“Eric, wake up.”

There was a soft groan as Eric felt himself being shaken. He opened his eyes and stared at the silhouette standing right next to his bed. “What do you want Jasper?” He asked grumpily, he was annoyed that he was woken up in the middle of the night. 

“I needed to talk to you,” Jasper whispered in Eric's ear. He was practically bouncing up and down, clearly excited about something. “It's really important.”

Eric sighed irritably, “do you have any idea what time it is?” He questioned, not taking his bleary eyes off the boy. “What if matron heard you?”

Jasper scoffed at Eric's questions, “it's only midnight.” He responded dismissively completely ignoring the scowl that Eric was giving him. “Matron is probably sound asleep. She only does a patrol once and that's way before midnight.”

Eric let out a huff, he just wanted Jasper to get to the point so he could go back to sleep. He didn't utter a word, instead he waited for Jasper to explain why he woke him up in the middle of the night.

“Remember those cookies in the kitchen?” Jasper asked Eric as he sat down on the edge of Eric's bed. “The ones Matron said we couldn't have because they were cooling.”

Eric frowned at Jasper, why was he sitting on his bed? Why couldn't he just go to sleep? “I remember,” Eric murmured as he kicked at Jasper to get him off his bed but he couldn’t quite reach. “Are you planning on taking them?”

“We are going to take them.” Jasper corrected as he leaned in closer to Eric's face. He was so close that their noses were almost touching. Eric gritted his teeth as he tried to resist the urge to push Jasper away. He saw the Cheshire cat grin and it made him uncomfortable. “And we're going to do it tonight.”

Eric blinked once, then twice as he stared at Jasper without uttering a word. Was he out of his mind? What made him think that he could steal cookies late at night without waking anyone up? Jasper looked at Eric expectantly, he wanted an answer and Jasper wasn’t going to leave him alone until he got one. “Goodnight Jasper.” Eric responded quickly and bluntly as he turned on his side away from Jasper. Hopefully that would send a clear message. 

Jasper frowned at his friend's response. It wasn't like Eric to turn him down like that. This would not do, he needed to rectify the situation. He needed to get Eric back on side. He leapt off the bed to the side where Eric was facing and turned on the lamp on the bedside table. Eric groaned at the sudden light shining in his face and quickly sat upright shielding his eyes with his arm. “Why?!” He cried out suddenly causing the other boys in the room to wake up glaring at them.

“It's fine, Eric just had a bad dream.” Jasper explained to the annoyed boys in the room. “I'm taking care of it.” The boys grumbled under their breaths, calling Eric a crybaby before they lay back down and went to sleep.

Jasper heaved a sigh of relief but Eric wasn't amused. “I was having a bad dream, really?” He hissed at the other boy, he wasn’t happy about being thrown under the bus like that. “Those guys already think that I'm the worst and you say that?”

Jasper smiled sheepishly at Eric, “it was the first thing that popped into my head.” Jasper explained as Eric shook his head and rolled his eyes at him. “So are you in?”

“It's not like I have a choice,” Eric remarked as he climbed out of bed. “You wouldn't leave me alone unless I said yes.”

“Am I really that bad?” Jasper questioned. He only received a nod in response. “Whatever,” Jasper scoffed as he crept towards the door. “Let's go.”

Eric followed him, Jasper reached into his bag and pulled out a torch. He switched it on and opened the door, shining the light into the dark hallway. The torchlight wasn't particularly bright but it was enough to allow him to see. He looked left first towards the bathroom and staff bedrooms and saw nothing. He then looked right towards the girls’ room and the stairs. It was all clear there too. 

“It's clear,” he whispered to Eric. They pushed the door open wider and walked through before quietly closing the door behind them. They didn't want anyone to get suspicious. 

Jasper stepped forward holding the torch out in front of him so he could see where he was going. Eric was close behind him, he looked around nervously. It was the same hallway that he walked through every day. Except in the pitch darkness with a torch as the only light made the place seem eerie. “This place is really spooky at night.” Eric whispered in Jasper’s ear.

“Come on Eric, it's not that bad,” Jasper remarked as he tried to sound as encouraging as possible. “No one's around except us and the monsters have gone away.” 

“If you say so,” Eric muttered as the two kept walking towards the stairs. They were cautious with each step they took out of fear that they may step on a creaky floorboard and wake everyone up. With each step they took they held their breath then released it with each successful step. Once their feet touched the coarse carpet at the bottom they looked around to make sure no one else was downstairs.

They didn’t hear any footsteps or see any other light source so they made their way to the kitchen. Eric stayed close to Jasper, the strange shadows frightened him. “How much further to the kitchen?” He whispered as he glanced around at the overstretched shadows of the hallside table and lamp. He wanted to turn the lamp on to give them more light but that could potentially wake everyone up.

“Not much further,” Jasper whispered back as the two continued to tip toe down the hall. They soon came to a stop at a door that was slightly ajar. Jasper carefully pushed it open and even in the dim torchlight he could see that the room was the kitchen. He looked around and he saw the cookie jar resting on top of the fridge. “There it is!” Jasper exclaimed though not loud enough to wake anyone up. He nudged Eric’s arm and pointed towards the cookie jar.

“It looks really high up, beyond our reach.” Eric uttered as he started to walk away. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Wait, don’t go.” Jasper grabbed Eric’s arm and pulled him back. “We made it this far, we can make it all the way. We just need to walk into the kitchen, grab a chair and use it to get to the jar on top of the fridge. It’s really that easy.”

Eric frowned at Jasper as he tried to stifle a yawn. He just wanted to get back to bed, he wasn’t even in the mood for cookies. “I’m starting to think I need a better friend.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Alright, let’s go, we’ll go together on the count of three. One, two, three.” They both took a step into the kitchen and froze looking around to make sure they didn’t somehow wake everyone up. But when they didn’t hear anything they started to walk towards the kitchen table.

As they walked Eric stopped, “something doesn’t feel right.” He uttered as Jasper turned to face him.

“It’s probably just you being paranoid,” Jasper remarked dismissively as he took another step. “Come on.”

Eric groaned but he continued to follow Jasper. Though with each step they took their vision started to blur. “I really don’t feel right.” Eric spoke up once more as he rubbed his eyes, but that didn’t do much to clear his vision.

“Yeah, me too. I feel dizzy.” Jasper murmured as he almost lost his balance. “What’s happening?”

Eric didn’t say a word, everything around him was spinning and he started to feel sick. He fell to his knees wanting to cry. “I want to go back to bed.” He whispered as he closed his eyes tightly.

“We can get through this,” Jasper reassured him though he wasn’t entirely sure himself. It couldn’t have been something they ate, they would’ve felt sick much sooner. Was it something in the kitchen? “We just need to wait a moment and we’ll be fine.” 

Eric opened his eyes and his vision seemed to clear but then everything started to appear bigger. “Jasper, I think everything has grown bigger.”