Will the Wise

Chapter 9

Will froze and stood in the doorway for a moment, watching Dale hurry across the yard.

"What was it?" Dale asked suddenly, turning and glaring at Will as he stood in the doorway.

Will hesitated, hesitant to speak out in the open. "The monster," he called, as softly as he could without being inaudible.

"I know what the monster looks like, and that's not what you'd put in that drawing."

"No – the monster. It'll hear us if we're outside."

Dale bit his lip, glanced around, sighed and marched over toward the house. "What was that thing in your drawing?"

"It...was nothing," Will whispered, itching to turn and head inside. What if the monster heard them? "Just nothing." He didn't want to cause a fuss over the shadow monster, especially since he wasn't even sure it was real. He'd always had an overactive imagination. When he was a kid, he'd always thought that there were monsters in the woods. Elves, too. He could've sworn he'd actually seen them. Now, he knew that it had just been his imagination, and who said that the shadow monster wasn't the same? "It was nothing. But -"

"But what?"

"But won't the monster come? Can't it see you out there? What if it... hears us? O-or sees us, and then we won't be able to fight it off, because we've got no weapons -"

"I –" Dale sighed, looking reluctant to change the subject. "I spent a whole day out here, kid, all of yesterday, and the monster didn't come for me until it was nighttime. I'm fine. What was in that drawing?" His voice was harsher now.

"I told you, it was nothing."

"You wouldn't have put it in the drawing if it was nothing."

"I – it was another drawing. I – I couldn't find any spare paper, so I drew over that." Will shrugged awkwardly and looked down.

Dale opened his mouth, and then shut it. He tried again. "Okay," he said, like he was choosing his words very carefully. He climbed up the stairs and into the kitchen, and look straight at Will. "Okay, kid. I need to be able to trust that you're telling the truth."

"Yeah, I – I am."

"...because if there is any threat out there, we gotta be able to defend ourselves against it."

"I'll tell you, if I see anything."

"And you need to understand that this is serious. More serious than you know. You might think that it's fine, we can fix it, but no. That thing tried to kill us. If something worse had come, we would be dead." Dale's eyes were hard as he said it.

"I understand."

"You're sure."

"Yes."

"Then I'm gonna go." Dale turned, paused, and glanced back. Will was still standing in the doorway, backpack dangling from his hand. "You don't have to come."

"Okay."

"Stay. Draw your pictures, or whatever. Search the kitchen one more time."

"Okay."

The man left the room, and Will walked back inside. He sat down on a chair, and made himself suppress the shudder at the thick, slimy substance coating it. As he did, he felt himself relax. He would've been relieved, if he hadn't reminded himself that he was still in danger. That they were still in some other...dimension? World? Realm? And that he couldn't contact his mom, or Jonathan.