Charley sits in the back of the car with Madison. As Maria looks into the rearview mirror, she sees Charley start to cry while hugging Madison tight, whispering in her ear.
“It’ll be ok Charley, we’ll get her home and clean her up and hopefully by then she starts to talk,” Maria said meeting Charley’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
Tears start to run down his cheeks as he says, “What if it’s not ok? What if she needs a hospital and we don’t know? What if she stays like this forev-”
“Charley, you’re rambling, it’s all going to be okay, just calm down. Alright?” Maria interrupted.
Arriving at Madison’s house Charley starts to reach for Madison, “What happened? How’d we get here?” she asked quietly.
Charley jumped with fright and joy as Madison got out of the car, “You’re ok!!” he yelled and hugged her.
“Why wouldn’t I be ok?” Madison asked as confusion spread across her face.
“You don’t remember a thing?” Maria asked, walking over to Madison.
“Should I remember something? Should I be worried?” Madison asked, sitting down on the front porch.
“No, nothing to worry about Madi, this is just all way to bizarre,” Maria said sitting next to Madison.
“I wonder if that, thing, uses camouflage to hide and watch from the distance,” Madison quietly said looking around.
Charley came and interrupted, “We should start on our math homework the deduction of exponents assignment. After that we can work on the science paper.”
“For shop class we have to make a labyrinth, we need to choose someone to be the guru and plan out the project,” Gavin said leaning against the doorway.
“What was the science paper on again?” Madison asked looking at charley.
“I believe it was to write down the steps of the immune system in chronological order, along with a paragraph about antibodi-,” Charley stopped suddenly looking off into the distance at what looked like a gargoyle. As it started to move closer, Charley grabbed Madison and Maria and pushed them into the house and Gavin locked the door.
“Close all of the blinds and lock all the windows and the doors around the house,” Charley half whispered half shouted in a panic. Maria, Madison, and Gavin all rushed to help Charley close and lock everything up in the house.
“There’s a secret room no one knows about except for me, let’s all hide there,” Madison said rushing to the bookcase and pushing it aside. Charley and Gavin moved Madison and pushed the bookcase out of the way while she opened the door.
“Hurry everyone inside,” Madison said as she opened the door. Charley and Gavin grabbed the handles on the bookcase and pulled it in front of the secret entrance, then they closed and locked the door. All terrified they explored the secret room to take their minds off of the shadowy figure.
