Are you asleep, or are you dreaming? 
This was the question that rang out in your head. You look down at your hands. Then at your feet. Then your clothes. Why were you so small?
You had gone to bed that night as a 13-year-old, yet in your dream you were tiny again. You had not worn these clothes since you were two years old! What was going on?
You had been to this place before,  you were certain. It all seemed familiar. Carrying the metal lantern in your fingertips, you waddled slowly through the night, not being able to see further than a few feet in front of you due to the thick wisps of fog that blanketed your vision. Feeling the warm breeze caress your face, you inhaled. The air smelled damp, like it had just finished raining, but you couldn’t remember it having done so. Lanterns, as big as post boxes, swayed in the wind, shedding a feeble, hazy glow across the never-ending blackness. You shivered. Something was wrong. Surely dreams couldn’t feel this real?

In the distance a flash of silvery lightning licked across the sky: a snake’s forked tongue lashing out in fury to strike its prey. The world was on fire. It was natures turn to take its revenge.

The group had been travelling together for days, fighting their way through the jungle. They had exhausted themselves wrestling with vines and branches, drenched in sweat as the heat attacked them.

All around them the air was heavy; each breath was a gasp. The jungle climate was oppressive, and they were in need of rest.

As the group made their way through the dense foliage using the rusting machetes that they found, they had glimpsed the hidden temple. Approaching the door with a sense of growing trepidation, they knew they had to go inside; curiosity and desperation had got the better of them…

It was the middle of the night when they came.

A typical autumn evening, there was a scattering of fallen, auburn leaves on the highway. Light leaked from a flickering streetlamp, which buzzed faintly as the light bulb struggled.

The wind moaned quietly, and the leaves crackled as they rose and fell, dancing as if controlled by an unseen puppet master.

A humming noise was the first sign of their arrival. In the distance at first, then filling the street as it came closer. It hovered several feet from the road, tilting slightly from side to side as if surveying the land around.

A little girl gasped as she watched from her bedroom window…