It all began with a laugh, acry, and a thud. The laugh was so loud it made Finn sit up in bed. It came from across the street and it sounded like the laugh of a madman. It gave him the creeps.
Before Finn could lie back down,the laugh was replaced by a desperate, piercing cry. The cry of a wounded animal. Or a man reduced to the state of an animal.
The cry was followed by a thudso heavy it could been a boulder falling to the floor.
Or a dead body.
Finn ran into his sister's room.A drastic measure reserved strictly for emergencies.
"Amanda, wake up."
"Go away." Amanda tried to buryher head in her pillow, but Finn gave her a hard sake.
"It's important."
"What is?"
He told her what he'd heard.
She cocked her head, listening.All was silent now. "And you're sure it was him?" she gestured in the direction of the apartment across the street.
"Uh-huh.C'mon-we have to do something!"
Grumpily, Amanda followed Finn downstairs.
Hearts beating fast, they cracked open the front door and peeked out. There was a full moon and they could see as clearly as if it were daytime. And yet there was nothing to see. The apartment across the street looked completely peaceful.
Amanda stared at it, more curious than she'd let on. Their new neighbor had moved in two months earlier. They knew next to nothing about him, only that he was supposed to be some kind of author-a profession that might be suspicious in the eyes of some but that intrigued her greatly.
"Maybe he was reading one of his books out loud," Amanda suggested. "I heard writers do that."
"It wasn't words; it was a laugh, and a scream, and then-"
"Sowhat do you want to do? Knock on his door?"
Finn shrugged unhappily. He didn't know what he wanted to do.
"He won't let anyone in during the daytime," Amanda continued. "Can you imagine how mad he would be if somebody barged in on him in the middle of the night?"
"He won't be mad if he's dead."
Amanda rolled her eyes. "Maybe he was watching a sitcom and that was the laugh you heard. Then he switched to a horror movie-"
"And then what-he knocked the TV over?"
"Why not? Aren't all writers supposed to be crazy?"
Finn laughed, his mid turning to the mystery series he was reading: A Series of Secrets by I.B. Anonymous. If their neighbor's books were anything like I.B.'s,then their neighbor must me completely nuts.
His sister was right, though Finn, in a writer's house, sounds didn't necessarily mean what you thought they did.
Remembering all the twists and turns and zany reveals in I.B.'s secret stories, Finn allowed Amanda to lead him back upstairs.
***
Shortly afterward, the door of their neighbor's apartment opened, and a pair of eyes peered out into the night. Satisfied that he wasn't being watched, the owner of those eyes crept out of the house.
A moment later, he had vanished.
Out of the distance came the sound of a dog-or was it a wolf?-howling at the moon.
