Crooked Man

T H R E E

We stare at each other. Pretty frightened.
"Let's go upstairs." I say, trying to sound as calm as I can. But my voice shakes when I say,"She probably went there."
Monica just nods and takes my hand. I can feel her shaking. We walk the hallway hurriedly and holding hands. When we reach the old wooden stairs, I gulp. "Where are you mom..."I mumble. I look at the scared face of my sister who is trying to hold her tears back.
"We're going to be just fine Mon." I smile.(at least try to smile)
She holds my hand tighter and we start going up the stairs. With every step I sweat a little more. I never thought going up these stairs would take so much effort and time.

I can hear Monica breathing heavily. But...it's kind'a too heavy for a kid. "Monica don't breath so heavily." I say looking at the flashlight I'm holding.
"I'm not."she says.
I look at her. Was it...was it mom?
"Mom?" I say with a loud voice. But I don't shout. I'm too scared to shout.
No answer. Monica looks at me. Tears are rolling down her face now. "What are we gonna do now?"she whispers, her voice shaking. But I don't know either. I don't know where mom is, I don't know where we should look for her, I don't even know if we should look for her! But I'm supposed to take care of Monica when mom isn't here. And...she's not. So I must decide.
"Let's look for her here."
"But we shouldn't split. Right Anna?"
"Yes, Mon. We shouldn't. Let's...umm...let's check your room first huh?" She nods.

We walk to the first door on our right. As we get closer to the door, I hear something strange. A melody. I open the door. The music is louder now. The song...I hear it. I know it. The Crooked Man.

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house

Ugh, I've always hated that nursery rhyme. But right now, it couldn't have been scarier. With the pink walls and the creepy looking dolls staring at you, and...wait...is that...is that...whatever. Must've been my imagination. Of course there isn't a man in Monica's room.
"She isn't here Monica."
"Yeah..."she mumbles. "Can I take Ruby with me?"she points at a doll sitting on the side of her unmade bed. It has wavy auburn hair, a pair of big green eyes, pink cheeks and she is smiling a HUGE smile. "Creepy lookin' doll."I think.
"It'll slow us down. She's too big to be carried around."I say. I can see the disappointment in her eyes. But she nods.