nicki (9) sat grumpily in his bed. 'it's only 8:30! why do i have to be in bed now!' he thought. he laid down, hitting his head on the backboard. "ow!" he mumbled. 'i should just try and sleep. god i wish i just woke up somewhere else! anywhere but this stupid place!' he thought, glaring at his closed eyelids. he slammed his head against his pillow and dozed off to sleep. nicki thought he heard his alarm clock ringing, so he opened his eyelids. what he opened his eyes to, however, was anything but what he expected. he opened his eyes to a fully white room, similar to that of a solitary confinement room. the emergency red lights were flashing, but there was no alarm. an impossibly tall woman in a lab coat stood towering above nicki. she offered out a hand to help him up. he didn't take it and instead lifted himself up. "i'm ///// //////// from the ///// foundation. we've discovered an anomalous room and we'd like you to participate in the investigation of it. we'd just like you to walk through the door and explore it. you'll have an audio and video reciever on you at all times. if you'd like to leave the room, you can simply say 'let me out'." the woman said slowly and carefully, and almost soothingly. "if i die, you better be at my funeral." the young boy said. "...and if you need anything, just consult /// ///////." she said, ushering nicki through the door. the moment he stepped through the door, it slammed shut behind him and the room shifted before his eyes. his vision blurred and cleared again, revealing an awfully familiar room. "mom, i told you i don't want a parrot! i want an elephant! no, i don't want a cheetah, i want an elephant!" a girl screamed. nicki stepped carefully through the hallways of the twisting and large house he just appeared in. he recognized that sentence. "and i don't want a kitty cat, i want an elephant." nicki said quietly as the girl screamed. "this is my favorite book!" nicki whispered to himself. he rounded the corner to peek at the conversation nearby. the young girl held a kn!fe in her hands and seemed to be threatening her mother, who had a b//llet wound through her forehead. the wooden floorboard creaked under nicki's feet, and the young girl turned around to face him. her entire face was missing. in place of her face, was a knife carved smile with two vertical lines for eyes. ( =) ) nicki turned back to face the mother, who also had a carved smile in her face. "this isn't how i remember it..." nicki whispered. "let me out!!" nicki yelled, when he saw the young girl hold a kn//fe up at him. //// //////// responded quickly. "engaging teleporter system... recovering and unzipping video and audio files, shutting down the emergency lights... go!" she said in the background. just as the young girl was swinging her kn//fe at him, nicki dematerialized and rematerialized in the white room he appeared in before. his audio and video gear disappeared instantaneously and he caught himself before he fell. "one more thing before i let you go... i have the book that apparently resembled the scene you just visited, and i'd like you to read through it." //// said, holding out a book to nicki. he took it and flipped through the pages. "i swear this is not the right book. the book i remember, it was a cute little argument where they were arguing over which pet they wanted! the girl wasn't st//bbing her mom!" nicki yelled in disbelief as he reread the entire story that made his childhood. he looked up at ////, who now had a carved smile face, and b//ood was pouring out of each wound. =) nicki wanted to scream. and he woke up. "that's not how i remember it." he whispered quietly.

he walked to the bathroom down the hall to take a quick walk. he locked the door behind him and stepped up to the sink. he splashed his face with water and closed his eyes. he opened his eyes, looking down at the sink. what he saw horrified him. red. so much red. red dyed the whole sink. he looked up at the mirror and screamed. =)

When Peter fell asleep, he was in his own bed. When he woke, he had all the pretty little ponies.

And the ponies sang.

It was nothing like “My Little Pony”: no pastel colors, no expressive cartoony faces, nothing even remotely humanoid. The ponies were exactly like real-world ponies.

Except they sang.

Not in English—not in any human language, past, present, or future. The ponies sang in a language all their own. The sounds were exactly what you’d expect to hear from ponies in real life, but there were definite words and a definite melody in them.

No human could possibly speak this language: we don’t have the anatomy.

But Peter thought he understood the meaning of the song, even if he couldn’t translate it exactly. He took that meaning, along with his own words, and got something like this:

“You the head, us the body; Let us carry you to world’s end. You goad, we gallop; Let us ride into battle.”

Without thinking, Peter began to wave his arms like a conductor at the philharmonic.

And the ponies followed his lead.

They gathered in a circle around the boy.

They bowed.

Then they lifted him up, and he rode.

Peter could not have said how he rode all the ponies at the same time, but he did.

And the ponies carried Peter to the sea.

They did not stop when they came to the wine-dark sea, but continued to carry Peter forward, as though they were not ponies but boats.

And still they sang.

But now their song changed.

Now it was as though the sea itself were singing, and it sang a different tune, something like this:

“Ware my waves, lest you drown. Ride me and be not afraid. As an anchor I weigh you down. Ride me and be not afraid.”

Peter could not have said when the ponies (boats?) disappeared, but now the waves of the sea herself carried him, faster and faster, higher and higher.

Peter surfed the salty spray—

—and wiped out.

Davy would have had him, had not Clarence reached down and saved him.

They rode the waves, faster and faster, higher and higher.

Peter could not have said when the sea vanished beneath him, but vanish it did. Now he and Clarence rode the very winds.

And the winds sang.

Peter could not translate the wind’s song, for it sang in many tongues of fire, and the flames settled upon his head. And yet he understood this song more deeply than any he had yet heard.

It was beyond words.

Peter dared not let go of Clarence—but where was he?

The winds ignited, and Peter was engulfed in flame.

Yet he was not consumed.

And the flames sang their secret song.

And Peter became the flames, singing their secret song. Yet he remained himself.

Peter could not have said when he ceased to move, but now he found himself seated upon a golden throne, sporting a white crown and a red crown. He could not have said how we wore two crowns on his head, but wear them he did.

And Peter sang his song.

Peter’s song was something like the Beatles song “Let it Be”, and yet it was nothing like. It was the true song that Paul McCartney merely aspired to when he wrote the song.

And Mother Mary came to him, speaking the Word of Wisdom: “Let it be.”

Peter could not have said at what point he awoke, but awaken he did, and there was Mother Mary standing right in front of him.

She held the book: his favorite story, the one he had just lived.

And Peter said, “Let it be.”

And she gave him to drink, and he drank.

Mildheartness.

In the back of her mind, Lumi was pretty sure there wasn’t normally a room next door to hers, but that wasn’t the point of concern here. Considering the fact that there was definitely someone in the new room next door, waking Nieva made sense.

Her older sister — barely three months off her ‘big exams’ — was hardly pleased with her, especially considering that she started the conversation with “There’s a room next door to mine now and someone’s in it.” But Nieva was fifteen and brave and Lumi was almost-nine and a coward.

So it was Nieva who had to prove that Lumi was out of her mind.

“Oh, Lumi, you’re just hearing things again-“ she started, gesturing around the slightly-unfamiliar room, before the wardrobe opened and a girl fell out of it.

She didn’t move.

“Am I?!” Lumi fought to keep the triumph out of her voice, but Nieva shot her a glare anyway.

“Be quiet!”

It was Nieva, of course, who went to help the girl up (actually intending to interrogate the supposed intruder), so it was Nieva who gasped at the realisation that this girl was missing an arm.

More like a hand, Lumi pointed out, and was ignored.

Jake insisted that his Iron Man poster remain hung above his bed, so it was the last thing he saw before going to bed and first thing he woke up to. But the day after his 7th birthday, the poster looked strange — no longer a comic book but now a cut out of a real-life Iron Man on the cover of a magazine called GQ.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that, somehow, the wish he’d made while blowing out the candles on his Avengers themed cake had somehow miraculously worked. He lived in a dream now.

Just a week later, Jake saw the iconic streak of gold and red flash across the sky while sitting in the car with his mom stuck in traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.

“ITS IRON MAN!” He exclaimed. But mom shushed him with nothing but a stern look. She had begged him for quiet so she could take this business call.

“But it’s iron man,” he insisted meekly, scanning the now empty clouds and doubting his own eyes.

The shame evaporated back into exhilaration after another streak — this time a silvery green — flew right across their windshield. Jake rejoiced and his mom screamed a cuss word in surprise.

“See! See! I told—!”

But before he could finish, there was a loud, metallic thud and the whole backseat was suddenly sprayed in a burst of red liquid.

It took what felt like eons for Jake to piece together what had happened in the instant that changed childhood dreams forever. There was a gushing, fleshy mess of skin and neck bones where his mom’s head had been. As his eyes darted around in desperation to focus on anything else, they landed on the new man-sized dent on the car roof above the front seat. A chunk of brain with his mom’s brown hair clinging to it hung from what an unmistakable imprint of Iron Man. It the super hero-shaped sent even had the outlines of the same mask he’d worn last Halloween.

When sound returned to the world, Jake heard a chorus of distant screams, punctured by the ocasional clash of metal on metal. The streaks of red and green would tangle in the air, before one would send the other hurtling on top of another car. He watched it all unfold, while a man’s panicked voice shouted his mom’s name ober and ober again from the still pristine phone on the dashboard.

Iron Man never looked back at a single one of the cars crushed under his gold accented high tech suit. But in the hours and hours James sat paralyzed in the backseat across from his mom’s rotting head, the life-size metal imprint of his favorite super hero watched him from above, mask unfeeling and unseeing.

Willy’s eyes opened wide as he came to in a dim white pod hurtling through space at the speed of light. He sat with his arms around his knees, too afraid to scream with his bare face against the ice cold glass, as galaxies whistled by in every direction.

What the hell?! said Willy

What the hell?! What the hell?!?!

The ship slammed to the right, and accelerated. It was driving into a galaxy now. Willy’s head darted around the pod, searching frantically for any way to escape.

Nothing. Just an empty pod. Alone in space.

“Oh my god” said Willy

A dim, small solar system was coming into view. One planet in particular. Purple, medium in size. It had clouds. Was this it?

“I’m going to crash” said Willy with big tears in his eyes. “I’m going to CRASH!”

The ship shot straight into the surface of the planet. The pod burrowed into the earth as wood and dirt was blasted everywhere within a ten mile radius. The sound was absolutely deafening.

Somehow, Willy wasn’t hurt at all. The ship came to rest at the bottom of a deep impact crater, and the door above him calmly unlocked and opened itself.

Stunned, Willy stepped out. The air was hot, and stunk like charcoal. Willy tripped as he lifted his other leg out from the craft.

Shit! Oh n-!

He caught himself, but not with his hands. He was floating.

“How? What?”

Willy hovered upward. He was.. flying?

“Oh my god!”

Willy flew up even higher. He burst through the dust cloud which had formed above the ship.

“This is amazing!”

Willy twisted through the air with the confidence of an owl, and the agility of a different, more agile bird. He laughed so hard his mouth became completely dry from the wind flooding into it.

“That’s him! GET HIM!” said a voice

Just then, Willy turned around and saw a gang of 4 huge men flying his way.

One man lunged toward him, and without a single thought, Willy’s foot had hit his face and sent him spiraling to the ground hundreds of feet below. Another threw himself toward Willy, only for Willy’s body to teleport out of the way automatically.

“There is absolutely no way…” Willy thought.

Fists flew toward him, but none of them landed a hit. Willy was faster than all of them. And he could feel his body overflowing with energy.

“…it can’t be…”

The final man stopped in front of him, and waited. His face lit up in horror as the growing yellow aura around Willy’s body exploded with heat and light.

Willy screamed, and his hair turned gold.

The man flew away in fear.

“I am…”

The sky itself moved the clouds out of Willy’s path as if not to insult him.

“… a super saiyan.”

When the young Oliver’s eyes awakened, his vision was blurred. Everything was not clear in his vision. As he rubbed his eyes, and pushed himself up to a regular sitting form, he took a look in all directions, east, north, south, west. Earth was filled with bright colors, unlike anything little Oliver had ever seen before. Ever since the bomb was dropped upon London, the world had been a painful gray. Color was ripped forcefully out of everything, buildings, trees, even cars! But now, a rainbow had cast itself upon this Earth. Just like in his storybook, everything was bright. The Sun, instead of being a faded white, was yellow. The trees had lime-colored leaves instead of the crumpled brown leaves. The floor was a dirt road, which should’ve been boring, but instead looked like chocolate! It was like a dream come true! Oliver then stood up to get a better look, and tried moving forward. He then collided into a television screen, the size of him. And his dream became tragic, as he realized he was in another simulation of a better world.

“Night, Adira!” My mom said as she walked away from my bedroom. My head hit the pillow as I immediately fell asleep. When my eyes opened again I was in a forest with a smile staring down at me. I immediately recognized the character. The Cheshire Cat. One of the most devilish and clever characters to exist. I smiled back my best rendition of a Cheshire Cat smile. I stood up and climbed onto the tree next to the Cheshire Cat. All I got was a smirk in response as the cat ran. I followed as quickly as I could. The cat stopped and jumped. Never one to back out, I jumped to. I jumped into a room with colorful walls strewn with hats. I heard the lock click behind me. I turned to the head of the table. Sitting there was the mad hatter. Black hair with a bright white hat on top. This wasn’t how I imagined the fairy tale. And the look of utter anguish and tiredness wasn’t in the book either. And a teen sitting next to him, an identical match to his father. Or at least I think his father. This wasn’t perfect. When the hatter leaned back and smirked I could tell something was wrong.

“Oh hello there. I’m the hatter and this is my son, The hatter in training. And you, well, your dream and this room is locked. Welcome to the tea room. It’s nothing like the fairy tale.”

“Goodnight Jeremy” his mother says as she kisses him on the head and softly closes the door behind her. He sighs and looks around the dark room with his childish eyes, then pulls the cover up over his head and slowly falls asleep. Jeremy wakes up with a start, and looks around in wonder. What once was his boring wood bedroom, is now a jungle full of vines and flowers. He sits up sharply and looks down to realize he is not in his plain nightgown anymore. The scratchy cotton has been traded out for the most delicate woven fibers for both his shirt and shorts. Jeremy looks around with those wide eyes of his, and his eye catches on something orange in the distance. As the shape gets closer, he realizes that it is a majestic tiger swaying through the trees. Jeremy laughs and throws his hand out, hoping to slow down the tiger. It works and soon the tiger throws Jeremy up in the air and lands him on his back. Soon they are swaying through the trees together, hair blowing in the wind. “Slow down a little” Jeremy tells the tiger with a laugh, and somehow, the tiger seems to understand him. As they are riding, Jeremy says “I’m going to name you Jack!” Jack, the tiger grunts his approval and they continue running. A bit later, they seem to have reached their destination, back to the bed where Jeremy woke up. Exhausted from this long journey, Jeremy almost collapses in a pile of leaves. Slowly, he falls back asleep, and when he wakes up again, it is no longer in that magical place, it’s back to the boring old bedroom.

“The perfect way to do that now little man is to take 2 leaps forward and on the first step after the leap you jump into a tree!” Tony has got all the best ideas for jumpin! Says Max.

My name is Samuel. I sleep in my mommy’s bed alot. Her bed is huge! Mommy always holds me and reads to me at night and sometimes in the daytime. Especially, since I can’t go outside and play with my friends right now. Mommy says that as soon as my foot gets better, I can go out to play and hang out with my friends. It makes me sad that I can’t go out and play. I don’t like being by myself but mommy helps me feel better with cookies and my favorite story. Sometimes I even pretend to be sad when I’m not to get extra cookies. I love cookies. Chocolate Chip are my favorite!

I decided to be a big boy and sleep in my own bed tonight. The last thing that I remember is her reading to me and now I’m inside of what looks like a tree. It’s so cool because it looks just like the one from the story my mommy reads to me every night! I’m so excited!

My mommy is wearing a cool bunny costume. It’s kinda weird though because she was just wearing a pink robe. I don’t know how she changed clothes so fast. She is the coolest mom ever! She keeps calling me Cotton-tail. I keep telling her that my name is Samuel but she just laughs. It’s ok because I like the nickname. It’s the same name from my favorite book. I wonder if I’m dreaming?

My mommy just told me to wake up my brothers, Mopsy, Flopsy, and Peter! I can’t stop laughing because I have one sister, not three brothers! I’ve always wanted to trade in my baby sister for a brother! Dreams do come true! I really love this game that we’re playing. It’s so fun because I can actually walk AND hop around on my feet.

Mommy just told me that I can go outside to play! Oh boy! I’m so excited! She told me to stay away from Mr. McGregor’s garden. I don’t know who he is but she sounds serious so I won’t go. I’m so excited to go outside and play!