Judy was on her knees, praying by the bed. She held a rosary and recited the prayer, whispering it to herself in a old, wooden master bedroom. It was quiet. She could hear the crickets and the calm wind howling from outside. She kept her eyes closed, and remained as peaceful as possible as she finished the long prayer. When she finished, she made the sign of the cross, and forced a smile.

She got up and walked to her bathroom, which was in her room, and entered. She turned on the old, weak lights, and looked at herself in the mirror. She wore a white tank top and pink pajamas with an unbuttoned shirt that matched the color of her pajamas.

She had short, tangled red hair that reached down to her chin. She had a few freckles on her cheeks, not to mention the obvious dark bags under her eyes. She looked exhausted. There was no need for her to work at the moment, as she was spending her time grieving, but soon, she would have to go back to her job at teaching. She wasn't tired. She was just lazy, like she had no motive to do anything at all.

She opened up the mirror cabinet, and out came a few small empty pink boxes of First Response. Some stayed in the cabinet, others fell into the sink or landed on the floor.

Crap, she said to herself as she looked at the mess she made. She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. She looked back into the cabinet, and reached for the toothpaste.

She grabbed her used up toothbrush like it had become a habit, squirted a bit of paste on her brush, and started scrubbing away in her mouth. She brushed her teeth, and flossed in all the hard to reach places.

As she finished, she went back to her cleaned room and walked over to the bed. She pulled the bedsheets from the corner and lied down in her bed, throwing the covers over herself and turned to the nightstand to turn off the lamp.

The room was dark. The moonlight shinned a dim light into the room, leaving Judy to turn to the other side and look out the window and into the star filled sky. She looked blankly at the the sky, and then looked away, turning her attention towards the empty side of her bed.

She looked at it for a moment, blinking several times like she were in some other world, and suddenly started sliding her hand through the covers, to the empty side of the bed. She kept her hand there, looking blankly at the pillow that was untouched. Nothing came to her thoughts. She didn't move one bit, and soon, her eyes began to close on her. She let the urge to sleep take over, and in a matter of seconds, she was asleep.

****

Suddenly, a dog barker from the other side of the door. She opened her eyes a bit, and hoped that the bark was no more than just a one time thing, but then, the dog barked even more.

Judy closed her eyes, irritated. She grabbed the pillow under her and covered her ears with it. The dog would not stop barking. Non-stop, it's barks got louder, and she could hear it claw at her door, begging to come in. The dog's bark got loud to the point where Judy sat straight up in her bed and threw the pillow at the door, yelling,

"let me sleep!"

Usually, the dog would stop after her telling it to do so, but for some reason, it didn't. Judy tried going back to sleep, but it continued barking, forcing her to stand up, and deal with the situation.

She opened her door, angered, and questioned the dog, "what do you want?!"

The dog's name on it's collar was Ralph. Ralph was a Beagle in his young years. Ralph was the dumbest dog she'd ever seen. It always wanted to get itself killed, either by car, or going around sharp objects in the old farm house out back. Not only that, but the dog wasn't potty trained, nor would it regularly follow her commands. She didn't like the dog at all. She could have swore that the dog loved to see her get mad, that's why it always bugged her.

Ralph jumped up in the air, making full circles as it barked. It kept it's tongue out, like it wanted to play or something, which pissed Judy off even more.

"We're not playing. It's three in the morning, you really expect me to-"

Suddenly, the dog turned other way, and started running down the hall and down the stairs. Judy stood there, confused, and sighed when she realized she had to keep the dog safe, so she followed him. She ran down the stairs, frustrated with the dog. As she came down, she saw Ralph go through the dog hole which she had forgot to close before she slept.

"Ugh, Ralph!" She called him, and rushed out the door.

As Judy came outside, she saw Ralph barking at the dead crops. She wondered what he was doing, until she saw from her porch the top of the crops shuffle towards her house. Her eyes widened as she ran back into the house, grabbing her hunting rifle and a few bullets out of the ammo box next to it, which was right by the door. She came back out, loaded the rifle, and waited in fear.

She aimed her rifle towards the direcition where the crops were moving, and kept her aim until Ralph stopped barking. She looked at her dog confused, and then looked at the crops.

The crops stopped moving as it reached the front lawn of hers, but nothing came out.

"Who's out there?" Judy yelled at the crops, feeling her hands start to shake as the fear built up.

"I've got a gun, don't think I won't use it!" She tried to boost her own confidence, but her stomach started to turn, and it only got worse.

It was quiet. Ralph looked at the crops along with Judy, waiting for whoever it was to come out. Then, in front of Ralph, the crops opened wide. Darkness was inside, and Judy had her gun aimed right into it. She was burning up, and it wasn't even hot outside.

A small, dirty foot came out of the crops. The foot slowly stepped onto the front of her lawn, and revealed the rest of the leg and thigh. The whole leg was covered in dirt and leaves. There were a few scratches on the thighs, and an obvious bloody cut that went across the thigh.

Judy's eyes widened she saw the rest of the body come out of the crops. She was shocked, stunned, suspicious, when she saw that the person in the crops was actually a young boy.

The young boy was completely naked. His whole body was covered with dirt and leaves, and his private area was also exposed. His long, brown hair covered most of his face, but Judy could see he had piercing brown eyes, and chapped lips. He had dirt all over his face, and the boy's eyes made him look like he was going to cry. The boy looked about twelve years old, and his body was very skinny, so much so that his rib cage was visible. Cuts were all over his stomach and chest, some bleeding slightly, but not too much. He looked exhausted, like he ran a mile in full sprint.

Judy slowly lowered her gun, her eyes not blinking as the boy struggled to come forward. She was oabout to ask him what he was doing outside in the middle of the night, when the boy spoke first.

"They're... coming..."

Then, the boy fell to the ground, and Ralph started barking.