Grandpa's Back Room

I’ve only been in this car for ten minutes and my eyes are already drooping. Mommy and Daddy were talking about boring stuff and money. It was hard for me to pay attention to much of anything. Mommy thought I would get bored so before we left she had put on the SpongeBob movie. I had already seen it a hundred times and could match up the words perfectly. I was far more interested in the fields we drove past and how they looked funny when we went fast. It looked like it was smashed together but moving.

We are on the way to drop me off at grandpa’s house for the weekend. Mommy and Daddy usually dropped me off for the weekends because they were busy and always said they didn’t have time to take care of me. Sometimes they said they needed to do chores and stuff, even though the house was spotless. One time I asked Daddy about this and he said that it was no fib. Though I was smarter than that. I pestered him about it and he finally told me that he wanted some time with Mommy. Mommy heard this in the next room and came in shouting at me. I didn’t do anything wrong, or maybe she didn’t like me asking so many questions. I still cried myself to sleep that night.

I took my ear buds out that played SpongeBob’s voice and asked Mommy,

“Mommy? Are we there yet?” She quickly looked at me then back at the road and said.

“No, Will. We left not fifteen minutes ago. Be patient and watch your SpongeBob movie,” she replied. She sounded kind of annoyed. I slumped down in my seat, staring at my shoes. I kicked them back and forth slowly. I wanted to ask Daddy something but it felt like he didn’t wanted to be bothered either.

I laid my head on the car door and looked back to the whizzing fields. Maybe, when I can drive, I’ll drive so fast that I take off and start flying. I wonder what the fields would look like then. I can feel my eyes getting heavy which means I’m tired. Maybe I’ll sleep the boring car ride off. Mommy and Daddy’s voices started to sound funny but I didn’t really care and things got dark.

A warm feeling was on my cheeks and I could hear someone calling my name. I didn’t want to wake up. It felt too good to sleep. I tried to ignore them but they shook me and called louder.

“Will. William. Wake up. We’re at grandpa’s.” Opening my eyes, I was blinded by light. The sun was out and really bright and stuff. It kind of hurt for the first few seconds but it got better. When I could finally see, we were outside grandpa’s Big Ol’ Shack, as he always calls it. Grandpa himself was sitting in his rusty old porch chair that he’s had since World War 2 or something. I love seeing the huge house. It had a big parking area and the house itself had like a million rooms. It looks kind of small from the outside but it funny to see how big it is inside.

I hopped out of the car and walked in the grass. The grass was really green and everything and grandpa had a huge garden by the porch. There were a few trees here and there in the front yard but in the back yard, which I really really liked, there was a beautiful tree near the back fence. Grandpa calls it an oak, which I told him that that’s the same name as Professor Oak from Pokémon. Grandpa shook his head at me and said something about not being up to date on what the kids are into now. It’s kind of funny how much he doesn’t know. I think its cause he’s so old.

Grandpa waved us over and we talked on the porch for a bit. He said we should get something to drink before Mommy and Daddy left. Daddy told him that they really had to get going and didn’t have time. Grandpa just responded with.

“Alright, Robert. I…I guess I’ll see you later.” It was weird that he called Daddy Robert when his name was Daddy. I had once asked Daddy about this and he told me it was his real name. I told him he was lying. He just laughed and roughed up my hair. It’s this strange feeling I have that Mommy and Daddy are kind of, um, not there. They seem like they don’t care about much of anything. That’s why I liked coming by grandpa’s cause though he was old and stuff he still walked around being happy and whistling sometimes.

Mommy and Daddy got into the car and backed out of the driveway, then down the road. Grandpa and me stood there and watched them drive off down the winding path that was grandpa’s driveway. When I couldn’t hear the car anymore, grandpa turned to me and said,

“Ready to head in?” I nodded and we both walked through the big double doors of the white house.

During my time I spent here I had lots of fun doing different stuff. I’d get to play board games with grandpa or watch TV or run and play outside. There was a neighbor girl that I was friends with and sometimes we play around the house. Her name was Sally and she was really pretty. Some of the memories with her were the best. Playing hide and seek in the huge house was our favorite game. We never really liked going over to her house because her mom was really loud and yelled a lot. Grandpa was pretty understanding of what kind of home she came from so he let Sally stay for dinner and stuff.

I had got to grandpa’s early in the morning so I hadn’t had much time to do much before grandpa called from the kitchen that lunch was ready. I was up in the room I stayed on the highest floor. I really liked this room because I could look out the window and see for forever. I could see the huge yard out front, Sally’s house and some other people’s homes and all the trees everywhere. I could sit up here all day and stare at the world. Grandpa’s house was full of surprises.

I could hear grandpa’s voice calling again, this time louder which was enough for me to snap out of my daydreaming. I stood up and ran out of my room and down the stairs. Jumping some of the steps always made me feel like I was a pro runner or something. I had fallen a few times but it didn’t bother me that much. I finally got down from the third floor and slid into the kitchen on my socks. “Perfect!” I thought to myself, smiling a little. I ran and sat on one of the chairs around the kitchen table and grandpa gave me a plate with a sandwich and a cup of orange juice. He always knew just what to make. As I sat there munching on my sandwich, I heard a knock on the door. Grandpa left his spot from the counter and went to go answer the door.

I didn’t hear anything after grandpa left the room but I was too involved in eating to care. Soft footsteps were behind me but I thought it was just grandpa coming back into the room. Then I felt something pushing on my chest. It scared me a little and I threw my sandwich down on the plate. Trying to grab whatever was on me, I could feel it was a pair of arms. Not big arms or hairy and old like grandpa’s were, they were soft and kind of small. Looking behind me, I could see a straight, yellow haired girl standing behind me, hugging the chair and me.

“Hi, William!” She hugged a little harder for a moment and then let go, backing up to give me room to turn around. She had a big smile on her face.

“Hey, Sally! What are you doing here so early?” I asked her. Grandpa was coming back from the living room, which was between the door and the kitchen and went down the hall. I heard a door open and close back there. I wonder why grandpa always goes back there when I’m doing something other than hanging out with him.

“I saw you come in with your mom and dad and thought I stop by! Don’t want to waste the day! We need to keep started on fun things.” She sounded like she was really excited.

“Alright! Let’s go play tag outside.” We both turned and ran to the sliding backdoor to get to the back yard. It’s not only that I was hanging with Sally that I liked; I liked seeing the bright green grass and the huge tree in the back. It looked really neat.

So we played tag for a while, running and laughing around the yard for a good amount of the afternoon. Sometimes I could see grandpa’s head looking at us through one of the windows in the house. Even though I’ve been here for as long as I can remember, I never could find that room that grandpa went in. I think it’s the same room that he kept looking at us through. It was kind of weird but I didn’t pay attention too much to that.

After hours of playing different games and running around, Sally and I were tired so we went and sat by the big tree near the back to get some shade. We sat next to each other at the base of the trunk. The trunk of the tree always looked like something was splashed on it. I imagined it was whatever made the tree so pretty so I didn’t really care. I would have gone to sleep there but Sally kept talking to me about random stuff. I didn’t want to be mean so I listened to her. She stopped talking after a bit and lied down, staring up at the leaves. I did the same on the other side of the tree. As I went to put my head down, I felt something on the back of my head. I wasn’t very comfortable so I tried to put my head somewhere else. My head once again lied on some object.

I sat up and looked at what I was laying on. I think the second one was a rock but the first one looked strange. I picked it up and turned it in my fingers. It looked kind of like a branch or something. Maybe, but it was kind of squishy. Whatever it was about as long as one of my fingers but a bit bigger. Part of it was hard, only on a small part of it. I almost threw it, thinking it was poo or something but remembered that grandpa didn’t have any pets, at least anymore and with the huge fence that went around the yard, no animals could get in. It was covered in mud and dirt so I couldn’t really see what it was. At one end, it was all rough and had something in the middle. It kind of reminded me of a fi-

“William, Sally, come on in and have some lemonade.” Grandpa called from the back porch. He had a different pair of clothes on than the ones I saw him in earlier. I got up and went over to Sally to wake her up. See had been so tired that she fell asleep. When she opened her eyes, I told her to come on. She stood and walked with me to the house. I dropped the thing I found, not thinking about it again.

When I asked grandpa about his clothes, he told me he had spilled some paint on them and wanted just get a new change of clothes. I looked around and didn’t see anything that had a new color to it but I didn’t really care. Sally and I flopped down in front of the TV and started watching cartoons. Grandpa watched for a little bit then fell asleep in his big chair. I had seen these cartoons, like, a billion times so I got bored. I tried thinking of something else to do with Sally. A thought came to me, something I’ve always wanted to know. I turned to Sally and asked her,

“Hey Sally, want to go look around the house?” She looked just as bored as me but also looking like she was too sure.

“Why? We’ve already seen the entire house and been in every room. I don’t know, just sounds kind of boring.” She turned back to the TV.

“Not all the rooms.” When I said that, she turned back and looked like I finally got her attention.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you know that room that grandpa always goes when you and me are doing something?”

“Yeah…”

“And the room that grandpa looks at us from when we’re out back?”

“Your point?” She sounded like she was getting annoyed.

“Let’s go find that room. I don’t think we’ve been in there and it sounds totally awesome and mysterious! “ I tried to sound excited to make her want to do it while also being quiet so I didn’t wake up grandpa. She sighed and said,

“Fine. It’s not like there’s anything on TV anyways.” She got up and I followed.

I told her we had to bring something to protect ourselves, to fight back monsters in the unknown. This got her excited and we tiptoed to the kitchen. Opening the drawer, we saw all kinds of eating things. I grabbed the big wooden spoon and she grabbed the spatula. Quietly closing the drawer, we got down on our hands and knees and started to crawl down the hallway.

Grandpa didn’t have the lights on now cause it was still bright outside. We didn’t turn them on cause we didn’t want to wake him up. There were doors on either side of us all the way down the long hall we crawled in. I started to think it was a bad idea to crawl cause my hands and knees began to hurt but I didn’t want to sound like a wuss when I told Sally I was tired so I kept quiet. We finally reached the end of the hallway, which went of in two directions. To my left was nice a guest room and the bathroom and to my right was grandpa’s room straight back and a sun room to the left. I told Sally that we were going to check out the guest room first.

We searched underneath the bed and in the closet also behind the pictures on the wall just to be sure. Nothing. It kind of made me sad not to find anything but I there was still ground to cover. I still wanted to keep looking. Sally seemed to have the same idea. Our next stop was the bathroom. Sally check under the sink I checked in the shower. Neither one of us wanted to check near the toilet so we didn’t. We could have missed a secret door or something behind it but it was gross so we didn’t. Also, if I were a spy or grandpa, I wouldn’t want to crawl around the toilet just to get into my secret hideout. That’s just dumb. We left the bathroom and went the other way, towards the sun room and grandpa’s room.

We decided to hit the sun room first. The sun room was pretty big and old stuff everywhere. Sally sneezed a few time to all the dust in the air. I was kind of surprised to not see the dust anywhere else in the house. We couldn’t find anything that stood out as old to us. The old wheelchair that grandpa had last year when he got hurt was still there. I remember I used to ask him to race me with me on my trike. He just shook his head and laughed. I almost dropped some big paintings when I was trying to see what’s behind it.

The room was empty. I don’t think grandpa would hide anything in this dusty old place. We grabbed our weapons and exited the room then went to the left. Grandpa room was the last place it could be. The door was shut but luckily, couldn’t be locked. It was one of those doors, like all the ones in the house, that didn’t have a lock on either side. I slowly pushed the door open and crawled inside.

His huge bed was the first thing I saw, he bought just before grandma passed away. It kind of feel bad for him, having him sleep in a huge bed like that alone. I crawled around it and looked in the table next to the bed. Nothing but medicine and some shiny jewelry. I don’t think he wears this but he keeps it around anyway. Sally went to go check the closet and I started looking around the study area by the window. Nothing in, on, or under the chair and the table that was near it didn’t have anything but pencils and paper. Sally didn’t find anything in the closet and sat on the bed. The only two things left that were in the room were a bookshelf and a big standing mirror. I started checking the bookshelf when she sighed.

“Are you sure there’s a ‘secret room’ somewhere back here? We’ve checked all the rooms that it could be and nothing. Nada!” She sounded angry. I stopped searching the bookshelf and went to go sit next to her.

“Sorry, Sally. I really thought I’d find something back here.” I looked down at the wooden spoon in my hand that was in my lap. The room was real quiet and I thought it would last forever. Sally got up and looked at the window.

“Let’s just go do something else.”

“Alright.” I said. I was kind of sad that I didn’t find anything.

Sally started walking out of the room. I began to follow her but I remembered the big standing mirror in the other side of the bed, opposite of the door. It would bother me if I didn’t check everywhere. I went over to it and grabbed on to it. It was pretty big cause it was a standing mirror and all but this thing was ginormous. It was easily as tall as grandpa and just as wide. I was hard for me to stretch my arms to reach both sides of it to move it to the side, not considering how heavy it was. I couldn’t move it so I went to the right side if it and lifted forward, off of the wall. I could see something but I didn’t have a good view. I whispered for Sally, but she couldn’t hear me. I whisper yelled as best I could. At first I didn’t hear anything. then I heard footsteps coming back down the hall.

“What is it, Will?” She whispered back to me coming back in the room.

“Come here, I think I found something.” She shook her head and walked over to me.

“This better be good.” She got on the other side and we both got ready to lift it up.

“On the count of three. One. Two. Three. Lift!” On three, we both lift it up and back. It was a lot heavier than I thought it was and it started to fall forwards towards us. Sally yelped and got out of the way. I tried to get in front of it to stop it from falling but I wasn’t strong enough. It came down on me forcing me to the floor. Just as I thought it would crush me, it stopped. I had closed my eyes cause I was kind of scared but when I opened them, I saw that the bed had caught it, barely though. I had to crawl out from under it to see what had happened. Sally was on the other side, stuck were she was between the mirror and the wall. I was fine, but shook up a little.

“Will, look.” She got my attention as she pointed to what was behind the mirror. It was a doorway, not as big as a normal big person door. It was about my height with an another foot or so high and a little smaller wide.

“Looks like you were right will.” She smiled at me and reach out to open the door.

“Wait!” I said a bit louder than I wanted to.

“Let me check it out.” She nodded and held the spatula close to her chest. I took out my trusty wooden spoon from my back pocket and held it at a ready position. I slowly reached out with my left hand for the doorknob, which was kind of in the door as to hide it. I tugged at it and it popped open. The door whined as it open and all I saw inside was darkness. It smelled kind of funny but it wasn’t that bad. I put my right foot into the darkness, about to go inside when Sally and me heard a noise of the next room.

It was the sound of grandpa stretching and yawning. I got really scared this time and quickly pulled my foot out. I dropped the spoon somewhere inside but I was too afraid to be caught to care. I slammed the door shut and Sally started looking around nervously. I told her to grab the other end of the mirror to lift it back into position. She did and with both of our strength put together, slowly lifted it back to its original spot. I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her from the spot she was standing in and we ran from the room. I heard footsteps coming down the hall towards us and we ducked into the sunroom.

“Hide, quick!” I told her and we both ran around trying to find a spot to hide. I found a spot behind the old wheelchair and she hid in some hanging clothes. The footsteps got louder and louder until I heard them go into the bedroom. It was hard for me to breathe part from the fact that the room was full of dust and also that I was terrified of being caught. I could hear something being moved then put back in the bedroom than the footsteps started coming back this way. Sally looked at me and I looked back. We both had the same scared face and we knew we were thinking the same thing.

The footsteps came into the sun room and I stopped breathing. Well, more holding it but still, I didn’t like it. The sound slowed down as they got closer to were I was, until the sound completely stopped. The wheelchair that I was hiding behind slid out from in front of me and I fell forwards. I yelled but stopped when I saw my grandpa’s happy face.

“Gotcha!” He said. He didn’t sound angry at all. It sounded like he was played a game.

“Sally I see you too over there.” Sally slowly moved the clothes out of the way.

“I see what you kids are doing…” This made us both freeze again.

“You’re playing a game of hide and seek! Well, I found you.” He started laughing and left he room.

“Alright, come on you two. Time for dinner.” We both got up and looked at each other for a minute or so. We both knew what the other was thinking. That was way to close. We slowly made our way to the kitchen. Before turning the corner, I looked back at grandpa’s room. I couldn’t see anything moved so I guess he didn’t notice. I turned the corner and side. I’m glad that didn’t backfire on me.

Sally stayed for dinner cause of the usual reasons, she didn’t want to go back, her mom is crazy, and she was too tired to walk anywhere. Grandpa had called her mom and asked if she could stay the night. I could hear her mom yelling over the phone but she still said yeah. We had chicken nuggets and macaroni and it was really good and stuff and I was full afterwards. After dinner, grandpa went to wash up and go to bed. Sally and me went up to my room so that I could get her out a sleeping bag. We watched TV up in the room for a while till it was about elevenish. I kept thinking about that back room in grandpa’s room and what was in it.

“Hey, Sally.” I asked her. She was sitting in a beanbag chair in the corner.

“Yeah?”

“What do you think is in that room?” She flipped on your tummy and put her feet up in the air.

“I don’t know, what do you think is in there?” Truth was, I didn’t even know what was in there. I was really curious about what was in there though. Maybe grandpa was a spy or something and his secret lair was in there or maybe he was a mad scientist with a laboratory. I really didn’t have a clue.

“Not sure. I am glad that he didn’t catch us snooping around in there.”

“Yeah, no joke.” She turned back to the TV. Sometimes I thought she was more interested in the TV than what I had to say. Doesn’t matter. Now I’m trying to think if we could get caught. I knew we wouldn’t but did we leave any clues? I couldn’t think of any. We put the mirror back were it was and the rest of the room looked the same as when we came in. I hadn’t lost anything, I don’t think. Wait, what about…

“Hey, Sally. Do you still have the spatula?” She turned over and pulled it from her pocket.

“Yeah, why?” I checked my pockets and couldn’t find anything but lint. She suddenly knew what I meant by that.

“You lost the spoon!?” She sat up quickly.

“I think I dropped it in the back room!” We both stood up real fast.

“We have to go back and get it! He’d be sure to find it in there!” She said and was already running out the room.

“Wait!” I ran after her. She stopped right before the stairs.

“What? We have to go get it.”

“I know, but it’s not like we can just run in there, through the mirror down on grandpa and grab it and we can’t just go ask him if we can get it. We have to be sneaky. This has become a covert mission!” She heard this and nodded.

“Sneaky. Got it.” She slowly made her way down the stairs and I followed.

We made it down all three sets of stairs and came out into the living room. Everything was really dark and quiet and I was scared but I knew I couldn’t show it. We got back down on our hands and knees and started down the hall again. After we took the right turn at the end, I moved past Sally to take the lead. I told her I had this and she nodded. I made my way up to the bedroom door and slowly grabbed the doorknob and turned it.

Grandpa was snoring in bed and everything was dark. There was a light coming through the window in lines on the wall from the light of the garage outside. Sally was right behind me, trying to be as quiet as possible. We crept around the base of the bed really slow like and after a time, made it to the other side. Now, all that is left, is to move the mirror. I looked back at Sally, then at grandpa, both were equally as silent.

Sally got on the left side of the mirror and I got on the right. We couldn’t lift it back or let it fall again so I told her to pull it at the bottom. I heard the sound if it dragging on the wall above and the carpet below. I pulled it enough for the door to open told Sally to stop. It was only about two feet of space between the mirror and the wall but that was enough. I reached in with my left hand and opened the door. It was just as dark as before and seemed to go on forever. I backed out of the way so Sally could go first. She looked at me like I was stupid or something but shrugged and went in. It was, again, partly for me being scared but also to so she didn’t screw up shutting the door.

“There’s stairs.” She whispered to me from somewhere below. I nodded but realized she couldn’t see and just went on to shut the door. I heard loud thuds and Sally screaming behind me. I looked back really quick but couldn’t see anything. I peaked around the mirror to see if that woke grandpa up. When I could finally see him I quickly went back inside the door and slammed it shut. His eyes were wide open looking right at me.

Sally had finally stopped screaming but now was crying at the bottom of the stairs. I stood up at the top of the stairs trying to find a light switch. When I found a cord I pulled it hard. Nothing happened. I pull it again and again but it wouldn’t turn on. I felt on the walls and found a light switch. With one flick, it turned on and everything got real bright. I ran down the stairs to find Sally curled up crying around the corner.

“Sally, are you alright?” I asked, looking over her to see if she was hurt.

“No…” She replied, tears in her eyes and her arms wrapped around herself. Nothing ever happened to me like this. Sure I had fallen a couple of times but Mommy or Daddy would be there to make me feel better. They weren’t here but grandpa was. He had to help if he knew she was hurt. At the top of the stairs, I heard something being moved and a creaky door opening.

“Grandpa, you have to help! Sally fell and I think she’s hurt! Please grandpa, hurry!” I turned the corner and say grandpa at the top of the stairs. He wasn’t frowning or smiling. His face was kind of neutral. He slowly made his way down the stairs. I look back from Sally back to grandpa. She was at the very start of the hall that made a left a bit at the end. This place did lead somewhere but I’m sure grandpa didn’t want us down here.

When grandpa reached the bottom I ran up to him asking him to help. All he did was shove me a side and walk up to Sally. When he got over to her, he got down on one knee and turned her face to the light with his hand.

“I..I think s-she hurt her arm…”

He let go of her face and looked at her arm that she was holding. She held it up to him. Nothing happened for a second or so and Sally began to bring her arm back down. Grandpa grabbed on to her arm real hard from what I could see and Sally screamed. I gasped and held my hands up to my mouth. Grandpa twisted her arm in his hand and threw it to the side. He then grabbed her face once more and lifted her from the ground. I looked like it hurt a lot cause her face got all red and she was making pain noises.

He looked at her a little bit, turning her in the light before turning and throwing her the nearby wall. The sound when she hit made me sick to my stomach. She landed on the floor and stopped moving. I couldn’t hear her making anymore sounds either. Grandpa then turned and made his way past me to the base of the stairs. I couldn’t move from that spot. I felt real sick at what I had just seen. I look at grandpa and he looked back at me, turning and blocking the path back up the stairs.

“Think you’re so tough now? Go on. You were so curious to see what’s down here, go take a look. You have five minutes.” He folded his arms in front of him and gave me an angry look.

A few tears made their way down my cheek as I walked past Sally. I turned back to her and grandpa shook his head and pointed down the hall. I was really scared and stuff, both for Sally and me but I made my way down the hall real slow. When I got the end of the hall it turned left around a corner and then a right into an open room. I looked back one more time to see grandpa getting closer so I quickly made my way inside the big room.

The room was kind of dark and smelled funny. I could see plants in flowerpots around the walls and some kind of weird table in the middle of the room. It looked like it was metal and something smudged on it. There was a sink in the corner along with a locked cabinet and a bin next to it. I went closer to the center of the room to get a better look at the table. It was just a plain flat metal table. On the ground I saw a ring or something. Picking it up I saw something was written on the inside.

“Love never dies.” Grandpa said from the doorway behind me. That’s what the ring said too. I got scared and dropped the ring.

“It belonged to your grandmother. She was always the sweetest desert flower there ever was. I remember when I first proposed to her. Had that ring specially made for her. It is true, you know, love never does die.” He looked down at his feet and sighed then made his way over to me.

“She never did really die then, you know. She’s still here, with us. As it is said, love never does die, only bodies do.” I was getting more and more scared of the man in front of me by each footstep. He came right over to me.

“She loved you.” He put a hand on my shoulder.

“And you always said you loved our garden outside, especially that oak tree by the back fence.” I was getting more uneasy by the second. I had no idea what he meant.

“And did you know that I discovered something while studying down here? It’s what I’ve been working on for the better part of ten years now. I discovered something that could put all the dead bodies in the world to use.” I wanted to make a break for the door but I knew he would catch me. He walked over to a spiky plant in flowerpot on one of the tables. I think it’s called a cactus.

“Humans make get fertilizer. Blood and tissue work better than any name brand product out there. Works for any type of plant too. From trees, to flowers, to even cactus’. I could make millions on this research and finally retire having accomplished something.” He turned to me.

“And you could be a part of it if you wanted to, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about this yet. If you keep quiet, I could buy you all the things your mom and dad won’t buy you. You and me kid.” He kept playing with the needles on the spiky plant.

“What….What h-happened to g-grandma?” I slowly started walking towards the doorway.

“She was the first I wanted to try my research on. She would have wanted it. And knowing that true love never dies, I killed her. I scattered parts of her around the oak tree and water the tree every month or so with small amounts of her blood. You’ve noticed the trees beauty, haven’t you? That tree is a wonderful and beautiful as your grandma was.”

“No grandpa, this is bad! You can’t do this to people, it’s mean and wrong!” I yelled at him, tears forming in my eyes. He turned, looked at me for a quick moment, shrugged, and turn back to his plant.

“Be a part of my riches or my research. I don’t really care, William.”

I ran up to him and shoved him, all the anger coming up from deep in me. I felt so angry that he’d do something so horrible to grandma and other people. He fell forward on the cactus and let out a really loud scream. I didn’t get to look at him though as I ran out the doorway and down the hall. I saw Sally and went up to her. She still wasn’t moving even as I shoved her and called her name.

“You and that little bitch will be put underneath the garden by the front porch! You’ll make this house beautiful!” Grandpa yelled from the other room. I got scared and ran up the stairs. When I got to the top I turned the light off and slammed the door shut. I thought of putting the mirror in front of it to slow him down but I thought of that after I was already running down the main hall.

I went out the back door to try and get out of the house to the back yard. It was really dark and the lights from the other houses weren’t bright enough for me to see. I tripped while trying to get away from the house, some dirt getting in my mouth we almost made me sick. I ran to the back fence and tried to climb it but couldn’t cause it was too high. I had nowhere to go and I could see grandpa looking for me in the house. Then he turned and went for the back porch door.

I hid behind the big oak tree and waited quietly for him. I couldn’t hear anything except a few crickets and bug and stuff.

“Let’s play hide and seek William.” He called from the back porch. I pushed myself up against the tree real tight so he couldn’t see me or find me. His footsteps in the grass were moving all around the yard, moving from the sides of the yard back and forth. He even checked the shed but found I wasn’t there. I could hear him coming close on my right so I slowly slid around the left side of the tree to be as opposite of him as possible.

I started to lose control of my breathing and started to feel real sick. Tears started up again and I could feel them on my cheeks. All was quiet for the longest time and I thought he was going to give and go inside. I slowly slide more around the left side of the tree until my back was facing the house. I breathed in deep one more time before turning around. Before I could turn though, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Gotcha.”