would be presented in movies. Now the man lay alone in his house, in an empty house, having no one to comfort him.

The girl was quite fond of her birds. She loved them and she believed they loved her. But when she opened the door of the cage, the birds screeched and flapped their wings. The girl believed she could fix this. The girl’s name was Sophie. Sophie wanted the birds to stop flapping. Why would they anyway? They love me. But the birds did not love Sophie. Despite the fact that she fed them and covered her wall in stickers of them. She was a careful girl when it came to things like this. She had lined up the birds in rows, not leaving any spots in the rows. It always was the same. 17 birds per row on each wall. Sophie knew she could stop the bird wings flapping, she also knew it wasn’t a good way to do so. But she let her impulsive thoughts control her and reached for one soft, white, bird. It screamed and pecked but she tightened her grip. Sophie tried to stop but she couldn’t, she wanted to know what would happen. And she found out. As she pulled and twisted the bird’s wing, she heard a long, wet, popping noise. And her bird was quiet. It was so very quiet. And so was Sophie. Tears formed in her eyes. She made no noise and her vision was blurry. She looked up hoping the tears would dry on their own. Then she looked down at the bird in regret. Her tears dripped down her face and on the dead bird. And slowly, the bird began to disappear. All of the birds did. And the ones on her wall slowly peeled off and flew out the open window. And it was cold. Sophie closed her eyes. When she opened them she saw her walls bare. And she smiled.

The Perfect Tree

   Once there was a very lonely, pretty, bright, and healthy looking tree. It was the type of tree you would imagine when someone says “that tree looks so perfect. ” One day a family was going on a hike on a popular town road. The family was hiking when all of a sudden a girl said “that tree looks so perfect!” The family looked over and said “that tree does look perfect, go stand by it and I can take a photo of you!” The mom said. The girl said “okay” and her mom took the photo. The girl said we should one day come back and write on the leaves to make people happy when they walk by. The next day the family came back to the trail on that popular street and they brought markers and pens. The family started writing away. They wrote all the positive words they could think of. When the family was finished, they decided to all take a family photo under that tree. Later the mom posted on her facebook page that beautiful tree and the words they wrote on it. The next morning the mom wakes up with 100,000 notifications saying “we are headed on our way over to write a positive word we bet you don't have yet!” The family was stunned when they found out everyone was finding out about this tree so quickly. They rushed out the door and finally got to the tree. They were stunned when they saw how many people were standing by the perfect tree. Everyone looked so happy and joyful, the tree was looking even happier than the people now since it had such positive words on it to help people to keep going when they are sad. 

Albert was a very tech-savvy man, but he had a very busy job. He worked at the I.T. company, ZBI, and he loved his job, well for a little. Ever since he was a kid, he would experiment with technology. As Albert grew older, and computers came out, he became very good at fixing them, as well as the problems that happen on them.

 Albert opened up his own shop when he was young, and he assembled/fixed computers with a friend, Max, but they went out of business after a year. Today, we will observe Alberts daily job, and his perspective on it. 

Albert has woken up after a long day of work, with rings under his eyes, as he begins his daily routine. “I’m sooooo tired,” Albert groaned, as he opened his front door. As he approached his car, a small, but comfy car for one person, he had just realized something. “Where are my keys!” He screamed.

Albert frantically searched his pockets, and his many jackets, until he reached into a pocket that he forgot to check, and found his keys. “Finally! " he exclaimed, "I found my keys.”

Albert drove down to his job, and dreadingly entered the building. “Just another day at work, I need a new job,” he sighed. Albert made his way to his office, where began to take calls.

After his usual 10 hour shift, he hadn’t even been half way done with everything he needed to do, so he stayed overnight.

 The next day, after he had been working for 20 hours, he started to see things. There was a mural of birds flying on a wall, but it was only a painting. When Albert went to look at it, all the birds had started coming out of the painting and flying past him. One brushed past his face, and along with him being so tired, he had passed out.

 Later that morning, fellow workers found him passed out on the floor, and he was     escorted to the hospital. When he woke up, he told them that he had worked for 20 hours straight, and that he had seen those birds. The doctors told him that he had overworked, hadn’t gotten enough sleep, and he was seeing things. As he stood up off his bed he said, “I hope those birds got enough sleep,” and he walked off.

On a dark, stormy night, I wake up to the sound of rats. Rats in my carpet, rats in my basement, rats in my roof, rats everywhere; please help me with these rats. All the rats are saying the same thing. It feels like a nightmare that is in real life. All the rats are repeating, “Crazy? I was crazy once; they locked me in a room, a rubber room, a rubber room with rats, rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once…” “They’re driving me crazy! Where is my repellent gun? Where are you when I need you? You’re lost! The thought is fading. Too many rats! HELP!”

A person watching from outside saw the man screaming but heard nothing. “You’re shouting, but I can’t hear anything!” The old man runs out with a chair and tries to hit one of them, but there are too many of them saying, “Crazy? I was crazy once; they locked me in a room, a rubber room, a rubber room with rats, rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once…” The older man runs outside, rats following. He gets in his car, finds the nearest ocean, and drives towards it. He gets on the nearest boat and says to the owner, “DRIVE!” Once they’re far away, finally, there is eternal silence in the sea. 

“And for our last item,” The auction man boasted, “A painting by John D. Kelheer,” There are lots of murmurs, “John D. Kehleer? I thought all his works were burned!”

“That’s right everybody, by John D. Kehleer,” Exclaimed the auction man, “Last existing one”

“Well, what’s the starting bid then?” A man in a pink three-piece suit asked.

“Ah, well, it’s only $127 million,”

“That’s it for the only one in the world?” A woman in a dark blue suit asked.

“Wait, so there’s two in the world? What about the one at B.A.N.N. International Museum?” The man in the pink suit asked.

“No, B.A.N.N. shut down last May because the Feds said they can’t keep it open. They said it was at too high risk of robbery.”

“$127.5 million!” A man in a black tuxedo yelled.

“$127.5 million! Anything higher?” The auction man asked the crowd.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!* “FBI open up!” The man through the door yelled. The security guards pulled the fire alarm and the fire escape door opened and the auction man made a run for it. “You thought we didn’t think of that?!” The FBI Agent yelled as burst through the door and the security guards came down with it.

“Ahhh!” all the guests were screaming and yelling and running around like crazy.

“You guys are all fine. Get out the door though now!” The FBI Agent said.

Moments later…

Weeeee Woooooo! Weeeee Woooooo! “That auction guy was a robber and he stole the John D. Kelheer painting,” Another FBI Agent explained to the crowd of people who were at the auction.

Amber

I get out of the car and check my phone, 11:27. I walk towards the entrance while Michael follows silently behind me. It’s been 2 weeks since I got him, and I’ve noticed some things about him. How he moves, so swiftly you don’t even know he’s there, or how he wears all black and his only pair of shoes are those black combat ones. Most people don’t even realize he’s a bodyguard, because once you look past his 6.5 ft figure you see his charming face. And you think he’s just a regular guy walking in the mall. He looks kind and can be sometimes, I think. I mean, I haven’t seen it but everyone's nice in their own way, right? My old bodyguard, Kane, had understood me. I guess we had to understand each other especially with being what some would call conjoined twins for 5 years. Kane had to quit his job as his wife was almost due, they were having twins. I almost resented him for leaving me with Michael, but I knew that he has a life outside of me. I make my way to the elevator and my eyes dart to a Sephora, yes! I think to myself. 

Michael

She rushes into a store before I can even see the sign. I immediately scurry after her and before I can even blink I am surrounded by tons of makeup and posters with models on them. Almost instantly I spot the brunette I'm looking for. With her green eyes, curly brown hair, and her golden complexion, she could be a model. Hell, she is one and her pictures caught fame in an instant! 

I catch up to her and say “We have to go” as more of a growl than as a sentence.

“No.” she says straightly. 

She yelps when I grab her by the arm and start dragging her out of the Sephora. She finally grounds herself and tells me “Michael no! You cannot drag me out of here!”

I chuckle at her argument. She looks at me gruffly, and I say “It's too crowded.” Which is partly true, I also just didn't want to be in a makeup store shopping for a new lip gloss.

Her expression changes and looks at me confused.

“The more people there, the more dangerous.” I explain.

“Well I need a new mascara, my old one ran out” and with that she storms back into the Sephora. My hand meets her arm, again, stopping her in her tracks.

“And you will get one, just not now” I say harsher this time. 

She sighs and knowing she’ll never win starts walking the opposite direction. Reaching the elevator I press the up button. After what feels like forever but is actually a few seconds it comes to stop in front of us. 

“What floor?” I ask. She shrugs and I click the 2nd. 

Amber

We reach the 2nd floor and walk around. The tension between us is so strong that you couldn’t cut it if you tried your hardest to. After a few minutes of walking we reach Build-A-Bear. It's empty, except for the one worker, so he can’t force me out like Sephora. I turn and enter the store not caring about Michael’s hard stare. I’d say he's not the lovey-dovey type and Build-A-Bear is not his favorite place, but I’ve never had one. Every time I came with my mom to the mall she would never let me buy one, saying it's a waste of time and money. I don’t think it was that though because we weren’t poor, so we had the money for it, I just think she didn’t love me. I dropped it a few years after because when I told my friends they told me I was overreacting and that she's my mom and that she does love me. I should believe that, but she was never a good mom, always caring about herself more than her kids. I’ve been to the mall plenty of times without my mom, but never by myself. I’ve been with my friends a few times, and I was scared that they were going to make fun of me for it. I spot the one I'm looking for and grab it. I go to pay and see that Michael's already done it. 

“Aww, such a gentleman” I tease.

“It's your birthday gift, so don’t ask me for anything else” he says in that low voice of his. I open my mouth to argue that I didn’t ask him for it when he turns and walks out of the store. 

“I see your egos bigger than ever” I mumble thinking he didn’t hear me, but apparently he did because his eyes shoot up to mine as soon as I say it. 

“What was that?” he growls.

“Nothing!” I say my voice higher than normal. I almost expect him to talk back, but he leaves it at that and waits for me to start walking again.

Michael

I was about to confront her about what she said, but I left it alone. It's 12 o’clock in the morning, and I'm not in the mood to deal with people, Amber in particular. Thankfully It's not long before she says she wants to get something to eat. We’re still on the 2nd floor but the food courts are on the 3rd, so we take another awkward elevator ride and as soon as it dings we are ambushed by loads of cameras, microphones, and reporters. Before I can process the paparazzi I take her hand and drag her through the crowd until I see a tucked door that says EMPLOYEES ONLY. Going towards that direction I kick the door open and all goes dark. 

I'm rummaging through everything trying to find a light switch and assume Amber was doing the same because the light turns on to show her with a worried look on her face.

Going closer to her, I check to make sure she's alright, at least physically. 

“Are you ok?” I ask my tone softer than usual.

She nods, but her face is still in shock and I place my arm around her. Hearing something fall I realize that we're in a storage closet. It's mostly junk, but it's very tight, it seems like someone's a hoarder. I had expected the press to come because she had posted a story on Instagram just a few minutes ago, but this was surprising because of how quick they came.

“I’m going to check if they're gone” and I slowly open the door and see that they have fled, giving up all hope of finding her. I turn to her and smile, I nod as I wait for her to exit first.

Amber

We’re in line at the Wendy’s stand and acting as if nothing happened. I’m scrolling through my phone and Michael is staring blankly into the crowd. We move up, and it isn’t until Michael taps my shoulder that I realize it's our turn. I order some fries, a chicken sandwich, and a sprite, while all Michael orders is small fries and water. Jesus! Just how much more basic can the man get? We get our food and sit down at one of the tables. 

“Are you ok?” Michael asks randomly. I'm about to question why he would ask me and then I remember. Oh right, that. 

“Yeah” I say sincerely. The conversation ends, but I decide to open it up again saying “So what's your last name?”

Michael stares up from his fries with a blank face and says “Garcia” with no expression present. 

“You’re Hispanic?” I question. He’s darker than most white people, but I still question it. 

“Mexican” he corrects me, and clears his throat. 

Wanting to continue the conversation I say “Let's play a game. Fast five favorites. Hobby, movie, color, food, person.” 

Waiting for a response, but I realize I'm not getting one. I say “I’ll go first, reading, Moana, yellow, pizza, my mom.”

He eats his last fry and says “Going to the shooting range, don't have one, black, black beans, my mom.”

I stare at him in shock, unable to process that he actually responded when I finally say, “You don't have a favorite movie?” 

“No.”

“How? Everyone has a favorite movie!”

“Coming from the person whose favorite movie is Moana”

“Hey! Don't make fun of Moana! It's a classic and at least I have one!” I say sitting up straighter. I'm trying my hardest not to laugh. 

He chuckles and says softly “Fine, Coco.”

My jaw drops saying “And you were making fun of me for Moana meanwhile yours is Coco”

Now his jaw tightens, and he says “It has a meaning to me and my mom that you will never understand” and I drop it.

“I’m-” I’m interrupted by a loud bang.

Michael

I mutter something under my breath but can’t even make out what it is because of all the screaming going around. I take a quick look at Amber’s wide eyes before I stand up and take her legs off the ground wrapping her arms around me. Not knowing where I'm going I start rushing around trying to find a safe place to hide. I finally stumble across a small alleyway between the Nathan's Hot Dogs stand and the Panda express. I make sure it's empty before dropping her on the ground. Taking a deep breath she looks up at me and I see in her eyes, Thank you. I mouth a quick your welcome before whispering, “Stay here. Don’t move, don’t let anyone see you, and if they do, use this. Doesn’t matter who it is, whether it's a toddler or an old man. Use it!” And with that I hand her a taser and go off to find who fired the shot. 

It doesn’t take long for me to find the idiot who decided to shoot a gun in the worst place possible. Thankfully everyone's gone into hiding, so this won’t take long. The man holding the gun looks somewhat old, looks like he could be a father but most likely is not one. And kneeling before him is another man and his son. The son looks young, really young, maybe 6–7 years old. And his father is holding his left hand to his right arm trying to stop the blood. The shooter has his back to me making this much easier on my part. I walk swiftly behind him bringing my gun to his neck, and he screams in fear. Chuckling I say “drop the gun” and he slowly lowers it to the ground. I nod to the father and tell him “run. Call the police, and keep your son with you at all times.” Doing so he flees, and I grab the collar of his shirt turning him to face me. I almost drop him when I see who stands before me. My father. The very man who left me and my mother in Mexico to fend for ourselves when his business blew up. 

Amber

My head is on my knees, and my arms are crossed in front of it. The air is silent other than the Justin Beiber song playing from the speakers. Where is security? I wonder to myself. Pulling myself together I get up and manage to get to the edge of the wall without making a noise. I gasp when I see Michael gripping a man by his collar with his gun in the opposite hand. The sight makes me grip the taser harder. The song now changed to what I think is a Latin hit and Michael's face softens. His grip on the man softens as well, and I can’t help but notice how similar they look to each other. Are they related? Why does Michael look so sad? Is he worried? Do they have a past? There are now a million thoughts flooding my brain, and I lose focus on Michael. 

Regaining my focus I notice the head of Michael’s gun is no longer facing the floor and is now facing the man's chest. His heart specifically. The grip on it is now tighter than before and, even though I can’t see his face, I can tell he’s mad. The man looks petrified. The color is drained from his face and his eyes are wide. 

Michael bends his head down and whispers something in his ear, so quietly I bet the man didn’t even hear it himself. The person facing me quickly nods, leaves his gun and runs, Faster than I’ve ever seen anyone run. I assume that Michael's coming back to me soon, so I quickly rush back to where I think I’m sitting and wait for him to come back. 

Michael

Slowly everyone comes out of their hiding places and I walk towards Amber's direction. I knew she was staring, but I wouldn’t discuss why I did what I did. I find her exactly where I left her, but the shock is no longer there. The taser is on the floor next to her, and she stares up at me. I reach out my arm to help her out and she accepts. We make our way out of the food court and towards the elevators to get out of the mall. After the day we’ve had I don't blame her for wanting to leave. Turning to me she says “So…are we going to address the elephant in the room or not?”

“What elephant in what room?” I responded.

“Michael don’t act dumb I know you know that I was staring at you. Who was that? Do you know him? Why did you let him go?” She asks.

“No one,” I growled.

She stops in her tracks, crosses her arms and states, “Michael, please”

“Fine, but after this no more questions. It was my dad, Jose Diaz, he left my mom and I when I was 5 after his business went well, after that we never heard from him again.” I purposely left out the last question because it was too personal to answer. The reason I did was because my mother always told me “If you ever see your Papi again, don’t be mad at him Mijo, it's too much work and energy to be mad at someone for so long.” I was going to kill him but then that song came on, and I decided not to. I told him to leave the country, go back to Mexico and to not bother my mother. He nodded like the scared dog he is and left. 

And with that we walked out of the mall.

Amber

Michael was keeping something from me. He may not have wanted me to know, but I'm too engrossed in what he just told me. So I'm going to find out more, whether he wants me to or not. Like my mother always told me “Keep some, find some” and it was today at this moment that I figured out what she meant by it. 

 A Tale of Baba Yaga

 Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sophia. Sophia had bright blue eyes, and hair as dark as a raven’s feathers. She was living in a middle-class family in a small village, with her parents and two younger siblings- Louis and Louisa. The village was in the countryside, and all of the houses were made out of brown wood. The village had lots of greenery and a farm, filled with sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens. As well as beautiful gardens filled with all sorts of flowers in front of each house. However, her village is most known for the mysterious character, Baba Yaga who wanders around it at night. It isn’t even determined if she exists or not. One day, at around 2:00 pm, Sophia decided to go into the woods neighboring her village to pick some berries for the pie, raspberry pie to be exact that she decided to bake. The woods were full of trees since it was quite a dense forest. The trees were all different sizes, different types, and had different textures. She strolled on the trail leading to the woods. The trail was made out of dried mud, and pebbles outlined it. As she approached the woods, she stumbled upon the raspberries. The raspberries looked ripe, and perfect for her pie. Sophia walked over to the raspberries and sat down on the dirt to pick the raspberries. However, as she was putting the raspberries in her basket, she saw something shrouded by the bushes in the distance. She stopped picking the raspberries and tried to peek through the bushes to see what it was. She got up and started to walk toward the mysterious object. As she approached it, she realized it was a cottage. It was made out of wood, with the wood being a dark blue, but not quite a navy blue. It had a chimney made out of different sizes of gray, rough-textured rocks. She slowly walked over to the door, a different type of brown wood with a few spots of black on it and a rather medium-sized window. She skeptically knocked on the door, not knowing what would await her. She stood outside, on the dark green grass, nervous about who would answer. After about a minute of waiting, she grew impatient and twisted the knob of the door. She stepped on a fuzzy, Welcome rug as she shouted,

“HELLO! Anybody home?!” There was no answer. 

“HELLO?!” Sophia cried. Is this place even occupied by anyone? She wondered. The cottage was filled with dark and cool colors. It had dim lighting and wooden floors. Ignoring the fact that she didn’t know whose home she was, she started to wander around the house. As she went into the living room, she turned her head and encountered a library. Sophia loved books and decided to slide the sliding doors open. There were a plethora of books. The books all had different designs and colors. She came closer to them, tracing her fingers on a few of the books. But, strangely, all of them included Baba Yaga. The library was filled with books on Baba Yaga’s Recipes, Baba Yaga’s House, Where To Shop for Baba Yaga and anything related to Baba Yaga. But, there was one book in particular that had a more intricate design and a brighter purple, than any other book. It was titled, Baba Yaga. Sophia became curious and opened the book. But, to her surprise, it was completely blank. No words, no pictures, no page numbers, nothing. Just plain pages. 

“What?!” Sophia questioned. She looked around the room and was too overwhelmed by the amount of shelves and books there were around her. She checked her watch, which she inherited from her mother when she was 10.

“3:30?! I must get home immediately! My dough will get ruined!” She exclaimed. She raced over to the entrance door but to her shock, there was no door knob!

“WHAT? How will I get home?! I need to bake my pie!” She cried.

“GET ME OUT OF THIS HOUSE! GET ME OUT!!” She yelled.

Suddenly, the house started to slowly ascend off the ground. It stomped on the grass. THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! She looked out the window wondering what was going on, and saw 2 gigantic feet! They were chicken legs! They had huge and long claws, with a yellow coloring and wrinkles all over them! 

“AHHHH!” Sophia screamed.

The next 10 minutes blurred with emotions of alarm and panic. She didn’t know what to do, what would happen, or where she was going! But, slowly enough, the chicken legs stopped stomping and quietly descended to the ground. Where am I?! She thought to herself. Suddenly, before Sophia could even process what just happened, CRASH! Someone burst through the door!

“Hello! I heard Baba Yaga was coming to visit, you’re Baba Yaga right?” The women asked excitedly. The woman most likely standing just a bit less than 5 feet, she had gray, wavy hair with vibrant green eyes.

“What? No! How could I be Baba Yaga?!” Sophia responded. Sophia was anxious, worried, and didn’t know what just happened to her

“Oh don’t be silly! Look at your house! You are Baba Yaga! Except, you look strangely young to be Baba Yaga… Anyway, I want you to determine my faith. My dear son hasn’t come from the military in over 6 months. I want you to see if he will come home anytime soon.” The women asked desperately.

“Uhm, just wait one second. I want to get myself some water” Sophia replied. Her head was hurting, and her vision was all a blur. She walked over to the kitchen, whose cabinets were some sort of purple, with dark windows on them. She opened the cabinet and got herself a glass of water. The glass was some kind of extraordinary shape, it was engraved with lines and all different sorts of colors. She ignored that, and just went over to the sink to pour in some water. She swallowed that water quickly, and her vision started to clear up. All of a sudden, she said frantically,

“Your son will be home in 2 weeks from this day! Make him warm food and a cup of tea!” 

“Oh, thank you so much! I can’t even begin to express how worried I was!” The woman thanked Sophia and gave her a big hug. After the women left, Sophia’s brain started to fog up again. She became all tired and decided to sit down on a couch in the living room. As she was walking over, the door creaked open. A man, around 6 feet, with overalls and a gray shirt came in. He had barely any hair, and there was a visibly worried expression on his face.

“Hello, I heard that you are Baba Yaga. I am here to ask if you can determine whether my wife will live. She has scarlet fever.”

“Yes, apparently now I can determine the future of people. Please sit down over there at the dining table while I get a glass of water.” Sophia replied. As the man went to sit down, Sophia went to sink and got another glass of water. This time, she got a more normal glass with not that many designs and it had to be color, it was just simply clear. As she drank the water, her mind started to clear up again as she answered,

“Your wife will be cured of scarlet fever next week on Thursday.”

“Bless your heart! Thank you so much!” The old man replied enthusiastically. As the old man walked away from the kitchen and out the door, Sophia became even more suspicious of what was happening to her. There is no way I am Baba Yaga. She is just a fictional character that wanders off in villages, she thought to herself. Frustration and confusion coursed through her veins as her hands rolled into tights fists of madness. She wanted to return to her home, see her family, and cook the pie that she was planning on eating. 

“Magical house, take me home!” She yelled. This time, however, the magical house didn’t ascend from the ground, it just stayed in position. Am I truly Baba Yaga? Is this my real home? Sophia thought to herself.

Saving my local Starbucks 

By: Viraaj

Hi. My name is Jamal. This is the story of how I tried to save my local Starbucks from an explosion.

I was standing outside Starbucks. My friends wanted to go after school. I have never been to Starbucks. My dad warned me not to ever go to Starbucks. My dad bans me from going to a lot of places. Most shops are stuff that are banned. I tried to talk sense into him. 

“Bro I’m 15, why can't I go to these stores?” I asked.

“You can’t go because I said so,” My dad said. 

“You are a stereotypical Asian dad,” I said

So here I was in front daring myself to go in. Just this one time, I told myself. He won’t know. Though since I have never been here I have made my friends show me the menu. 

“Go in there it will be fine,” My friend Taquavion Johnson told me.

I walked up the steps and grasped the door handle. My friends below me were cheering me on. 

“You got this!” My other friend Victor told me.

I pulled it open but I didn’t look inside just yet. My dad says these places are ridiculously royal. I wanted to wait for my friends. I looked at them and held the door open. They ran up the stairs and got inside. I turned around. I found the place pretty underwhelming. It was pretty clean and the chairs… the chairs were actually nice!  

“So what do you think?” Taquavion asked

“It’s pretty good,” I reply 

“C’mon Jamal, you can do better than that,” Victor said.

I looked over the counter and there was a person studying me.

“Is that normal?” I asked, pointing to the guy behind the counter.

Victor frowned. “No that's not normal,”

Taquavion clapped his hands “So, what do you want?” 

All three of us approach the counter. Both Victor and Taquavion order immediately. While they were ordering I glanced over at the guy studying me. He was now on his phone texting someone. I approached him. He glances up at me.

“What do you want to order?” He asked, putting his phone away. 

“Why were you looking at me?” I asked

“Because your dad told us to blow up the place if you come here,” he said.

I was shocked. “You wouldn’t”

“You are right,” He said “I wouldn’t” 

“What?”

“Your dad offered an alternative.”

“What is it?”

“You’re gonna have to get whooped”

Now I knew he was telling the truth. My dad would do something like that. It makes more sense. Besides, I really don’t want Starbucks to explode.

“You choose,” said the Starbucks employee.

I took a deep breath “I choose to…”

“You are going to get whooped,” a voice from behind said. 

I turned around and saw my dad. He summoned the belt.

“Yo dad we can talk about this,”

“I am not getting charged for personal property destroyed,” He said

That was all I remember. 

One Killer Though Many

By Max Newman

Thursday, May 14, 3189 10:47 PM:

“Alright, give me the list on him,” The beast of a man asked.

“Who? The one?” Another man asked back.

“Yes, the one. Who else would I be asking about?”

Philbert Helmaninson

I know that this guy seemed to have sprouted up as this apocalypse happened in the 3140s. I’m a 56-year-old man whose birthday is on March 28. I am from the lineage of Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet in the 2020s. I know my last name “Helmaninson'' is nothing like “Musk”, but that’s because of maiden name stuff.

Now, that apocalypse I was talking about. Life had been amazing from the year I was born until then. In 3141, there was a group of scientists who created a teleporter. It was originally built for items, but someone discovered that it actually clones humans when they go through it. I think the people in the scientist group thought they could profit from it. That went just as well as one would expect it to. By 3150 there were clones everywhere, and mind you, they didn’t do whatever the original did, they did whatever they wanted. People thought it was cool until the clones started doing things like domestic terrorism and nuclear war. Throughout the 3160s, the world went through 12 nuclear winters, about 560,000 mass murders, and 1,752 plane hijackings among many other things. Finally, in the 3170s the panic apocalypse* was over, and the finding out who was the real human and not a clone began.

So now after the clone hunting slowed down by 3185, it’s just a straight apocalypse. Everyone scavenged for food and water, killings all over, and through all that the rich were in their floating space habitats, just watching, doing nothing to help with surpluses upon surpluses of food, water, and safety. However, even though I am rich, I was busy studying everyone on the planet. Figuring out who are the last clones, who are psycho, who are scared, everything.

*There are different stages of apocalypse. Those are Entro: Apocalypse starts. Panic: People start going crazy and everything goes wrong. Stale: Still apocalypse but people are used to it now.

Thursday, May 14, 3189 12:29 AM:

“Yeah, so that’s all we got on him,” The biggest of the 4 men said.

“That’s it?” asked the leader, “Everyone else takes at least a few days to go through the files.”

“We know sir,” Another man said, “Something is always off when we think we have a hold of his every movement and we don’t know why.”

“Okay, well, tell the guys to keep working on it.”

“Yes sir,” All three of the other men said in a more serious tone.

Lorem Mesophinol

Oih. Oih. Sleash. I crey donjok. Eswaor crugh wough con’ll but I cta’n.

Sunday, May 17, 3189, 3:16 AM:

“What have you got that’s new?” The leader asked.

“Well, what do you think we have?” The highest of the other three exclaimed, “Nothing.”

“Whenever we seem to have got him under control he disappears. It’s like he knows when we’re trying to watch,” Another one piped up. “And he keeps killing people by the masses. That’s all we know”

Philbert Helmaninson

Lorem Mesophinol. We need him dead. On the scientists' records, they said they got all his clones rooted out, but I don't know if that was true. He is always in a “deh deh” unconscious-style state. Whenever we see him he isn’t talking normally and is kind of dragging himself around. Maybe he has something figured out. Maybe he has us figured out. Maybe those “hims” are actually clones of him. Maybe a lot. But no matter how many questions we have, he seems to just keep on giving us more.

Monday, June 3, 3189, 2:40 PM:

“Shhh” The leader whispered. Even the quiet sound echoed so loudly off the destroyed walls and floors of the 2020s “American Dream”. “We gotta get out of here. This place is gonna fall any second.” 

Auyh, auyh, auyh, auyh, auyh, auyh, auyh… the sound started getting louder slowly. CRUNCH. “We gotta get out of here!” One of the 236 men in Philbert’s crew screamed. “It’s falling!” Auyh! Auyh! AUyh! AUyh! AUYh! AUYh! AUYH! AUYH! Philbert’s crew started to see shadows coming from every direction-dropping from the ceiling, out of the power sockets, out of the escalator treads, everywhere. “It’s thousands, no, millions,” said someone out of Philber’s crowd. Millions of Lorem Mesophinols. He had figured something out. He figured out how to clone himself even without the teleporters. AUYH! AUYH! AUYH!

Philbert Helmaninson

“Ohhhh,” I say to my crew of 236 data miners. “Yup, we’re done.” Screams from some of them in the back. And the last sound I hear is, “AUYH! AUYH! AU–”