“Hey Dill…”
“Ughhh, what?” Dill said as he tried to scrape the gunk off his ankles.
“You hear how quiet it is?”
“So?” Dill asked, still occupied with the muck on his feet.
“There were frogs and insects before, and now there’s nothing. It’s too quiet.”
Dill looked up with a frown. “Dude, cut that out, you’re gonna jinx us. That’s what they say in the movies all the time, right before – ”
Dill’s eyes suddenly bugged out, and he dropped to his knees in the mud.
“What – ?”
“Get down!” Dill hissed. “Get down NOW!”
Peter at first thought it was a fake-out, but the fear in Dill’s face convinced him otherwise. He ducked down. “What is it?”
“I saw something…”
8
Peter raised his head above the ferns and moss-covered logs. Only gnarled swamp trees, bushes, and pools of muddy water lay ahead.
“Where?”
“Behind those plants.” Dill pointed to a thicket of marsh vines about thirty feet away. The greenery was so dense that Peter couldn’t see through it, not even a patch of light.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was it big?”
“Pretty big.”
“What’d it look like?”
“I dunno. Kinda brown.”
“Do you think it’s a bear?”
Dill considered for a few seconds. “If it was, it was a real little one.”
“Maybe a wild pig?”
Dill looked at Peter. “They got wild pigs in here?”
“Yeah, warthogs. I mean, I don’t know if they’re in this marsh, but – ”
“There it is – look, the bushes moved!”
Sure enough, the bushes trembled the slightest bit.
“What should we do?” Dill asked.
“Why don’t we just leave? We gotta get back and go tubing again.”
“What if we ignore it and it comes and hunts us down?”
“If it’s something that would hunt us down, I really don’t think you wanna go poking around in that bush after it.”
Dill looked around and grabbed a short, heavy tree limb. “Okay, I’ll just toss this in there.”
“No, let’s just – ”
Before Peter could finish the sentence, Dill stood up and lobbed the stick right into the middle of the thicket. The stick was heavy enough that it sunk immediately into the leaves and disappeared.
Peter was about to cuss Dill out when the scream cut him off.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”
It was high-pitched and horrible, like an animal in agony. And it was coming right out of the bushes.
Peter’s blood froze in every vein in his body. Dill collapsed to the ground and grabbed Peter’s arm as though they were on a rollercoaster ride.
The scream stopped.
“Oh my god oh my god oh my god,” Dill blubbered softly.
“Do you still think that was a good idea?” Peter fumed.
“What’re we gonna do what’re we gonna do what’re we gonna do,” Dill whined.
Peter was at a loss. Whatever was in that bush, Peter definitely didn’t want to turn his back on it. But he sure as heck wasn’t going to go find out what it was, either.
Then he heard another noise, much softer. It sounded like crying. Like a little homesick kid in bed at camp who doesn’t want the other kids to know.
“Hey,” Peter said loudly.
Dill whacked Peter on the arm. “What are you doing?!”
Peter ignored him. “Hey, you in the bush – can you hear me? Is somebody out there?”
The crying stopped, and everything was quiet again. Dill hung onto Peter’s arm.
“Can you make a noise if you hear me? Or come out?”
There was a shuffling deep within the vines. Dill’s grip hardened like steel around Peter’s elbow. Still, nothing emerged from the thicket.
Peter looked down and saw another stick on the ground. It was slightly smaller than the one Dill had thrown, but still plenty big. As he bent to pick it up, Peter debated for a second. Was this a good idea?
Better than leaving that ‘thing’ in there and waiting for it to come get us.
Peter swung his arm and let go. The stick twirled through the air and slammed down into the vines.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” came the scream again.
But this time, something charged out of the bush.
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Peter and Dill wailed as the thing rushed towards them.
It was wider than Peter, though not quite as tall. Mostly slick and brown, it was tangled in green vines ripped from the thicket. It had two arms that flailed wildly, and two hind legs pumping back and forth under its stout, stubby body. Even in his terror, Peter realized something looked awfully familiar about the creature.
Wait a minute…
The thing got within five feet of Peter, then veered to the right and ran screaming through the forest. That is, until it tripped over a log and went down SPLAT in a puddle of mud.
Peter ran over.
“What are you doing!” Dill howled. “Let it go, let it go!”
The thing was struggling to right itself.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Peter said soothingly.
“No it’s not!” Dill yelled and flapped his arms. “It’s not okay! Get away, get away from it!”
“Shut up, Dill – it’s a kid!”
Dill stopped moving. “A kid?!”
It was definitely a kid. Covered head to toe in a thick cocoon of slime, with vines draped all over his body, but definitely a kid. Under the mud, Peter could make out shorts, a shirt with a collar, and a goopy scruff of hair.
The boy stopped struggling and rolled over onto his back. Peter pulled away some vines from the kid’s head until he saw two eyes, a nose, the entire face. The mud parted, and the boy’s mouth trembled.
“It got Rory,” the kid sobbed, and burst into tears.
Go buy PETER AND THE SWAMP MONSTER now!
Other Books By Darren Pillsbury:
Imaginary Friends
PETER AND THE MONSTERS Series:
Peter And The Dead Men
Peter And The Vampires
Peter And The Changeling
Peter And The Swamp Monster
Peter And The Mannequins
Peter And The Psycho Trick-or-Treaters
Peter And The Carnival Of Evil
Peter And The Werewolves
Peter And The Frankenstein
Peter And The Gingerbread Men
Peter And The Dark Side
Peter And The Yeti
Peter And The Morgue
COLLECTED VOLUMES OF STORIES:
PETER AND THE VAMPIRES (Volume 1)
(Includes Dead Men, Vampires, Changeling, and Swamp Monster)
PETER AND THE WEREWOLVES (Volume 2)
(Includes Mannequins, Psychos, Carnival, and Werewolves)
PETER AND THE FRANKENSTEIN (Volume 3)
(Includes Frankenstein, Gingerbread, Dark Side, Yeti, and Morgue)
Email me at [email protected],
and check out my websites:
www.DarrenPillsbury.com
www.facebook.com/DarrenPillsburyBooks
www.Twitter.com/DarrenPillsbury
Peter And The Changeling (Story #3) Page 9