[color=bc8dbf][i]Alex tripped backwards in an effort to get away from the thing, which in turn leapt at her, jaw gnashing wildly. Slamming her fist at it, she winced pulling back a small pale fist, dripping blood, dark and sticky, too thick for normal blood, and a pulsating purple-blue colour, definitely the wrong colour to be blood, but oozing from her shredded skin none the less. The gloves were gone, like they had never existed. The dog-thing’s massive jaw wrapped itself round her other arm, crunching down with bone tearing impact, more of the goopy blood spraying everywhere, it’s jagged teeth shards sawing through her, tearing at her skin. She opened her mouth to scream, no sound coming out, the dog thing’s nonexistent eyes glowing colours she couldn’t see, it opened it’s maw for another bite coming closer and clos…………………[/i][/color]



“Lex, Lex??” 
[color=92278f]“Mmmuuummmppphhhh.”[/color] Rolling over and grimacing, Alex, opened her eyes, blearily looking round, trying to work out where she was. “Lex?” Rick was sitting on her bed, ……no not on her bed, on his. Which meant… she had slept in his room? [color=92278f]“Huh?”[/color] she mumbled, still not fully awake, [color=92278f]“Why am I here? Where’s the dog?”[/color] Pulling her arms up to her face she examined them, proving to herself that they were still there and intact. Tucking her hands in her armpits she glanced at Rick waiting for an answer, even though she probably knew it. “You came first thing in the morning and snuggled in. That’s all.” Slumping down Alex vaguely recalled something like that: slipping out of her coldly lit room, past the night-light, and into Rick’s room. She hadn’t done that for a long time, not since she was [i]much[/i] smaller. She would come and snuggle with Rick whenever she had had a bad dream, a nightmare she didn’t want mum and dad to know about. She didn’t remember what she had dreamed, and that was probably a good thing. “You okay?” She blinked, looking up at Rick, “Yeah, thanks.” She clambered out of the bed, pausing at the door, [color=92278f]“Don’t tell mum and dad?”[/color] Slipping away once she saw him raise a single finger to his lips. 

After changing and a bird-bath in the bathroom sink, Alex felt much better, heading downstairs, she grabbed a couple of hash-browns from the freezer, dropping them in the toaster after guiltily checking that no one was watching. According to her mother cooking them in the toaster would ruin it. The toaster, not the hash-browns, which came out all nice and crispy. 

Predictably it was just as she was hooking the hash-browns out of the toaster that her mother walked in. “Alexa, what have I told you about hash-browns in the toaster?” Her mother was in full teacher mode, even calling her Alexa, her ‘official’ shortened name, although she preferred Alex. [color=92278f]“Sorry.”[/color] Alex muttered, mouth mostly full, earning her a disapproving look. “Well, I’m off, love, school texted, one of the teachers called in sick. Arr, why can’t they at least warn me the day [i]before?[/i] I gotta dash, love you.” And with that she was out the door, the car engine starting up and then disappearing down the street. 

Shrugging Alex stuffed the last of her hash-brown in her mouth, chewing furiously as she headed out the door, and over to the workshop. The barn-like building that housed the workshop really needed a new coat of paint, she decided, tugging open the heavy wooden doors and sliding inside, a slight shiver passed through her, as she remembered the dog thing that had been in here in the mirror world. whoopps, she had been trying not to think about that, most dreams were better forgotten, even if they had been exceptionally real. But even so, she wasn’t likely to get back on the computer for a day or so. 

“Morning love!” came a call from her father further back in the workshop. Clomping over, she always wore her facestompers in the workshop, Alex yawned, she wasn’t much of a morning person. [color=92278f]“Morning”[/color] she called, still yawning, so it came out more like; [color=92278f]“Moooaaaaing.”[/color]

Her dad was tinkering with a ……something or other, Alex really couldn’t tell what it was, thanks to it being strewn across the workbench in a million multiple tiny pieces. Frowning she queried, [color=92278f]“so you’re done with the car?”[/color]

Her farther shook his head slightly, absent-mindedly answering, “No, gotta fix the thingie, and attached that other bit to the something.” Alex stared at him disbelieving, [color=92278f]“You do know it was supposed to be done today, right?”[/color] He looked at her, frowning, “yeah on the XX/XX,” 

[color=92278f]“Yep, today.”[/color] She headed off, deicing what needed doing today. Hearing a multitude of bad language from behind her, Alex figured her dad had finally checked the date. 

He’d have the car fixed on time, probably, but only just. There was, she decided, something disconcerting about the way her dad never seemed to use names for things, it was always ‘the something’, ‘that bit’, or ‘thingie’, which often made it hard for others to work there; the main reason Alex helped round the place. 

Skirting the car, for once there was only the one crammed in, she headed for a work-top, preparing to clean it up, it having not been used in quite a while. Flicking one ear of her headphones on, she picked a song, singing along quietly, as she pottered away at the bench.