and it was pockmarked. It was still mostly covered by the dirt. Abbie kept whining and wanting to go back, but she wouldn’t leave without her humans. It didn’t look like it was very big, and the dirt was kind of loose, so they dug around this object with their hands. It didn’t take too long to dig it completely out. They dug it out and looked at it. It was the size of a cantaloupe, completely round, but pockmarked and rough all over.
Tony’s eyes grew wide. “Do you guys know what this is?”
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“It’s a meteorite,” Tony said. “You know my grandfather told me once that if you ever even find a fragment of a meteorite to sell it to a museum and you’ll be a millionaire.”
“Really?” both Grog and Mike asked.
“Yeah,” Tony said.
“Let’s take it home,” Grog said.
“Look at Abbie,” Mike said.
They had been so focused and intent on what they found that they hadn’t noticed that Abbie was two feet away from them digging furiously into the ground. They wondered what she was digging at. They pulled her away from where she was digging, and they saw what seemed to be another meteorite buried in the ground, except this one was a bright and lighter shade of red.
“All right!” Tony shouted, holding his fists in the air with joy.
They frantically dug this meteorite out the ground with joy and decided to take them both home with them. Mike picked up the dark red one, and Tony picked up the light-red one and started walking back home. They were so busy talking about what they were each going to do with their individual share of the money that they didn’t notice Abbie slowing her pace, lowering her head, and quickly licking up a very small, bright red worm that had dropped out of the meteorite that Tony was holding. They also didn’t notice that a dark red worm that was the same shade as Mike’s dark red crimson spandex hoodie had crawled out of the meteorite that he was holding and burrowed into his hoodie for the moment.
They were all spending the night at Grog’s house. They had managed to sneak the meteorites past Grog’s family and get them upstairs to Grog’s room, hide them, and then act normal around Grog’s family. Now they were safely back in Grog’s bedroom, and it was very late at night, and they were laying down and still discussing what they were going to do with all their money while slowly falling asleep. They were all asleep when Mike began to stir. He shook his head and groaned.
“No,” he groaned out in his sleep. He started breathing heavy and shaking his head faster. “No,” he groaned out once more as if in pain. Then he took a deep breath and then he was still, breathing deeply and evenly.
Tony woke up first. Tony sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around. He saw Abbie sitting on the floor, staring at all of them. He patted his leg and held his hand out to her. She came to him but kept skirting away from Mike who was lying right next to Tony on the floor. Tony thought it was a little strange, but he didn’t put much thought into it as he had just woken up. Then Grog gave a little groan, stretched, and sat up. Then Mike woke up and sat straight up. Abbie gave a low growl deep in her throat. Mike seemed very alert, especially for someone who had just woken up as he looked around the room as if he were seeing it for the very first time.
Tony gave a little chuckle and handed Mike his glasses. “Here, man,” Tony said to Mike. “Put these on and stop joking around.”
Mike looked at the glasses as if he had never seen a pair before, but he took them and put them on and began quietly looking around again. Tony and Grog assumed that Mike was just joking around, and it was a joke that they quickly tired of. Tony’s cell phone began playing the tune that was his ringtone. He picked it up and looked at it.
“It’s my mom,” Tony told Grog and Mike before he answered it. “Hi, Mom,” Tony said into his phone.
Grog and Mike were silent as he answered his phone. There were times that Tony’s mother would call because she would have to work extra hours and would want him to be home with his sister, Charlotte.
Judging by the face that Tony was making, that was what was happening now. “Come on, Mom. Charlotte will be fine. I don’t need to stay with her. C—” Tony stopped short and was silent for a moment. “Hold on. Let me ask.” Tony put his phone down for a minute. “Hey, Grog. My mom has to work all day, and she won’t be home till late tonight. She doesn’t want Charlotte to be alone for that long, so she was wondering if she could bring Charlotte here and she hang out with us.”
Grog scowled.
“Man, if she doesn’t drop Charlotte here, then I have to go home.”
Grog rolled his eyes but relented. “Fine. Whatever.”
Mike remained silent, just observing everything, especially Abbie, and Abbie sat observing him. Tony put the phone back to his ear. “Yeah. Grog said that will be fine, Mom.” Tony was silent again. “Okay…okay…all right, fine. See you soon. Love you too.” Tony pushed the hang up button and looked at Grog. “My mom said thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Grog said, laying back down.
Tony stood and began changing his clothes. “My mom is already on her way over here with Charlotte,” Tony said, which was his way of telling them to get up and get ready. Grog scowled again and threw the blanket off himself.
“Man, what the fuck are we supposed to do with your sister all day?” Grog exploded.
Tony shrugged. “Whatever we were planning all doing all day anyway,” Tony said.
Mike grinned. “Sounds good to me,” Mike finally spoke.
Tony glanced at Mike; he started to look away, but something made him look back. There was something off about how Mike looked. He looked the same, but there was something off about the way he looked at everything, especially Abbie, and the way that Abbie looked at him. There was something sinister in Mike’s eyes and grin that just wasn’t there before.
Under normal circumstances, Tony would ignore and think nothing of it, but Charlotte was on her way over there. Charlotte did make Tony very angry sometimes, but she was still his little sister, and if Mike had any intentions of hurting, scaring, or doing something profoundly mean to her, then Tony would definitely punch him more than once.
“Hey, Mike,” Tony said.
Mike jerked his head toward Tony and stared at him unblinking with a strange robotic slight grin on his face. Tony became just a little concerned about this.
“If you do anything to hurt Charlotte or anything, I’m going to have to pound you,” Tony warned him.
Mike gave another sinister grin. “Oh, I would not do anything to hurt her or anybody else…Tony.” Mike began to move presumedly to get dressed and ready for the day when Abbie growled at him. Mike gave her a surprised and fearful look and sat back down.
“Hey!” Grog said, nudging Abbie. “What are you doing?”
Abbie kept looking at Mike and was lightly growling at him. Grog and Tony looked at each other, perplexed.
“Should I put her out of the room?” Grog asked.
“Yes!” Mike said,
