Azalea Complex, Prologue

"What am I going to do, Geoffrey?" I asked, on the brink of tears. "this guy asked me for help finding his kitty, but then he took me to this room, and closed and locked the door and I don't know what to do!"

I had to have been here for a whole day, if not longer! I'm hungry and stinky and tired and I missed dinner, and Momma's gonna be so mad!

"Why'd he lock you in here?" Asked Geoffrey. He's my best friend, but for some reason, no one sees him. It makes me sad. I heard Mommy talking to someone one day, she was asking if it was strange for a kid my age to have an imaginary friend. He isn't imaginary though! He's right there!

"I dunno," I sighed, "He just did."

"Maybe it was an accident?" Geoffrey suggested, "Maybe if you just ask him if you can go home, he'll let you?"

"Good idea!" I said, hugging him tight. He's the best. Better than my sister's stupid friend, Miles. She tells me that Miles keeps trying to scare her. I think she should tell Miles to leave her alone or something.

A coule of minutes later, the man came in.

I looked him in the eyes. In school, we learned that eye contact makes you seem stronger, and if you're scared, it makes you not look scared. So I really needed eye contact, since I was scared to death.

"Hello, sweetie," He smile creepily.

"Mister," I said, about to cry, "Can I please go home? I'm hungry and Mommy's gonna miss me."

He bit his lip, looking confused, and then nodded, without ever looking away from me.

"Go fast, before I change my mind," he said.

I walked through the door that he had come through, and as soon as I turned the corner I started running.

It took me ten minutes to get home, and when I did, Momma wasn't mad! She was standing on the porch, and she looked super scared.

"Azalea Complex!" She cried, as she hugged me, "Where have you been?!"

"I was at the park, and this man needed help finding his kitten. He had me look in a room for the kitty, but the room was empty and the kitty wasn't there, but he closed and locked the door before I could leave the room," I explained in a rush, "I'm sorry I missed dinner!"

"Don't worry about dinner, baby," She sighed, "I'm just glad you're safe. Now, how did you get out?"

"I looked him in the eyes, 'cause we were told that it makes you look less scared, and I asked him, and he did."

Mommy laughed a little before getting all serious again, "Now, we're going to go inside. There are some policemen inside, so you need to tell them everything you know."

So we did, and I told them about his big nose and scary eyes, and that he was pale, and what his hair looked like. When I was done, I looked over and saw that Mommy looked very scared. She told me to go to bed, so I did.

Oak and Iris were both in there, waiting. Oak had just turned 13, and Iris is my twin. They tackled me in a hug, and Iris told me how scared she was that she had lost her twin.

Then we evesdropped on Mommy--I know it's wrong, but we wanted to know what was going on!

She was talking to the policemen, about some guy named Willis. Mommy was really worried, she said that she didn't know if she could feel safe knowing that Willis was still out there. The policemen said that she should get a watch dog.

When they left, I heard mommy talking on the phone. She asked if they had any young, big, dogs that could be trained to be watch dogs.

The next day, Cerebus was brought to our house. I was so excited to finally have a doggy, no matter if it was because of something bad. I love animals!!