The air was as crisp as the autumn leaves, and the faint pink of morning was seeping over the horizon.
“Go on, Willow,” said Kat. “Lead the way.”
It had been a struggle to get the muzzle and harness on Willow. Ultimately it was the threat of the tranq launcher that did the trick. It was loaded with the single dart recovered from Willow’s hide, and Levi doubted it would be any use, but the bluff worked, and Willow had reluctantly allowed Levi to fit her with the muzzle and harness.
Now she led them through the twisted trees and spongy soil.
Levi followed, squeezing the leash until his knuckles glowed white.
Kat came last, brandishing the tranq dart like a TV cop.
Finally Willow stopped.
“Okay,” said Kat. “You go first.”
“Nice try, but not until we beat our monster and save Twila.”
whined Willow, but she cringed and obeyed when Kat raised the dart.
They crept through mist and over lichen-encrusted stones to the edge of a dark pool.
“I don’t like this,” whispered Levi. “We don’t really have a plan.”
“Same thing we did with Willow,” said Kat. “Just working our way up the monster ladder.” She crept to the pool’s edge. “Hello? Any monsters home?”
Willow pawed Levi’s ankle.
Levi crouched and stroked her spines. “It’s okay. We’ll let you go soon.”
“Monster!” shouted Kat. “Show yourself!”
Levi could feel Willow’s body trembling under his hand. “Kat,” he said, “this was a bad idea. Let’s get out of here.”
Kat spun around and scowled. “And do what? In case you forgot, we don’t have many options!”
“Shut up, you!”
“Kat . . .”
“You gotta learn to trust my instincts, Levi! I got this!”
Back through the briars and brambles,
over rocks and logs,
behind them the thunder of huge webbed feet.
The mist thinned, the ground dried, the day brightened . . .
And then they burst from the woods and into the field on the edge of their neighborhood.
“That . . . that thing!” gasped Levi.
said Willow.
“Man!” said Kat. “It had chains around its neck and limbs! Like a big slimy circus animal!” She looked down at her trembling hands. “I lost the tranq. Not sure it would’ve been any use against that thing, anyway.” She turned and saw Levi stalking across the field toward town, dragging Willow along with him. “Levi? What are you doing?”
“What I should have done from the start: going to get real help.”
Kat raced to his side. “Aren’t you forgetting something? No one knows you anymore! They won’t believe your story!”
“So? I’ll go to the police. Or I’ll go back and talk to my mom, tell her something only family would know.”
said Willow.
“Soon, Willow,” said Levi. He didn’t want to tell her that he was planning to use her as evidence to support his story.
“We don’t know who we can trust,” said Kat, struggling to keep up. “Let me come up with a new plan.”
“NO!” snapped Levi. He spun around so quickly that Kat froze in her tracks. “I’m done listening to you! You’ve only made things worse!”
Kat’s mouth fell open. “But . . . I saved you.”
“Oh, sure, you saved me. After using me as bait for your little trap! Now I’m a stranger to my own family!” The fury in his voice surprised him as much as it surprised Kat. “Then we almost got killed by a giant monster in the woods!”
“I . . . I didn’t know—”
“Right! You don’t know! You think you do, but you don’t!”
“Well, I know more than you, you big wimp! You need me!”
“Nobody needs you. You make everything worse. My mom was right about you.”
“You’ve gone crazy, Levi.” He couldn’t see Kat’s face, but the hitch in her voice betrayed her.
“The whole world’s gone crazy,” he said. “Twila’s missing; my family doesn’t know me. Boogeymen in the streets, sheepsuckers and swamp monsters in the woods. Nothing makes sense anymore.”
A pause. The dry leaves rustled. The tall grass whispered.
Levi gave the leash a tug. Willow whimpered and scampered after him, and Kat followed a moment later.
