Story by Jack-of-Harts

Day 1: 3:09 AM

Paul rolled over on the foldout couch in his living room, grumbling something about the birds and the bees. He tried to work his feet back under the blanket thrown over the "bed", his toes freezing.. After a small tug of war, he managed to get enough on his side to warm up his feet. Not long after, Eli stirred and pulled the blanket back over her. This back and forth struggle continued until Paul finally sat up and looked over at Eli with a bit of a frown. "Come on.. My damn toes are about to fall off." he grumbled as he tugged the blanket from her again, eliciting a dissatisfied moan from Eli as she turned and looked at him. "Grow a pair, hun.." she said, yawning halfway through the sentance. "When you stop guzzling your carnation instant bitch, wake me up." Paul shot back, dropping back on to the bed with a frustrated sigh.

"Oooohh.. Big man.." Eli began prodding at him like a caged bull. "Sighing? What are you, twelve?" she continued, laughing at her own wit. "Tell ya what.. When you stop living under my damn roof, eating my food, spending MY money like we're the god-damned Vanderbilts, I'll stop caring about my toes being cold. But until you stop fucking leeching off me like you aren't a 19 year old burn out, I'll jerk this damn blanket off you whenever I want!" he growled right back at her. Their voices were raising, with both of them now sitting up and staring eachother down. Only the patter of small feet on the carpet was enough to divert their attention.. A small child, toddler, was looking at both of them and clining to a teddy bear. "Daddy, theres something outside my window." the child said in a high, little girls voice.

Paul sighed again and got out of bed, smoothing down the striped boxers and wifebeater he was wearing as he loped to the houses bedroom, favoring his left leg as he moved. "Alright.. I'll take care of it." he said in his attempt at a calming voice, though he still came off as frustrated. He stopped in mid-step, placing a hand on his daughters shoulder as his ears perked. In a quiet voice, he knelt and said "Ami.. Go tell mommy that daddy says stay put." before grunting a little as he pushed off his knee to get back to his feet. With a sense of actual vigor, he pushed open the door to the room.. The cheery walls, fingerpainted with various murals, brightly colored cieling fan and Spongebob Squarepants bed set on the matress in one of the rooms corners marked this as a childs room.. But he forgot these details as he heard a strange sort of scratching noise at full window that was half foot off the floor and a foot below the cieling, about as wide as he was.

With a slow sense of caution, Paul parted the curtains.. The nightlight was casting an ugly glare, and made it hard for him to make anything out. But, as he soon realized, a branch had come loose from the tree next to the window.. The wind was making it scrape the glass, and it was certainly casting a scary sort of shadow on the wall. "Whew..." was all he could say as he walked back to the livingroom, smiling a little. "Just a tree, thats all.." Paul said, sliding back into the couch-bed and relaxing, trying to find a spot that didn't dig a metal bar into his back. "But I heard it too.. It sounded like this.. Mroooooaaaaahhhh" the daughter said, doing her best to drop her voice as she impersonated the last sound. "It was nothing." he said, wiping his face as he leaned his head back on the pillow. "But... But..." Ami stammered, her voice raising an octave.. She was gonna cry.. "Alright, you can sleep with mommy and daddy tonight." Eli chirped in, sounding just as tired as before.

Before Paul could say a word, Ami had slid under the sheets and snuggled up to his arm, Eli had rolled to face away from them, and everybody BUT him had fallen asleep. "Motherfucker"