One chilly, fall day my friends and I decided to play neighborhood hide and seek.  It was a game we invented ourselves based on the original hide and seek, except with a few twists and boundary expansions.  The limit we were allowed to go to was just beyond our huge cul-de-sac, so the possibilities for hiding spots was practically endless.  Because the cul-de-sac was so big, there are multiple seekers as well.  We once spent a whole weekend playing this, having half-hour intermissions for meals or bathroom breaks.  Our group consisted of Zoey, Grayson, Jacob, and me, Liam.  We used to have all of the kids in the block in our group, but they all slowly moved out of our tiny countryside town called Lindsdale.  They all migrated to bigger cities in the Louisiana area until it was just us left.  We have grown a tight bond, and we would never abandon each other. Never.
We had a meeting, repeating the rules, forging them in our minds.  If one of us broke one rule, we were banished from the game.
“How about we increase the boundary to whatever is beyond that hill?” Grayson asked. “We already know all of the hiding places in the cul-de-sac, and it’s becoming kind of boring.”  We all looked up to the hill, shadowing our neighborhood in an eerie afternoon shade.  Our parents had told us countless times to not go beyond that hill.  Whatever was behind the hill, our parents did not want us to see.
“Yeah!” Zoey shouted, “I agree! Don’t you guys want to know what’s behind that big ol’ hunk of dirt?”
“Guys, I don’t know…” I trailed off, thinking about what my dad has told me every day at the breakfast table.  “Our parents haven’t stressed this eno-”
“Don’t be such a sourpuss, Liam!” Jacob shouted.  “I know you want to know what’s over there.  Quit being such a baby.  Or are you… chicken?”  The rest of the gang and Jacob started strutting around, making chicken noises and flailing their arms in the air.  They knew I hated when they said that about me.
“Fine!” I yelled, over their irritating bawks, until they died down.  “If we get busted, then you guys are taking the blame.”
“Whatever,” Jacob muttered.  I could tell he was crossing his fingers behind his back.  I sighed, then initiated the starting countdown.  Grayson and I were hiding, while Zoey and Jacob were seeking.
“3, 2, 1, GO!” I screamed.  Zoey and Jacob had their backs turned, facing the porch of my house, counting to 117.  No one knows why we picked that number, it just seemed fair.  Grayson and I dashed towards the hill.  I decided to fall out, and turned backwards, obeying my father’s wishes.  Instantly Grayson’s arm shot out and grabbed mine.  “You’re coming with me!” He yelled, and I reluctantly raced with him up the dusty hill.

I was astonished by what I saw when we reached the peak of the hill.  An old abandoned house, and a creepy old playground.
“Aw, sick!” Grayson said excitedly, and we slid down the hill to the house.  The weather vane on the tip of the roof ominously creaked as the ongoing wind played with it.  We marched up the worn stairs and went through the door hole.  There wasn’t a door, which I thought was weird.
“Grayson, this place is creepy, let’s turn back,” I half-croaked.
“Not until the game’s over!” he responded.  I wasn’t liking this at all.  The spider web-covered mantle decorations reminded me of a haunted house attraction my family and I went through when we went down to New Orleans for Halloween.  Skewed along the walls were crooked, dusty frames, with old photographs and faded paintings inside.  Everything about this place gave me the creeps.  Just then, we heard a floorboard creak above us.
“Probably just a rat,” Grayson said.  I was awestruck from how Grayson was unaffected by this place.  I asked him about it and he said, “It looks like my aunt Marge’s house up in Idaho.  There’s nothing to worry about, I promise.”  I couldn’t help but not believe that last sentence.

We heard in the distance Zoey and Jacob shout in unison, “WE’RE COMING!”  Which made us both jump a little.  On that note, we ran up the old stairs and divided into different rooms.  I picked one that was pitch black, and I navigated through with the help of my smartphone light.  I found a closet and snuck inside.  When I saw my surroundings, I froze in terror.  The clothes inside were new.

Grayson went into the bathroom.  Using the miniature flashlight he always kept on his keychain ring, he looked around.  He made his way to the bathtub basin, and climbed inside.  As he lied in the basin, the only sound the constant echoed drip from the faucet, he then realized the inside of the basin was wet.  He jumped up and shined the flashlight inside the damp basin.  The whole inside was covered in blood.  Shocked by the sudden turn of the events, he opened his mouth to yell for help, but couldn’t.  A dark, gloved hand extended from a silhouette in the corner, which Grayson didn’t notice when he entered the room.  It swiftly covered his mouth, sending a series of muffled shrieks from him, but they were gone after five or so seconds, when another gloved hand from the shadowed figure appeared, holding a sharp machete to Grayson’s strained neck.

Zoey and Jacob dashed up the hill, and alike to Grayson and I, they both were utterly surprised with the spooky house and playground.  “Come on, Jacob, they can wait!” Zoey said, excitedly.  “I want to play on the playground!”
“Zoey, what are you, five?” Jacob asked, with a hint of sarcasm.  Zoey punched him on the shoulder.  “Ow!” he cried out.  Zoey dashed to the swings, but almost immediately stopped in her tracks.  Crouched behind a dead tree, a a hooded and robed little girl showed herself, looking like she came straight from occult club.  Her face was pale as snow, and her blond hair ran down her hood into little strands by her neck, matted. It’s messiness revealed she hadn’t tamed the mess on her head for a while.  But the most distinctive feature of this creepy little child was definitely her eyes.  They were bright red, as if a bonfire roared inside each of them.  Zoey awkwardly ran back to Jacob, frightened by this girl. “I thought we were alone,” she whispered in Jacob’s ear, her voice quivering.
Jacob tenderly stepped out - he had a soft spot for kids - and asked, “Hi, my name is Jacob, and this is Zoey.” He pointed back to Zoey, who slowly waved, debating whether to stay or bolt back to the cul-de-sac. The little girl didn’t move a muscle.  “Are you okay?  Where are your parents?” Jacob asked.  The little girl’s bloodshot red eyes darted to Jacob, and they wavered there for a moment.  As if her depressive and shy mood completely left her, her face instantly lit up, and she asked, “Do you want to play?  The swings are my favorite!” the little girl giggled and it made Jacob feel warm inside.  “I would love to.” Jacob said, sweetly.
“Jacob, I’m not to sure about thi-”
“Give the little girl a chance!” Jacob yelled.  He walked over to Zoey and whispered, “Call the cops, see if you can get them to come and get her.  She’s alone and looks like she hasn’t been home for a while.”
The little girl overheard this.  She calmly walked to the two friends and screamed, “No phones!” She whacked both phones out of Jacob and Zoey’s hands, and stomped on them until they were a bunch of old broken parts.
“What the crap!  Those cost a lot of money!” Zoey screamed.  “I’m going home!” She turned around toward the hill when the little girl started crying.
“Please don’t go!” she whined, “We were just starting to have fun!”
“I’m not buying it, you freak!” Zoey yelled.  With that, she pivoted and stormed toward the hill.  The little girl’s sadness vanished, and was replaced with pure anger.  A pale, bony hand shot out from her black robe, and the little girl pointed at Zoey.  Instantly, Zoey froze.  Without use of her muscles, Zoey fell into a puddle of mud like a stiff plank of wood, straining to let words come out of her mouth.  “You… monster…” she managed to mutter.  The little girl tightened her wiry fingers into a ball, and Zoey cried out in pain.
“Stop, you’re hurting her!” Jacob yelled.  He ran over to Zoey, and the little girl let her hand disappear into the abyss of her black sleeve.  Zoey starting moving again, and rolled back on to her back, groaning.
“She really is a freak,” Zoey whispered.  “We gotta get out of here.”
“Not without Grayson and Liam,” Jacob replied. “We can’t leave them here with her.”  The little girl heard them yet again, and spoke out.
“If you play with me on the swing, I’ll let you and your friends go without any harm.” the little girl shouted, her voice growing raspy.  And then she added, “And I also won’t tell your parents you came here.”
“How do you know our-”
“NO QUESTIONS!” the girl screamed.  She rose her hand, and the two friends lips glued shut.  They couldn’t move their lips at all.  They tried, but the little girl only tightened her hand.
“Now, let’s begin.” she said.  She curved her mouth into a sly, evil smile.  “This is going to be a lot of fun.”

I had to get out of here.  I had to warn Grayson and the others.  I heard someone that sounded like a child scream something, but I couldn’t really understand what he or she said.  I heard thumps and creaks around the house, which made me uneasy that someone besides Grayson was in the house.  I kept trying to sneak out of the closet, but whenever I did, another creak or pound throughout the house made me scared to move a muscle.  But then, something gave me enough courage to jump right out and run.  Grayson.
“LIAM! HELP I’M BEING ATTA-”
Nothing.
No sound.  Grayson was in trouble.  I needed to help him.  The muffled sounds of his on-and-off screaming echoed through the whole house, and I couldn’t find where they were coming from.
“LIAAAAAAAM!”
There.
I ran across the hall, as fast as I could, and reached the closed bathroom door.  I tried to turn the knob. Locked.
“LIAAAM! HEELP!”
“I’m here!” I shouted.  “Unlock the door!”
“I CA-”  his voice was replaced with a guttural - liquid - choke, and something hitting the ground. Thud.  I kept pounding and pounding on the door, screaming. No response.  I was becoming delusional, and I knew it as my ears started to ring and I couldn’t hear my own panicked shrieks.  Just then, the rusty door handle started to turn, making a horrible, gritty metal against metal sound that brought me back to my consciousness.  I stood, paralyzed, knowing that whatever was beyond that door was not Grayson at all, he could be dead for all I knew.  Right then, I made a selfishly bigoted decision, regardless of whatever horrors Grayson was facing.  I turned and bolted.  I ran as fast as my legs could, dashing back to the closet I hid in before, hoping whoever or whatever was fiddling with that knob stayed occupied for a while.  This is crazy, I kept repeating in my head.  This is a dream.  I’ll probably wake up any minute now, to the sound of my mom banging on my door on a Monday morning, getting me to wake up.  But deep inside I knew this was all too real.  Way too real.

“Now,” the little girl spoke in a calm voice, “which one of you would like to be pushed on the swing? It’s a lot of fun!” The little girl giggled again, which sent shivers down both Zoey and Jacob’s spines.  Unable to speak still, both just backed up against the porch of the house and shook their heads.  “No one wants to volunteer?” the girl asked, still using her eerily calm voice, a voice that reminded Jacob of Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter movies.  “Well, I guess I’ll just.. pick” her blood-red eyes darted to Zoey - “one of you.”  The little girl stuck out her bony hand again, and pointed it at Zoey like a weapon.  “Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.. Zooeeeey.”  The drawn out emphasy scared the living daylights out of Zoey, but she still struggled not to cave into her fears as she listened to the monstrous girl.  “Come, or face the consequences.”  the little girl rasped.  Zoey decided to keep her chin up, risking everything dear to her, still not knowing the unimaginable power this freak girl could have been capable of.  Nonetheless, Zoey’s stubborn nature always succeeded before.  Not this time.  The little girl c***ed her head to the side, like a confused dog.  Slowly but surely, that mischievous and creepy smile from before started to curve at the edges of her chapped lips, signaling the girl’s repeating “calm before the storm” nature was in action.  The little girl bent her index finger, signaling Zoey to come forth, and the earth obeyed.  Jacob watched in horror as Zoey went stiff again, and rose into the air.  When she hovered 15 feet in the dusty atmosphere, Zoey’s unmoving body slowly glided toward the little girl, like some kind of David Copperfield magic trick.  Zoey’s body halted to a stop when she hovered almost right above the little girl.  Instantly, the girl’s hand recoiled back into her robe.  Gravity hit Zoey in a split second, and she fell to the ground.  She landed on her left leg, and the impact sent waves of pain up Zoey’s femur bone and thigh, and she felt her bone split in two.  She cried out in pain, and the little girl, unaffected, muttered, “Oh, poor baby.  You’re fine. Just know I’ll do worse next time you disobey.”  She shot a glance at Jacob.  “You, help her to the swing.”  Jacob felt feeling creep back into his body, enough to send him lunging forward at a swift pace, collapsing in front of Zoey.  He lifted her arm over his shoulder and lifted upwards with his legs, helping Zoey hobble to the creaky, splintered swing.  He still couldn’t say anything, but how he longed to say, I’m so, so sorry Zoey. For everything.

Holy crap, how is this even happening? I kept thinking to myself.  I heard the bathroom door shove open and against the wall, indicating my possible pursuer managed to get out of the room.  How could I have been so stupid! Stupid, stupid! I thought.  I gave myself away.  Whoever or whatever was in the bathroom with Grayson probably didn’t know I was in this deranged house until I screamed for Grayson at the door.  Idiot! I repeatedly told myself over and over how dumb I was until I heard noises. Thump. Thump. Thump.  Unfortunately it was probably the man - I was assuming it was a man - who did something to Grayson.  It sounded like the man was dragging something behind him.  I listened as he went into each room and came back out, until he reached the last room in the second story - the room I was in.  He slowly dragged his feet into the room, and I covered my mouth, afraid he heard my quickened breathing.  I watched through the diagonal shudders of the closet door as a bulky figure walked into the room and looked at his surroundings.  He flickered on a heavy duty flashlight he had and looked around.  I noticed then that he had a large duffel bag on the floor he was dragging along.  After looking around for awhile, he finally reached the closet.  I was so scared, I held my breath, and by doing so I heard his breathing.  It was a delayed, heaving huff - in, and then out.  He looked at the closet for longer than anything else, and finally turned to leave the room.  Dragging the duffel bag behind him as he left, I noticed it was oddly human-shaped.  I hoped that what was contained in that bag wasn’t one of his untimely visitors, and that it wasn’t someone I used to know.

“Zoey, Zoey, Zoey.” the little girl spoke, pacing back and forth in front of the swings.  “Such a naive and.. stubborn-natured young woman.  Never change who you are, Zoey. Wait, nevermind.  Too little too late.” Jacob was scared to find out what that meant, and he also felt useless.  He was powerless to do anything to help Zoey, and by a little girl.  A little girl.  In sorrow, he let that sink in.
“Come, sit.” the little girl said.  She directed the now limping Zoey to the old, mossy plank of wood that held still in the air.  Zoey wanted so badly to retaliate, but she was so afraid of the girl that she decided it was best for both her and Jacob not to try anything silly. She slowly sat on the gross plank, and the little girl went behind the swing set to push.  “Are you ready, Zoey?” the little girl asked, a bit too calm.  When Zoey didn’t answer, the little girl screamed, “ANSWER ME!”
“Fine, fine.” Zoey said.  She wanted to raise her voice at the girl, but didn’t want her other leg broken, so decided against it.  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Wonderful, wonderful.” the girl spoke, excitedly. “Countdowns have always been overrated anyways, so… now!”  The little girl stuck out her index finger, and touched Zoey’s back.  As if the girl had been lifting weights for years - although there was no meat on her skinny arms - Zoey instantly reacted and was pushed into the air. The girl was not pushing her, but she kept gaining speed.  When Zoey was already about to flip over the top bar, Jacob scrounged up enough courage from inside of him to yell, “Stop it! She’s gonna get hurt!”
“You filthy little..” the girl’s bony arm shot out from her robes, sending Jacob flying into the old wall of the house.  He felt the air get knocked out of him, and he fell to his knees, gasping for breath.  When he could finally stand, he heard the terror-filled screams of Zoey.  He looked up to see she was flipping around the top bar repeatedly, and he was amazed and horrified all the same.  Zoey still managed to be clinging on to the ropes to her sides as she flipped and flipped.  Finally her grip went loose and she flew right into the wet mud.
“ZOEY!” Jacob ran to Zoey, who was huddled up, seemingly crying.  He fell to his knees, and realized she wasn’t crying, but laughing.  Zoey slowly stood up, eyes closed, but laughing maniacally as if being flung to the ground was fun.  How in the world…? Jacob thought, but his thoughts trailed off.  Zoey then opened her eyes, and Jacob gasped, shocked.  Zoey’s eyes were a fiery red, like a wildfire roaring in the night. Just like the little girl’s.

Stop being so cowardly, Liam! Go out there and fight him like a man! I thought. Against what my brain told my body to do, I didn't move. Not a single muscle. Grayson was in deep, deep trouble, and I kept pushing the possibility he could've been dead aside. He has to be alive, I thought, He has to be. I just then remembered a silly inspirational quote my teacher told to me in my homeschool class. “All it takes is 20 seconds of insane courage. That's all it takes,” she said. I knew that quote was meant for a different purpose, but it applied to my situation. That's all it takes, Liam. I thought. Suddenly I could feel my arms. And my legs. I jumped out of the closet, ready to take on anything.  The man had left the room, so I was safe for a little while. I tried to think about what my plan of action was going to be, and I started pacing around the room. Bad idea. I tripped over something on a ground, and I heard the man come back toward the room I was in. He stomped through the door, machete in hand. There was a crazed fire in his eyes, not just metaphorically, but physically as well. His eyes were as red as blood. His expression reminded me of Jack Nicholson’s character from The Shining. I looked down at the bag he was dragging around. From the back of the bag, there was a slit left unzipped, and my heart broke when I saw what was inside. Grayson. “Grayson! No!” I cried. I could tell he was dead, and if there wasn't a big gash on his forehead as well as little cuts and bruises on the rest of his face, then he actually might have looked at peace. The man stepped forward. He was blocking the door, so I had to think of something fast. I had to escape, or else I would earn the same, gruesome demise my best friend had moments ago. I turned around and faced the window. 20 seconds of insane courage. I bolted to the window, and I jumped through the glass, plummeting a painful two stories, landing on flat ground. I passed out.

Despite hearing glass shattering and a thump on the ground behind the house, the little girl and Zoey kept their attention on Jacob, who was then horrified beyond his own belief. He thought he was going crazy. Delusional, even. But he knew the extent of his last statements were false, when Zoey walked up and gave him a knee to the stomach, and he felt all the pain. All of it. He fell to his knees, and slowly curled up into a ball. “That’s for, well… there was no real reason to it, really.” Zoey said, in the calm voice the little girl used. “I pity you.” She spat on Jacob’s rolled up body, and Jacob did nothing. Finally, he forced himself to get up, and regardless of his stomach pain, he still let a piece of his mind loose.
“What..happened to you, Zoey?”
“I became better,” she responded, dully. “I became way better. The Zoey you knew? Hate to break it to ya, but she's gone. The new Zoey is here. So listen up, you're gonna let us make you become like us, and you're not gonna fight back. Because I never liked this Jacob, and I have a feeling I'll like the new Jacob waaaaay more.”
“No, no no NO.” Jacob yelled as he backed up into the house. “I'll die first.”
“Wrong answer.”
Zoey pointed her palm at Jacob, and swiftly twisted it.
The last thing Jacob heard was the snapping of his own bones.
The last thing he saw was the little girl and Zoey, both smiling slyly and evilly.
And the last thing he felt was immense, excruciating pain flood all throughout his body.

I woke up. My vision was blurred and all I could hear was the slow pumping of my own heart.  I looked up to see the broken window I leaped from, and as a result surrounding me were a bunch of small shards of the yellowed glass panel. I finally sat up and wiped all the shards off my face and body. Dotted all over my face were small cuts and puncture wounds from sharp glass, but that was the least of my problems. All my joints and muscles ached, and my right ankle hurt something awful. I hoped I hadn't broke anything, and everything else besides my ankle didn't feel broken. I stood up, hoping I wasn't blacked out for too long. I started limping toward the front of the house. Next on the agenda, I thought, avoid the crazy machete guy and find Jacob and Zoey. Then get help. I rounded the corner, and I found them, all right. Just not in the way I'd either hoped or expected.

Jacob was lying lifeless on the ground. Zoey and some unidentifiable pale and hooded little girl were sitting on the swings, talking indistinctively.  My first instinct was to crouch and hide behind the old porch, and I'm glad I did so, because I almost ran out and knelt before Jacob’s pale, unmoving body.  Zoey’s and the little girl’s eyes were a fiery red, just like the machete guy in the house that killed Grayson. Oh no, Zoey. Not you too, I thought. 
I crouched even lower, wanting to process all of this.. horrific blasphemy for a second or two, when I lost my balance and fell on to my back. A stick behind me snapped on account of my clumsiness.  I heard Zoey say, “Did you hear that?” I grimaced. Please don't come over, please… I whispered to myself. My prayers were suddenly answered when the little girl replied, “Probably just a pigeon in the tree or something. So you were saying?” And their petty little conversation continued.
“Zoey, I need to introduce you to someone.” The little girl said. “My big brother. He's in the house dealing with those two rats that came before you. He's most likely turned them into our kind as well. He'll be out any minute now.” And it all made sense. Machete guy was this girl’s brother, and they turned Zoey into whatever they were. I hated to think about the fact that they killed Jacob, and it was even worse that his body was a couple of yards away from me. I remembered I had a smartphone, and I reached for it to dial 911.  It wasn't there. I left it in the closet! I cursed under my breath.  Just then, a man walked out of the door-less doorway on the porch. It was the first time I got a good look at him in the sunlight. He looked to be around 25, with a stocky build and broad shoulders. His red eyes still creeped the crap out of me, as did Zoey’s and the little girl's.
“Well, well, well. Who do we have here?” machete guy asked.
“I managed to turn the girl. Her name’s Zoey.” The little girl answered. “As for the boy, well..” - she pointed at Jacob’s body - ”he decided to retaliate.”
“At least you got one, I tried to get the blond boy, but he also disagreed.  I got him in this bag.” He swung the body bag with Grayson’s body inside towards Jacob’s body. “I almost had the brunette as well, but he jumped out the window with a two story fall. That kid was crazy!”
“He would've been good at getting new people if he became one of us, too, but you let him escape!” The little girl yelled. He's probably looking for his friends right now. We've heard them chant the rules to their stupid game countless times, ‘We will never abandon each other. Never!’” She said it in a mocking tone, which kind of stung a little, but I kept listening. “Why do you insist on carrying around that dinky, old machete? You could've made him stay if you used your powers instead! The machete is making us lose possible members! Stop using it!”
Machete guy was clearly taken aback by this. “No! I like carrying it around! It makes me feel like Jason Voorhees. All I need is the mask, you should see the look on their faces when I flash the machete in front of them!”
“Whatever, fine.” The girl muttered. “Just scour the area and find the boy!”
“You know, I'm the adult in this situation.” Machete guy countered. “ I let you boss me around, but all I ask is a little respect.” And on that note, he stomped back into the house.
“I guess we have to do everything ourselves, as usual, Zoey. Get used to it.” The girl said. “ You go that way” - she pointed in my direction - “and I'll go the opposite. If you find him, holler.” A blatant “OK” was all the little girl got in response. Zoey started to come my direction, and I scrambled under the porch, hoping she wouldn't find me. Luckily, she stormed past the porch and headed behind the house. Knowing my options, two of my three best friends were dead, and the third.. well I had no clue as to what she was.  For all I knew, the old Zoey was gone forever. So I got out from under the deck and I ran as fast as I could with my bad ankle. Over the hill, and to the cul-de-sac, leaving my three best friends in the entire world.

I got home, and I almost burst through the door, but I stopped right before. My parents had told me never to go over that hill, as well as Grayson’s, Zoey’s, and Jacob’s for that matter. That meant that all of them knew. About the crazy brother and sister, the creepy house, and the rickety playground. Did that mean I could trust them? I mean, I loved them to death, but if they knew about this, wouldn't they at least have called the cops, or if not, moved? I decided not to take the risk, and I biked to the nearest gas station to get help.

Half an hour later, I was riding in a patrol car, followed by four other ones. They stopped at the hill, got out of the car, c***ed their handguns, and proceeded. They told me to stay in the car, but I didn't listen. I followed behind the barrage of policemen, and they didn't argue. I was completely shocked when we got to the front yard and the playground. No fingerprints, traces of anyone being there, and most importantly, Jacob and Grayson’s bodies were gone. “But.. they were the right… here..” I said, at a loss for words. They searched the whole back and front of the house, as well as inside. Inconclusively, the only evidence they found of anyone ever being there was the shattered windows and shards of glass, as well as my smartphone in the closet. All caused by me.
“You tellin’ us tall tales, son?” The officer I drive with asked me, angrily. “Because that's a felony, and that could land you convicted.”
“NO! I swear on my family that this all happened! I'm not a liar!” I yelled back.
“Speaking of, we need to talk to your parents. Come with me.” He grabbed my wrist, and I pulled away, outraged.
“NO, PLEASE! They knew about all this stuff, they can't be trusted!”
“And it also seems you can't be trusted, either. Come with me son.” And he dragged me away, to my house.

“And you're sure your son’s just imagining things, ma’am?” The officer asked my mother.
“Yes, completely. He has early stages of Schitzophrenia, like his grandfather. He can usually be on top of things, but he forgot to take his prescribed medication this morning. We’re real sorry for any inconvenience, officers.” She looked up to my dad, and he repeated, “Yeah, we’re very sorry.”
“Don't trust them, they're lying!” I yelled.
“We need to get him his pills. Bye officers!” My mom said, and hurried them out.
“Wait ma'am,” the officer ordered. “We still need him when we question the other parents.”
“Oh, well, okay then. Don't be too long!”

We went to Zoey's place, and her dad answered. “Hello, gentlemen, what can I do for you?”
“Yes. We need to see your daughter, Zoey.”
“Oh, dear. What has she done now?”
“Oh, nothing, sir, nothing at all.  We just need to see if she has” - he looked down at the statement pad and read - “... red eyes.”
“Why would you need to see that?”
“Oh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. It's all just the product of this young Pman’s sick mind.” He pushed me to the front where Zoey's dad could see me
“Liam?” He said, seemingly dumbfounded. “What trouble have you gotten my daughter into?”
“He's done nothing wrong sir,” the officer said. “He's Schitzophrenic.”
“Oh yeah,” Zoey's dad said, “I remember his parents telling me something about that” he turned back and yelled inside his house. “Zoey! Come here please!” We heard a muffled yell returned. “Coming, daddy!”
I was so confused. Confused and scared. I'd never heard about this thing about me being Schitzophrenic, and I wondered why the officers didn't ask for any identification or doctor’s notes proving I was ill in the head. Soon, Zoey came to the door. Her eyes were brown, as usual. Maybe I was going crazy.
“Thank you for your time, sir.” The officer said to Zoey's dad.
“Anytime, officers,” Zoey's dad replied, and waved goodbye.

Last was Grayson and Jacob’s parents, who the officers gathered up to interview at the same time.
“Where are your kids?” The officer asked.
“Oh, they're not here right now,” Grayson's mom said, “Grayson and Jacob went on a trip with Grayson's Auntie Marge about a week ago. They won't be back for a while.”
“Is this true?” The officers asked Jacob’s parents. They nodded in unison.
“Well, that's everything we need, folks,” the officer said. “Thank you for your time.”
“Our pleasure!” Grayson's dad exclaimed.

“Again, we're so sorry officers. We'll make sure this never happens again.” My father said.
“Thank you.” The officer said. “We'll be taking our leave, now.” The officers left out front porch, and got into their patrol cars. The pulled out of the cul-de-sac and drove away.
As soon as the officers left, my mom got into an outrage. “Liam, we told you specifically not to go over that hill! Let's get you those pills before you make up another tall tale.” She and my father led me into the house, but instead of getting “pills”, she led me to my room. I had a very bad feeling originate in my stomach. She opened the door, and I was shocked. All of my friends’ parents, including Grayson's and Jacob's, were in the room, as well as Zoey. I wondered how they got here so fast without me noticing. And they were all putting their fingers in their eyes. At first I was completely dumbfounded and didn't know what to make of it, but then I realized what they were doing. They were taking out contacts. Even my parents were. A few people in the room said, “It's been so long since I've had these things off,” and “These little buggers were so annoying.” I tried to run, but my parents blocked the door. The first person to get her contacts off was Zoey.
“Surprise,” she said, as she revealed her eyes were bright red, like before.
I wasn't crazy.
Soon all of them, even my parents, had shown that their eyes were red like a fire, and it scared me to death. Then, the wall of parents split in half, showing the last people on earth I wanted to see were behind them. The little girl and machete guy.  Soon, everyone in the room started speaking the same thing at the same time, creating a monotonous sea of voices collided together to make a choir.
“You have caused us a lot of distress, Liam. There will be a price to pay. The time to pay it is now.”

I kicked, screamed, bit, pinched, and did whatever I could to try to escape. But they weren't affected. They took me over the hill to the swing set. The little girl positioned me on, while everyone else held their hands out. For some odd reason, I couldn't move a muscle. The girl crept behind me, and said “Have fun.”  Then she pushed me.
I could feel my eyes changing as I swung.

The next thing I knew, I was different.
My eyes burned, like a fire.
But it was a good burn, like an adrenaline rush.
But it wasn't just my eyes,
My whole body felt different.
My soul felt different.
My old self would've thought it was a change for the worse.
But ultimately, it was a change for the better.