My mother was going out with friends for the evening. She had told me that she would not be returning until very late. I was glad because I had a lot of homework and I wanted to be alone to concentrate on it. As soon as she left the house, I went to my room, got my books and started to study. I had hardly spent twenty minutes on my work when I felt that there was another presence in the house. I didn't see anything, and except for an occasional creak, the apartment was perfectly still. This feeling that I was experiencing interfered with my ability to focus and concentrate, so I tried to put it out of my mind and go back to work. It could not have been what I was studying that excited my imagination because I was working on some difficult math problems. Even though I tried to put it out of my mind and concentrate entirely on my work, this uneasy and eerie feeling persisted and in fact became more and more intense.

All of a sudden, I feel something touch my leg. I jump high and hit my head on the wall just to find out it was my cat, Shadey, wanting some food. I named Shadey for having black fur like a shadow. I sighed in relief and told myself to stop worrying. When I went to the kitchen, I got some food for Shadey and he wolfed it down as if it was his last meal. I also got myself something to eat. I wasn't that hungry though so I just grabbed a bag of chips and started to snack away. Once we both finished eating, Shadey followed me into my room and I continued to work on my homework.

"Done!" I said to myself. I put my books and papers back into my bag and turned on the TV.
"We got the whole Friday to ourselves, Shadey!" I said gleefully while Shadey hopped on my lap. It was only 8:00 PM when I turned on the TV and I was ready to enjoy the new shows that were on. Shadey fell asleep on my lap. Unfortunately, there was only one new episode tonight that I wanted to see but it started at 9:00 PM.

The weirdest thing started to happen. The picture on the TV started to slow down and so did the sound. I thought something was going on with the TV. I picked up Shadey and went towards the TV to see what was wrong. While walking over there, I tripped on the remote. I was heading straight towards the TV while holding Shadey in my arms. I closed my eyes, prepared for a painful hit in the head.


The thing was that I never hit my head! I was afraid to open my eyes but I did anyway. I looked around and found out I wasn't in my house anymore. I was on some kind of black floor or outside ground, I couldn't tell really, there were these scarecrows everywhere but no crops or plants being grown anywhere near the scarecrows. I realized I was still holding Shadey in my arms and I put him down gently.
"Where do you think we are Shadey?" I said while Shadey was rolling around on the ground as if he was rolling in catnip.
"I should think it's obvious from reading that sign" said someone I never heard of before. I looked around wondering who said that and I saw the sign. The sign said "Welcome to The Spooky Side. Be afraid. NOW!".
"Do you mind helping me down?" said the same voice. I looked around again and saw one of the scarecrows shaking and its eyes glowing.
"Uh… ok?" I said while I took the scarecrow off the pole.
"How the heck are you talking?? What is this place?!"
"…Wait. You're not from here?" asked the scarecrow with a surprised tone.
"No! Why would I be asking what this place is if I was from here??!!" I was frustrated now and I spoke with an aggravated tone.
"Well as the sign says, you're on The Spooky Side. It's another dimension for everything scary. Well it was until HE came…"
I started to calm down from the sound of the scarecrow's sad tone.
"What's your name?" I asked the scarecrow.
"Orlank." he replied.

I looked at his eyes again and realized that he had a jack-o-lantern for a head. I was trying to remember how I got here but all I could tell was I tripped on the remote and was about to hit my head on the TV screen then I opened my eyes and I was here. Orlank was standing there while petting Shadey in his arms. Usually Shadey was scared of new people he never seen before but with Orlank, he was purring very loudly.

"If you're not from here, where are you from?" Orlank asked with a puzzled voice.
"You said this is a different dimension? The place I was from was the planet Earth. I didn't know there was really such a thing as different dimensions!" I responded. Orlank stood there motionless as if he wasn't even there. I feel something touch my shoulder and I screamed in shock and I fell on the ground.
"Oh-ho-ho! That was the best shriek I've heard in ages!" Orlank said behind me while I realized the thing in front of me was some sort of an illusion of Orlank. I got up and swiped the dirt off my shirt.
"So you're the one I was trying to get in contact with! Didn't you feel that uneasy feeling while you were doing your paper writing thing? That was me trying to get help! I couldn't get my voice to get through the message so I'm surprised you still got here!" Orlank said with excitement.
"You're the one that made me come here?" I asked.
"Yeah, I saw a weird moving picture device thing near you so I made it become a portal to here at a certain time so you were ready to go after I told you that we needed help. Since I couldn't get the message through, I didn't think you would still get here!" Orlank explained.
"What do you need my help with?" Orlank stood there for a few seconds.
"You are the one that can defeat HIM! Only a person from a different dimension who has a companion that was from The Spooky Side, can come to this dimension! Only a human can defeat HIM and you were the only person in your dimension that has a companion from here!" Orlank answered while petting Shadey.
"Okay, who's HIM and what do you mean I have a companion from here??" I was trying to sound calm while asking but I just was too nervous to.
"HIM is the thing that ruined The Spooky Side. He came one day and took over. He is immune to anyone from this dimension. This is why we need you! For the answer to your second question, your companion is Shadey. He was originally from here but when HE came, it looks like he came to your dimension at the same time." Orlank put Shadey down and Shadey ran to me and hopped into my arms.
"Wow, Shadey sure seems to like you a lot!" Orlank exclaimed. I pet Shadey softly while thinking about this whole situation.
"What's HE look like?" I asked while examining more of the Spooky Side.
"Well… HE's sort of like us except not from here. HE has a face of a dragon and has wings of a bat. HE has giant claws that look like they can pierce through anything and feet that sticks to walls almost like a spider." Orlank answered while following me.
"Hmm… How big is HE?" After I asked this, Orlank froze for a second.
"How could I put this without placing you under pressure…? A little bigger than that tree over there." Orlank answered while pointing at a tree that seems as tall as three streetlights stacked on top of each other.
"HOW COULD YOU EXPECT ME TO DEFEAT SOMETHING THAT BIG??!!" I was freaking out as I imagined HIM with the details I was given.
"Relax! There's someone I want you to meet. Her house is just a little farther ahead." I was starting to calm down as I followed Orlank.

During the walk, Orlank explained more about HIM.
"HE came here and started to hurt many of The Spooky Side's people. HE wanted to change our way of just scaring people. HE said if you're just going to scare people and not hurt them, there is no point. All of us that live here went to take HIM head on to keep things normal. Things didn't go quite the same way as we had hoped… HE beat us all in a matter of minutes and that's how HE took over. Half of the people here work for HIM now so they don't lose their own lives. I was one of them but I refused to do the order HE gave me. HE got angry and placed me on the pole I was on to rot away. There are only a few of us that our trying to fight them back and I am one of them. Oh look we are already here!"

We were standing in front a house that looked like it had no outline. It was fully black except the windows which were sort of orange probably because of the light inside. We went inside and I looked around. It was like a normal house except with only 3 rooms. I saw this weird black lump on top of a table. I started to walk towards it.
"Hmm? What's this thing?" I poked the lump and it moved. I jumped back in surprise as the lump started to enlarge. It seemed like the lump was an egg but instead it was some sort of cloak as I saw an opening. In the cloak was a thing looked like a lady in some kind of white outfit.
"…Zzz…zz…huh?" the lady mumbled as the cloak seemed to disappear.
"Wow! That was a good nap!" The lady cheered as she got off the table.
"Sleeping again I see?" Orlank said with a smile.
"Oh? You're already back? Either that was quick or the time flew by!" She looked at me as if she was examining me. "You were the one with Shadey? I was suspecting someone bigger…" She smiled and walked over to Shadey as he was rubbing my leg with his cheek.
"This is Willow. She was originally Shadey's owner until HE came" Orlank explained.
"What's your name?" Willow asked me with delight.
"Oh yeah! I never heard your name either!" Orlank added to Willow's question.
"…Dominic." I blushed while I said this. I was usually embarrassed of my own name for some reason so it felt weird telling my name to new people. Willow smiled again and giggled.
"That's a funny sounding name! As Orlank said, I'm Willow. I guess you could say I'm a witch but I prefer being known as a mage. Not everything has to be scary here you know." Willow calmed down and took a seat. She told us to take a seat as well.

"I'm sorry we have to ask you to do something so big but there's no one else we can turn to. Usually in stories there are always the long adventures before the final event but it will be easier if we skip all that." Willow places two claw shots, some arrows, and a sword towards me. "Using these, you can defeat HIM. HE will not hold back at all so do not get distracted. If you do then… well you won't come back. Let's just leave it at that. I will teleport you to HIM. Good luck!" Willow raised her hand over my head and everything went black.

I saw some light again and I was in a giant room with torches all around the wall for light. I was really hoping this was all a dream but I knew it wasn't because there was always some kind of floating fish in my dreams. All of a sudden the ground started to massively shake and I lost balance.
"YOU DARE BRING LIGHT TO MY LAIR? YOU MUST DIE!" The voice was incredibly loud and as I looked up, I saw HIM. "I AM *)^^%&^&(^(o*^_&&^ AND I WILL KILL YOU!" Now I knew why they called HIM "HIM" because his name is unpronounceable in my language.

So the battle started and I was extremely nervous because of the fact that I have no fighting skills. HE started to breathe fire at me and I ran as fast as I could to dodge it. He started to climb on the wall and shot lasers from HIS eyes which was kind of freaky if you ask me but I rolled to dodge it and tried to figure out how I cold get HIM down from the wall. I remembered I had arrows and got one ready to fire. I let go and the arrow fell on the ground. I remembered I didn't pass archery in camp last year. I tried launching another one and it hit HIS nose. HE fell from the wall while holding HIS nose from the pain. I was thinking of using the sword and to slash HIS head because I figured that was HIS weak point. There was one problem which was HIS head was still too high to hit with the sword. I had to think quickly before HE recovered and launches another attack. I looked down at the floor and saw HIS feet, this gave me an idea. I ran towards HIM and stabbed one of HIS feet.
HE screeched in pain and fell to the ground so I ran to HIS head and started slashing. All of a sudden, HE grabbed me and threw me towards the wall. If I hit the wall going at the speed HE threw me, I would probably break my back. I got out the claw shots and fired at the floor which luckily saved me at the last second before hitting the wall. HE took flight and started to throw giant boulders at me. I had no idea where they were coming from but I used the claw shot to dodge because running away or rolling wouldn't be fast enough. The boulders weren't helping with maneuvering on the floor. After a lot more boulder throwing, HE swooped at me and tried to slash me with HIS claws. Since HE was so big, I couldn't claw shot to a wall without hitting HIM or HIS wings. HE swooped down again to strike; I got an arrow ready and fired at HIS head while HE tried to strike.

HE fell to the ground but got up quickly and climbed on the wall then onto the ceiling. Now HE was too high to fire an arrow and I couldn't shoot arrows when on the wall while using the claw shot for the reason of needing two hands to fire an arrow. HE began to breathe fire again except this time it was faster than before. I claw shot from wall to wall and getting closer to the ceiling but still not knowing what to do to get HIM down from there. I was a few feet low from the ceiling. Since I was so close to HIM, dodging his flames was extremely hard. Then I got another idea. I claw shot to the ceiling from a far distance which allowed me to swing back and forth towards HIM. I took out my sword with my spare hand and slashed HIS head when I got close.

HE got my arm with HIS flames which left a painful burn and it was hard to move the arm without it hurting. HE fell after I slashed HIM but HE didn't want to fall alone. HIS wing went through the chain on the claw shot and broke it. My life flashed before my eyes while I fell. Well, actually I just said that because a lot of stories make that happen in death threatening situations. HE fell and broke through the floor in which looked like a bottomless pit. It wasn't one though because I heard the thud of HIM hitting the ground. As I fell towards the ground, I closed my eyes to hide the death that was about to happen to me.

I still had my eyes closed for a while, wondering why I still didn't hit the ground. I opened my eyes and noticed I was floating in some kind of bubble or something of the sort. I floated towards the ground slowly and landed safely. I saw HIM there motionless on the ground. HE blew up with sparkles and I saw Orlank, Willow, and Shadey behind me. Shadey ran to me and hopped into my arms.
"Wow! It's a good thing we came here after we heard rumbling at the tower. Luckily, Willow saved you at the last second!" Orlank said with relief.
"That was amazing how you actually beat him. I have to say, I never have known anyone as brave as you." Willow said with a small embarrassed look on her face. I put Shadey down and felt the burn on my arm again.
"Oh wow, that looks painful…" Willow touched my arm and it started to glow. After the glow disappeared, the burn was gone and my arm felt great.


Later on, we went back to the place where I landed in The Spooky Side. There was a portal back to my dimension.
"Well… it looks like this is goodbye; for now at least." Willow smiled.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you still have Shadey which allows you from your world to here! Just come here through the TV" Orlank explained. They waved goodbye as I went through the portal with Shadey in my arms. We popped out of the TV screen and it was still 8:30 PM. Time didn't change when we went there.
"Aw man! I still have to wait another 30 minutes for the new show!" I will never forget that night and what happened. You can never suspect everything to be just made up.

THE END