It was a long, excruciating day of junior high for Phoenix Burger. He was dreading the school day to be over, but at the same time, he did not want to go home. Phoenix had jet black hair and dark brown eyes. His parents were on the verge of getting a divorce, which explained his quiet characteristics. He would think a lot, but would hardly ever speak in the classroom. When it came to presentations, only people in the first row of desks could hear him. He always knew that he would do something amazing in his lifetime, but no hobbies fit him well. When he’s at home, he sits in his room and reads, while he tries to mute out the sound of yelling and shouting from his parents.
Only 10 minutes, and I can get out of here, Phoenix thought.
The day was overloaded with mind-gouging quizzes. He was exhausted, but he still had a challenging Algebra test on his desk. He was stressed out because he forgot to study the night before and feared his parents’ reaction to the bad grade he was about to receive. His hands were shaking violently and his heart was racing. He was pushing his pencil so hard against the test paper that the lead broke. As Phoenix got up and started to walk towards the pencil sharpener, it seemed to be getting further away from him. His vision started to blur and he passed out onto the floor.
He woke up to his classmates surrounding him and he could hear one of them saying, “He’s waking up, he’s waking up!”
“Everyone be quiet and give him some room to breathe,” the teacher, Mr. Oliver said.
Phoenix sat up quickly with a confused expression on his face. Mr. Oliver put his hand on Phoenix’s chest immediately and told him to lie back down.
“You’ve passed out. You’re going to need to relax.”
As soon as Phoenix could get up, he was sent to the nurse’s office. The nurse advised him to go home, so that he could relax and rehydrate. When Phoenix arrived at his residence, something seemed different. His room was no longer a mess, and the whole house felt empty.
“Mom… Dad?” he called.
There was no reply, so Phoenix heaved his backpack up the stairs and into his tight-fitted room. As soon as he laid down on his warm, soft bed, he saw his mom looking at him through the doorway. She was smiling and looked cheery for a change. Her dark brown hair gleamed in the light, and was styled in a way Phoenix had not seen before. She was wearing her old-fashioned cooking apron, which Phoenix had not seen her wear since he was a kid.
“You look happy”, Phoenix said, shocked.
“I’m making supper for my adorable son, why shouldn’t I be happy?” His mom answered.
Phoenix did not know how to reply. He was glad that his mother was joyful, and so he decided to go downstairs with his mom to see what she was making for dinner. As Phoenix walked down the staircase, he could not smell or hear anything cooking. When he wandered into the kitchen, he saw that his mom had already set out a plate of food for him. Phoenix sat down at the dinner table and noticed his mom staring at him from across the table. She was smiling widely at him. At this point, Phoenix was very confused as to what was going on. 
“Where is dad?” Phoenix said softly. He was not used to asking questions to his parents, but he felt obligated to do so.
“He’s gone, Phoenix”, his mother answered.
“Well, where is he?” Phoenix asked attentively.
“He was taken away before you were born. Don’t you remember?”, his mother responded.
“No. I don’t remember. What are you talking about? I saw him yesterday when I came home from school.” Phoenix replied bewildered.
His mother stood up from the table and started to walk towards him. Phoenix stared at her in astonishment. She walked over to him and picked him up and started to carry him away as if he was a weightless stuffed animal. Phoenix started to wiggle and fight in her grip, but he could not break himself free. He was scared and confused; he did not know what was next for him.
“I think you could use some sleep”, his mother said in a soft voice.
Phoenix did not like the sound of that. He started to fight harder to release himself from her grasp, but he wasn’t making the slightest bit of progress. All of a sudden there was a flash. Phoenix fainted from the bright, beaming glow.
When he awoke, he was lying on the cold hard ground right outside of where his kitchen used to be. He sat upright to see that where the front of his house used to be, was now a gaping hole of about 20 feet. Phoenix jumped to his feet in awe. As he stared at the demolished front side of his home, he began to recall what had happened. He looked beside his feet and saw ashes. His mother was incinerated.
He ran up the partly obliterated staircase up to his room, and looked at himself in the mirror to see if he had been scared or damaged in the blast. He did not have a single scratch, bruise, or burn mark on him. He went into shock. He could not calm himself down. He was afraid.
After some time had passed, Phoenix left the half destroyed house and started to walk down the empty street in his neighborhood. As he walked down the street, he was attacked. He did not see it coming. He didn’t know what was going on, but all he knew was that he was being looked at strangely from the girl who was now on top of him.
Phoenix looked up and saw the girl’s face. She had dark brown hair and her eyes looked very familiar. It was Kylie. Phoenix had seen her in his class at school the day before. As Phoenix looked closer, he noticed a very weird sparkle that was appearing in her eyes. He looked down and noticed a blade that was being held up against his neck.
“Stop, please stop!” Phoenix begged.
The girl stared at him for a second and then jumped off of him as if she had seen a ghost. Phoenix got up slowly as the girl backed away from him.
“What’s wrong?” Phoenix requested.
“You’re not like them.” Kylie replied.
“Like who?” Phoenix asked.
“Like them.” Kylie responded.
Kylie’s finger shot up like a catapult. She was pointing directly behind Phoenix. Phoenix jolted around and saw the army that stood in front of him. The robots, which were similar to Phoenix’s mother, began to march in unison towards the two of them. With every heavy stomp of their feet, the ground shook. Phoenix hit a wall of terror. He knew he had to escape.
When he turned around, the girl who was named Kylie dissolved into nothingness. Behind where Kylie used to be were now more robots. Phoenix was soon surrounded. Nothing could’ve stopped these machines, and nothing did.
Phoenix awoke in fear. He was surrounded, but not by robots. His classmates were standing over him. He finally was safe.
“It was all a dream! I’m safe, but most of all, I’m alive!” Phoenix exclaimed.
Phoenix jumped up and ignored Mr. Oliver’s advice to lie back down.
“What was your dream about?”, the class demanded.
“I was being attacked by robots and my mom had gone psycho. Kylie, you were in my dream, too.” Phoenix explained.
When Kylie looked up at him, her eye sparkled, just like it had in the dream. Phoenix went silent. He looked at her and she looked at him.
“Are you sure it was a dream?” Kylie implied.
All of the students stopped talking. There was a dead silence, and then there was a knock on the classroom door. Phoenix walked slowly up to the door and turned the knob. When the door opened, Phoenix was snagged by his arms and the class never saw him again.
Some of the students recalled that they saw machine-like figures outside the classroom door, and others said that they didn’t see anything at all. Nobody ever knew what happened to Phoenix Burger that day, and many of them didn’t want to find out.