The next moment, Jeremy stood amidst a cloud of smoke and stinging vapor. His ears were ringing, and he felt the heavy weight of the pistol in his hand. His arm felt numb, and he began to realize just what had happened. He looked upon the ground and saw the twitching, corpulent body of the Loved One. A moment later, its eyes sunk back into their sockets, and its entire body slumped. Jeremy had killed.

Jeremy could not understand why he felt no remorse. He remembered how he cried when his cat, Snooper, was euthanized at the veterinarian. How he cried when his parents left for vacation. How he cried when he couldn't play with his friends because it was past his bedtime. Those times were long ago, but Jeremy remembered them well. And he felt great sadness. Yet he felt no sadness for this wretched creature that lay still and oozing pasty pink blood out of its wound. Perhaps it was a good thing, if Jeremy meant to do what he planned that night.

Presently, Jeremy neared the White House plaza. He had kept careful track of the days and time, he knew that it was time for the Imagination Game. Just before bedtime, Barney would entertain the children by singing and playing, and the Imagination Game highlighted the entire evening. All of the children would be there. So would all the Loved Ones, to monitor the children and play the music. There was no better time to return.

The first thing Jeremy had to do was find his twin sister, Fran. After so many weeks, he was curious to know what Baby Bop had done to her. As he once again crossed the wide field of skulls, he feared the worst. He dared not look at the decapitated heads for too long, lest he see Cameron's lying there, with his shattered glasses and frosting-smeared mouth.

Off in the distance, Jeremy could hear the faint strains of music and laughter. The night-time games and songs had begun. He climbed the back steps of the building and gently pried open one of the cold metal doors. He gazed down the dim, carpeted hall and walked in. He adjusted his cloak over his head, so if seen, he'd stand to be mistaken for a Loved One. As expected though, he saw no one.

Jeremy remembered that at the thirteenth birthday celebration, Baby Bop had taken Fran outside the party room and down the hall somewhere. He figured that if it was a common route, maybe there would be more impressions marking the path. He eventually came to a well-worn, dirtied trail of carpet, and cocking his pistol, followed it down a corridor and around a passage that led to the cellar. He was surprised at what he saw.

It was a paved, insulated cavern with smooth walls and brightly lit hallways. Flanking each hallway were sets of thick metal doors with wide, square windows. Jeremy sat silently and listened. From behind many of the doors were odd, gurgling noises. Some were shrill cries, other were soft murmurs. Occasionally, the clanging of metal tools could be heard, and Jeremy observed a row of long tables on the far end of the hall, covered with bottles, linen, and blankets.

Jeremy was in a nursery.

He cautiously made his way to one of the doors and peered in the window. He saw a young girl sleeping on a metal bed, surrounded by flowers and Barney dolls. Her stomach was enormously swollen, and Jeremy noticed movement within her abdomen. Something about the scene made him uncomfortably ill. He ran down the hall, peering in each door as he passed along them. Many of the rooms were the same. Young teenage girls in varying degrees of pregnancy, yet with stomachs unnaturally huge for any normal child. Jeremy remembered his aunt who visited him at his house one day, she was almost ready to give birth. But her stomach was never as large as the girls he had seen in the basement. What were these people giving birth to?

Jeremy saw tags on the doors, crudely written in crayon. Names of the expectant mothers. Jennifer. Molly. Susan. Linda. Victoria. Talia. Beth. Brenda. Gretchen. Prudence. Sarah.

Where was Fran?

Jeremy ran down an adjoining corridor, one that had a metallic tinge in its smell and color. At the middle junction, he saw a brightly lit room, visible from a huge sheet of reinforced glass. Jeremy neared closer, and peered in. The sight within made him shiver.

Arranged in neat rows of clear acrylic cribs were newborn children. But they weren't any children as Jeremy knew. They were large, fat, gelatinous creatures with puggish snouts and large, sedated eyes. Their skin hung in great reddish folds, covered with green and brown spots in random patterns. From under their immense, pale bellys hung thick, scaly tails that whipped around clumsily. Most of the infants had already begun teething. Their teeth were smooth, creamy white, and perfectly cropped. The horrid mass fumbled in their cribs, chittering and gurgling, staring stupidly back at the terrified boy.

Now Jeremy knew who the Loved Ones really were and where they came from. He suppressed the desire to scream in terror, and scampered down the hall, hoping to find Fran. He wasn't quite sure where one particular corridor would lead, but he followed it in the vain hope of finding his sister. At the end of it, he saw a door with a sign on it. The word on the sign was unknown to Jeremy, and it was scrawled clumsily with a red crayon: MORGUE.

The smell was overpowering as Jeremy walked in. The room was enormous, and painted in an institutional grey-blue. Only a few of the room's fluorescent overhead lights were on, and they flickered sporadically. Arranged in straight columns were gurneys with sheet-covered lumps upon them.

Summoning up his courage, Jeremy lifted one of the sheets.

Whoever it was, she had been dead for sometime. The skin was a marbled white, and the eyes were glazed and dilated. She had long brown hair and faint red freckles dotting her cheeks. As Jeremy looked further, he noticed a great recession in her stomach, and lifted the nightgown. What he saw made him violently ill. She had no stomach left, and there were signs that indicated something had burrowed its way out from within the cavity. This young woman had been the unfortunate mother of a Loved One, like many others laid upon the cold steel gurneys of the morgue.

Jeremy ran frantically down the corridor, forgetting that someone could hear him. He ran down another brightly lit hall, past another nursery. From behind the glass, Jeremy could hear the evil spawn gurgling and crying. His only wish was to escape from this unimaginable horror. He looked about the corridors in a complete state of dread and confusion.

"Jeremy! Is that you?"

Jeremy froze. Slowly he turned around. It was Fran.

She stood outside her door, clad in purple and green pajamas. She looked well kept and groomed. She smiled and ran towards him. "Oh Jeremy, I've missed you so much!"

Jeremy ran towards his sister and the two embraced. He was amazed at how well she looked. She stood back and stared at the guns and knives he carried.

"Jeremy, what is all that? Why are you back from China so soon?"

"China? You mean they told you I went to China? Don't you know what happened to me? To Cameron?"

"Barney told me you went away to China, and that you would be back real soon," she replied. "But look at me. Baby Bop and the Loved Ones have been giving me so much love and attention since my birthday. I feel just like a queen."

Jeremy looked at his sister. She looked far more cleaner and healthier than he did. He remembered the last words he heard Baby Bop tell Fran before leading her out of the Oval Office: "It's every girls' dream come true!"

Jeremy swallowed hard and asked his sister, "Fran, what was your 'Special Gift'?"

"Barney and Baby Bop are going to make me a mother!" Fran joyfully replied. Her eyes sparkled and her whole body cringed with excitement. "Barney says it won't be much longer until I'm ready, then they're gonna put a specially created baby inside my body, isn't that wonderful?"

"Oh no . . . ." said Jeremy, his voice getting strained. "No, Fran, don't do it! Look, let me tell you what happens to those who bear children for Barney. They're dead. And their children, they aren't normal. They're monsters! We've got to get you out of here Fran, you'll die if you stay. Barney killed Cameron and he tried to kill me. He doesn't love you, he'll let you die!"

"No!" shrieked Fran, covering her ears. "Don't tell me such things. Barney loves me, and I'm going to be a happy mother! A happy mother, Jeremy!"

Jeremy reached for his sister. As he did though, a green scaly arm grabbed his shoulder. He was pulled behind and looked into the baby-like eyes of Barney's sinister companion, Baby Bop.

"For shame, Jeremy, making your sister cwy like that! Don't you know it's not nice to lie? Shame, shame, shame, naughty Jeremy!"

Jeremy thrashed and hollered, but the green and pink dinosaur held on with uncanny strength. Baby Bop motioned Fran to return to her room but the girl only wandered back halfway. Baby Bop latched both hands onto Jeremy's shoulders and shook him violently.

"Bad, bad, Jeremy-boy! No manners for sister! Wait'll I get Barney down here, he'll teach you to be so bad! Do you know what happens to bad, bad boys? Do you?"

Jeremy stared in stunned horror at the squeaky-voiced reptile. He could only shake his head.

"They get the blade, they do! Bad boys get cut! Deep, deep, deep cut!" And with a motion smooth and silent as the wind, Baby Bop pulled a thin, tapering dagger from under her blanket. She thrust it toward Jeremy's wrist.

Jeremy caught her by the hand, and the two fell upon the floor, struggling. She began giggling demonically, prying the dagger closer to Jeremy's tender young skin. From behind, Jeremy could hear his sister screaming. The next moment he pulled his other arm free and unstrapped his Bowie knife. He thrust it upward, meeting soft green flesh.

Baby Bop gave a shrill cry, and staggered back. The knife had lodged deep into her shoulder. She desperately tried to pull it out, screaming profanities and inaudible curses. Jeremy leveled his pistol at her and fired.

The impact of the shot flung the green and pink dinosaur several feet backwards. The recoil knocked Jeremy flat against his back.

When Jeremy recovered, Fran was kneeling over him. "Jeremy! Jeremy! Are you okay?"

Jeremy slowly rose and stood, rubbing his arm. He looked down the hall at Baby Bop. The giggly dinosaur lay flat in a puddle of pinkish ooze, motionless.

"Jeremy, you . . . you killed Baby Bop!"

Jeremy put his arm gently on Fran's shoulder. "Sis, you need to see something".

The two of them hurriedly dashed past Baby Bop's body, and over to the morgue and nurseries. Putting it mildly, Fran was mortified at what she saw.

"I can't believe it," she muttered. "I was going to have one of those? And die from it?"

"That's not even half of it," said Jeremy, reloading the pistol. He dumped the empty cartridges upon the floor and snapped the chamber back into place. "Barney and Baby Bop have been killing older children for years. Their heads are in the back plaza. He must not want any of us growing into adults."

Fran and Jeremy quickly made their way out of the cellar. At the foot of the stairs, Jeremy carefully aimed his gun at a set of pipes and cords lacing the ceiling. He fired several shots into them, causing steam and sparks to spray everywhere. The lights began to flicker wildly, and the two children ran up the stairwell. Once at the main doorway, Jeremy and Fran pushed furniture and other heavy items against the metal doors. Smoke and steam began seeping from the cracks. Beyond the door, the children heard bestial screaming and clawing noises at the barricade. They hurried outside.

Jeremy and Fran caught their breath upon exiting the building. He could tell his sister was shaken and scared. He put the gun back under his shirt and talked to her.

"It's gonna be okay, Sis, it's gonna be okay."

"I want my parents back," she said. Her voice lacked emotion, she had been through enough. "What do we do now?"

Jeremy looked at his sister, then back at the White House. Great plumes of flame poured from the building. The entire scene was bathed in a hellish glow of gold and fiery red. He remembered his shotgun and slid it out of his coat pocket.

"I need to see Barney", he said. Off in the distance he could hear the singing of children.