Seeing Dominic by the trees was very unsettling. Running into the house and up the stairs to my room. I threw the papers onto my bed, letting them scatter across the floor as I grabbed my suitcase and got out a new outfit. Pulling on a loose shirt with basketball shorts, I ran back down the staircase only to be stopped by my mom.

"Where are you going Jaxon?" she questioned.

"Out to the woods again," I replied, becoming slightly impatient.

"Ok, don't be gone too long," Mom said

"Alright, love ya," I said, giving her a quick hug on the way out.

Going the path I went during the last time, I easily came to the clearing. Turning right, I made my way through the trees and found the river once more. I smiled to myself as I saw Dominic in the water, his back towards me.

Sitting down on the pebble riverbank, I waited until Dominic finally turned around. The look on his face was priceless. His eyes almost popped out of his head from surprise as he jumped backwards in the water.

"What the hell dude!" Dominic yelled as he tried to splash me with water.

I started guffawing so hard from his reaction. My cheeks were hurting from laughing too much as I had to wipe tears away from my eyes. Holding onto my stomach, I had to stop myself from laughing any more.

"Sorry man, it was the perfect opportunity," I replied as I tried to stifle my giggling to a minimum.

"You really think it was funny scaring me like that?" Dominic questioned glaring angrily towards me while pushing his black hair out of his face.

"Well, to be fair, you do stand randomly at the treeline by my house - which I don't know what that's about," I reply with a smirk.

"You really want to know what I'm doing by those trees?" He asked me, raising his eyebrow at me

"Yes, I do, as a matter of fact," I challenged, still feeling cocky about the situation.

"Just you wait Mitchelle, just you wait," Dominic muttered as his tone turned colder while staring me in the dead in the eyes.

"What's the worst you can do?" I said as I leaned casually against a nearby tree, resting my hand on the rough bark.

He stood there for a few moments in silence, not daring to take his eyes off of me. I began to feel slightly uncomfortable underneath his leer, but I refused to show any signs of submission.

Then he opened his mouth.

"Chop, chop, chop. You don't have much time. What could be so deadly could also be so sublime."

I scrunched my brows in unsettled confusion as we continued to stare at each other. What on Earth was he talking about? And what the heck does 'sublime' even mean??

"O...kay? So you like to rhyme, huh?"

He turned his back on me once more, breaking the hypnotic eye contact for the first time in what felt like an hour. Without looking back, he said, "You will understand soon. Very soon."

I really kind of don't, I thought, but didn't announce what was on my mind. I just stood straight and turned away from him. "Whatever... guess I'll catch you later, then." When he didn't respond, I began my journey down the path that I learned to familiarize.

I swear, everytime I come across him, he just keeps getting freakier and freakier.

~ ~ ~

I could see Dominic, standing there with that glint in his eye. He seemed skinnier than usual, which almost seemed impossible. His lips moved, and out came words, but the words didn't sound like they were out of his mouth. They surrounded me, almost as if they were reverberating around my head.

Chop, chop, chop. You're running out of time.

Somewhere in front of his feet, a silver clock fabricated, bending slightly until it looked as if it were melting. Its warped hands rotated furiously before shifting to a forest green. They froze and shook in place as if they were ready to explode. They shot out from the center of the clock, growing in length, twisting and turning like weeds. The green hands grew leaves at their sides, and a sweet aroma originated from them.

Suddenly, a silver object swished right through them, slicing through the stems. Dominic's hand grasped at the plant as the rest of it receded back into the clock, returning to its pointed, metal form of hands.

Chop, chop, chop. You're running out of thyme.

I could almost see the word change somewhere in my mind, but couldn't pinpoint where it was. Looking back at him in bewilderment, I noticed a shiny knife being wielded by his other hand. Though, that wasn't just any knife.

It was my mother's favorite cutting knife.

What could be so deadly could also be so sublime.

He slowly twisted the blade in his hands, staring at it as if it were some priceless antique. Then he returned his gaze to me...

And began to walk in my direction.

No... is what I wanted to say, but no sound came out of my mouth. I could move my lips, but my voice was silenced.

I tried to turn the other way, but the world kept me in one place. My legs moved in slow-motion, and it seemed to take so much energy out of me just to move them at all - but no matter how much I flailed, I stayed in one place. Dominic was nearly face to face with me, and my heart hammered against my chest so hard that I was sure he could hear it.

What could be so deadly could also be so sublime...

~ ~ ~

I immediately sat erect, panting heavily as my heart thumped in my chest. Sweat beaded my forehead, making me wipe it away before it dripped down my face.

Another nightmare...

I threw the sheets off of myself and swiveled in my bed so that my feet were dangling over the edge. Sitting there for a few moments, I allowed myself to calm down from the dream. My room was quite dark, as it was in the dead of night. This fact didn't help calm my nerves, but when I realized that there was nothing to be afraid of, I slid off the bed and stood straight.

This place gave me the chills in the morning, but at night was no better.

I tip-toed out of my room, careful not to make a sound so that I wouldn't wake either of my parents. The stairs creaked unforgivingly underneath my steps, but they weren't too loud to create a problem.

There was one thing on my mind, and one thing only: My mother's knife.

It was no coincidence that the rhyme Dominic told me fit so perfectly with the cutting utensil.

The kitchen was exceptionally dark, but the soft light of the moon shone through the windows, offering a little sight in the midst of the gloom. I opened the drawer where my mother kept all of her best knives.

What I saw appalled me.

Her favorite knife had a piece of paper wrapped around the handle.

I painstakingly removed it from the drawer, frightened that I would set something off by the action, but nothing happened. I removed the paper, which seemed old. It was yellow, and slightly decaying around the edges. Unfolding it, the first thing I noticed was the faded red mark dead in the center.

My eyes took in the bigger picture, and I read the words written in jet black ink.

It took me a while because of the darkness, but when I read the last word, I couldn't believe it.

What on Earth did Dominic have up his sleeve?

Maybe those weren't the words - I strained my eyes so much to read them. It didn't make any sense to me anyways.

And then I noticed a blob in the bottom corner. It seemed to be a small marking, but I couldn't decipher it.

My first thought was to go for a flashlight and try to read it. Crouching below the sink, I opened the cabinets and began to feel around. My hand came across something plush - the dish sponge. Then it ran into something hard that clinked, making me grab it immediately to keep it from toppling over and making noise - some sort of cleaning supply. A little deeper, and I touched some hard plastic. Bingo!

Taking out the flashlight, I fumbled with it to find the switch to turn it on. When my thumb finally ran across it, I flicked it on. The light that it emitted was blinding at first, but my eyes fixed themselves to get used to it. I pointed the flashlight at the piece of paper to confirm what I had read.

"What?!" I whisper-yelled to myself, but then bit my tongue to keep quiet. That was not even close to what I had read! How on Earth could the words have been so warped?

Then I remembered what the previous message had said: Your eyes may deceive you when you are engulfed by the night...

Something very weird and freaky was going on, and I couldn't explain it.

Peering at the bottom corner of the paper, the blob I had seen was indeed a marking.

D. W.

If I wasn't mistaken, those were the initials of the one and only Dominic White!

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up straight as I tried to figure out what he was doing with my mother's knife, let alone why he was planting riddles in my brain.

I read the words again, trying to understand what they meant. What is this, Inception? I thought to myself. Look at myself and I may see me?

My brain clicked when I really thought about it; the only way to look at myself was to see my own reflection in a mirror!

Then I shuddered - somewhere inside, I dreaded to find something in my room that wasn't previously there.

Creaking my way back upstairs, I let the flashlight enter the room first before me: I wanted to see what I was getting myself into.

The gleam of the flashlight soon hit the mirror, its glare reflecting off the surface back at me.

I nearly fell where I stood.

In between the glass of the mirror and the frame, a slip of paper stood erect, wedged tight to where it wouldn't fall out.

Entering the room, I looked at everything but the mirror - the closet, under my bed, and every corner. How the Hell did that get there?

Finally, I went up to it and plucked it out of the slot. Before reading it, I swayed the light across the room once more, turning my back to the wall to make sure nothing would go unseen. Satisfied that nothing was there to surprise me, I held up the slip of paper to the flashlight.

I nodded my head slightly, running my tongue against my bottom lip in unwanted submission. "Alright, Dominic," I muttered to myself. "You want me to play your scavenger hunt? I'll play..."

I found my bed and sat down, staring at the letters on the tattered slip. I allowed myself to let the words soak in and compare them to anything under the sun.
A slab of oak being a portal or a temporary cloak...

A door! It didn't quite make sense how it could be a cloak, but it could definitely be seen as a portal!

I shone the flashlight on the open door of my room, studying it for any piece of paper that might be sticking out of it. Though, nothing stood out about it. Then again, there were many other doors within the house. Any one of them could have the next riddle.

I rose to my feet and slowly creeped out of my room. I studied the door of the upstairs bathroom - nothing. The doors to the other rooms didn't look special either. I made my way back downstairs, keeping the light beam in front of me at all times.

I shone it on the door that led outside. Sure enough, a yellow slip was wedged in the handle.

Victoriously, I sauntered up to it and snatched it, unraveling it and shining the flashlight on it.

This one really had me stumped. The most beautiful singers? Nature's gentle giants? Where does Dominic even get these riddles from?

Pacing back and forth, I read it over and over again in my head. Sometimes, pacing can really help a person focus!

Tap! Tap! Tap!

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the soft rapping of the nearby window. My heart rate spiked up as I wheeled around and shone the flashlight at the glass.

A black silhouette of sharp claws wavered in front of the screen, scratching up and down it. I instantly turned off the flashlight, hoping that the creature would not see me. I didn't know what it was - the claws were freakishly long and skinny. They didn't resemble that of any existing animal that I knew of!

They continued to waver, not moving their position at all. It made me wonder why they weren't making a move - surely they had seen the glare of the flashlight shining through the window!

Warily, I straightened myself and approached the window. Once I got close enough to really see the claw, I released a sigh and rolled my eyes at myself. It wasn't a claw, but a tree branch that was being knocked around by the wind outside. The shadow it threw across the screen made the twigs look demonic.

A tree!

Trees are the giants of nature, and I had nearly crapped my pants from its shadow. It would also make sense since birds live in trees, and they really were beautiful singers.

I stood there for a moment, considering my situation. Dominic was trying to lead me outside. In the middle of the night. By myself.