Bloody Skeleton Series #1 The Monster in the neighborhood

10-Tattle

The sounds of growling, grunting, a monster clashing with the game character on the screen, filled the room. They were all quiet, listening intently to the game and trying to go unnoticed so Ned's mom didn't interrupt them.

All of them but Mikey.

He had to say something.

He had to tell them.

Guys, I don't think Jerry's normal. He could already see the look on Ned's face.

You've been saying that for weeks now, Mikey, it's time to let up.

But now he had proof that Jerry had gotten Sugar. He'd snatched her from the street in front of his house last night. He'd seen it happen, had seen the pale tentacle thing whip out and steal her away.

He'd heard her abruptly cut screech.

It wasn't like before when he'd just had a bad feeling, now he knew.

Worse still, Jerry suspected he knew. There'd been the whole thing with his face, managing to morph while still being a face.

It was hard to explain, but they had to believe him. Everyone in town was in danger.

'Mikey!' Harry shoved his shoulder.

Mikey fell back on the carpet and blinked around. The game was loading to a different level, and they were all looking at him.

'You're being weird again,' Harry pointed out.

'Yeah, you haven't said much since you got here. Not even when Jake said something about Marie.'

Mikey righted himself, sitting cross-legged again. 'Yeah, what'd you say?' He asked Jake.

'Seriously dude, are you okay?' Jake gave him a look.

Their eyes were picking at him. It wasn't even as if he didn't want to tell them, he just didn't want it to come spilling out and make him sound like he was making up stuff.

'Have you guys seen Sugar lately?' he asked them instead.

They looked at themselves.

'I mean, I saw her yesterday afternoon,' Harry replied, 'when I rode to the bookstore. She was just on the Cake woman's window licking herself.'

Ned shivered. 'I hate it when she does that. It's disgusting.'

'I'm pretty sure cats do that because they're clean,' Jake said.

'Still...' Ned frowned, then turned his attention back to Mikey. 'Is that it? What's the deal with Sugar?'

'I—I—I just haven't seen her in a while.' Mikey pursed his lips. He didn't want to have them not believing him.

Ned narrowed his eyes at him, and Mikey looked away.

'That doesn't even sound mildly believable.'

'Guys look, the game's done loading.'

Ned paused it without looking at the tv. Harry and Jake scooted closer.

'Spill!'

Mikey tried to look at the white ceiling, it was fancier than the ceilings at his house. How was it so white anyways? He looked at the curtains as they boxed him in, their eyes digging literally into his skin. The carpet was soft, and purple.

'Spill!' they said in unison again.

Mikey sighed. 'Fine. Scoot back.'

They only nudged back by a tiny fraction.

'I'm not making it up, ok? I'm really not,' he started. 'I just saw it happen by accident last night.'

'Saw what?'

'Sugar. She was hissing and growling on the street last night. My window was open, so I woke up from the noise and peeked to see what was happening. She was on the street, hissing at Jerry's compound. I couldn't even see what was there because you know—'

'He doesn't have outside lights,' Ned contributed.

Mikey nodded. He'd told them about it before. Everybody on his street had outdoor lights. 'Yeah. He doesn't have any lights outside, except that one bulb right beside the front door. So, his compound was dark, and I couldn't see what was there, but Sugar could. She was hissing and growling, and even had her claws out. Then, out of nowhere, something just takes her.'

'Takes her?' asked Jake. 'How does that even happen?'

'No, like she was there on the street one moment, and the next something just whips out from Jerry's compound and snatches her.'

'Something? What?'

Mikey shrugged. 'I don't know, it was too fast, but it kind of looked like a long, pale, tentacle. I think it was some kind of whip.'

'Like horsewhip?' Ned asked.

'I don't know, I was terrified out of my mind. I didn't sleep well after that.'

Mikey looked at their faces, they were all wide-eyed.

Harry was the one that said something first. 'Does that mean that...Sugar's gone?'

They all turned to him. Mikey hadn't thought about it like that, but it was true. Sugar was gone. Slowly, he nodded. 'I think so...sorry.' It wasn't exactly his fault, but he felt like it was and that he had to apologize. Everybody knew how much Harry liked Sugar, even though she wasn't with him every time.

'Are you sure?' Ned asked. He was always the one asking questions, sometimes he sounded like an adult.

Mikey nodded. 'I didn't really believe it, you know, maybe it was one of those dreams that felt like real life...?'

Ned nodded. 'Yeah, hyper-realistic dreams.'

'Yup, what he said.' He jerked his thumb towards Ned.

'Well, I kind of just decided to believe that it must have been that because nothing made sense. But then when I was getting my bike, Jerry came up to me.' The faces they made helped him continue talking, it looked like they didn't completely think he was crazy. 'He was being even more weird than usual, asking where I was going and stuff. He even grabbed me. I think he was going to do something because he looked very angry. I think he knows I saw him last night.'

'Saw him doing what?'

'A magic trick?' Jake joked.

'No...I don't know how to say it, but I'm very sure I saw a whip lash out and snatch Sugar. It was like a flash, so I only saw the long pale tentacle thing.'

'That's gross, stop saying it like that.' Ned grimaced and leaned away.

'Long pale tentacle thing?' Harry asked.

Mikey nodded. 'Yeah, something like that.'

'What do you think he did to Sugar?' He asked all of them, his big eyes sad and looking down.

Jerry probably did something truly awful to Sugar, they all thought it, but none of them had the heart to answer truthfully.

'Do you guys think he did something to Old Man Jones, too?' Jake asked after an awkward silence.

Ned frowned. 'I mean. If he has a whip made out of tentacles, it's possible that it was him. Nobody ever went missing before he moved, anyways.'

'Yeah, plus if nobody sees Sugar again, that definitely means this is true.'

'Wait, let me get my journal!' Ned liked to use his journal for everything. His mom was a writer, and for his birthday last year, she'd gotten him a fancy leather-bound journal. Like the one those sophisticated detectives on tv used. He didn't even really like it at first, so he didn't use it. now, he hardly used it because he liked it too much and didn't want the pages to finish quickly.

'What are you even going to write there?' Jake asked.

'Clues!'