Jessica was sitting in her room, doing her homework, when her cell phone rang.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hi, Jessica, it's Ms. Candor," the caller said.

"Hi, Ms. Candor. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Ms.Candor said. "I know it's kind of last minute, but I'm going out with some friends tonight. Do you mind watching Macy, around eight? I might not be back until really late."

"No problem. But... do you mind if my brother comes, too?" Jessica asked. She had just watched a scary movie with her friends, and was still shook up about it.

"That's fine. I'll see you at eight."

Jessica hung up and went back to her homework. At eight, she and her brother, Jonah, walked over to the Candor house a few blocks away.

"Thanks for coming, you two. I won't be back till late, and you already know Macy's bedtime is nine thirty. I'll see you later," Ms. Candor said as she left the house.

Walking into the living room, Jessica saw that Macy Candor was sitting on the couch, watching a kid's tv show, with a toy phone sitting next to her. Jessica could see that it was one that made sounds, and lit up.

"Hi, Macy," Jonah said. He sat down next to the little girl. Jessica sat next to him and said hi also.

"Hi, Jonah. Hi, Jessie," Macy replied. She was a doll-like eight-year-old girl, with little blonde curls, big blue eyes, and rosy cheeks. she was wearing a white shirt an a pink skirt with white shoes.

"What do you want to do?" Jessica asked.

"Watch TV," Macy replied.

That surprised Jessica. Macy was always the type of girl who wanted to play some game, like Candy Land or Hide-And-Seek.

Suddenly, Macy's toy phone rang. Jessica jumped, thinking How can a toy phone ring on it's own? But she reasoned that Macy must have pressed a button and made it ring.

"Hello?" Macy said, holding the phone up to her ear. She held the phone there for a while, talking to herself, while Jessica and her brother just glanced at each other.

Eventually, Macy put the phone back and went back to watching TV. Jessica, before she knew what she was doing, asked, "Who was that?"

"My friend," Macy said simply.

"What's her name?"

"His name is Luc. L-U-C."

That's a weird way to spell it, Jessica thought. But what she didn't get was why Macy had told her how it was spelled. She didn't think there was any Luke, or Luc, at all. He was probably her imaginary friend or something.

"Jessica, look," Jonah said, pointing to the TV.

She hadn't been paying much attention to the TV show Macy was watching. Now she looked, and saw that Macy was watching the Sci-Fi channel. Jessica listened for a second, she didn't need to listen very long until she figured out what the show was about. It was a movie about a guy who was running around, knocking people out and collecting their hair in a box. When he was done, he went downstairs, threw the box into the fireplace, then went back outside. He went back to the street he had been on, except now he walked, slowly. The people he had knocked out had woken up, and were running around, screaming and covered in flames. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was because the man had thrown the box into the fire.

"Macy, doesn't your mom tell you not to watch scary movies?" Jonah asked.

"It's not scary," Macy replied. "Besides, Luc says I don't have to listen to Mommy anymore."

Jessica looked at her brother. "Maybe you shouldn't listen to Luc. He doesn't sound like a very good imaginary friend," Jessica said.

"He's not imaginary," Macy said, looking annoyed. "And I don't have to listen to you, either!"

"Macy, don't say things like that," Jonah said.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Macy shouted. She got up with her toy phone and sat down in the armchair to the side.

At the same time, the TV turned off.

"Macy, did you turn off the TV?" Jonah asked.

"Luc did," she replied.

"Um... you know Luc isn't real, right?" Jonah said.

Macy's phone rang again. She picked it up, and soon she handed it to Jonah. "Luc wants to talk to you," she said.

Jonah looked confused, but took the phone. "Hello?" he asked, playing along.

Suddenly, Jonah's eyes widened, and he threw the phone on the ground.

"What's wrong, Jonah?" Jessica asked.

But Jonah didn't say a word. He never said a word again.