Hidebehind

Twenty-Two

I wanted to call Jay the next morning. He was the only person I was willing to talk to about the information cluttering my brain, but I didn't even know where to look for a phone number; since meeting him, I had never called or even gone to his house. It didn't matter though, because he seemed to read my mind and showed up on his bike after we'd eaten dinner.

I told Great Grandma that I was going outside for a bit.

"Penny wants to go out, too, Robert! Keep an eye on your sister!"

"What? No!" I scowled, but there was nothing I could do about Penny. She was old enough to take care of herself, and I couldn't very well tell her to stay inside. So out she came with me and Jay.

"I saw you on the news!" was the first thing Jay said when I left the house.

"Yeah, I didn't want to be on camera. They weren't supposed to film me."

"It was awesome! I never got to be on the TV before. You wanna show me the silo or something?" He let his bike fall over and came up on the patio. Penny wandered off and started collecting flowers.

I shook my head. "No. I don't want to go back over there."

"Oh." Jay sniffed. "Cause I'd really like to see it."

"Well, you can go look some other time. I just want to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

For a second, I just looked at him, squinting up one eye and making sure I didn't feel the need to change my mind. "Can I trust you?" I asked.

Jay shrugged. "What—you got something weird going on?"

"Sort of . . ." I took a breath and just decided to talk. "I know everybody would think I'm crazy, but I know for sure something was chasing me in the woods that night, when—when Alex left me there." I hated saying his name. "And I want to make sure before I keep going that you believe me—that you won't make fun of me or think I'm crazy, too. Because if you do, then I can't trust you."

An expression of stubborn anger crossed Jay's face. "Course you can trust me. I'm the last person in the world to think you're crazy. You're my friend. I believe my friends."

He'd never called me that before . . . his friend. All right. I believed him. "Listen. Something was there. I was perfectly fine in those woods until . . . until I saw it."

"Saw what?"

"The . . . monster."

Jay's eyes widened. We'd been talking relatively normally, but our voices hushed on instinct. "You saw a monster?"

"Sort of," I replied, wondering how to explain. "See, I saw it moving—this dark shape—but every time I tried to turn and look at it . . . it was behind me again. No matter how much I turned, it moved too fast for me to see. It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me, so I just started running, because I knew if I ran, at least I could try to stay ahead of it."

"What happened to it?"

"I don't know. I made it out, I guess, and got away from it. And then you found me. But here's the thing . . . I am pretty sure that this . . . this thing . . . this monster or whatever it is . . . that it's followed me before."

"When?"

"Well, when I was with my Grandpa, for one. I thought it was you that had followed me, because something . . ." I hesitated, not enjoying the memory, "something tapped me on the shoulder. And I thought it was you, so I turned—but whatever. It wasn't you. It was this thing, I think. And it has a name. I was at the library, and we looked it up, and it's called the hidebehind. So it's a real thing!"

Jay's bottom jaw had sort of slowly dropped the longer I talked, so when I looked at him, his face was frozen in this gaze of disbelief.

"I swear, Jay—I'm not making it up."

He shook his head of shaggy blond hair, and for a moment, I was reminded of Great Grandma's mangy dogs, but then he said, "I don't think you are."

"Good," I said, "cause listen to this: I think that whatever happened to that kid my Grandpa went camping with . . . this is the same monster that got him. I know! It sounds kind of crazy, but listen, Jay. My Grandpa has said some weird stuff since I've been here. Stuff about a monster getting that kid, Jimmy, and then he has said things about how that monster is always behind you, so you can't see it. I feel like that is exactly what the thing in the woods was! I could never see it! It was always behind me! That's why I was so scared of it! And there is a real monster called a hidebehind, which makes perfect sense, because that's exactly what it does!" I had gotten a little fired up, but I calmed down when I saw Penny staring in our direction. "What should I do, Jay? I think . . . I think it's after me." The idea scared me more when said aloud. Fear started to well up in me.

"Does it just come around at night?"

"No . . . the time when I thought it was you was during the day."

"Were you actually with your Grandpa when it happened?"

I took a deep breath of relief. "No—it has only happened when I'm alone."

"Inside?"

"Nope. Only outside."

"Just in the woods?"

I chewed my lip. "I don't know for sure. That's what the internet said, and it's been for sure twice in the woods . . . but one time, maybe here, around the house."

Jay thought, seemed to come to some conclusion, then nodded determinedly and said, "Okay. Well then here's the first rule: never be alone outside. Second thing we need to do is get some more education about this thing. If it is out there, and it's after you, you have to know what it's like. How about your Grandpa? Can you get anything from him?"

"Maybe, but most of the time he doesn't want to talk about it, or else he's just out of it and can't talk about anything."

"Hmm." Silence engulfed the two of us. I hoped Jay had something else. This monster business, which had started to come together in my mind just a day or so back, was beginning to seem all the more real now that I'd begun talking about it. I was beginning to feel real creeped out.

"What are you guys talking about?" Penny chirped, suddenly popping up between us.

I jumped at her unexpected intrusion.

Jay ignored her; we were all business right then. "Rob, you see if you can talk to your Grandpa tonight. Stay inside. Tomorrow, I'll be back, and I'll have some more ideas."

There was nothing I could do but agree to his plan, but I felt immensely grateful as I watched him ride off on his bike.

My sister gazed up at me with her dark eyes. "What are you going to talk to Grandpa about? What did he mean?"

"Don't worry about it," I insisted, and then I headed back into the house, pushing Penny along in front of me.