Anthology: On A Summer's Day, Dreams, The Thirteenth Thirteen

In the middle of summer vacation, on what feels like the hottest day of the year, a family enjoys a day at the local park downtown. One of the children, Phobos Agosti, feels the most uncomfortable during these scorching months. He runs off from his siblings in search of their mother to ask her to leave, but his journey leads him to a strange man in the alleyway that Phobos feels naturally drawn to. An unnamed person describes their cage, unable to escape no matter how hard they try. Endless torture, begging just once to have a dream that they can wake up happy. A dream where the same man doesn’t haunt them every night. It wouldn’t be as bad if they weren’t a lucid dreamer, feeling every bit of pain that he afflicts onto them. The Thirteen household has had their fair share of bad luck, from fires to break-ins to unfortunate circumstances that made all twelve of them share a crowded house together. Lawrence, his wife, and his kids were the first to live there; Grandpa moved in after divorcing his cheating and thief wife; and Lawrence’s brother with his wife and daughter moved in after they lost their house in a tornado. Just as the house gets more crowded, more messes occur. They all get past it as a family, until the phone call.