… Stationary tent above me. I was lying in my sleeping bag. My pajamas were wet and sticky. I touched the soft but sturdy fabric. I was back in the real world. With a huge sigh of relief, I left the tent and my two sleeping buddies to get some much needed air and movement.

  Knock. Knock. Knock. Those familiar hollow knocks had sounded again. Was I still dreaming? Knock! Knock! Knock! They were a little louder. The certainty of being in a nightmare greatly decreased as I slowly approached the locked bedroom door. As I unlocked the golden brass knob, my anxiety mounted to the point that my fingers were shaking profusely. A loud masculine voice at the back of my head was yelling for me to flee-to run for the balcony. In retrospect, I should’ve done just that. But I didn’t. Curiosity is a hella drug. As I peeped out of the sizable crack, all the warmth in my body was blown away.

  The teenage babysitter was opening the door. Three hooded kids stood at the doorstep-a boy of age thirteen, a similarly-aged girl, and a boy three years younger. This time, they spoke immediately.

  “May I use your phone?” asked the younger boy, his head cocked slightly. “Our mother is worried.”

  “Please Layla,” I whispered and begged. “Don’t let them in. Please don’t! I’ll let you torture me in any way! Just don’t let them in!!” To my consternation, anger, and horror, she did just that.

  “Sure. Be my guest.” Her tone of faux politeness and innocence shook me with deep brutal rage. She was more evil than I had previously believed. Damn her, hellish whore!

  As soon as she gave them permission to enter, they vanished. At that instant, the entire unit seemed to plunge to a chillingly fourteen degrees Fahrenheit. My bones began to crackle and buckle under the immense blasts of cold. Not only that but a terrible, pungent, stinking odor of rotten, decaying flesh wafted into my bedroom. My nostrils were singed until they were wax-like, my lungs felt as if they were burned with acid, and I wanted to vomit so, so effin badly. The only upside was that I was snapped out of my hypnotic reverie of watching that evil gal invite these demon kids into my home. Thus, I could still think clearly.

  I smothered my nose with my shipwreck-dotted pajamas as the stench got more and more noxious. I grabbed the folded-up mechanical wings from under my bed, found the tiny circular controller attached to the right side of it, detached it, and pressed the black power button. Instantly, the backpack wings whirred to life and the orange neon lights blinkered in the darkness. Next, I woke up Jordan, shaking her a little bit too rough. She was quite irritated.

  “Calvin, what is it?”

  “Jordan, the Black Eyed Kids are inside! Layla let them in! We have to go! Now!” Jordan rolled her eyes.

  “Is this another one of your pranks?” I had to find a way to slap her mentally awake.

  “Jordan, I’m not joking!” My whispers had now risen to a low-volume shout. “Wake up the others! We have to go!!”

  “Calvin.” She was looking at me with 100% dead-eyed seriousness. “If you make one more mention about these kids, I will go home. Now go to sleep and leave me alone!” She was getting angry and so was I. Thus, I grabbed her arm.

  “Jordan, we have to GO!!!”

  “Let go of me!” she shouted, quite audibly. She got out of the tent. “I’m leav-.” SLAM! Someone had been slammed against a wall. Instantly, I knew who it was-Layla. Her masters had turned on her. This was followed by three bloodcurdling, demonic, from-the-depths-of-hell, eldritch roars that pierced our ears like drills and infected our minds like viruses. They were so disturbing that dropping dead from a heart attack that instant would have been a merciful request. After that, the sound of something being attached to another was heard (the other thing was clearly Layla’s mouth). Then, the most disturbing, disgusting sound of grossology was brought into existence. It was sexual moaning but pitched to the absolute depths and covered over with a grating sound so traumatizing that it was ten times worse than hearing someone being flayed alive. In short, it was so evil and nauseating that words fail to describe what it truly was.

  An eternity passed before that damned damned evil noise stopped and then the skeleton fell against the wood. Jordan looked at me, her eyes wide with the same existential fear that I had and her mouth open in a shock that would have been slightly lessened if she had listened to me. And the fact that she was looking at me was a sign that she implicitly acknowledged that she was in the wrong. But there was no time for her to apologize.

  Ethan was very obedient as he woke up quickly and did not make a sound. Andy, on the other hand, had much trouble waking up. Firstly, he was unresponsive to our frantic calls. Then, when we shook him, he budged as much as stone. After that, when I slapped his face repeatedly, he finally opened his eyes, albeit groggily.

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  “What the hell do ya want?” His voice sounded as if it was lead sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

  “Andy, wake up!” Jordan whispered and shouted.

  “The Black Eyed Kids are here!!” I added.

  “Go to hell you creeps!” He shouted drunkenly. “I just want to sleep!” In the end we had no choice. Because Andy was dumb during waking periods, we were able to grab him by the arms without any resistance. It was hard work half-dragging and half-walking him to the glassy balcony door.

  As we were about to step over the threshold demarcating indoors and outdoors, BANG!!! The bedroom door burst open and those maddening eldritch howls emanated from the darkness beyond. Luckily, by then, I had shut and locked the balcony door. When I looked up, surprisingly there was no one at the door frame. They had disappeared, once again.

  “Where did they go?” asked Ethan in a stupefied manner.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I replied briskly. “We’re not safe here. We have to get to the other side.” I pointed at the narrow but deep gulf of space that separated my balcony from the next-door neighbors’. Jordan looked at me with utter shock.

  “I thought we were going to yell for help… not this.”

  “I know,” I said gravely. “But they’re all asleep at this time of day and even if they weren’t, how the hell would they be able to hear us?” I was right. The thunderstorm was so loud that anything beyond this balcony would be drowned out. Jordan pointed a shaking finger down below.

  “This-this is suicide!”

  “I know but we don’t have a choice. Besides, I have my wings.” I pointed at my metallic backpack. “You gotta trust me.”

  “It’s very dangerous,” Jordan spoke sharply. “One slip and we could all die.” She was right about that. It was a dizzying drop down to the hard, concrete ground. Gazillions of raindrops were being obliterated on their hard surfaces. That would happen to us if we landed on them. The howls were inching ever closer and closer to us. My desperation was reaching skyrocketing levels of insanity. I looked at Andy. Maybe him being crazier than me would help.

  “Andy, what do you think?” To my utter dismay, he backed away.

  “Calvin, I don’t want to become meat sauce. You’ve gone totally crazy. I’d rather get killed by these Black Kid thingamajigs than die down there.” I wheeled on Ethan. He firmly shook his head. All hope was snuffed out now. If I left my best friends, I would be guilty of manslaughter. If I stayed, I would die with them. And there was no other way.

  The latter consequence ensued. In under a second, a multitude of Black Eyed Kids materialized. They were surrounding us on all sides. They were all grinning widely and ghoulishly. They were all showing their charcoal black teeth. Most importantly, they were all staring at us. Their eyes were all blacker than outer space. They were the void. Looking at them robbed me of any hope I had of wanting to exist in this world. In fact, I was feeling so nihilistic that I wanted to die at the hands of these demonic freaks. I welcomed my horrid, no-one-should-experience fate. It was clear that they were sucking out my life force. For every second that passed, I felt weaker and weaker and weaker. Then, they got much worse. They began to speak. To chant.

  “Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep.” It was in a neverending robotic drone that started to spin and spun and spun until it became a vortex. And that vortex was quickly eating up my consciousness. I would be gone in seconds.

  While all this horror was consuming me, a voice began to speak at the back of my head. At first, my mind was not sane enough to understand it but as it grew louder, it finally made itself decipherable. It was not the same voice that usually spoke to me whenever I did anything dumb-it sounded like peals of crashing thunder. It was telling me to reach into my right pocket. For some strange reason, I obeyed. I pulled out a lighter. I rolled the sparkwheel. Instead of sputtering to life in several frustrating tries, the flame was instantly ignited. And it was hot and fiery. With a courage that I never possessed in my entire life, I shoved the lighter at the oldest of the Black Eyed Group, a 16 year old teenage boy. To my shock and awe, he not only caught on fire but the flames spread to the thirteen others. Immediately, they all vanished into thin air. I had been given a chance by God to escape. And I must seize it.

  I pressed the green button. The metallic wings unfolded, covering almost the entire length of the balcony. I looked at my Gangster Guyz. Their faces were resolute-they had finally agreed.

  “Climb on.” Jordan went straight up to my shoulders and hugged me tightly. Andy wrapped himself around my ass. And I guess Ethan had the poor position of clinging to my legs. Now was the time for the great leap forward. Without a deep breath, I charged at the banister, flipped over it, and miraculously, we were flying!

  I turned my head around. The Black Eyed Kids had materialized again, looking right at us. Their left arms were outstretched and their hands were turning. Suddenly, the left wing was ripped off. And with that, the flight spun out of control. We plunged. Jordan fell away first, followed by Andy, and then Ethan. I was sent flying into CRASH!!! Boxes ripped and exploded beneath me. The pain from the impact coursed through my nerves and if it was not for my bitten lips and gritted teeth, I would’ve fainted. My eyes took a quick glance around. I had landed on another balcony. At least I was safe. But my friends were not with me. And that safety was temporary. A balcony door opened and quick footsteps approached me. It was Mike Meanie, wearing nothing but grey sports shorts and blue slippers. Before I could crawl away, he had grabbed me by the collar, lifted me up, and was in the process of dragging me inside.