TEA WITH THE MIDNIGHT MONSTERS

INTERCEPTION

Have you ever run in a pack of people? Maybe in a race, or in gym, or practice? Have you ever run with a group when it counted?

It was quite thrilling.

Can you picture it?

Millie the alicorn and Pim the centaur led the creatures: a child witch with an elf on her broom, a vampire bat, a fat troll riding on a baby red dragon, the griffin, the werewolf, and the rest; all the creatures were swollen with courage.

Pim and Millie, both now thoroughbreds, cantered at forty miles an hour. Faster than a subway train. At any moment, the Crumbs might discover the missing keys -- the fake keys -- and beat it back to the bunker fast.

And they did.

So can you imagine their frightened surprise when Red's laugh -- that horrible, horrifying, bird-like laugh, echoed from the end of the Main?

Not from behind them. From in front! From where they were heading! From the last left -- from the dead end wall.

"Don't stop!" Pim shouted. "Five-four-five!" He had talked the creatures through this: how to create a defensive line against an attack that came from ahead, a strategy he used in soccer games.

So the monsters formed a single unit: five in front -- Millie, Pim, Ryan, KK, with Pudge on her back -- and four in the middle, and five behind, including Beatrice, with Hope on her broom.

Suddenly, out of the darkness ahead, Red appeared, flying fast. The Crumbs appeared, too, galloping fast on Central Park steeds, swinging their ropes.

"Chicken! Chicken!" Millie cried. Chicken was one of her favorite games. Two drivers zoomed towards each other: one must swerve, or both might die if they crashed. The one who swerved was the chicken, of course, the scaredy-cat. They had to play to get passed Red!

So she and Pim both dug in and gained speed in a game of Chicken -- straight toward Red and the Crumbs.

Ryan appeared on Millie's left, and KK appeared on Pim's right -- by herself, for Pudge had jumped off and run away, back, like the others. The foursome then, fierce, played the game at full speed.

Heading toward them, Red aimed for Millie, low and fast. She then, too, homed in on him. He was a boy, after all. She refused to be bullied another moment.

Faster and faster, closer and closer, they headed toward each other -- thirty feet away -- then twenty -- then ten! Then five feet away! Then two feet away, and before they crashed --

Red swerved!

Red chickened out! He gave a shriek and arced over Millie!

The Crumbs, too, swerved left and right, around the creatures, and continued galloping down the tracks.

"Yes!" Millie shouted. "Ha!" Heaving her wings with force, she quickened away with Ryan and KK, and Pim right behind.

Millie won! She won again!

But back behind them, the other creatures scrambled in all directions. They dodged and skirted the ropes and whips, and ducked and cowered from Little Red who dove and struck and clawed and bit.

He hated to lose!

Red then stopped and gazed down the tunnel in Millie's direction. He cackled and shrieked, "YOU LOSE! THERE'S NO WAY OUT!"