Bloody Skeleton Series #1 The Monster in the neighborhood

8-Dreaming

Mikey was startled awake in the middle of the night. Past two, by the clock beside him on a bedside table. His room was filled with moving shadows in the dim light provided by the lava lamp quietly sitting beside him.

His window was open, a slight breeze fluttering the blinds, but his skin was clammy and sweaty, and his throat was dry. It was a nightmare, that much came to him, one of those nightmares there was so terrible and realistic you hoped it was just a dream and that you'd wake up. Frightened but calming down, he sat up fully and washed a warm hand over his face.

'Huh?' He paused. There was somebody on the street, he could see from his window.

Quietly, gently, as if the person on the street might hear if he made suspicious noises, Mikey edged towards the window.

It was a cool night, and the breeze that blew in made him shiver. The moon was full, and it hung like a luminescent pound of round cheese, with puffy, fat clouds floating nowhere close to it. Along the street, across the street actually, Mikey could see something moving.

He peeked around the curtain, using it as cover, and watched.

Across the street, he could see a small creature creeping along. Most houses down the street had outdoor lights, so even when it was late at night, it was pretty bright in some parts of the street.

Jerry's house had only 1 outdoor light; the one having outside, beside his door.

The thing crept past Mrs Neville's lights, and it was Sugar!

Mikey's sigh of relief was almost audible. He didn't even want to think about why he'd been holding his breath.

What was Sugar doing this late at night?

Maybe she was hunting a rat or something.

Mikey watched though, smiling to himself. He wished he could call out for her, so she'd climb to his window and sleep on his bed. His mom was probably the only person in town that didn't like Sugar.

Even though she got shots from the only vet in town, Dr Freda, his mom still didn't like the idea of a stray cat inside the house.

Sugar crept slowly to Jerry's dark compound, swallowed up by the darkness so that she was another shadow, moving like the ones in his room.

She hissed, loud enough to startle Mikey for a moment.

She growled like she did when she saw something she didn't like and jumped on the road. Her back was up and bent in that aggressive way, and she kept hissing and snarling at the shadows of Jerry's compound.

Mikey's heart was beating in his mouth, but he pressed his head almost out of the window to watch. He could see Sugar better now. The lights from his house and the street lights reflected on her.

He could see the hairs on her back stand, her tail piercing the air.

She hissed and swiped at nothing. Never once looking away from Jerry's ominous compound.

Mikey tried, but he could see what was there. The only patch of bright orange light spread in a halo around the front door. It stretched towards the curb but didn't reach too far, fading into the shadow about a foot from the edge of Jerry's lawn.

But whatever Sugar was hissing at wasn't there, it was more to the right, closer to the garage that was completely in the shadows. Unlike most of the homes on the street, Jerry's garage was just a space beside his house. The house on one side, the fence on the other. The yard on one end, the lawn on the other. No sliding metal door to be washed once a month or to protect the car when it snowed.

Mikey's dad had mentioned once that he'd help Jerry make it into a proper garage before winter. His mom didn't think they'd get it done in time, but his dad had waved her off. It wasn't a big deal.

Sugar faded for the right, stopped, hissed, and scrambled for the left.

'Gah!' Mikey squeaked and fell back, rolling off his bed to the ground. His hands were pressed firmly against his mouth, as if doing it now would erase the noise he'd just let out.

On the ground, wide-eyed and afraid, he tried to make sense of what he'd just seen.

Maybe he hadn't seen right.

Cautiously, Mikey swallowed and started for the window again, crawling to the foot of his bed and pausing.

Yeah, maybe he hadn't seen right.

Slowly, he strained up, to look over the ledge of his window. The street was completely clear. Empty and quiet.

No cat, no hissing, no tentacle reaching out from the dark to snatch hissing cats. Up the street, down, it was very empty, as if everything had been in his head.

Mikey was swallowed, just about to inch back from the window when he caught something. Something moving around the shadows of Jerry's car. It was silhouetted, but it was so obviously there, that Mikey's mind emptied.

For a moment it was as if everything stopped. Mikey stared, and the shadow stared back. Then it slithered away, and the world continued.