I woke up, but something was wrong. I wasn't on the pillow in Ash's room. I got up to see that I was in some sort of narrow tunnel and the only source of light that I had was a torch that was on the side of the wall. I didn't know where I was, but I knew I didn't want to stay here. So I grabbed the torch, and decided to follow the tunnel.

"Is anyone there?" I called down the tunnel.

No Response.

"Hello" I called again

Once again, nothing.

I was really not liking this at all. What was going on? Why was I here? How did I get here? Was it the same thing that shrunk me back at Ash's house? And what about Ash? I had no idea. I just had to keep moving.

The tunnel finally ended and opened in to a forest. The trees were really tall with no leaves on them at all, and there was no grass on the ground. The sky was completely dark as clouds hung in the dark. There was a cold breeze that blew around  and made me shiver a little bit. There was a path that started as the tunnel ended and continued on deeper into the forest. I continued to walk through the forest to see if I could find something or someone.

"Hello?" I called again.

Nothing.

The path continued through the forest for a long time. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I heard a few owl's hoot in the distance and the sound of crickets on the ground. The path and forest seemed to go on forever. 

Then I heard the whisper again.

"Come in, come in, come in."

It was the same whisper that I heard in Ash's house. Something was definitely wrong here.

"Hello?" I called, " Is someone there?"

Silence.

Then my torch went out. I don't know what caused it, it just happened. There went my only source of light. Now I was walking blind. I kept walking straight hoping that the path would continue the same way. Then suddenly the wind picked up again. This time, it was much stronger than before. It was blowing against me, so it was difficult to keep moving forward. Then I heard the whisper again. But this time, it said something different.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie."

It was calling my name now.

"Who's there?" I yelled.

Then a large crack of lighting filled the sky, and I saw the shadow of something large. It looked like a creature of sort but I couldn't make it out. And then-

"CHARLIE!"

A thunderous yell filled the air. It was so loud it startled me, and the wind blew me to the ground. Then I felt something hover right over me. I couldn't see whatever it was, but it was huge. I shut my eyes preparing for the worst. I didn't want to get up for fear of it attacking me. Finally, I opened my eyes and then-

"HWAAAAAAAA"

The large thing that was hovering over me was Ash's face. Then I realized I was laying on the pillow I originally fell asleep on. I was having a nightmare. Except this didn't feel like an ordinary nightmare. Most of the time, I don't even remember my dreams/nightmares at all. I just wake up and poof, they're gone and I forget them the moment they happen. But this one stuck with me. I remembered everything.

"Sorry about that little guy. I just needed you awake for a second." Ash said as she pulled her face away from my body

"No.....No problem." I said still half-asleep.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm going to make breakfast and then I'll come back and bring you down so we can eat. That sound alright?"

"Sure. Sure. Just so long as there's coffee."

Ash giggled a little bit.

"Don't worry, there will be plenty of coffee." she assured. "I'll be back in a little bit. You can go back to sleep if you want."

She then left the room and shut the door behind her.

I wanted to fall back to sleep, but after the nightmare I had, I really couldn't. I was scared not of the nightmare, but why the nightmare occurred. An old forest. The same whisper as before. What did it all mean? How does it tie into my current situation? I tossed these thoughts around as I lay on my pillow waiting for Ash to come back.

I was also not looking forward to telling Ash that I broke into her house. I knew I wasn't going to be able to avoid it for very long. I'm hoping she doesn't get too mad at me for what I did. I really didn't want to feel the wrath of an angry woman. Especially at my size. That would be deadly. I really didn't want to think that way.  

After what felt like a half-hour, Ash came back into the room. She said that breakfast was ready. So I got up and out of the bed and hopped onto Ash's hand ready to head down to the kitchen.

"Wait," I said as a thought just popped into my head, "What if your dad sees me?"

"Don't worry," she assured, "My dad is gone already. He won't be back until much later."

We arrived at the kitchen and saw our breakfast. An omelet with some bacon, fruit in a side bowl, and a cup of coffee with some milk or cream mixed in. There also was a small shot glass filled with back coffee that seemed to be for me.

Ash set me down on the counter right near the plate and near my shot glass full of coffee. It was about one third my size and was filled with quite a lot of coffee. I lifted it, and while it was heavy, it was nowhere near as heavy as I expected. I tilted the glass and pored the sweet liquid into my mouth. It was rich, dark, and very hot. Just the way I like it.

Ash giggled a little bit as I was chugging coffee and started eating. Eventually I decided to have some food myself. Ash had set aside a small portion of omelet and bacon for me. It looked like a lot to me, but only a small bite to her. The omelet I wasn't the biggest fan of. I'm not really an egg guy, but I didn't want to look ungrateful, so I ate what I could of it. The bacon, however, I devoured quickly as everyone knows it is the greatest food ever created. Ash saw this and quickly gave me more when it looked like I was done.

After the two of us had finished eating, Ash took her plate and put it in the sink. She asked if I was done with my coffee, and after I said yes, she took the glass as well. Then I got on her hand as she walked to the living room and sat down on her couch.

"Alright, now that you've rested and had a good breakfast," she began, "Do you feel like telling me what happened to you before you got shrunk?"

I knew I wasn't going to avoid this forever. So I finally decided to just tell my story."

"OK, It all started last night. I was hanging out with a friend, and I decided to head home in the middle of the huge storm last night. The main road to get back to my house flooded, so I had to take a back road home. Then my car broke down,  and my phone had no service, so I looked for a house that could help me. This is when I came across your house. I knocked at the door but there was nobody home. I turned to leave, but then I heard this strange whisper urging me to come in. At first I ignored it but then-"

I paused and looked up at Ash. She was nodding and paying close attention with a concerned look. Finally, the moment I was dreading the most came.

"-then a bolt of lightning struck right in front of me and....and .....I.......I.....I ran inside your house!"

I immediately shut my eyes prepared for the worst.

"I'm really sorry!" I said. "I was scared! It happened so fast!  I didn't mean to!"

I was getting nervous again, and since I wasn't on my meds, I wasn't sure what I was going to do when anxiety struck. I opened my eyes and looked at Ash. She didn't look very angry. She smiled, sighed, and shook her head.

"It's OK." she finally said.

"W-What?" I said a little confused.

"I understand. You were lost and stranded in the middle of a storm. You must have been tired, cold, and soaking wet.  If I were home at the time, I would have let you in and helped you in a heartbeat."

It was then that she started stroking my back again as she continued speaking.

"I know you probably didn't want to tell me what you did. Probably for fear of me hurting or abandoning you. But don't worry. I promise I will NEVER intentionally hurt you in any way shape or form."

I was floored. I can't believe she was understanding.

"Th-Thank you for understanding." I said with a ton of relief.

"No problem!" She replied. "Anyway, what happened after you entered my house?"

"Oh yeah, so anyway, after I entered your house, I looked around for a little bit, but when I got to the basement, I heard the whisper again. I entered a dusty storage area of sorts where I thought I heard the whisper from. I called out to try and find out what it was, but no response. then I started to get tired for some reason. I felt dizzy and drowsy, and eventually collapsed. And when I woke up, I was on your kitchen counter where we met. And that's all I know."

Ash nodded and then started to scratch her chin. She was thinking about something.

"Hmm, you want to do down to the basement and see if we can find anything?" she asked.

"Umm, sure." I replied a little nervously.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. If anything happens, I'm right here."

I nodded.

Ash got up and we headed down to the basement to check and see if we could find anything. She walked past the bar, and opened the door to the storage room. It was as dark and dusty as I remember it from last night. But then Ash turned on a light, and I could see the room clearer now. It was really dusty. We looked around for a while and tried to find something. There didn't seem to be anything, but then I spotted what looked like a photo. Ash picked it up. It was a picture of an old house.

"Do you recognize this at all?" Ash asked me.

 I shook my head.

"Hmm, weird."

There was also something written on the photo itself. It said "steep". Neither of us knew what any of it meant.

"I guess we're going to have to do some research on this aren't we?"

I nodded.

We left the room and headed back upstairs to see if we could try and unravel this mess we got ourselves into.