"Um..." Mark spoke uncertainly. "Here's your present." He brandished a small neatly wrapped parcel from behind his back. Caleb took it from Mark's hands, smiling. "Thank you so much," he said. "Yeah, whatever, it's no big deal," Mark said, obviously embarrassed. 

Just then someone came up to the punch bowl, ladling some punch for themselves. The person ended up splashing punch all over themselves, with none landing in their cup, but they didn't seem to notice and walked away as if nothing had happened. 

Caleb looked at Mark with a puzzled look on his face. Mark simply shrugged. Caleb went to amble around his party. He saw a young boy standing by himself and went over to say hello. 

"Hey there," Caleb said, smiling and crouching down so that he was at eye level with the boy. The boy looked up. "I'm Caleb, and this is my birthday party. What's your name?" Caleb asked inquisitively. 

"I'm Parker," the boy responded in a monotone. "Parker? Like Peter Parker? That's so awesome," Caleb said in an attempt to brighten the mood. "Ah yes, Peter Parker, the fictional character that was bitten by a spider and from there on out gained the same abilities as the arachnid," Parker said, still in a monotone. 

Caleb stared, unsure of what to say. "Uh, yeah, like him," he finally answered. Weirded out by his conversation with Parker, he saw a group of girls from school all standing completely motionless, with their eyes glazed over. 

As soon as they saw Caleb watching them, they immediately started talking and laughing with each other like normal. Utterly perplexed, Caleb shouted "What is wrong with you people?!? You're all robots!" 

Suddenly everyone froze. All of their eyes glazed over and they stayed perfectly still as if they hadn't just been talking, laughing, and eating. Caleb looked around, desperate to find someone who wasn't frozen and ask them what was going on. 

He spotted Mark walking towards him. "Mark! Thank god," he exclaimed. "What the hell is happeni-" 

Mark put his hand on Caleb's shoulder, looked directly into his eyes, and said "There's something I should probably tell you."