The Awakening

Dr. Doofenshmirtz

Sophie's POV

Just as I was about to spill the events of today, Linh and Dex came around the corner from another room of the house.

"Hey, have you guys seen Tam?" Linh asked worriedly.

"Nico isn't here either," Hazel added, chewing on her bottom lip.

I stood up off of Keefe's lap, to his dismay, and made my way up to where Linh and Dex stood together. Keefe followed closely behind me as I made my way to the entrance of the room.

"We'll go look for them. You guys get comfortable," I shouted over my shoulder as Keefe and I exited the room.

We were silently walking when a sudden noise startled us both. It sounded like cackling; like the maniacal, evil laugh of Dr. Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb.

Keefe and I crept down the hall, toward the evil laughter coming from one of the closets of Everglen. It was the one next to the kitchen where extra ingredients and elixirs were stored in case of emergency.

I glanced at Keefe, silently asking him to go first. He quietly sighed, puffed out his chest, and marched up to the door.

After he flung it open with a loud bang, we both gaped in shock at what we had walked in on.

On the floor of the mostly dark closet sat Nico and Tam, in the midst of all the shelves. Nico was holding a flashlight of some sort up to shine a spot on the wall and Tam was manipulating the shadows into different shapes; the one he was in the middle of forming looked like . . . a smiley-face?

"Ok, Tam, I know your shirt says 'Happy Shadow Thoughts', but I don't think it meant for you to take it literally," I cautiously said as I approached.

Keefe was backing up with a horrified expression on his face. As I inched toward the closet, Keefe inched away. Then, he broke into a full-on sprint away from the closet, the sound of his shoes slapping against the floor was all that could be heard in the silence.

Tam suddenly hissed as Nico shut off the flashlight. The door slammed closed inches in front of my face and the laughter was back.

I turned around and stomped my feet on the ground to mimic me walking away, then paused.

The door slowly opened revealing two faces; one on top of the other like in a horror movie. I took the opportunity and dragged them both out by one of each of their ears.

They yelped as I yanked them out and closed the door behind them. Pouting, they trudged along with me behind them, all the way to the lounge area.

Just before we got into the lounge, Tam turned back to me and growled, "You better not tell anyone about what you saw."

I smiled and nodded before pushing them into the room. Once they were seated on the floor next to Linh and Dex, completing the circle, with Keefe still in our spot.

However, I didn't move over there right away. I focused my attention on the wall parallel to the couch, concentrating on drawing the an image from my mind. I projected the image on the wall and stepped back with a satisfactory grin.

"You told me not to tell, so I showed," I said, the grin widening on my face. I'm sure I looked like an absolute clown; like a slightly less scary, female version of IT.

Once everyone realized what I projected, they burst into laughter. Tam and Nico went beet red and glared at me furiously. I, however, laughed like the rest and took my place on Keefe's lap.

I knew that they told me not to tell, but I had to break the ice and get everyone laughing before I told them the real news. Once everyone calmed down, I realized that, in order to have the conversation that needed to be held, I had to gather the adults in here, too.