The middle of Summer, June 13th, 2004, thirteen year old Peter Miller was arriving at a new house. Peter was a tall young man, with orange eyes, and crazy black hair. After the fifth time of moving, Peter, his mother, and his little sister have been pretty tired the past few years.

It's always sad for Peter when he leaves, because at the first two houses he'd lived in, he had friends at school, and after he moved a third time, he decided not to make any more friends, because they'd just be ripped away the next time he moved.

Helen Miller, Peter's ten years old sister, she had emerald green eyes, just like her mother, and blondish-orange hair. She was always excited about everything, and always made friends every time she went to school.

Usually when she'd leave school, she'd try to get her friends' phone numbers, but it seemed that they never liked her, because all of them would have an excuse, and never give her their numbers. Peter pitied his sister, she didn't know it, but she was lonely.

Mary Miller, Peter and Helen's mother, was always a mystery. Peter and Helen never knew who their father was. Mary had told them that he died before Helen was born.

"Okay, listen Peter," Said Helen. "So when we get to our new house I think that we should explore, because who in their right minds doesn't like to explore? I don't know if you do or not, yet you never want to do anything with me, but do you want to? I do! What do you think?" She asked.

"Uh" Peter said, "Helen, do me a favor and shut up, okay? I can't understand a word you're saying." And I don't really care...

Helen looked at Peter and either ignoring him or didn't hear him- I think that she just ignored me... Oh Helen that's you alright- she continued anyway. "So..." Helen continued, "When we do settle in our new house, I was thinking we should explore." She looked at Peter with hope, her emerald eyes just like their mom's.

Why does she want me to go with her? Can't she just go alone? Then Peter asked, "Go alone, Helen, I'm not your dad." Peter sat back in his seat.

Helen's jaw dropped open and she looked at Peter, astonished. "Well..." she said at last, "Though, Dad would've. I bet you anything that he would." She then turned to look out her window on the right. Would he? Helen, you haven't even met Father. What if he didn't, would that be good, just like me? What if he would've, then he'd show me how to do things?

There was a very long pause maybe lasting ten minutes.

"Listen," Peter said at last, "Helen, I'm sorry." He looked over and she didn't move. "Fine, Helen, you win. We'll explore the house and all around it." Great. Just great. Nice going, Peter! Just think how amazing this will be! I get to just walk around and point at stuff! Oooh! It's getting interesting already!

Helen turned to look just a little and said, "Cool Peter!"

And she's happy again! What an astonishment! "So, I think that we should look at the dining room first! Then we should move on to the kitchen..."

Helen, Helen, just stop babbling, it's going to be boring anyway, oh I hope you understand that, just a new house, I liked our old one...

"Alright? Then I think we should go outside, and of course, Mom is going to give us boundaries..."

Boundaries, boundaries, Helen, that's just so bad.

" I'd watch out for mud, because it's raining and all."

Don't you understand? Mom doesn't want us to explore outside!

"And imagine the trees, Peter! I bet they're wonderful! And..."

She treats us like little toddlers Helen, and doesn't even let us do anything we want!

"So, like it?" she asked.

"Uh" Peter said, not hearing much of what she said, "Sure, yeah, we'll do everything you said." He looked at her and she joyfully smiled.

"Are we there yet?" Helen asked for the hundredth time, and this time, the car stopped.

"Yes, Helen, we're here." Their mom replied.

Helen jumped out of the car like a rabbit that was trapped its whole life, smelling the taste of freedom. She opened the trunk, took her luggage out, and bounded into the house.

The house was large, it was brown, and it hat a red roof. Around the house was a huge barrier of a field, then it emerged into trees.

Peter and his mother, took their luggage into the new house, following Helen. They each probably had about ten luggage packs, so it took a few trips back and forth to get them all into the house.

Once Peter finally got the last of his luggage, he was the only one outside now. He closed the trunk door, then opened the front door to lock the car. He picked up his last two luggages, then he saw a purple glow to his right, along with gold flickers in the woods. His head snapped upright, he dropped his luggage, and looked around the gap of trees. He saw nothing anymore. Maybe its was in my head.

Peter walked inside the house and he was amazed. At the front door, there was a small porch outside, and inside to the left, was the kitchen. The white tiles on the floor, and black sparkly cabinets fit perfectly. The refrigerator was at the corner of the kitchen. Near the window, there was a beautiful pure white table, about the size for four people to sit down and have a meal.

Peter looked around to his right, and there was a big brown table, with gray carpet for the floor. That seemed to be the living room. Next to the table, there was a big brown cabinet holding board games, puzzles, and card games.

Behind the kitchen was a door near the stairs, and the room inside there was a workspace, with dark blue flooring, and a black swivel chair behind a black desk. Behind that desk was a red armchair, and to the right of that, was another desk that was an exact duplicate of the first one. His mother was putting computers on each of them.

On the other side of the stairs, behind the living room, was a den. It had a huge flatscreen TV on the wall, with two tan recliners facing it. Behind the recliners, was a piano, and a movie closet.

Peter couldn't believe the downstairs. He turned around and shuffled upstairs. There was a hallway and the first door to the right was the restroom. The second door was on the left, and it was Helen's room. He peeked through, and the walls were light purple, with a pink and white bed against the wall, next to it was a sky blue dresser. To the left side of the room, was a closet. Thousands of stuffed animals packed everywhere else Peter could see.

He continued walking. All the luggage was put up, he wondered how long he'd been outside. The next door was on the right, of course. And it was Peter's room. He looked inside, and all he saw was a black dresser, a blue bed, and a closet. The rest of the room was for his games and TV. He dropped his luggage in his room, and kept walking throughout the hallways.

The last door was as Peter could imagine, on the left side of the hallway. And it was the master bedroom. It was a master allright. His mother's room was as big as Peter's room, and Helen's room combined. To the right, was a huge closet. And in the middle of the room, against the wall was the enormous bed.

To the right of the bed was a small dark purple nightstand, with a lamp and a book on top of it. Peter saw to the left of the bed, was a blue dresser. On the left side of the room, was the restroom, along with another closet next to that.

Peter walked to his room and spent the rest of his day putting his TV up, and connecting the Playstation 4, then he put all his games, his laptop, tablet, and phone charger in the slot under the TV holder. This was all very convenient.

"Hey Peter!" Helen exclaimed walking inside the room, "You're almost done, so when you are, want to explore? You said you would so... Yeah." She said.

"Yes Helen I'm almost done" Peter said, Oh gosh, when will she be able to shut up? I bet in one whole day that girl manages to say ten million words, if not, more.

Peter let out a small chuckle amusing himself.

"What was that for?" She asked.

When Peter didn't answer, she asked him, "So, will you explore?"

"Yeah, sure" Peter replied.

"When?"

"Soon."

"No Peter, I mean 'When' as in what specific time?"

"I don't know, Helen! Half an hour! Now please, just leave me alone for at least five minutes!" Shut up, Helen, please! Just, go find an acorn or something, and stuff it inside your mouth!

Helen's face turned sad, "Fine Peter, I'll shut up." She paused, then added, "And I bet you want me to stuff an acorn in my mouth, don't you? Call me when you're done unpacking, I guess."

When Peter was done he didn't call Helen. I, Peter Miller, have arrived at a new house and just finished unpacking. It's kind of odd for me to live in a house I liked, and friends where you are, then taken away from my house and friends. Now I'm stuck with Helen my sister who's ten years old. My mom takes forever to unpack and now it's time to eat dinner. I bet we're having chicken again. Well, June 13th was a bummer. I'll see what tomorrow has planned for me. He thought.

So Peter went downstairs for dinner. But Peter didn't see his mother at the table. Helen looked as curious as he did. Peter spotted a paper on the table.

"What does it say?" Peter asked Helen while he was speed walking over to the table.

Helen looked at the paper back to Peter. "I don't know. Am I supposed to read it? I thought I wasn't allowed to read it!"

Peter picked up the paper and rolled his eyes. Of course you thought that, you're only ten, you don't ever think of anything, you just do or don't do. Such typicalness. Peter saw that it was a letter to them, written from their mom, This is Mom's handwriting. Odd... I wonder why she'd do something like this. It's so odd. Peter then read the letter in his head first:

Dear Peter and Helen,

I am going to the store to get food, I yelled out loud many times and went into the hallway and called you both. I could not seem to contact you. And, I couldn't find you either, I didn't see you two in your new rooms. You are so deaf! But I will be back in thirty minutes to an hour. Peter is in charge. And please, Don't leave the house. Love, Mom

Mom's sort of weird, leaving us like this, with just a note? Peter then read the message aloud, for Helen to hear it. When he was done, the first thing Helen said was, "That's a lie! No way! You aren't in charge!" Then Peter showed her the parchment of paper, and with a small grunt, she listened.

A few moments later, Helen wanted to go outside but Peter said 'No' every time she asked, their mom didn't want them to leave the house. Can't she get that through that thick skull of her's?

Their mom returned in less than half an hour and she had said how good her children were. They all sat down to eat dinner, and of course, as Peter had guessed, chicken.

When they were done, Helen had figured out Peter was finished unpacking for quite a while. She didn't like how he didn't tell her. So they 'Explored' the house. How fun this is! "Uh" Peter started, being bored of what he was doing, "Helen, let's go outside?"

"What an amazing idea, Peter!" Helen exclaimed, "Let's do that! Hey Mom, can we go explore outside?" She looked over to her mother and smiled.

Their mom smiled back at both of them, and said, "Sure, but just remember you two, be very careful, and be back before dusk." She hugged them both and Helen ran out and Peter sauntered out of the house, and then started running following Helen.

It's so muddy, and look at that pile of dirt! Peter thought when they could no longer see the house, Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to just climb up there and slide down... Peter, being thirteen years old, always wanted to have fun. But around his sister, it was pretty hard to, he wanted to be mature around his sister, but Peter started climbing up the mound of dirt anyway, and Helen followed him, probably sensing the 'Spirit of Adventure' is what she always called it, knowing she got on Peter's nerves.

Helen gasped, Peter turned around quickly to see what the matter was, and not to his surprise, she was fine. Soon after she said it, Peter knew that the gasp was for if she could find unicorns or not. Typical... So they went on, not too deep into the woods.

They went to adventuring for over an hour, so Peter decided to tell Helen that they should go back to their house. He looked at her up ahead and she was having the happiest time he'd seen her in a long time. But he just had to tell her, he was thinking about how worried their mom would be if they stayed longer.

"Helen," Peter started, she stopped and looked behind her into his eyes. "We should be heading back to our house now." He saw the sky, and dusk had already been upon them. She then frowned immediately.

"Can we just go a little further, please?" She looked at him desperately with her 'Pity me' eyes, which he definitely didn't pity her, but listened most of the time anyway.

Peter smirked, "Alright, Helen," he looked at his watch to see the time, "It's six forty-eight, let's stay here just for twelve more minutes," He dropped his smile, trying to act serious, "then we have to go home after that."

Helen grinned, "Okay." She agreed.

Ten minutes after that Peter told Helen that they had to go; she sauntered the whole way back to the house. Peter didn't feel the slightest bit of sorrow for her, they disobeyed their mother, staying away longer than they should have.

They were silent nearly the whole time, but droopy Helen broke the silence, "Peter" she said, "Why does Mom act so... Weird?"

Peter actually agreed with Helen on this one, he sure didn't know, but of course, he didn't want to admit that, he wanted to be strong, and have his little sister look up to him. "Well Helen," he started, mostly thinking while he said the words spilling out of his mouth like beans, "Mom just... Acts odd because she wants to, and she's Mom." He looked over at her and she looked at him like he was the stupidest brick she'd ever seen. Shoot, he thought, "Well, Mom is probably always depressed about Dad, you know, about the fire, and everything?"

Their mom had told them what had happened to their dad, that one dark night, when a fire started mysteriously. She and Peter were the only survivors, she told them that firemen came, and took her and Peter to a hospital, and she told them she didn't know what happened after that.

Peter didn't think that she'd been telling the truth as much, he saw it in her eyes, he knew when she was lying, and Peter just always seemed to know when people were lying. She must have dropped something to start the fire, I just know it, she knew what happened, she might have just left dad, she could have killed him for all I know, maybe she didn't, if she did, I'd be dead too, maybe-

"Yeah" Helen agreed, breaking Peter's thoughts, and the silence. "But, what if Mom's crazy, or what if she got hit really hard as a kid, or what if she was tortured in a chamber, or-"

Peter interrupted her, not wanting to listen to her out-of-this-world jumbles, "Helen," he said, "You just have the craziest mind I could think of." He smiled at her and she smiled back, "Besides," he said, "Those questions you just asked about Mom are all impossible, really Helen? Wake up in Earth and stay a while, the weather's great." He leaned over and started tapping her forehead with his knuckles lightly, "Earth to Helen, come in Helen, live in the real world!"

Helen started laughing and gently pushed his hand off her forehead. "I know, but sometimes I have daydreams about Mom and Dad doing crazy things." She pulled out a picture from her pocket from their father, "I just wish I could've met him." She dropped her head.

Peter lifted her chin, "Hey," he said, "You have me." He smiled, and she half smiled back. "Alright, now I know Mom will be angry at us, we've been gone much longer than we've supposed to have been, it's almost dark now."

"Okay" Helen agreed, "I just- you know, feel different sometimes, do you know how that feels?" She asked.

No. Peter thought, but also had a weird twinge in his spine, Guess that counts as different? "Yeah, sure Helen, sometimes I feel different..." He trailed off, looking at her agreeing face, and not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, I guess so, but no. I just guess I'm just a normal human being..." She trailed off, judging on the expression on her face, probably thinking whether that was true or not.

Peter smiled down at Helen, "I guess-" he started but stopped, seeing lights flickering in every direction of the eyesight he could see. Purple, cyan, white, pink, and gold flickering in his eyes, painfully hurting him. He was painfully just standing still, not sure what was going on around him. He couldn't even see Helen anymore with all the lights. Wolves and birds started flying in his vision as well. People dying and killing, animals killing and dying. Blood red seas, and gray gassed skies. Was this all real? Was it just a nightmare while he was awake? He wasn't quite sure, but it sure did hurt.

A blurry gold snake slithered up to him around the lights and dying animals, and it hissed in a deep voice, "She is not just a normal human being, young man. She is more than just that, or what she appears, she has a great destiny before her. Get that right boy or I will bite your limbs off one by one, then slowly devour your remains. The power you invest is much worse than willing to be used."

It snapped at him and disappeared. And so did the lights. Everything was gone, and Helen looked up at him like spiders were crawling out of his ears and he was bleeding all over.

"What just happened?" She asked frightened.

Peter was scared. Not for what just happened, but he wondered if Helen saw it or not. He was so terrified of that more than anything.

"Helen," he said grabbing her shoulders, "What did you see?"

She looked at him puzzled for a moment, and didn't push his hands off her shoulders, and answered, "Peter, you started to say something but then, you were quite, your eyes were as wide as the moon Peter, you didn't blink, not one time. Your mouth was open, and I thought a fly would come in it, and you twitched like crazy, you wouldn't stop, and it looked like you were in another galaxy Peter, please tell me, what happened!" She was not grabbing Peter's arms and shaking them, "Peter! Please!" Tears started coming from her eyes. She was so terrified.

"Not that kind of see, like lights, did you see lights?" he said.

She looked confused and unable to speak.

Peter was puzzled, "Helen," he said, "how long was I like that?"

"About ten to twenty minutes." She answered cautiously looking at her watch.

"Oh no" Peter said, "Mom's going to kill us!" He grabbed her hand and started running towards the house.

"Peter!" Helen called beside him, "What happened?"

Peter stopped running and whirled around looking at Helen, "Listen," he said, "I didn't see anything, I was just having an awake nightmare or something in my body telling me I'm tired. But by gosh, please don't tell Mom, if she asks why we took such a long time, leave it to me, okay? Don't say a word. Understand?" He kept eye-contact with her.

"I understand." She said, "I just guess I was a little over reactive, that's all."

"Good" Peter said, what he needed most of all was a good mood from his mom now. He was thinking what that snake had said. Would everything change? Would life ever be the same?