DING...DING...DING...DING... Esther woke up in a sweat from the early summer heat. "That damn alarm clock," she thought to herself. She looked down under her bunk bed in the room she shared with her brother and threw a pillow at him to wake him up.

"Erec, shut that thing off," she groaned. Looking over at the clock, it was dancing around, proud of the noise it was making. The alarm clock was situated on the bedside table next to Erec. Scattered around the alarm clock were marbles, pencils, pens, among other normal items spread around the room. It started kicking the contents ontop of the table at Erec and Esther.

Erec rolled out of bed and said to the clock, "we can sleep late, its summer break - let us go back to bed." The clock pretended not to hear him and continued kicking the contents of the table at Erec. With a thud, Esther hopped down from her bed, grabbed the clock, and shoved it in the top drawer of the bedside table.

This was how the twins normally woke up. Around the house were many similar types of strange lifelike items. Their mom would order them from some online store that went by the name Vulcan. All of these items had a mind of their own, and when they had company, it was always Erec and Esther's job to hide them from them.

Their family was poor, and were always moving from city to city, home to home, growing poorer as they did so. They had moved nearly a dozen times this year alone. Because they were on the move so much, friends were hard to make and much harder to keep.

Esther looked at Erec and did a V-Vicotry pose having gotten the alarm clock to stop making its noise. Erec smiled and got out of bed. They didnt have much room to move around and get dressed, but they made do and walked out of their small room.

They shared this small new york apartment with a fair few other siblings and their adoptive mom June O'Hara. Their mom certainly had an odd taste for the children she adopted, all of Esther's and Erec's siblings were unique. Erec looked in the mirror, focusing on his eyes. One of his eyes was fake - made of some type of plastic. Esther pushed him aside and looked in the mirror to fix her hair. She had a fake eye as well, opposite of her brothers.

Their other siblings had odd traits with them as well. Nell was eleven and needed a walker, Trevor, nine, never speaks. There was another set of twins besides Erec and Esther, Danny and Sammy. Their mom picked them up somewhere where they were along and abandoned. The youngest, Zoey, at only four years old was beyond wild.

Erec was tall, thin, and had dark brown hair that was always in a mess. He could never get the back to straighten, it was a curly mess. Esther was also tall and thin, and had shoulder length brown hair, but unlike her brothers, hers was easy to take care of. Something Erec had that set him apart from his other siblings was something he called his "cloudy thoughts." Whenever he had them, it would always leave him noxious and hazy. Once he had one of these thoughts, he was forced to act on it. If he ignored them, his whole body would start aching, until he lost control and was forced to go along with his thoughts.

Erec has yet to do any bad things with these thoughts though. Pulling a cat out of a trash can, putting a blanket down so his youngest sister wouldnt hit her head while falling. Nothing too bad, he just didnt have a choice when they happened. Esther did not have anything like this though. She was fairly normal except for her fake eye. Out of the corner of her eye, Esther saw a shadow flick into view and out of view. Sometimes she would feel like she was being watched, or that something was there when thee was nothing, but she never could confirm anything.

Walking out of the bathroom, the twins ran into a walking coat rack, another one of the Vulcan items with a mind of its own. The coat rack always liked doing a little dance for attention whenever anyone would walk by, but the family had learned to just ignore it.

In the kitchen now, Erec grabbed his favorite cereal and poured himself a bowl. Esther reached over and stole the bowl that Erec had just poured for himself and starting taking a couple large bites. They were not alone in the kitchen, otherwise they would have started arguing, but Erec was used to this and just grabbed another bowl.

Danny looked over at Erec, "She woke me up" he said. Sammy chimed in, "youd have woken up too if that thing was staring at you like it was us."

Esther asked in between a mouthful of cereal " what are you all talking about?"

Sammy pointed to the small living room space and infront of their front door was a very large women. She had clown makeup on her face and on her fat cheeks were red circles.

"who is she??"

The baby sitter. Her chair must be a Vulcan item if it hasnt broken under her weight though. The poor thing" informed Sammy. "I woke up and she was standing over my bed, staring at me. It was one of the scariest things i think ive ever experienced."

Esther asked, "Did she wake anyone else up? its still really early?" Sammy replied, "No, i think just me and Danny. She was only staring at me"

Danny smiled and said, "Another secret admirer you have, just like you to always be surronded by clowns." Erec let out a small laugh and continued eating his cereal. Sammy laughed too, bringing a cheerful mood to the kitchen.

"where is mom, though, she doesnt normally leave the house this early?" Esther asked. "Maybe to find a job" Danny replied. They had just moved into this apartment from another city, so i guess their mom took no time off in looking for work. Because of their large family, their mom was always working to support them all.

Out of the corner of the kitchen, a ding was heard, and a couple pieces of burnt toast flew across the room into the mouths of each of the siblings. The toaster was another Vulcan product, except it wasnt as annoying. Its aim was near perfect with the way the bread arced across the room into each of their mouths.

Esther suddenly had a cold sweat, "why didnt mom tell us about the sitter, we didnt have time to put the Vulcan items away." She quickly got up, bread in mouth, and pushed the toaster in the cabinet, the coat rack in the closet, and did a quick glance around the room to look for any other items left out. Danny looked at her and said, "dont worry about it, the sitter will just think she is crazy. It would give a good act to go with her clown makeup." Erec and Sammy giggled, but Esther kept throwing the miscellanious small items into hidden drawers out of site.

Erec grabbed his chair and dropped his head, out of nowhere, a cloudy thought was happening. The familiar sick feeling and the commands popping into his head. "Go find your mother - look around outside Grand Central Station. The hot dog stand".

Those were his instructions and he started fidgeting his hands, already being restless from not getting started right away. Danny, Sammy, and Esther all looked over, "another one of those cloudy thoughts?" Esther asked. Erec nodded his head and stood up to start following his instructions.

"I need to leave and go find mom," Erec said. "But how will you find her in this big city," Sammy responded.

Danny chimed in, "He will find her. All he has to do is walk around and he will find what he is looking for. Its not like he is in control right now anyways." Erec nodded, and went to look around for a note or anything that might help him locate his mom outside of just the instructions that he received from his cloudy thought.