Jason shielded his eyes from the flashlight as Clyde knelt down in front of him.

  Clyde: 14, Jason's best friend and partner in crime.  5 foot 7, shaggy blonde hair, considers himself a comedian.  

"What the fuck dude!" Clyde said, his eyes wide.  

"I'll explain later, we need to get the hell out of here!" Jason said running to Clyde's beat up nike sneakers.  

"Alright man, let's go. " Clyde answered, holding out his hand.  

Jason climbed in and Clyde lifted him to his shoulder.  Jason grabbed a strand of his hair and when he was stable, Clyde stood and made his way to the open window. He climbed out onto the roof and began to slowly pick his way down, careful not to make too much noise.   Clyde dropped to the ground, landing smoothly. 

  "You good man?" He asked Jason. 

"Yeah, just. . . .just keep moving." Jason said, looking over his shoulder at his bedroom and his home. 

  Clyde ran around the corner to where his old Honda civic was parked.  He jumped into the drivers seat and lifted jason to the fuzzy dice hanging from his mirror.   They said nothing as they drove into the night.   25 minutes later they arrived at Clyde's house.  He shut off the car and just stared blankly for a moment.  

"What. . . . .what the fuck happened to you dude?" He said finally. 

  "It's a long story.  I'll tell you the whole thing in the morning.  Let's just go inside."

Clyde carried Jason up to his  window and snuck back in to his first story bedroom.  He opened his door a crack and peeked out, making sure everyone was asleep before he turned on his bedroom light. He set Jason on one of the many shelves in his room and just stared.

"I. . . . .have so many questions."  He blurted out. "Like. . . . .i was expecting something along these lines by the text you sent me. . . But." 

The text he was referring to was the one Jason had sent him the night before.   [Meet in the batcave.  1357205.  Rick moranis has a small problem.  28954463]

Jason said nothing.

"Truth be told, I was hoping it was Emily that was shrunk."  Clyde said, cracking his trademark smile.  "I would have totally played with those fat little tits!"  He finished, bursting out laughing.

Jason couldn't help but laugh too.  "Emily would still probably kick your ass at this size" Jason replied. 

It felt good to have some degree of normalcy again. 

  "You're probably right buddy."  Clyde agreed.   "So uh. . . .you can sleep. . . " Clyde began, looking around his room.  "In here!" He said, grabbing his box of tissues.  

Jason was overall too worn out to argue.  Clyde set the box on the shelf and took his shirt off.  

"We have a lot to talk about tomorrow man."  He said as he took of his jeans and shut off the light. 

  "Night dude." Jason replied. 

It was quiet in the room for a moment.  

"Hey Clyde?"

"Yeah?"

". . . . .thank you."

The morning came all too soon for Jason.   It was odd not being forced into unconsciousness for a change, and he was glad he didnt dream.  He was startled as Clyde's alarm went off.   A couple minutes later Clyde sat up and rubbed his eyes.   He got up and got dressed as Jason wandered down the shelves, looking at Clyde's action figures and collectables.

   "I gotta go eat breakfast quick man.  My mom leaves for work soon, we'll have time to talk before I go to school. "  Clyde said, opening the door and walking out, closing it behind him. 

Jason didn't know why he even cared. . . But he couldn't help thinking about the routine at his own house right now.  As he jumped down to a lower shelf, and began to walk through Clyde's star wars section, his mind drifted to home. 

  Emily got out of bed and began her school routine, picking out her clothes for the day.  She got in the shower and then dried and brushed her hair.  When she was ready, she went downstairs to the kitchen, where Kylie was already eating her cereal. 

"Good morning kylie." Emily said as she poured herself a bowl. 

  "Morning. . . " Kylie replied, still half asleep.

"So. . . .where do you have him?" Emily asked excitedly as she sat down beside her sister.

   "Where do I have who?" Kylie responded, a slightly confused look on her face. 

"Jason! Duh.  Do you have him tied in a sock or are you sitting on him right now or What?" Emily inquired, curious what style her little minion was into. 

"I. . . Don't have him. . .     I thought you did."  Kylie said nervously.

  Emily's face went pale.

Jason came back to reality as Clyde came back into the room, hand behind his back.  

"I brought you something to eat buddy"  he said, with a smile. 

  "What is it?" Jason asked, his stomach growling.

Clyde brought his hand from behind him, revealing the golden waffle.

"Get the fuck out of here with that!" Jason said, bursting out laughing.

"Come on man!  It's eggo!  You lab rats love that shit right?"  Clyde fired back, laughing too. 

  "Friends don't lie Clyde.  You know your mom buys "our family"!" 

"Whatever dude,"  Clyde said, setting the plate down on the shelf beside Jason. 

"Thank you sir."  Jason said.

"So are you going to tell me your origin story or what?  I need to know what the fuck happened!"  Clyde said, sitting down on his bed. 

  "Ye-Yeah. . . .here goes."  Jason said quietly.

  He began to tell the story from beginning to now, leaving nothing out. A half hour later, Clyde's mind was blown.  

"So, let me get this straight. . . You survived literally every single girl in that house, stomping on you and just in general kicking your ass?  Because your body heals itself?"

"Yeah. . . "

"Dude, that is so bad ass!  Your like. . . . .wolverine mixed with ant-man!" Clyde exclaimed.

"Except I didn't do anything that cool, I just basically survived. "

"Still man. . . .that takes some serious balls."

"Thanks."

Things were quiet for the next few minutes.

"You want to try to call your parents?  I mean, now that you're out of there." Clyde offered. 

"Yeah. . . Put it on speaker."

Clyde grabbed his phone and dialed Jason's dad's cell number.  They both waited by it patiently.   It rang for a millisecond before turning to static.

"What the fuck?  Do. . . .do you have reception? "  Jason asked.  

"That's odd. . It's full strength."

They tried again, this time getting no ring at all.  

"Huh, try my mom."  Jason said, keeping optimistic.

Clyde dialed his mom's number, but got more of the same.

"They must just be out of range or something.   We can try again when I get back from school.   I need to get going.  Just stay here and keep yourself busy.  I have some different model cars you can put together if you want.  Or just watch tv.  Be careful though, my mom might come home and think I left it on."

"Ok man, can you. . . .can you reach out to Rachel for me? Don't let Emily see you, but just let Rachel know I'm ok."

""Will do man." Clyde said, before walking out and closing the door.

  Jason spent the next 8 hours watching tv and assembling Clyde's scale 1970 chevelle.  A few times his heart stopped when he heard Clyde's cat scratch on the door but other than that it was uneventful.  Finally Jason heard the loud exhaust of Clyde's honda, a second later, he burst into the room.

"Dude, we have a problem!"  He said throwing his backpack on the floor and sitting down at his computer.

He fired it up and logged on to Instagram. 

"Look!"

   Jason stepped to the computer screen and what he saw, made his heart sink. 

"They got her, man!  They fucking got her!"  Clyde said, freaking out.

Jason just stared at the screen. On it, was a picture someone had taken of her from behind.  A picture of Rachel.  . . .only someone had shaved all of her beautiful red hair off, leaving her with only a buzz cut.

"Fucking Emily!" Jason screamed, his rage building.

He turned around and kicked the front bumper of the chevelle.  To his and Clyde's surprise, it sailed off the desk and smashed to the ground, small pieces breaking off. 

"Easy man, she's fine"  Clyde reassured him, picking up the model and setting it back on the desk. 

"Well did she at least tell somebody? Or did anyone see it happen?"  

"She wouldn't say who did it.  I guess it's more of a mystery in school than it is to us."

"Did you talk to her?" Jason asked hopefully.

"Yeah, but she had a full head of hair in the morning.  I really don't know how they got to her."

"Damn." Jason said, running his hands through his hair.

They sat in silence for the next few hours, just watching tv.  It was fine with Jason. He missed not having to walk on eggshells to avoid being crushed like one.  He relished the inactivity.  

6 o'clock rolled around and Clyde went to go eat supper with his family.   Jason just sat back and thought about what had transpired.  He had failed to keep Rachel safe from Emily's wrath.  He didn't know what more he could have done, but he held himself responsible for it.

  45 minutes later Clyde came back into the room.  Jason was glad to see that he had snuck him some food.   He stuffed his face as Clyde surveyed his computer.

"You want to try your parents again?  Clyde offered, holding up his phone. 

"Yeah.  I almost forgot about it!" 

  Clyde dialed the number and set it on the desk.  Not a second passed by before static once again filtered through the speaker.

  "Seriously?  What the fuck."  Jason said, double checking the bars.  "It won't even go to voicemail."

"You think there is something interfering with it?" Clyde asked, just throwing out ideas. 

"That's a good question.  I dont actually know where my parents were going.  They told me 50 times but it was whatever." 

They continued surfing the internet and watching tv for another hour before Clyde got a notification from Facebook messenger on his phone. He glanced at it, a troubled look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked, noticing his friends worried look. 

"It's. . .  It's from Rachel. "

"And?" Jason said impatiently. 

"She just said "She knows about the phone!"