Simon walked into the green building that was used for their book club meetings. Once again, he was the first one to arrive. He looked around to see if he could spot anything of use. He needed to know what Molly had planned for this week’s meeting. She had said something about facing the fears they brought up from the book last week. And he mentioned the pixies from the story. He wasn’t lying about them; they really did bring out his fear. The way they were portrayed to be so evil at such a small size, it terrified him more than Chihuahuas did. So he began looking around the room, for something that would resemble the things from the story. Noticing a trolley of things at the back of the room, Simon walked up to it. That’s where the things had to be. He scrimmaged through all the books that were sitting on it, looking for something, anything. Knowing Molly, she probably got a little bug that looks like what he imagined one of them pixies to look like, so it should be obvious to spot it. He heard the door open as he scrimmaged, and quickly jolted around, pretending to lean on the trolley. Thankfully, it was only Dash.

  “Nerd’s early once again, hey?” he teased Simon jokingly.

  Simon gave a little cough before he spoke, “Yeah, I like being early to everything, it shows initiative, what’s wrong with that?”

  “Hey, no big, man,” Dash said, sitting down, then noticing Simon was leaning on the trolley, “What are you doing over there?”

  “Here?” Simon asked, almost slipping away from the trolley, then gathering his stance back, fixing up the pile of books, “Oh, I was just looking for something I left here last week...”

  “Find it?” Dash asked him as he took a seat next to him.

  “Nah...,” Simon replied, “It doesn’t matter anyway”

  At that point, Molly and Tyra entered the room at the same time.

  “Stop fretting, boys, I am here!” Tyra announced herself as she sat on the chair opposite Molly’s.

  “Oh, yeah, we totally missed you, Tyra” Dash said sarcastically as Molly cleared her throat to start the meeting.

  “I hope everyone remembers what today’s meeting centres around” she said to them.

  “Yeah, yeah, facing our fears or whatever” Tyra said, taking a final selfie before getting out her copy of the book, and putting her phone away.

  “Exactly right!” Molly said, “I have a plan all set to go, and Dash, you're first”

  “Why me?” Dash asked.

  “Because you are, “ she repied, “Now remind us what your fear from the book was”

  “Being alone, cause I always have my friends or my team or you guys surrounding me” Dash answered.

  Molly nodded, with a “mhm” and started explaining his activity.

  She had Dash go outside the building and wait until she sent him the A-OK through the group chat to come inside. Once he came back in, he noticed the room was empty.

  “Uh, guys?” he asked the room, looking around.

  He stepped a little further into the room, realising that it was completely empty. Feeling small. No one around. He stood in the middle of it, looking from the front door to other doors of the building. Wondering what he should do, scared of leaving the building in case something happened to them, but also scared of staying in case something happened to them. He looked at his copy of the book that was on his chair, and thought back to when he read it.

  “I guess...I'll...” Dash picked up the book and sat back down on his chair....and that's when it hit him. Literally and figuratively. Molly had bumped him on the head with her copy from behind as she and Tyra came out from the room behind him.

  “Well done!” she said.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Wha...?” Dash asked.

  “Your fear was being alone, so while you were outside, we hid in that room, “she pointed behind him, “and left you alone”

  “That was mean!” Dash exclaimed.

  “But you stayed! You didn't run. You faced your fear, in a way” Molly told him.

  “I mean, I guess?” Dash questioned her logic, but rolled with it.

  “Now's your shot, Tyra!” Molly exlcaimed.

  “What about Simon?” Tyra asked, noticing Simon was missing.

  “He just went to the toilet” Molly replied.

  “Shouldn't we wait for him?” Dash asked.

  “No, it's fine, he'll be back any minute, “ Molly answered, turning to Tyra, “Your fear was?”

  “The illogical,” Tyra stated, holding up her copy of the book, “believing in things that don't exist, like there's no such thing as pixies, dragons aren't real, there's no Prince Charming coming to lock me in a tower”

  “Or is there?” Molly asked.

  “What?” Tyra raised an eyebrow.

  Just then, a small squeal of a roar came out from the room behind Molly and a dragon jumped in front of Tyra, making Dash scream a tiny bit. Tyra, on the other hand, was unphased.

  “Really?” she asked monotonously, getting up to face the dragon.

  “Huh?” Dash was ultimately confused.

  “Come on, girl, this is obviously Simon in a dragon costume” Tyra stated.

  At that comment, the “dragon” gave a defeated sigh.

  “But what if it wasn't?” Molly asked her.

  “But, it is” Tyra repeated, pulling at the dragon tail.

  “Ow!” Came Simon's voice from inside the costume.

  “See?” Tyra stated triumphantly, sitting back down.

  “Well....,” Molly trailed off, “Yours is quite hard to work on an activity for. I'll call this a mild success”

  “Whatever blows your bubblegum, Molls” Tyra said, returning to her phone but also keeping an eye on the meeting simultaneously.

  Simon had already retreated around the corner during this conversation, and taken the dragon costume off, placing it down on a small trolley. He was searching through this trolley now for something, moving around books and utensils, and paper, until Molly called his name and he was forced to return to the group.

  “Yes?” He asked, pushing up his glasses.

  “Your turn!” Molly exclaimed with glee.

  Simon pushed his glasses up further, all matter-of-factually, “But my fear was the pixies and as Tyra just established-”

  But he was cut off by a flying blue pixie that came dangling inches in front of his face, causing him to scream and shiver, and grab for the nearest book, to cover his face with. He slowly inched the book up, so his eyes came face to face with the pixie...and noticed it was just a puppet. Lowering the book with one hand, he poked at it with the other.

  “A puppet” he remarked, then took a scan around the room.

  He noticed it was connected to some wiring above the roof, which lead past the trolley he was looking through, to the room they hid in, to the first trolley he scavenged through. Then looking down at his feet, he saw a small cardboard circle-shape. Of course. It was a rigged trapped. Molly was essentially the girl version of his smarts. It made sense that she knew he would go looking for it, so designed it in a way he wouldn't be able to find it.

  “Not cool” He told her.

  “But you still thought it was real! Confrontation executed perfectly!”

  “What about you, teach?” Dash queried.

  “Hm?” Molly asked.

  “Your activity, what's yours?” Simon added.

  Tyra looked up from her phone at this and shook her head.

  “Boys never listen, “ she said, “ She said the book didn't play on any of her fears. There's no point having an activity that confronts fears for someone who doesn't have any, duh”

  Molly was deep in thought,trying to come up with another lie on how to answer that question until she heard the last part of Tyra's sentence.

  “Yes, exactly” she agreed, hesitantly.

  With that, the four friends left the building and headed down the street for their usual after-book club frappes, Dash joining along this time, because there was no practice. They headed down the street, but as they passed the usual alleyway, Dash, who was behind everyone else thought he saw something down it.

  “Hey, guys?” he said, “I think there's something going on down there”

  He walked into the alleyway, unaware that the other three had continued on. As he kept walking, the alleyway formed into some sort of grey forest, which he was also unaware of.

  “What's going on down here?” Dash asked to no one in particular, then stopped.

  Now he noticed the alleyway wasn't the alleyway, and a grey mist-covered forest...He turned around to face the direction he came from, and couldn't even see the main street anymore. More than that, he realised his friends had not followed him down the alleyway. He was alone. Just like in his book club activity earlier. He turned back around to face what he could barely see through the rest of the forest.

  “Hello?” He asked, “What is this place?”

  Dash's heart was pumping. His fear was becoming reality.

  “I'd really like to know how to get back to that alleyway...” he continued to say.

  The mist thickened as he stood there, making his heart pump faster. Then he heard faint voices. Barely audible, but definitely voices. He thought back about how he confronted Molly's activity. He was alone in the room, and he decided to stay and sit rather than leave. So that's all he had to do, no matter how much he was trembling. Just wait for whoever the voices belonged to to approach him and lead him back to the street.

  “I'll just be here! Waiting for you” he called into the mist.

  And that's when it happened, so quickly. No time to question what he saw or what was happening, only time to scream....with no one to hear him.