I woke up with a start, finding myself in that weird building again. The ground suddenly rumbled and I got up, thinking it was an earthquake.

"DA---DDY!" a loud but demented sounding child's voice called out in the night.

I got out of the bed and went over to the window when suddenly this huge eye socket appeared. I yelled, falling to the ground as a huge child's hand reached in, breaking the glass. It grabbed me up and pulled me out of the hole it had made in the building and pulled up to its face.

"Daddy?" it asked.

"I'm not Max!"

"Have you seen my daddy?" it asked, turning its head at me in question.

"Actually, no I haven't, sorry..."

"Okay..." it said sadly.

The child put me down gently outside and I watched the gigantic thing walk around the house, calling out for Max. I shook my head in confusion and then looked back at the house, finding Max peeking through a window. He pointed to the front door and I got up, going to it.

*********************

I opened the door and Max was waiting there, looking anxiously over my shoulder.

"Is it gone?"

"It's somewhere out there but not near here... What the hell happened to it?"

"I don't know. It's like the more I keep trying to get away from it, the bigger it gets. Before I realized it, it had turned into a giant and has been guarding the outside of the house, looking into the windows trying to find me. It's getting harder and harder to keep away from it."

"I mean, did you piss it off or something?"

"Not that I'm aware of. It doesn't act out or do anything violent. It just calmly tromps around calling out for me. It's extremely patient; it'll wait for days on end so that I will pass by the window."

"Days? How long does it feel like it's been for you?"

"Weeks; why how long has it really been?"

"A day since I last saw you, about two or three days overall."

"Time in here sucks..."

"I thought you said you couldn't leave the house? How come I was able to?"

"If No Face pulls you out of the house, that's the only time you ever get to see the outside. If you escape its grasp, the only place left to go is back into the house and then when you get into the house the same thing happens as before."

"DA----DDY!" the child yells again.

"Come on, the more center we are to the house, the less chances of it finding us will be."

I closed the door and we walked deeper into the house.

**************************

Max was right regarding the timing of wherever we were. It felt like days as we roamed around the house, trying to keep away from the windows and trying every door we came across. As we went through the house, there were a couple of things that were becoming apparent. One was that No Face wasn't attacking the house like Max said but even when it would peak into the windows, it didn't really do much. The only time it did anything with the house was because it actually saw me or Max and was trying to grab us. Every other time it seemed like it was actually kind of lonely and at "night" I could swear I could hear it crying. When I asked Max about it though, he said it did that so that it could lure us to the window, make us feel sorry for it so that it could grab us and make us stay. I have a weird feeling that Max keeping away from the child or the child wanting to keep Max with it is the whole solution to this problem. I think there's something more to this...

The other problem, though, was of a different and somewhat off the wall nature.

*******************

"Uh, Max?"

"Yes?"

"This... wouldn't be your doing, would it?"

Max looked over his shoulder and me and then made a face.

"What the hell?"

"I've been feeling kind of off for a bit and just happened to see this."

We both just stood there, looking at my stomach, which was starting to protrude with distinct hardness that was not because of fat. For some reason, I was getting pregnant. I had a theory, but nothing really seemed to match up if it were the case.

"I may be mentally trapping myself in this weird house with a giant faceless baby outside, but I wouldn't even wish being impregnated on my worst enemy, so I'm not doing that."

"I didn't think you were. I think I might know though..."

"Well, pray tell cuz I mean..."

"The only thing I can think of is what me and that alien I met up with in my head had talked about. I told him that I wanted to help and I wanted them to stop messing with you. They said that they needed to do 'experiments' on your mentality and that your pregnancy was part of that research. They said they really couldn't use me because I wasn't pregnant, so maybe they are doing this to me in here because they don't have the ability to physically do this to me."

"That would make sense, I guess..."

"With everything that's happening in this place, it feels pretty real so any- ugh!"

I doubled over, my stomach pushing against my arms as it got bigger, stretching against my will. I yelled in pain as I stood back up, leaning back on the wall. Max looked completely helpless as we both just watched my stomach bloat with child or whatever it could be. After a few minutes, it finally stopped, and I breathed heavily, my stomach distended much farther along than I expected.

"You look like you're about to enter the last trimester... god, do I look like that?" he asked, not disgusted but genuinely sounding curious.

"A lot more stretch marks though." I said, straightening up to walk. It was hard to get my balance. "How the hell do you do this? How can you possibly be okay with having to deal with this?"

"I'm not." He said, looking at me with a low expression. "I just hide it well and hope for the best. I don't want to be a burden on anyone."

The ground started to shake, like something was running, when the sound of something cracking made us look up. A few moments later, the whole top of the building came off and No Face peered inside.

"Daddy?!"

"Holy shit, come on!" Max yelled, grabbing my hand.

I'm not sure what running was going to do when the whole roof was gone but I guess it was better than nothing. It was hard to keep up with Max, though, with this growing attachment not seeming to let up.

It felt like days as we ducked and hid in the house, trying every door we came across and even began marking them. No Face would take the roof off every now and then to look inside but we continued our quest. The longer we were here, the bigger my stomach got, blowing up like I was pregnant with twins and now it's like I'm carrying triplets. I don't know how much they are going to throw at me, but I'll take whatever it is. If it keeps Max from having to endure something, I'll deal with it...

As we get to the last door in the house, it's clear that we are not going to be escaping any time soon and Max fell to his knees, looking at the door we had marked 1 and the last door in the building.

"We'll never get out of here... or rather, I'll never get out of here... which begs to question: why are you still here?"

"Does it matter?" I asked, leaning against the wall as I breathed heavily.

"Well, yeah-"

I yelled in pain again, my stomach stretching outward beyond its capacity. Max had stretch marks but now I think I have him beat. I looked like I was mauled by a wild animal at least twice and somehow lived to tell the tale. Max held my hand as my body compensated for the growing, my hips widening and almost making me fall to my knees, my chest tightening and slightly bulging out. I looked down and made a face at that and Max looked at me too.

"Um... I don't know about that one."

"Lucky you, you ass." I said just as they tightened again.

"Maybe they are just enhancing the experiment a little since they don't have a physical body to work with? Like, seeing if they add some elements what would happen?"

"I would rather just be pregnant."

A weird sensation went through me and I stiffened, realizing that this may have been the end of the growing.

"Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know if if I die here if I die in the real world?"

"...Why?"

"Because I think I've stopped growing now... it's time to do other stuff."

"WHAT?!" Max yelled just as the roof of the house opened up and No Face peered inside.

Seeing us, it threw the roof away and put it's hands on either side of the open roof.

"Daddy! I found you!"

"I think I might know how to get you out of here, Max." I said, watching No Face as it began to reach inside the house.

"Can we talk and run?"

"No! This is not what you're supposed to do!"

Max moved as No Face missed him. "Mars, if I get caught by it then it will hypnotize me into staying!"

"Silly daddy!" No Face said, giggling as it kept reaching in and missing Max.

"I think you need to face it and tell it the truth."

"What truth?!"

A pain went through me and I shuddered, pressing against the wall.

"It's obvious that that kid is your baby. It's calling for you because it wants to be with you but I think the reason it hypnotizes you and keeps you captive is because it knows you're lying. You're just feeding yourself lies to keep from feeling guilty. Tell it how you really feel."

Max hid under the table and No Face looked in confused.

"Are you sure?" Max asked, looking at me.

"It's worth a try. This is your prison and for some reason that thing –your baby- is keeping you hostage. Why? Why would it try to keep you here if you've done everything you can for it? It has to do with you somehow. There's not much else you can do."

The child picked up the table and threw it over its shoulder.

"I found you!"

The child started reaching in as Max stood up, holding his hand out.

"STOP!"

The child stopped and pulled its arm back, looking at Max curiously.

"Can we play?"

"No... no, I think... I need to tell you something."

"Is it a secret?" it asked, seeming excited.

"Hurry!" I yelled, feeling the pain getting worse.

"Yes, it's a secret but I can't tell you while you look like that. Is there a way to go back to normal?"

The child seemed to shrink before our eyes, getting smaller and smaller until it was the toddler size it was before. It looked over at me and I could tell it was frowning.

"Why are you like that?"

"Can you help him?" Max asked.

It shook its head. "We didn't do that... What's the secret, Daddy?"

Max looked at me as I nodded and he got down on his knees, getting level with the child.

"I need to say something to you that I don't want to say but if I don't, I don't think you'll let me leave."

"Okay..."

Max breathed in. "I hate you... I hate you so much. I hate what those aliens did to me. I have having to carry you around and act like I'm okay so that I don't bother anyone else. I hate that you won't let me be and that you're holding me hostage in my own mind! I hate how you've taken over my body like a parasite and that I can do nothing about it because it isn't even your fault! I hate that I hate you!" Max put his face in his hands, sobbing. "I hate that I can't be alright with you because it isn't your fault either. Neither of us had a choice in the matter and I would never ever hurt you... I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry that I can't love you and I'm sorry that I forced myself so much to accept you that I made this prison... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

To my surprise, the child didn't seem angry at all and reached out, touching Max's hand that was covering his face.

"I know, Daddy." Max looked up from his hands. "Thank you for being honest with me. That's all I really wanted."

"I wish I could love you... You don't understand how much I wish I could."

"Don't worry. You might not love me, but I love you."

Max's eyes widened as No Face put his hands on Max's cheeks.

"I don't have a face because you don't want to give me one. You don't have to love me, but I love you because even though you do hate me, you won't hurt me. You saved me in so many ways and for that I'm thankful. Maybe one day you'll have enough love for me to actually 'see' me and I'll have a face, but right now I'm just thankful to have a person like you who would make sure I'm safe even you're not."

As if a spell had been broken, Max's face softened and he grabbed the child's hands into his own.

"I'm sorry."

This time, it was a different type of sorry and before my eyes, features began to fill into the voided face of the child.

"Please forgive me, Kasai."

A huge smiled formed on the child's face and the dark and dismal atmosphere turned bright and sunny, the house seeming to repair itself around us.

"I have a name!"

"I know that I can't love you exactly how I want right now, but knowing that you love me, even after what I said, I'm going to try."

"I know."

"Will you let me leave now?"

"It was never me. I was part of it, but the one keeping you prisoner here was you because you felt guilty and scared." He looked over at me. "But who is that?"

"That's um... Uncle Mars. You'll meet him one day."

I smiled a little, feeling weak and still in a lot of pain. The kid –Kasai- looked at me again and frowned.

"How come you're here?"

Max looked at me and frowned too.

"I've been wondering about that myself. I know that you made some sort of deal with the aliens about waking me up, but what exactly did you do to be able to stay here for so long? You were only supposed to come here when you fell asleep..." I just stared at him. "Mars?"

"About that..."

"What did you do, Mars? How come you were able to stay here for so long?"

"Does it matter? Look..."

Max looked behind him to where I was pointing. A door that hadn't been there was shining and glowing, indicating that it was the way out. Kasai grabbed Max's hand.

"You can't stay here anymore, Daddy."

"Mars, what the hell did you do?! MARS!"

"Don't worry about it, Max. The fact that I'm here is a good thing."

Kasai yanked Max hard and opened the door, pushing him in.

"You have to go!"

"MARSDEN, WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!" Max screamed as Kasai gave one final shove and he was through.

The door shut and the world began to seep black, indicating that it was crumbling. Kasai looked at me.

"Thank you for helping my daddy."

"Of course, but... why am I pregnant? What exactly is going on? How was this all possible?"

As the darkness eroded the world away, Kasai only stared at me for a moment and then gave a grin. He put his finger over his mouth and gave me the peace sign with the other. Those sons of bitches...