He was trying to be funny, except there was a time and place for jokes, and this wasn’t it. Sometimes I wondered if Paul really took his best bud responsibilities seriously. He was supposed to believe me and have my back when nobody else would. After all, if you can’t count on your best friend, who the heck can you count on? I felt my face getting warm. “It’s not crap; it’s blood. I know what I saw. Guess I should have known better than to think you’d believe me.” With nothing left to say, I jumped on the Blue Beast and sped off back down the tree tunnel.
We were exiting it by the time Paul caught up with me. “Hey, c’mon. I was just messing around with you. Be cool, dude.”
I didn’t feel like being cool. I was trying to be serious, and he was busy trying to be Richard Pryor. Why? I didn’t know. It’s not like he had an audience.
He finally took the hint. “All right, all right, sorry. It’s just you have to admit, you don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to living in a place most of us call reality. Remember the time you thought Mr. Davis was a vampire?”
“That’s not fair. That was over a year ago, and I had evidence. The guy was pale as a ghost, and we never saw him during the day.”
“He was an albino, Chris. He didn’t go out in the daytime because he didn’t want to get sunburnt.”
An excellent point, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. “Fine. But we didn’t know that at the time, now did we, Paaauul?”
My friend snorted. “You were all set to douse him in holy water you swiped from Saint Pius. I was the one that talked you out of it.”
“Yeah, so?”
We zipped past the arched entrance to the Belair Stables where generations of some of the greatest racing horses in American history were born and bred. Now the place was a dusty old museum, and the consensus of my friends was that it was definitely haunted.
Paul flashed his trademark goofball grin. “How do you think that would have gone down explaining to your parents? Gee, Mom, Dad, sorry I nearly drowned our albino neighbor in holy water I stole from church, but I thought he was actually a bloodsucking spawn of Satan.”
That actually was a little funny. He earned no points from me for his rational argument. Rational was boring. Rational was predictable. Rational was opposite of fun and exciting and, as such, should be considered the enemy. He did get points for his sense of humor though. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “Okay, maybe I owe you a solid on that one.”
“Damn right. And don’t think I didn’t notice the wooden stakes you had stowed in your closet too.”
I was positive I had those stashed under the carpeting in the back corner of the closet. If he found them, he may also have seen my stockpile of cherry bombs and the old bra ads from the Sears catalogue. “Yeah, well that would have been our last line of defense if Mr. Davis had turned out to be one of the undead. One of these days you’ll thank me for my keen instincts.”
“The day that I have to thank you for being nutso is the day we’re in a shitload of trouble.”
Paul wouldn’t have missed a golden opportunity to zing me if he found the other stuff in the closet. As my stomach slowly plopped back to its natural resting place, I decided to make a priority of relocating my incriminating contraband. Mom would have a heart attack if she found my stash.
“Could be,” I said. “But on that day you’ll be so thankful I saved your life that you’ll vow to be my servant for eternity. You’ll wash my socks, cook my dinner, and babysit for Melissa Dwyer and me.”
“Babysit for Melissa Dwyer and you?”
I smirked at him. “That’s right. We’re gonna get married after high school and have a family. Two boys and maybe a girl. You’ll babysit so I can take Melissa out on the weekends for dinner and to the movies.”
“Does Melissa know this yet?”
“Of course not, goober! First, we’ll date for a couple years and then we’ll go steady. For a classy girl like Melissa you have to take your time, spend some money.”
Paul snorted a laugh. “You do know you’ll actually have to talk to her for any of that to happen, right? Man, I wonder what it’s like to live on Planet Chris.”
“It’s cool. You should come visit sometime.”
We spent all day rotating between the pool, ping pong tables, and snack bar. When Mom and Katie showed up, I made good on my sugary bribe and even spent some time splashing around with the ankle biter—much to Paul’s annoyance. Despite the absence of Melissa and her pink bikini, we had a good time.
Soon enough the sun was dipping below the tree line, and a pale moon was already rising against a darkening sky. We were pruned, red-eyed, and ready to go home.
Chapter 3
After a quick bite and shower, I was off to Paul’s to spend the night. Taking the Blue Beast would have been tricky with the stockpile of board games I was lugging, so I decided to walk the six blocks to his place. On any given summer night, Spindle was buzzing with activity. Whether it was adults walking off second helpings of baked beans or potato salad or screeching packs of kids locked in a heated game of wild hunt—our local souped-up version of tag—chances were you’d run into someone. But tonight was eerily quiet. A full moon floated high above, showering the neighborhood in cool blue light.
In this wonderful netherworld of moon shadows, my imagination began creeping and crawling like kudzu. As I passed the Staubachs’ house, my body grew heavy. Eyes were on me, weighing me down with heavy stares. To my left and right, they watched from the inky darkness. A chill swept over me and I shuddered.
“Stop it,” I whispered. “Not even five minutes out the door, and you’re already imagining sleestak and zombies. Why do you have to be such a freak?”
As if answering the question, snapping twigs drew my attention to a cluster of pines on my right. I froze and stared into the blackness. The logical side of my brain suggested the source of the disturbance was probably a squirrel or maybe a cat.
The other side of my brain was quick to counter. It was the contrary and often crazy side that was constantly getting me into trouble. Too big to be a squirrel or cat; they don’t break sticks.
Maybe a big dog then?
Maybe…maybe something else.
Like what?
Dozens of pairs of shiny blue marbles fluttered open from the shadows. Unblinking, they watched me with an alien hunger. The eyes had mouths beneath them, mouths with pointy teeth that gnashed up and down as whispers drifted on the night air.
I leaned close to hear them.
Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. He sees you.
I was ninety-five percent sure the eyes, teeth, and ominous words were the products of my crazy side, but it didn’t make them any less real to me.
My left leg moved forward first, followed by my right. Something pulled me toward the darkness and the mouths. More of them appeared. Teeth and eyes, eyes and teeth. They were whispering again. He’s watching you. No noses. No ears. Just fangs and glowing blue eyes hovering in the pitch black as if by magic. I stepped off the street and over the curb. They would have me soon.
“Evening, Master Dwyer. Out for a twilight stroll I see.”
The thunk of a game-packed milk crate hitting the pavement echoed down Spindle as I dropped my precious cargo and threw up my fists. “Whaa!”
The moonlight shined off of Mr. Hutchinson’s silver hair. “My apologies. Didn’t mean to give you a start. I was just stretching my legs and enjoying the cool evening air. It truly is a beautiful night,