If my parents could figure it out, maybe they wouldn’t be getting divorced. But “I’m just a kid.” What do I know?
My feet hit the bottom of the slide, and I push open the door behind the cabinets leading into the pantry. Penny thinks I don’t know where she hid my favorite Nerf guns, but that’s just what I let her think.
I take out Red Devil—I named it myself—and grab a few darts. I cut a bigger hole through the squishy orange end and shove a marble inside.Perfect. I make five more, then switch to putting tacks in the end.
The bad guy is stomping around upstairs.
I load my gun and slip out of the pantry, tucking extra darts into my belt.
I sneak around the kitchen and living room, hiding behind the pillars like the world’s coolest spy. I’m invisible, a ghost. No… the Boogeyman!
The man is somewhere near my mom’s room. Aiming my gun at the small bullseye at the top of the stairs, I yell, “Hey, King Kong, want a piece of me?”
The idiot comes running. Some people just don’t learn. I hit the bullseye hard enough to release the load. Marbles rain down, pelting his head and raining down the stairs. And my mom wondered why I bought a thousand marbles with my credit card. Such an underrated child’s toy.
“You!” he sneers, pointing a monster-sized finger at me.
Yikes. If only I’d been able to buy Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.
The man thunders down the stairs, holding onto the rail, so he doesn’t slip on more marbles. I aim the Nerf gun behind me, shooting randomly as I run away. He makes a funny noise. I got him. So why is he still chasing me?
Where to now? I could hide behind the Christmas tree or in the treasure box? No. He’ll find me.
I climb into the bounce house but… my eyes connect with his big black ones. Okay, so he’s kind of scary. Like, worse than Voldemort and The Blob and Chucky.
He stomps toward my bounce house. He’s not going to climb in here with his shoes on, is h—
He climbed in.
“Sorry, it’s only for kids!” I yell.
“Not if I pop it!” He pulls a knife out of his boot and stabs the floor.
“Ahhhhhh!” I scream backing away from him.
I tumble down the slide and smash into the corner of the treasure box. My eyes fill with tears, but I won’t let him see me cry. I swipe at them as I watch my bounce house deflate. The middle sags, and I hope it will take him too, but he just stomps over it like Sasquatch.
That’s it. I’m never watching a scary movie again. I want more parental supervision!
He’s coming for me and… I’m out of ideas.
That never happens. I always have another trick up my sleeve.
But my brain is empty.
I’m… scared. That’s what a racing heart means, right? That or a heart attack. I’ll have to Google it.
I run, shoving my Chucky Santa behind me, but it doesn’t slow him down. Nothing does. He’s invincible.
“Get back here!” the man roars.
He’s so close. What if he gets me? I’m too young to die!
I zoom through the kitchen and dart into the pantry and onto the slide.
But slides don’t work both ways.
“Gotcha.”
