Page 13 of M.M. Scrooge
Frantically, I scan for the demon, or whatever that creature was, but everything is pitch black. I can hardly see past my own nose. My chest is clenched tight, my muscles locked, my neck protesting any movement. Am I injured? I roll my shoulders, assessing. Other than the twinge in my neck, I seem to be fine.
My fear expands nonetheless, lurking around the corner, past the door, ahead, and behind. Didn’t I leave a light on in the living room? The television? Why is it so dark and so silent?
I climb to my feet and hold myself steady against the wall. Oddly, I want to pet the dog and seek the comfort of another living soul. I shuffle toward the couch, feel around the cushions, and find neither. No dog. No phone.
“Think you can stay awake long enough for a conversation this time?”
The voice sends me staggering away toward the kitchen. Fuck. Not alone. Intruder. But I’m Max Masters Scrooge, and I am done with this. I gather my courage. “Get out of my house.”
“This isn’t your house.” A man’s voice. A deep baritone full of smoke and gravel. Who does this guy think he is? I’m not helpless. I’ll fight back.
But how can I fight what I can’t see? I flail my hand along the wall, searching for the switch. I find it and flick. Nothing happens. If anything, the blackness grows darker.
“Are you sure you want to see me, Scrooge?”
I’m not. I’m really not.
“It’s not a pretty sight. And you like them pretty, don’t you? Hmm?”
It’s got to be a prank. Some practical joke by some jilted lover not content to let me move on in peace. That’s it. Just some paid-off thug in a cheap Renaissance fair cloak here to scare the shit out of me.
The wet sound of chewing hits my ears. I cringe. I hate that sound.
“Turn on the goddamn lights and consider yourself a success, okay? You wanted to scare me? You did. Goody on you. Now I’ve had enough. You can stop screwing around.”
“Oh—”
I yelp and fall into the kitchen counter. The voice is way too close. Inches from my face.
“—but I’m only just beginning, Max,” it whispers into my ear. “You have so much more to learn. I can’t leave now, not with so much unfinished business between us.”
The lights flash on, blinding me, and in the false white heat of it, I still can’t see anything. I squeeze my legs together because if I don’t, I’m going to piss myself.
Slowly, my surroundings come back into focus. I expect to find the lurking stranger near, but he isn’t. He’s sitting in my spot on the couch, with Timmy next to him, eating strips of something pink and slimy from his pointy, blackened fingers.
My stomach lurches. I’m going to retch all over my kitchen.
The figure lifts his head, and though his face is still shrouded, I make out black beady eyes. “Come. Sit. We have much to discuss.”
I can’t think of anything I want to do less than talk with the creepy home invader in my living room.
I bolt for the front door, but my muscles turn leaden, seize, and die. An invisible force yanks me backward to the living room and thrusts me into the armchair.
“I said,sit.” The dog shuffles to a sit, begging for more scraps. “Not you, Timmy,him, but that’s a very good boy.” He feeds the dog another bit of…whatever that is. I don’t want to know.
My voice, when I force it to work again, quakes. “Who are you?”
He jerks toward me.
Damn, I shouldn’t have asked.
“I’m many things. The creature hiding under the bed at night, the man crouched in your closet, the stranger in the dark alley, the scraping at your window. Can you guess my name?”
I’m stuck like a statue in this chair, unable to move an inch, not even to shake my head. Terror lances at my insides. This is no prank. No ordinary man has the power to levitate me and freeze me to the spot. Will I die here? I’m not ready to die.
“Why, I’m the bogeyman, Max. The stuff of children’s nightmares. The threat of parents worldwide to keep their young in line. And tonight is your lucky night because I’m off on Christmas Eve, when kids should be free from fear to enjoy the holidays. When good ol’ St. Nick is on duty, spreading his nauseating cheer throughout the land. And I’m completely available to haunt you this night instead.”
I gasp in a rattling breath. “Why me?”
