Ayla was the first one to spot Scarlet as she came running up the hill, “There she is! Finally!”

In between heavy, tired breaths, Scarlet spoke, “Sorry I’m late! I came as fast as I could!”

“You must be Scarlet!” Eloise said excitedly.

“That’s me!”

“We were worried your mother wasn’t going to let you come. Neil told me a little bit about her.”

“I just told her that all my other friends were coming,“ Scarlet grinned. “She let me come because she didn’t want me to be left out.”

The children walked towards the graveyard until they finally spotted Eloise. “See that purple girl over there? That’s her,“ Neil whispered. “Try to be nice!”

The group continued forward and Eloise greeted them with a big smile. “Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for coming here. I know it’s not great.”

“I’m just glad we’re not meetin’ underground at my house so that I don’t have ta clean my room!” said Rhea. The rest of the children chuckled.

“I suppose I should introduce you to everyone, Eloise,” said Neil. “This messy green one is Rhea, in the orange shirt we have Cameron, and his girly double is his twin sister Ayla. Rhea, as you probably guessed, is a goblin, while Cam and Ayla are from the dream realm.”

“It’s so nice to meet you all!” Eloise replied.

A few days later, Neil and his friends gathered together to meet Eloise at a graveyard. The children took longer to get together than expected, so it was almost night by the time they had arrived.

“Ayla and Cameron made us late because their mom made them change clothes first. She said that if they were goin’ ta go out in the dark, they’d better be wearin’ somethin’ bright,” Rhea explained.

“That’s okay, I was chatting with Eloise while I waited for everyone to get here. Does anyone know if Scarlet is coming?” Neil asked, looking a little disappointed.

“I know she got permission, but that doesn’t mean she’s always going to come,” Ayla replied.

“We’ll just have to get started without her then. If we stay out too long, we’re all going to end up in trouble,” Neil said with a sigh.