I wake up with a big yawn and glance over at David’s bed. Of course, he is still sleeping like a baby. He even has his thumb in his mouth. Ha! Okay, so to the point, I guess I owe you an explanation to last night. I guess I will start with the DWO. The DWO is an organization that helps keep them safe and helping other people. It is made of Dreamwalkers. Dreamwalkers are special people who have some type of powers and can, as the name says, walk in other peoples’ dreams.
Our parents were awesome Dreamwalkers. This is going to pain me, but I will still tell you what happened that night they… passed away. They were out on a mission and it was the first one they had taken David and me on. We were in a dark warehouse and I didn’t see the Seeker (those are the bad guys) come up behind me. He grabbed me and I screamed. My parents came running and stopped short when they saw us.
“Surrender yourselves or your son will get it,” the Seeker told my parents.
Just like that, my parents handed themselves over and were transported to the warehouse where they died. I was released and after David and I watched them disappear, he transported us back to our house and our uncle was waiting for us. We were too weak and devastated to fight back, so now we are trapped and that brings in Isabella, who has to save us.

So, I guess I have told you everything you will need to know now. Oh, and one more thing, I have never really talked much at all since the accident. It is taking a lot of courage to tell you all of this right now. And now comes the fun part. Waking up David! I creep over to his bed, walking on my tiptoes. This is going to be hilarious. I climb on the end of his bed and lean over him. Now is the time to use my power. I gust up a big breath and start running at full speed. First, the covers fly off, then the mattress cover, and finally the whole mattress. David plops onto the frame of the bed and wakes up with a loud yelp. If only you could see his surprised expression on his face you would be on the floor laughing until you cried, which is what I’m about to do. I fall off the bed and laugh, while David gets up and stands over me. I can already tell he is thinking of a way to get me back.
“Not funny, squirt,” he tells me, but I can see a small smile on the corner of his mouth.
I shake my head yes in response and stand up. I help him make up his bead again and then we get dressed. David and I then make up another of our thousands of games, since we are being held captive, we don’t get out much. Now don’t worry, we get fed, but our uncle, Albert, slides it under the door every six hours. And believe me, he is not a good cook.

We keep ourselves occupied until it is time to go meet Isabella again. This is the complicated part of the day because we have to do it quietly so that our uncle Albert will not be able to hear us. Now, if you are one of the people who have a house that you can hear almost everything in, that is our uncle’s house. David and I cannot let him know about our missions, or Isabella will most likely not be able to help us.

David and I stand in the middle of the room and he draws up his energy for the portal. David staggers a little bit as the portal comes up because he is still getting used to it. Now, you don’t know how much energy it takes to do that, so if you have never done it before then get that thought out of your mind that my brother is a wimp. We take quiet steps into the portal and just like that we are in Isabella’s dream. We head to the tree house since that is where Isabella will pop in.

David and I get to the tree house a little before Isabella will get there. I sit down in the beanbag before David can and settle into it, so all you can see is a little head peeking out. Just kidding, I can’t get that small. We wait in silence, which is always how it usually is between pretty much anybody and me.

Isabella pops in about ten minutes later, looking grim about being here.
“Good, you’re here,” David says to Isabella.
“Yeah, well I really didn’t have a choice,” she replies sourly.
“I am going to get right to the point in case we are interrupted like we were last night,” David begins. He tells Isabella all the problems we are having with our uncle and a few more things about the DWO.
“Why was I pulled from the dream last night?” Isabella asks suddenly, taking David off guard.
“You-you were pulled out because a Seeker was coming and we couldn’t let him get you,” David answers seriously.
“So, where are your parents? Shouldn’t they be trying to find you?” Isabella asks inquisitively.
“Uh, our parents died,” David says solemnly.
“Oh, I am sorry. I know how you feel,” Isabella says with a sympathizing tone.
We sit in an awkward silence for a few moments, and I can tell you I am not going to be the one to break the ice.
“Anyway, we need your help,” David finally says, “You can use your powers. You are much more powerful than you know.”
“Wait. I have powers?” Isabella asks, confused.
What? She doesn’t know about her powers?
“You have the power to imagine whatever you want and it will happen,” David answers after giving her a questioning look.
Isabella looks at both of us excitedly and I can tell that she is finally on board. Wouldn’t you be too?
“What do you want me to do?” Isabella asks.
“We are on Maple Street. It is right down the road from your house. The house number is 314. It is purple and has black shutters. You will have to use your powers to get us out. You can come at three and will have about thirty minutes. That is when he is gone,” David explains for her. All the while I just sit there being the good little boy that I am. Ha!
“Where will you be inside the house?” she asks, trying to get every detail that she can.
“We are on the second floor.”

I guess that was enough information for her because she finally stopped asking questions. David smiles and so do I. We finally have hope! Wait, what is happening to Isabella? She is suddenly fading and has now fallen through the floor of the tree house. I can hear her scream and heavy footsteps carry her away. This is not good. I run down the steps and start after her with my super speed. I don’t know what I am going to do when I catch up to them though. I am now about five steps behind them and Isabella is being carried by…Uncle Albert? Oh no, he had found our portal. We are in so much trouble. I catch up to them and then I stop. I cannot do this without David. I wait for him to catch up to me and we run in pace. David and I stop short on the path that Uncle Albert was taking. Where did they go? They were there and then they were gone. I didn’t see a portal and he can’t teleport himself. Are you as confused as I am?

We stand there in bewilderment for a few moments and then Isabella comes out from behind a big boulder putting her finger to her lips to be quiet. She comes toward us slowly so I am guessing that she snuck away without him noticing. I guess she used her powers of imagination to free herself. Way to go Isabella! Then, he notices that she is gone and come barreling out from behind the boulder at full speed. I can say that I let a little scream escape my throat, but it wasn’t too loud. So they run and I jog beside them.
“You need to get back to your room. Imagine yourself back in your room,” David tells Isabella breathlessly.
“Okay,” she replies and stops short. She closes her eyes and she slowly starts to fade away and then she is gone.
“Now let’s go,” David says and he uses his powers to teleport us back, our uncle Albert only a few steps away, probably grabbing air as we disappear.

David and I land roughly in our room and I stand up but David does not. I am sure that he is weak because he had to do it in the spare of the moment and that takes a lot of power. I kneel down and speak one of the few times that I do.
“Are you okay David?” I ask, concerned.
“Yeah,” he replies weakly.
I help him up to his bed and tuck him in. Don’t you think it should be the other way around? I climb into my bed and lay my head down on my pillow with a big sigh. Wow, was that close. Then, I fall asleep, afraid of what will come.

I wake up with the sun streaming in and illuminating the whole room. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I pull back the covers. I realize that I forgot to change last night because my clothes are all wrinkly and smelly. Remembering last night I go to check on David. He is still sleeping and looks a little pale so, against my will, I let him sleep in as long as he wants. After changing my clothes I sit on my bed, not knowing what to since David is the one who usually entertains me. I am also freaking out about when our uncle will come barging in and yelling at us about trying to contact help.
I wait and wait and wait and wait. When was he going to come and get us? He hasn’t even come when David is finally awake and waiting with me.
“Justin, I don’t think that he is going to come,” David finally tells me, sounding a little bewildered. I shrug my shoulders in response and we get up to make up another game. It is about three hours until Isabella is supposed to come rescue us.

David and I make up a game called pillow race. What we do is take a pillow and slide across the floor and whoever gets the farthest wins. It took me a while to get the hang of it. Just picture a baby penguin learning to slide on its belly for the first time and that is what David and I looked like.

We played pillow race until the food came and it was about thirty minutes until the plan was supposed to take place. We eat quickly and we hear the door slam shut about ten minutes before Isabella is supposed to come. You can tell that I am excited because I am giving you pretty much every detail. We walk to the window and watch our uncle walk down the street. Finally, Isabella comes into view and I shake a little with excitement. She walks up to the house and inspects it for a few moments. I think that she is checking to see if there are any monsters or trap doors. David knocks on the window and Isabella looks up, shading her eyes from the sun. David motions for her to come in and I stand there smiling. She walks to the door and we watch her open it and come in all in a matter of minutes. Then, we wait.

I hear light steps finally come up the steps and we walk to the door. I hear Isabella open the creaky door to the bathroom and David hears it too so he knocks on the door to tell her where we are.
“David?” Isabella says, standing right outside the door.
“Isabella, yeah, we are in here. Use your powers to open the door. You can do it,” David encourages.
After a few moments of silence Isabella says disappointedly, “It didn’t work.”
“Try harder,” David wills. I stand there and pray silently that it will work.
The next few moments are excruciating. All David and I hear is nothing. Finally, the door opens and Isabella is there smiling and then the smiles fades. I wonder why.

We all run down the steps and towards the front door, not wanting to stay there any longer. I mean it’s not because the house looks creepy or anything but because, you know, we were being held captive there. The house was actually what any typical house would look like. The living room has big, stuffy black furniture, a flat screen TV that we never go to watch, and shag carpeting. The kitchen has marble countertops, high-tech appliances, and a dark wood floor. The dining room has a grand, wooden table and a crystal chandelier. It’s not really the house you would think of for a kidnapper would you?

We get to the front door and I guess Isabella took that moment to faint because that is what she did. She fell backwards with a whimper and David and I caught her, setting her down gently.
“Isabella, what’s wrong?” David asks with concern.
“I-I don’t know,” she replies breathlessly, “I reached for the door and I felt dizzy.”
Isabella sits up and then slowly stands up so I guess that she is okay. Then, the light in the window is blocked out by a figure and my heart falls to the pit of my stomach. Slowly, like in a horror movie, the door starts to open.
“Run!” Isabella yells as she kicks the door shut. Way to be obvious.

We turn and run back up the stairs. We don’t know where we are going, but we better find a way out.
“Where do we go,” Isabella asks like she is reading my mind. I hear the door creak open and deep mumbling so we better kick it up a notch if we already haven’t.
“He’s inside. We gotta move,” David says frantically. Well thank you Mr. Obvious.
Isabella pulls us into a room and slams the door shut, locking it behind us.
“I don’t know what we are going to do,” David says with a defeated tone in his voice.
“We are not giving up,” I say, surprising myself and apparently everyone else in the room. Isabella and David look at me, wondering if I actually said something.
“We always have a chance,” I say with more determination.
“What are we going to do?” David asks while staring at me.
“We can go out the window,” I say. Don’t call me selfish, but I said that because I knew that I could get out that way because I am so small.

At that moment, the door swings open and guess who is standing in the doorway. Our uncle Albert! We back into the corner of the room. The room is big and dark. It has old fashioned, wood furniture, so it doesn’t look like the rest of the house.
“I see you made a new friend,” Uncle Albert says with a smile.
The window that we planned to go out was only a few feet away and wide open. Well, isn’t that convenient? Isabella nudges me in the ribs and nods her head towards the window. I slowly inch towards it, praying that he doesn’t notice what is going on.
“I think that you underestimate us,” Isabella says, trying to distract him.
“There is no way out of here. You are trapped and now I am just wasting time making you more scared by the minute and you know it,” Albert says, totally unaware of me by the window now.

Then, Isabella closes her eyes and Uncle Albert flies backwards into the dresser and wood and clothes fly everywhere. Way to go Isabella!
“Let’s go,” Isabella says, while running towards the window.

She gets to the window and jumps, then David, then me. Once I jump I realize that we didn’t think this through because it is about a two-story drop to the ground. But, you have to give me a little credit because we only had about a minute to come up with some kind of a plan. Luckily, we have a very powerful girl on our side so she imagined a type of “soft” landing for us so we only go head over heel a few times. Then, we run.

We run down the sidewalk, leaves blowing everywhere. The wind is blowing about ten miles per hour and the sky was a dark gray. Don’t you think that was just the perfect weather to get our spirits up? They run and I jog, because you know I am just that good, and we don’t look back so we don’t know if he is following us or not.

Then, suddenly Isabella goes down, taking me down with her. I hit my head on the sidewalk and feel a little dizzy, but I will myself to get up and see what is wrong with Isabella. She looks scary to tell you the truth. She is in a ball and not responding at all. Her knees bleed where she fell on them and her hair blows wildly around her face.
“Isabella, are you okay?” I ask frantically, even though I know that she is not. “Just please say anything or move something,” I plead to her.
“Uhhhh,” she manages to mumble. Okay, we are doomed.
“What happened?” David asks in a confused voice.
“I don’t know. She just fell and won’t move. I know as much as you do,” I reply.
“Justin,” David says, looking at me a little scared, “you are bleeding on you head.
I reach up and feel warm, gooey blood and reply, “I’m okay. I just hit my head when Isabella took me down with her.
“Uh-oh, uncle,” Isabella mumbles, though I don’t understand it because I don’t speak gibberish. Then, I hear a gruff voice and rough hands pulling me up. Welcome back Uncle Albert!

“Get away from her!” Our uncle says as he pulls us up.
“No, you will have to get through us first!” David says, while we both struggle to get free.
Suddenly, Isabella pops up in the air and is kind of glowing I guess. Now, I am as confused as a monkey in a train station. All of us are staring up at her in bewilderment wondering what is happening?
“She has reached her full powers,” David says with a smile on his face. Well I am glad someone knows what is going on because I sure don’t.
“No, she can’t…” Our attention is drawn to our uncle who is talking more to himself than us.

Isabella drops to the ground and faces him. She gives an evil stare that makes me scared, but I don’t think it fazed him that much because he is, well, a grown man and she is a teen girl.
“Well, it doesn’t matter because you are still weak,” our uncle says, trying to hide his uncertainty.

Then, Isabella says, “Dance the tango,” and he starts dancing.
First, disbelief crosses my face and then I just burst out laughing, never thinking that I would see this day in my lifetime.
“How did you do that?” David asks quizzically.
“I used my power. As he just said, I guess I just reached my full power,” Isabella answers with a smile on her face.

“Walk in front of us,” Isabella instructs Uncle Albert. He turns around and walks at an even pace in front of us.
“This is so cool!” I say to David and Isabella. They smile and nod their heads in reply.
We walk for about five minutes to Isabella’s house. As we walk I wonder how she is going to explain this to her aunt because wouldn’t you be concerned if your niece came home with a grown, creepy looking man?

We walk in the door and she tells Albert to follow. We walk into the living room and I immediately feel at home. The furniture is plump and comforting, the walls painted a light yellow, and pictures of family smiling on the walls. Isabella’s aunt is sitting on the couch and looks up when we walk in and I can immediately tell that she is concerned, just like I said she would be.
“Isabella, who are they?” she asks cautiously.
“Oh, this is Albert and my friends David and Justin,” she replies, “We are just going to go up and do some…homework.”
“Uh, hold on,” Isabella’s aunt says, “I would like to talk to you in the kitchen please.”
She motions for her to follow her and we are left alone with Uncle Albert.

We stand in silence and then suddenly, my uncle Albert runs towards the door, plowing me down. He runs over me and out the door. On the way down though, I hit my head on the coffee table, in the same spot that I hit earlier and man did it hurt.
“Ahhhhh!” I yell, obviously in pain.
“Justin, are you okay?” David asks as he rushes to my side.
“Uhhh,” I manage to mumble.
Isabella and her aunt rush in and see me on the ground, blood on my head, and immediately look concerned. They kneel down and help me slowly sit up, everything blurry.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Isabella’s aunt asks while holing up three fingers.
“Three,” I say quietly.
“Okay, good. Isabella, go get the first aid kit and we will clean him up,” she instructs.

The next few minutes are all a blur. Isabella and her aunt clean me up while I go through a lot of pain and David sits by me, looking worried the whole time. When they are done, they lay me on the couch and Isabella’s aunt goes to make dinner.
“How did he get away?” Isabella asks.
“I don’t know. Right when you left, he seemed to come out of a trance, turned, and ran, knocking Justin down as he goes. It all happened so fast, all I could do is stand there like an idiot,” David answers with regret in his voice.
“David it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” I say, trying to comfort him.
David shakes his head not wanting to believe me.
“Dinner is ready,” Isabella’s aunt, whose name I learned is Marcie, yells in.

I sit there at the table, scarfing down food as fast as a boy with a head injury can so you can imagine just how messy it was too.
“So, how do you guys like the food?” Marcie asks, trying to make conversation.
“It’s great,” David replies with a mouthful of food. So now you know where I get my eating habits from.
“Yeah,” I reply shortly.
“So, do you know about the DWO?” I ask Isabella’s aunt, wondering how she is not freaking out right now.
“Yes,” she replies shortly.
“So what are we going to do about Albert?” Isabella asks.
“I don’t know. He might come back and you will have to defeat him again or he will stay away and we won’t have to deal with him again, but I doubt it,” David replies in a solemn tone.

We eat in silence for about another five minutes, even though there is so much to talk about. Finally, I get up the nerve to say something to David.
“We have to tell her. She has to know.”
“No, she can’t know. Not now, anyway,” David replies, looking irritated.
“Tell who what?” Isabella asks.
“Tell you something about your parents,” I reply before David can stop me.
“What?” Isabella asks, sounding nervous.
“Isabella,” David says slowly, “we know where your parents are.”