The Green Dawn-Siders

Chapter 1

My name is Danny Marsh, and I'm here to tell you the most terrifying story of my life. A story so scary, so totally twisted, that you'll never look at the sunrise the same way again.

It all started when my family moved to Willowbrook. What a joke of a name, right? There weren't any willows, and the only brook was a gross, slimy ditch that ran behind the cemetery.

"Danny, you'll love it here," Mom said as we pulled up to our new house on Maple Street. "Fresh air, friendly neighbors, and look—you can see the most beautiful sunrises from your bedroom window!"

Fresh air? Try the smell of rotting leaves and something else... something I couldn't quite identify. Something that made my stomach churn.

The house was old. Really old. The kind of old that makes you wonder what horrible things happened inside its walls. Paint peeled from the shutters like dead skin, and the front porch sagged like a frown.

But the worst part? The bedroom Mom mentioned—my new bedroom—faced directly east. Which meant every morning at exactly 5:47 AM, I'd be blasted awake by the rising sun.

Or so I thought.

Chapter 2

The first night in my new room was a nightmare. Literally.

I dreamed of green light. Not the normal green of grass or leaves, but a sick, pulsing green that seemed to breathe. In my dream, shadowy figures moved through this green glow, their faces hidden but their eyes... their eyes burned like emeralds.

I woke up in a cold sweat at 5:47 AM. Right on schedule.

But here's the weird part—the truly bizarre, spine-tingling part—the light streaming through my window wasn't the warm yellow-orange of sunrise.

It was green.

"Mom!" I yelled, racing downstairs. "Mom, something's wrong with the sun!"

Dad was already at the kitchen table, sipping coffee and reading his newspaper like nothing was happening. Like the world hadn't just turned into some twisted science fiction movie.

"What's wrong, sport?" he asked without looking up.

"The sun! It's green!"

Mom laughed. Actually laughed! "Danny, you must still be sleepy. The sun looks perfectly normal to me."

I dragged them both to the window. Sure enough, hanging in the eastern sky was a regular, boring, yellow sun. But I knew what I'd seen. I KNEW it.

"Maybe you need glasses," Mom suggested.

Glasses? I had perfect vision. This wasn't about glasses. This was about something much, much worse.

Chapter 3

At Jefferson Middle School, I met my first Green Dawn-Sider.

Her name was Sarah Chen, and she sat behind me in Mrs. Peterson's math class. During a pop quiz on fractions (which I totally bombed, by the way), I felt someone tap my shoulder.

"Psst," Sarah whispered. "You saw it too, didn't you?"

I turned around. Sarah's dark eyes seemed to shimmer with that same sick green I'd seen in my dream.

"Saw what?" I whispered back.

"The green dawn."

My blood turned to ice water. "You... you saw it?"

She nodded slowly. "Every morning at 5:47. But only some of us can see it. Only the chosen ones."

"Chosen for what?"

But before Sarah could answer, Mrs. Peterson's voice cut through the classroom like a knife.

"Miss Chen! Mr. Marsh! Perhaps you'd like to share your conversation with the rest of the class?"

"No, ma'am," we both mumbled.

After class, I cornered Sarah by her locker. "What did you mean about being chosen?"

She glanced around nervously, then pulled me into an empty classroom.

"There are others," she said in a hushed voice. "Kids who can see the green dawn. We call ourselves the Dawn-Siders. But Danny..." Her voice dropped even lower. "Something's happening to us. Something terrible."

"What kind of terrible?"

Sarah rolled up her sleeves. My jaw dropped. Her arms were covered in scales. Not human skin—actual, honest-to-goodness reptilian scales that gleamed with an oily green sheen.

"It started three weeks ago," she explained. "First the scales, then other... changes."

"What other changes?"

She opened her mouth. Instead of a normal human tongue, a long, forked thing flicked out and tasted the air.

I stumbled backward, knocking over a desk.

"Don't be afraid," Sarah hissed. And I mean literally hissed—like a snake. "You're one of us now. The transformation will begin soon."

Chapter 4

That night, I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Sarah's scales, her terrible tongue. Was that going to happen to me?

At 2:30 AM, I heard scratching at my window.

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

I peeked through the blinds. Standing on the roof outside my second-story window was a kid from my school—Tommy Brennan. But Tommy looked... different.

His skin had a greenish tint, and when he smiled, I could see that his teeth had grown into sharp fangs. But the worst part was his eyes. They glowed with that same sickly green light I'd been seeing.

"Let me in, Danny," he whispered, though I could hear him perfectly through the glass. "We need to talk."

"Go away!" I hissed.

"You can't fight it," Tommy said, pressing his face against the window. "The change is coming. You felt it this morning, didn't you? The pull of the green dawn?"

He was right. During the sunrise, I had felt something. A strange tugging sensation, like the green light was calling to me, inviting me to step outside and bathe in its glow.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"To help you understand. Tomorrow night, meet us at the old cemetery. Midnight. You'll learn the truth about what we really are."

And then he was gone, scuttling across the roof like some giant lizard.

Chapter 5

The next day at school, I spotted more of them. Green Dawn-Siders. They were everywhere once you knew what to look for.

Jessica Martinez had scales creeping up her neck from underneath her turtleneck sweater. Brad Wilson's eyes had developed that telltale green glow. Even quiet little Amy Rodriguez was changing—I caught her eating a live beetle during lunch.

But the adults couldn't see it. Teachers, parents, the principal—they all acted like everything was perfectly normal.

"Danny, you look pale," Mrs. Peterson said after math class. "Are you feeling all right?"

If only she knew that half her students were turning into reptilian monsters.

I tried calling in sick, but Mom wouldn't hear it.

"You're just nervous about the new school," she said. "Give it time."

Time. That's exactly what I didn't have.

That afternoon, I felt the first tickle on my arm. I rolled up my sleeve in the bathroom and nearly fainted.

A single green scale had appeared on my wrist.

The transformation had begun.

Chapter 6

I almost didn't go to the cemetery that night. Almost.

But I had to know the truth. I had to understand what was happening to me, to all of us.

Willowbrook Cemetery was even creepier at midnight than it looked during the day. Gnarled trees cast twisted shadows across the weathered headstones, and somewhere in the darkness, an owl hooted mournfully.

I found them gathered around a massive tomb in the center of the graveyard. There had to be twenty kids there, all from my school, all showing signs of the change.

Sarah stepped forward. In the moonlight, I could see that her transformation was nearly complete. Her skin was covered entirely in scales now, and when she walked, she moved with a serpentine grace.

"Welcome, Danny," she said. "You're ready to learn the truth."

"What truth?" My voice cracked with fear.

Tommy emerged from behind the tomb. He was barely recognizable as human anymore. "The truth about the Green Dawn," he said. "About what lives beneath our town."

They led me to the tomb. The name carved into the stone was weathered and hard to read, but I could just make out: "SOLOMON GREENVALE - 1687-1742."

"Solomon was the first," Sarah explained. "A warlock who made a deal with something ancient and terrible. Something that sleeps beneath Willowbrook."

"What kind of something?" I whispered.

"A creature older than human civilization," Tommy said. "It feeds on sunlight, but not just any sunlight. It transforms the dawn light into something else. Something that changes anyone who sees it."

"Into what?"

Sarah smiled, revealing her own set of fangs. "Into its servants. Its children. We're not becoming monsters, Danny. We're becoming something better. Something perfect."

The scales on my wrist began to itch and burn.

"The creature is waking up," Tommy continued. "After centuries of sleep, it's finally ready to rise. And we—the Green Dawn-Siders—will help it remake the world."

Chapter 7

I ran.

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, crashing through the cemetery gates and racing down Maple Street toward home.

But I could hear them behind me. Not running—slithering. The sound of scales against concrete, getting closer and closer.

I burst through my front door and slammed it shut, throwing the deadbolt.

"Danny?" Mom called from upstairs. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, Mom! Everything's fine!"

Fine? Nothing was fine. Nothing would ever be fine again.

I examined my arm in the bathroom mirror. Three more scales had appeared, forming a line up toward my elbow. The skin around them felt hot and tight, like it was ready to split open.

I had to do something. But what? How do you fight an ancient creature that lives under your town? How do you stop a transformation that's already begun?

That's when I remembered something Sarah had said. Solomon Greenvale. The warlock who made the original deal.

If he started this, maybe his tomb held the key to stopping it.

Chapter 8

The next morning, I forced myself to watch the sunrise.

At exactly 5:47 AM, the sun appeared over the horizon. For a few seconds, it looked normal—warm and yellow and safe.

Then the green filter slipped over it like a lens, and I felt the pull again. Stronger this time. The urge to walk outside, to let the green light wash over me completely.

The scales on my arm tingled with pleasure.

I gritted my teeth and looked away.

At school, I avoided the other Dawn-Siders. But I could feel their eyes on me constantly. Watching. Waiting.

During lunch, I snuck out and rode my bike to the Willowbrook Public Library. If I was going to find information about Solomon Greenvale, that was my best bet.

The librarian, Mrs. Holloway, was ancient. Like, possibly older than the building itself.

"Solomon Greenvale?" she repeated when I asked. "Now there's a name I haven't heard in years. Local legend, you know. They say he dabbled in things man wasn't meant to dabble in."

She led me to the local history section and pulled out a dusty volume titled "Dark Tales of Willowbrook County."

"Chapter seven," she said. "But Danny... be careful what you go looking for. Sometimes the past is better left buried."

If only she knew it was trying to unbury itself.

Chapter 9

According to the book, Solomon Greenvale was Willowbrook's first settler. He came to the area in 1687, claiming the land around what would eventually become the town center.

But Solomon wasn't interested in farming or building a community. He was interested in what lay beneath the ground.

The local Native American tribe—the Kitanawa—had legends about the area. They called it "The Sleeping Place" and avoided it completely. They said something ancient and hungry dwelled in the depths, something that fed on light itself.

Solomon didn't listen to their warnings. He built his house directly over what the Kitanawa called "The Breathing Cave" and began conducting experiments.

The book didn't go into detail about what kind of experiments, but it mentioned "unnatural lights" and "children born with scales instead of skin."

Sound familiar?

Solomon's own journal, discovered years after his death, contained one particularly chilling entry:

"The creature has promised me eternal life in exchange for feeding it the light of dawn. But it wants more than just sunlight. It wants the life force of the living. I have agreed to provide it with a new generation every fifty years. Children who will serve as its vessels when it finally rises."

Every fifty years.

I did some quick math. If Solomon died in 1742, and the cycle repeated every fifty years, that meant...

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no.

The next rising was supposed to happen this year. This month.

This week.

Chapter 10

I had to get back to the cemetery. Had to find Solomon's tomb and figure out how to stop this.

But first, I had to survive one more night.

The scales were spreading faster now. They covered my entire left arm and were starting to creep across my chest. My vision was changing too—colors looked different, sharper. And I was developing a craving for... unusual foods.

I caught myself staring at a spider in my bedroom corner for a full five minutes, wondering what it would taste like.

At 11:30 PM, they came for me.

I heard the scratching first. Not just at my window this time—all around the house. On the walls, on the roof, coming up from the basement.

I peeked through the blinds. The entire Dawn-Siders army was surrounding our house. Twenty, thirty, maybe forty kids, all in various stages of transformation. Some still looked mostly human. Others were almost completely reptilian.

And leading them was someone I hadn't seen before. An adult. A man in old-fashioned clothes with skin like polished jade and eyes that burned like green fire.

Solomon Greenvale. Somehow, impossibly, still alive after all these centuries.

"Danny Marsh," he called, and his voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. "You cannot hide from your destiny. You are one of the chosen. Come outside and embrace your true nature."

"Never!" I shouted.

Solomon laughed, and the sound was like breaking glass. "You think you have a choice? Look at yourself, boy. Look at what you're becoming."

I caught my reflection in the dark window. The scales had spread to cover half my face. My eyes were starting to glow with that familiar green light.

"The creature is rising," Solomon continued. "Tomorrow, with the green dawn, it will finally break free from its underground prison. And you will help it transform this world into something beautiful. Something perfect."

"What if I refuse?"

"Then you'll die. And we'll find another to take your place."

I heard glass breaking downstairs. They were coming inside.

Chapter 11

I grabbed my baseball bat and crept toward my bedroom door. The house was dark except for that eerie green glow that seemed to follow the Dawn-Siders wherever they went.

I could hear them moving through the house like a pack of predators. Slithering across the floors, climbing the walls, tasting the air with their forked tongues.

"Mom! Dad!" I yelled, but no one answered.

I found them in their bedroom, standing by the window like statues. Their eyes were open but blank, staring at nothing.

"They can't hear you," Sarah's voice came from behind me. I spun around. She was crouched in the doorway like some giant lizard, her transformation now complete. "The creature's influence grows stronger as it prepares to rise. Soon, all the adults will be under its control."

"Let them go!"

"They're not being harmed. They're simply... waiting. Tomorrow, after the rising, they'll understand. Everyone will understand."

More Dawn-Siders began filing into the room. I was trapped.

"It's time, Danny," Solomon's voice echoed through the house. "Time to join us willingly, or be taken by force."

I gripped my bat tighter. "I'm not going anywhere with you freaks."

That's when Tommy stepped out of the shadows. Except it wasn't really Tommy anymore. The thing wearing his face was seven feet tall, covered in gleaming green scales, with claws like kitchen knives.

"Don't make this harder than it has to be," he hissed.

I swung the bat at his head. It connected with a sound like hitting a rock. The bat shattered, and Tommy didn't even flinch.

"Now that," he said, grabbing me with one clawed hand, "was rude."

Chapter 12

They dragged me back to the cemetery, to Solomon's tomb. But now I could see it wasn't just a tomb—it was an entrance.

The massive stone had been rolled aside, revealing a tunnel that descended into the earth. Green light pulsed from its depths like a heartbeat.

"Behold," Solomon said, spreading his arms wide, "the dwelling place of the Great One. The Bringer of the Green Dawn."

They forced me to the edge of the tunnel. The smell that rose from below was indescribable—like rotting vegetation mixed with something alive and alien.

"Look," Sarah whispered in my ear. "Look and see your master."

I looked.

At the bottom of the tunnel, maybe fifty feet down, something moved. Something huge and ancient and hungry. I couldn't make out its exact shape in the shifting green light, but I could see eyes. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.

And they were all looking at me.

"WELCOME, CHILD," a voice said inside my head. Not heard—felt, like worms crawling through my brain. "TOMORROW, WITH THE GREEN DAWN, I WILL RISE. AND YOU WILL BE MY HERALD."

"I won't do it," I said through gritted teeth.

"YOU ALREADY ARE."

I looked down at my hands. The scales covered them completely now. My fingernails had become claws. And when I opened my mouth to protest, a forked tongue flicked out.

The transformation was almost complete.

Chapter 13

They chained me to Solomon's headstone to wait for dawn.

As the hours passed, more of my humanity slipped away. My thoughts became clearer but colder. The part of me that cared about my parents, my old life, my human friends grew smaller and smaller.

By 5:00 AM, I could barely remember why I'd been fighting this in the first place. The creature below called to me, and I wanted nothing more than to answer.

At 5:30, the sky began to lighten in the east.

The other Dawn-Siders formed a circle around the tomb, swaying and hissing in an ancient language that somehow I now understood.

At 5:45, Solomon stepped forward and raised his arms.

"Behold!" he cried. "The Green Dawn comes! The Great One rises!"

The eastern horizon began to glow. But instead of the usual yellow light of sunrise, this glow was the sick, pulsing green I'd come to know so well.

The creature in the tunnel stirred.

"YES," its voice filled my mind. "YES, I FEEL THE LIGHT. I FEED ON THE LIGHT. SOON I WILL WALK BENEATH THE GREEN SKY AND ALL THE WORLD WILL SERVE."

The green sun crested the horizon.

And that's when something inside me—some last, stubborn fragment of Danny Marsh—decided to fight back.

Chapter 14

I remembered something from the book about Solomon. Something I'd almost forgotten in all the chaos.

He hadn't been the creature's willing partner. He'd been its prisoner, just like us. The journal entry about making a deal? That had been him trying to convince himself he had some control over the situation.

But the creature had tricked him. Used him. And when it was done with him, it had let him die.

Or so everyone thought.

Looking at Solomon now, I realized the horrible truth. He hadn't died in 1742. He'd been transformed, just like us. Turned into something between human and reptile, doomed to serve the creature for centuries.

And if I didn't stop this, I'd end up just like him. We all would.

The green sunlight was growing stronger. I could feel the creature's presence pushing against my mind, trying to take complete control.

But I fought back.

"No," I whispered.

Then louder: "NO!"

The chains holding me to the headstone began to crack. My transformation had made me stronger than I'd realized.

"NO!" I shouted, and the chains shattered completely.

The other Dawn-Siders turned toward me, hissing in anger and confusion.

"The boy fights the calling," Solomon snarled. "Subdue him!"

But I was already moving. My reptilian body was faster and more agile than my human form had ever been. I leaped over the circle of Dawn-Siders and landed beside the tunnel entrance.

The creature's eyes fixed on me. "YOU CANNOT RESIST ME, CHILD. I AM ANCIENT. I AM ETERNAL."

"Maybe," I said. "But you're also stuck in a hole in the ground."

And with that, I grabbed Solomon's headstone—all three hundred pounds of it—lifted it over my head, and hurled it down the tunnel.

Chapter 15

The creature's scream wasn't something you heard with your ears. It was pure psychic agony that made everyone in the cemetery collapse to their knees.

The headstone struck something soft and wet at the bottom of the tunnel. Green ichor sprayed up like a geyser, and the creature's scream grew even louder.

But I wasn't done.

I grabbed another headstone. Then another. I hurled them down the tunnel as fast as I could lift them, each one striking the creature and driving it deeper underground.

"STOP!" it commanded. "YOU SERVE ME! YOU MUST OBEY!"

"I don't serve anyone," I said, launching a marble angel statue into the depths. "Especially not some oversized cave worm with delusions of grandeur."

Solomon tried to stop me, lunging with his claws extended. But I was ready for him. I caught him in mid-leap and threw him down the tunnel after the headstones.

His screams joined the creature's as he fell into the darkness.

The green sun was climbing higher, but its light was fading. Without the creature's influence, it was returning to its normal yellow color.

All around the cemetery, the Dawn-Siders were changing back. The scales were disappearing, their eyes returning to normal human colors. They looked confused, disoriented, but human.

I looked at my own hands. The scales were gone. My claws had become fingernails again.

The creature gave one final, defiant roar from the depths of the tunnel. Then I heard rumbling, and the tunnel began to collapse. Tons of earth poured down, sealing the entrance forever.

Or at least, for another fifty years.

Epilogue

That was three months ago.

We never talk about what happened that night. The other kids who were Dawn-Siders don't even remember most of it—their minds have blocked out the trauma.

But I remember everything.

Sometimes, late at night, I can still feel the creature stirring far beneath the ground. It's not dead—something that ancient doesn't die easily. It's just... sleeping again.

Waiting for its next chance to rise.

I've been doing research, trying to find a way to destroy it permanently. But I'm just a thirteen-year-old kid from Willowbrook. What do I know about fighting ancient cosmic horrors?

The sun rises normally now. Warm and yellow and safe.

But every morning at exactly 5:47 AM, I wake up and check the eastern sky. Just to be sure.

Because I know the creature is patient. It can wait fifty years, or a hundred, or a thousand.

And when it finally does rise again, it's going to be really, really angry.

My name is Danny Marsh, and I saved the world.

I just hope I'll be strong enough to save it again when the time comes.

Because trust me—that time will come.

And next time, I might not be so lucky.

The End

...Or is it?