I toss and turn all night, unable to fall asleep. Suddenly, my eyes shoot open. It feels like someone is staring at me... I glance at the clock on my bedside desk. At exactly midnight, I hear rustling beside me.

"Rhys?" I whisper as I roll over. I see the dark outline of Rhys sitting up on the edge of the bed. It feels there are two other people in the bedroom besides me.

I reach out and touch Rhys's back with my fingertip and my vision goes white. It comes back a moment later in black and white. Rhys is sitting on the bed facing a black mass no bigger than the bed. Rhys's mouth is moving, but I can't tell what he's saying.

He stretches out his arms and the tiny mass jumps head first into his chest. The next thing I see is Rhys's face. His mouth is open in a wide grin and his eyes are seemingly too green.

I jolt awake, out of breath and sweating. As I desperately try to regain air, I turn my head to look at Rhys. He's laying down next to me. He shows no sign of ever being awake. I sigh deeply before laying back down. I raise my hands to rub my face. I roll over and try to go back fall asleep.

My alarm goes off at 8am, I have to go to work at 9:30am. I get up and stumble groggily into the shower. I hum Pity Party by Melanie Martinez as I wash myself.

When I go back into the bedroom, Rhys is still asleep, which is odd for him.

"Rhys, wake up, honey," I shake his shoulder.

He groans and rolls away from me, "Just a few... More minutes..."

I smile, at least he's OK. I let him sleep and leave for work.

I work at a local bagel shop downtown. The pay is good and the work is easy enough. My boss gives me a flexible work schedule too.

When I get to work, my friends, who is also one of my bridesmaids, is already there.

"Here you go sir, have a nice day," Alex says as she hands an elderly man a small white bag.

"Thank you, miss," the man replies.

"Hey, Lannie," Alex waves when she sees me.

I wave back and head to the back of the shop to check in and begin working.

>Six Hours Later<

Alex and I get off work at the same time, so I drive her to the cafe nearby where her husband works.

"Have you got your dress yet?" I ask her.

"No, Gavin and I are doing that tomorrow."

"OK, sounds good."

"What are you and Rhys doing this Saturday?"

"I'm not sure, I'll see if Rhys is busy. Why?"

"Gavin and I are going kayaking and we were wondering if you and Rhys wanted to come with us."

"Sounds fun," I pulled into the café parking lot and Alex got out of my car,"see you Friday at work!"

"Bye! See ya!"

I drive back home. Rhys is on his office editing a video.

"Hey," I lean against the door frame, "what do you want for dinner?"

Rhys spins around in his chair, "Do we have any cake?"

"For dinner?" I raise my eyebrows, "how about pizza instead?"

Rhys's eyes go wide, then he blinks. I swear his eyes go black for a second, but I'm too far away to tell for sure. "No thanks,
I'll just make myself some Mac and cheese later..."

"Are you sure?" For some reason I feel concern welling up in my chest "Rhys, is everything OK?"

"Yeah," Rhys tilts his head to the side, "why do you ask?"

I hesitate for a moment, "No reason, I guess, I just had a strange dream last night. I'm sure it's nothing."

"OK..."

"Well, I'll let you get back to editing..." I close the door and press my forehead against it. Something seems wrong but I can't tell what... It's so frustrating!

I sigh and go upstairs to the bathroom. I suddenly have a headache.

>One Hour Later<

"Lannie," Rhys stands in the doorway. I must have fallen asleep, "I finished editing, wanna watch the video with me? It's a Theory Thursday."

"Sure," I pull the blanket off myself. Did Rhys put that on me?

I follow Rhys back down into the living room.

The video starts out normal enough, but halfway through I notice some odd red screens flashing in the video, only lasting a single frame each time.

Rhys doesn't say anything about them or even ask if I noticed them, so I don't mention it to him. It might have just been my imagination or a lack of sleep.

Later that night after Rhys is asleep, I sneak into his office to check the video again. The red flashes are still there, so I'm sure it wasn't my imagination.

I check the comments of the video to see if anyone bothered to write down any kind of explanation for the flashes. Three comments down and I find the answer

"For those too lazy to pause the video and check, here's what the black words on the red frames say: cake
Give me cake
Does any one have any cake?
Give me cake or else
Please just give me cake
All I want is the birthday cake he promised me..."