“It’s
Matthews! Get him!” Dale shouted. Dale was the oldest Evilsizor brother and was
the same age as Wilbur. He had a few classes with Dale at Northeast Middle
School but Wilbur usually just tried to avoid him. The younger siblings were
Mitchell and Porter. The Evilsizors were always recognizable with their bright
red hair and face full of freckles.
The
three boys began racing after Wilbur as he picked up speed. The brothers chased
Wilbur down Crossgate to Shadybrook Drive, where Wilbur made a quick right
turn. The brothers were still on Wilbur’s tail but started losing them on the
second curve. Wilbur quickly turned onto Lazy Brook Lane, hit some loose sand
and wiped out.
Wilbur
rolled onto his stomach and tried to crawl away until Mitchell ran into him
with his bike, knocking him down again. Wilbur tried his hardest to hold back
his tears as the Evilsizors stood over him. “What were you doing out there?”
asked Dale.
“I
was just riding around,” Wilbur groaned.
“Bismarck
Road is Evilsizor territory. Stay off of it,” Dale ordered.
“You
tell him, Dale,” said Porter, who had not done anything until now.
“You
don’t even live near Bismarck Road, and besides, it’s a public road and…” Mitchell
interrupted Wilbur by kicking him in the ribs. “Ow.”
“We
don’t ever want to see you on Bismarck Road again, or else we’re gonna dump you
on Old Man Kupfer’s property,” Dale threatened. The Kupfer property was the woods
south of Bismarck Road. There was a large house in the middle of the wood built
in the 1870s. It had been abandoned for decades and there was a rumor among the
kids that a monster lived there. “Come on, guys, I think this turd has learned
his lesson.” All three then kicked Wilbur again, got on their bikes, and rode
off.
Wilbur
slowly got up, brushed the sand off his clothes and looked at the bloody scrapes
on his elbows and knees. He picked up his bike and began walking back to his
house back on Shadybrook. As Wilbur passed in front of his neighbor’s house, Amy
Parker, a girl Wilbur’s age with short brown hair and dark brown eyes, came out
onto the patio.
“What’s
wrong, Wilbur?” she asked him.
“The
Evilsizor brothers were chasing me and I wiped out taking a turn,” Wilbur said
walking up to the patio and looking up at Amy.
“Do
they hurt?” she asked.
“What?”
“Your
scrapes,” Amy giggled and pointed at them.
“They’re
fine. I’ll live. I’m gonna go and get washed up,” Wilbur started crossing the yard
to his house. “I’ll see you at school.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Amy said. Wilbur walked up onto his patio as Amy went back inside.
Amy Parker was Wilbur’s best friend and they had lived next door to each other their entire lives. Wilbur was a month older exactly and their parents had been friendly beforehand. While Amy’s dad, John, was the owner of a grocery store in southwest Laketon, her mom had always been a stay-at-home wife and mother. Wilbur’s parents were more professional. Wilbur’s dad, Lawrence, was city manager and his mother, Michelle, was a professor at Sibley University.
Wilbur had two siblings. His brother, Charles—or Chuck—and sister, Cindy. Amy had only one older sister, Christine. Wilbur and Amy were such good friends that everyone joked that they would get married when they got older but of course, both Wilbur and Amy found this totally disgusting.
The next day at school, Wilbur and Amy were sitting with their friends Tim Earles and Emily Wertham at lunch. They were almost done with their food when Jennifer Mandabach arrived and sat down. “Jen? Where have you been?” Wilbur exclaimed.
“I
was finishing up an assignment for Ms. Ebeling,” Jennifer replied.
“We
were just talking about getting together after dinner at Quarry Park. There’s
new playground equipment. I figured we could hang out, play around, enjoy the new
park near our houses. They have tennis courts,” Wilbur said.
“No
one here knows how to play tennis,” Amy said.
“The
park is five blocks away. We can learn,” Wilbur laughed.
Up
until about two months ago, Quarry Park was a park full of nothing. It was
completely flat with a few trees. It used to be an active quarry but as the
neighborhood encroached, the quarry filled in the pits and gave the land to the
city. Because the land might be unstable since it was just a landfill, the city
turned it into a park. For years, it was just greenspace to allow the land to
settle and then they put in a basketball court, a couple of tennis courts, and
playground equipment.
Wilbur
and Tim were the first ones at the park. Tim had been Wilbur’s friend since
they Kindergarten. He was a nice and quiet kid who helped balance out Wilbur’s
more outgoing nature. They were both on the swing set, waiting for the others
to show up, if they did. It was a nice night and getting cooler as the sun went
down.
“Do
you think Emily is cute?” Wilbur asked suddenly.
Tim
turned toward Wilbur and shrugged. “Eh.”
“I
think she’s cute. I like her. I’m glad she moved here,” Wilbur said.
Emily
was a girl with long light brown always in a ponytail. She had a small upturned
nose and face dotted with light freckles. She was an adopted daughter and,
before she moved to Laketon, was somewhat of a troublemaker that she kept
hidden from her new friends. What caused her parents to move was Emily getting
caught about once a week behind the groundskeeping shed at her school with a
boy whose pants were down around his ankles. When Wilbur befriended her early
in their seventh-grade year, she seemed to change overnight.
“I
like her but I’m not, like, attracted to her or anything,” Tim said.
“Who
are you attracted to?”
Tim
stopped swinging and just looked at Wilbur. “Promise not to tell anyone?”
“Of
course. Why?”
“I’m
gay.”
Wilbur
returned to look to Tim and stopped swinging. “Really? I mean, I’m sorry. You
are? How long have you known?”
“For awhile but I realized it back in sixth grade,” Tim said. He went back to swinging, as did Wilbur. “You’re the first person I’ve told so that’s why I want you to keep quiet.”
“The first? You haven’t even told your parents?” Wilbur smiled big.
“Oh.
No, I told them back in fourth grade or something like that.”
“Oh,”
Wilbur sounded dejected.
“You’re
the first friend I’ve told though.”
“Oh!”
Wilbur perked back up.
“Here
come the others. Remember, keep it quiet,” Tim said and hopped off the swing.
Amy,
Jennifer, and Emily arrived as the street lights came on. The five of them ran
around the park until it became completely dark. One-by-one they began going
home until only Wilbur and Jennifer were left.
“Hey,
Wilbur,” Jennifer said as they both began walking home from the park. They both
lived on the same street but she lived on the corner while Wilbur was in the
middle of the block. “Would you want to come over to my house for dinner some
time?”
“Really?
Yeah, sure. I’ll have to ask my parents if it’s all right but just let me know
when,” Wilbur said. He looked up at the stars and sighed. “It’s a nice night,
isn’t it?” he asked.
“It
is nice. I love this temperature,” Jennifer said.
They
arrived at her house quickly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jen,” Wilbur said and
continued walking toward his house.
“Bye, Wilbur. See you,” she waved at him.
Dale, Mitchell, and Porter trudged through the thick woods on the Kupfer property. They could hear other animals nearby but couldn’t see them. “I think we’re lost,” Mitchell said after tripped over an exposed tree root.
“We’re
not lost. There’s only one path to the house and we’re still on it. The gate
should be nearby.”
As
they continued walking, the trees began to thin out and the grass got thicker
and taller. Dale pointed the flashlight from the ground to straight ahead of
him and two stone pillars reflected back at him. The iron gate between the
pillars was rusty and, despite being chained and padlocked, was open enough for
someone to squeeze through.
“Here
it is,” Dale whispered. Mitchell and Porter got closer to their older brother.
Dale shined the flashlight around the stone pillars, the iron gate, and the
stone fence. The two globe lights on top of the pillars were shattered. A grotesque
was carved into each pillar. “Those are so cool,” Dale said and went up to the
pillar and touched one of them.
The
three brothers slowly and cautiously passed through the gate and prepared to
approach the house. Dale nonchalantly tried to push Mitchell in front but
Mitchell held his ground and shoved his older brother’s arm away. “What are you
doing?” Mitchell asked.
“I
thought you might want to go first. I’m trying to be nice,” Dale explained.
“This
was your stupid idea, Dale, so you are going to go first,” Mitchell ordered and
took a step back behind Dale.
The
Kupfer house was in shambles. Nearly all the windows were broken out and door
hung loosely on their hinges. The paint was peeling and chipped from the wood. The
grass was very tall but it seemed as if a path had been made because some of
the grass was bent down. The three boys peered into the house through one of
the broken windows and saw that everything that was left in the house was
ripped apart. Holes had been made in the wall, the railing to the central staircase
had been destroyed but the newel post inexplicably remained. A loud scuffling
noise erupted behind the boys causing them to scream and run away from the
house. They ran back down the path to their bikes that they left at the entrance.
The three of them pedaled as fast as they could.
A
loud whooshing noising mixed with a leathery flapping echoed in the night sky
above the boys. It got closer until the sound of Mitchell’s bike hitting the
pavement and a piercing scream flooded the night. Dale and Porter slammed on
their brakes to look behind them. They saw Mitchell being carrying off by a man-like
monster with bat-like wings. The creature flew away until disappearing into the
woods surrounding the Kupfer house.
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