The Kilburn Club

0:00Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Victory Lane? Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side. Race to chambacacino.com, let's Chamba. No purchase necessary, VTW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CTNC's, 21 plus, sponsored by ChambaCacino. Hello, I'm Wilkins' stories all the time. The Ladu are here. Let's get into it. The parents had been warned about the woods, but they didn't believe. Sores from the past. Folklore. The Cabern Club was quite the exclusive group. You had to have any qualifications to join. First, you had to live on Cabern Avenue and Schiford, Michigan. Second, you had to be in fifth grade at Schiford Elementary. Other kids at school knew about the Cabern Club, but no one really knew what it was. All then, you was the Freddie Sanchez, Mark Hewitt, and Spencer and Maggie Eden were in it, and they made it sound awesome. Freddie, Mark, Spencer, and Maggie had all been hanging out since they were toddlers. Mark had lived on Cabern Avenue since he was born,

1:01and the other three had moved into the houses on either side of his sometime between the ages of one and three. There had been no club at first, just a group of neighbor kids running around outside together. But in the third grade, Freddie started getting picked on, and in some cases straight up bullied. That's when the Cabern Club started. Mark Hewitt won the lottery in the esoteric hierarchy that determines grade school popularity. He may have been the most popular kid in all of Schiford Elementary, but he had not chased the cram, nor did he care to wear it, and he reigned with humble reluctance. He actually despised his popularity somewhat until it became useful. The Cabern Club had been his idea. After Freddie's bullying started at the hands of some kids agreed above them, Mark enlisted Spencer and Maggie Eden to start spreading claims that the four of them were in the secretive group. Spencer and Maggie were paternal twins who had many friends for that reason alone. They utilized this network to spread word of the Cabern Club rapidly. Soon, the four started hearing rumors they had not themselves instigated circulating. The Cabern Club gets to stay up until 11 every night. The Cabern Club watches our rated movies every weekend.

2:04The Cabern Club members will ruin the lives of any bullies in the whole school. Of course, all of these were ridiculous, beaseless claims. But Mark, Spencer, and Maggie let them spread in the name of protecting Freddie. And the bullying did stop. Not only for Freddie, but for all the smaller kids who had been suffering. And at a time a former bully got too nervous to corner a kid or pushed him off a slide. He or she would tell their friends the Cabern Club had threatened to burn down their house or kill their dog or something. The teachers and staff eventually caught wind of the Cabern Club room as two and they allowed them to perpetuate. The club had solved problems for everyone. To the real Cabern Club, being a member only meant would have had ever meant. Hanging out in the neighborhood after school. A stream ran behind their homes so they could often be found down they're trying to catch frogs and fish. A fairly dense woods flourished on the other side of the stream. The kids would play over on the opposite bank but never ventured into the trees. Their parents had told them all how easy it is to get lost in the woods, but even without this warning, they probably wouldn't have gone too far. Something about those woods spooked them.

3:04Sometimes when their conversation would slow or they were playing a game like hide and seek or so deans, they would notice all the bird and insects would stop chirping. Even the leaves rustling with fade to a like a daisicle hiss. Freddie started the rumor that the Cabern Club had a secret fort hidden in the woods behind their homes. He had chosen this location for their hypothetical hideout because he knew none of the other kids would ever work up the note to look for it. But the idea of a hidden fort fested in four young minds. Eventually it worked its way into their conversations. Maggie pretended to shudder dramatically the first time someone brought it up but only a week or so later the conversation started sounding more like plans. My dad has a bunch of old boards under the deck, Mox said one afternoon. The kids had been riding their bikes up and down the street for iOS and had stopped arrest in the shade of the tree in Freddie's front yard. He doesn't use them for anything. I bet we could take some for walls or whatever. Our parents have some wood in the garage too, Spencer said. Big flat boards from when we tore down our old shed. If we could get one of those across the stream I bet it would be a good roof. The resourceful force and brainstormed like this

4:06until they had plans to collect all the necessary materials. The fear of the woods diminished to a mere whisper of a memory. They spent the following day dragging old and in some cases, mossy boards down to the stream. There the kids passed them across assembly line style. It took the enthusiastic bunch less than an iron to have everything where they needed it. They separated into pairs to find a good place to build their exclusive fort. Maggi and Freddie undoubtedly found the best place to build. Mark and Spencer thought they had a good one but they didn't even bring it up after seeing Maggi and Freddie's. They found a place where two trees had fallen at a new perfect 90 degree angle forming a corner. One tree had fallen over the other which formed a natural entryway if they were willing to crawl through the three foot high gap. Spencer poured it out. You won't even be able to see it from the back because of the trees. And so the round Chicago fort was built. Structure was just barely tall enough for most of them to stand in. Freddie had to duck his head a little bit but they loved it. The Kilburn Club now had a real secret hideup. One of the rumors had actually come true.

5:07The more time the four kids spent out in the fort, the more adapted they became to the woods. The apprehension they had once felt completely evaporated by the time summer vacation came around. During the summer, the Kilburn kids stopped knocking on one another's doors when they were ready to play. They all went straight to the fort. Sometimes they would bring books on magazines with them. Freddie brought one particular book. They all loved to look at, especially when it started getting dark. It was called Miles Monster Managerie. It was a fictional encyclopedia of terrifying beasts and paranormal beings, stuff that would have given them nightmares even just a year ago but now fascinated and titillated them. Eventually, the newness of the fort wore off and the children found themselves sitting inside it board. Freddie suggested we could do some of the extra wood to try building a dam in the stream. This idea didn't receive much enthusiasm. It was Maraq in the end who drafted the winning plan. Maraq, despite his popularity, tended to be the quietest in the group so when he offered an idea of his friends usually listened. We haven't really explored the woods yet, Mark said. We looked around for this spot, you know,

6:07back when we built this place but we don't know what else there is around here. Maybe there's some cool stuff. Each of the children felt a lingering pimple of apprehension, a ping of something which they had known before. They each looked to each other for validation but each child was putting on a brief face. No one wants to be the downer. So when they each searched the faces of their friends, all this always brave in difference. And us, they decided to leave this safe little fort and venture into their known. Spencer had the brilliant idea to mark their paths so they could find a way back to the fort whenever they decided to end the expedition. The thup came to him after he looked over as shoulder into the lush green wilderness behind them and realized he couldn't see the fort anymore. Hadn't their parents warned them about how easily they could get lost out there. He offered up the first market, the yellow Michigan Wolverine's baseball cap on his head. Don't let me forget it though, he said. It's actually my dad's. Spencer Maggie chastised him with an exasperated sigh. Did you ask him before you took it? Spencer sheepish grenades for him. He hung his dad's hat on a branch at eye level.

7:08A few minutes later, Maggie started lingering behind. Mark noticed and called her up. Sorry, it's just a do you guys feel weird? She asked. Friday asked. Like what? I don't know. It's like well for one thing. Why is it so quiet? Now the whole group stopped to listen. But listen to what? The wrestling leaves above. The rattling bushes ahead. There were no birds to hear. No chitterings grow starting across the composting leaves of yes here. Even the wind seemed hesitant to whisper through the trees like it felt it didn't belong. The children suddenly felt entirely out of place. Why had they come out so far? And they'd been afraid of these woods once. There must have been some reason for that. And then there was the smell. Puted. Up your. One might have described it by comparison to a septic tank, but that would be entirely wrong. The stench of a septic tank on the unfortunate occasion when it must be open is expected. Normal justifier. The horrendous odor which poisoned the natural air of the woods belonged to something which, by its very nature,

8:09did not belong. Something which had rotted and decayed but could not be absorbed into the ecosystem. Something which nature itself rejected. I think it's time to go back. Mark spoke for them all. Maggie started to say, yeah, let's. But a load crack cut her off cold. The four small, grossly faces turned in the direction of the sound. The density of the woods muted most distant sounds which meant the crack had come from something close. Something imminent. It came from just beyond a grove of short pine trees elevated by a shallow hill. Mark looked at Maggie, who looked at Spencer, who looked at Freddie. No one moved. A sizzle of cracking branches proceeded to violent rattling of one of the short pine trees on the Coburn Club tour off in the direction they thought they had come. They sharded sporadically. What was that? Did you guys see it? What did we do? Is it coming for us? If it was tailing them, it was unlikely they could have seen it. The dense trees with their abundant low branches hid everything behind them. Their own pounding, crash and feet made hearing any pursuing footsteps impossible. Freddie started to worry.

9:10They had run the wrong way until he noticed Maggie's orange card again dangling from a branch head. He led the group in a slight diversion, suddenly recognizing certain landmarks from their previous path. Maggie stopped to untie the sleeve of her cardigan from the branch. Spencer slowed to help her, but she freed the sleeve without his help. The two of them now tailed Mark and Freddie by at least 10 yards. Hey guys, wait up, Spencer called ahead. Mark looked back but showed no sign to slowing down. Spencer heard a sound to his left, the twisting crackle of a falling tree, and his labor breathing was interrupted by an involuntary screen. He and Maggie heard other trees snap as they were wounded by their fallen brother, but the fell tree did not fall into the children's path. It served only to release energy reserves they had not known they possessed. Somehow the sprinting kid to miss Fred is lucky key chain, but stumbled across Mark's silver cross necklace. That left just one marker before they reach the four. Spencer's dad's Wolverine's hat. I bet if we cut down here, it will get to the stream faster. Mark suggested pointing down a steep hill. He was undoubtedly correct, but Spencer's stomach twisted into a knot

10:11at the thought of returning home without his dad's favorite hat. He shouldn't have taken it in the first place. You guys go ahead, he said. I gotta get dad's hat. No Spencer, Maggie pled. She faced him while the other two shuffled and slid down the steep grade. We can get the hat later. That probably won't even notice right away. No, I got it, then I'm coming with you. Maggie said planting a foot for emphasis. Spencer looked into her eyes. His eyes, really, if he ignored the lawn hair framing them. His father's eyes too. Only he had never seen so much love in his father's eyes. The frustration danger, he recognized. Okay, your right Spencer said. He put out his hand from Maggie to hold as she started down the grade. He crouched at the top, assisting her until letting her continue to hold onto her as hand would have dragged him down to. That's when he let go. His sister tumbled and fell flat on her stomach at the base of the hill. This hut spent some more than it hurt her. What are you doing? Maggie demanded. I have to was all Spencer said before disappearing from the edge of the steep grade.

11:12Somewhere up there, the remaining three children heard another tree twist and crack, but this one did not fall. Maggie continued to cry out for Spencer as Mark and Friday half dragged her to the stream. She only crossed it after Mark accidentally knocked her down on her butt in the middle of the running water. She had refused to cross and he had given her only a gentle push, but she hadn't been expecting it. We're from the waist down and from her eyelids to her chin. Maggie crawled at the bank and wailed Spencer's name into the wall of trees on the other side. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing, another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Jamba. Jump in at JambaCasino.com. Let's Jamba. No purchase necessary, BTW Group. Boy, we're prohibited by law. CCNC is 21 plus sponsored by JambaCasino. This is Miles. I hate to interrupt, but this would be a great time to hit the like button and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. I promise you won't regret it. Now for the rest of the story. Sitting on the bank with Freddie and Mark on either side of her, Maggie began to feel her hands growing numb. Her fingers became stiff as if 90 years had suddenly passed

12:13and left her with arthritis. She had never experienced this before, but she knew what it was. Spencer had once told her about it. It had happened to him when they were six. Maggie had woken in the middle of the night with debilitating stomach pain. Their mom had rushed her to the hospital where she had an emergency appendectomy. Spencer had told Maggie when she came home that his hands had gone numb and stiff while she was at the hospital, likely right around the time of her surgery. He's in trouble, Maggie said almost without emotion. She knew it to be as plain a fact as her pants were wet. I think it's bad, her voice cracked. He'll be all right, Mark assured her without confidence. Yeah, Max Spencer knows what he's doing. He'll be okay, Freddie joined in. What did any of them really know what they were doing? A rustling came from downstream. All three children instantly bolted to their feet. Mark wanted to run. He had the strangest feeling about whatever was coming out of the woods but he didn't know how to articulate it to his friends. Maggie's numb hands tingled and blood rushed back to them. Maybe Spencer would be okay after all. With a splash, Spencer crashed into the stream

13:15and waited across. His dad's yellow Wolverine's cap was situated for me on his head. Maggie ran to him. He hugged her while looking over her shoulder at Mark and Freddie. Those boys didn't like the look they saw in Spencer's eyes. He looked sort of wild, like he might suddenly squeeze Maggie's head tied enough to snap her neck. But when she finally pulled away from him, he let her go. Then he smiled at Mark and Freddie and everyone assumed he was okay. I will not insult your intelligence by trying to convince you Spencer was okay. The friend and brother Maggie, Mark, and Freddie had gone into the woods had not returned. Not fully. Not in the way they knew him anyway. Freddie traditionally ventured out to the foot the next day and found it empty. He had often been the first of the group to arrive but never had to wait more than half an hour or so for at least one of his friends to join. That day, he killed two eyes looking through Miles Monsterman asiary. After 30 more minutes, Freddie decided yesterday's hair raising pursuit must have scared his friends away. The thing that had chased him had terrified him in a moment but it hadn't bothered him much after that.

14:16The woods were expansive. He thought the odds of them coming across the thing again or vice versa were pretty slim. The whole experience seemed a little like a dream. Freddie left the fort and went to Mark's house. Mark answered the door, looking embarrassed. You want to go to the fort? Freddie asked. Is anyone else there? Mark asked in return. No, I've been alone all morning. Oh, well, no. I think I'd rather stay in today. You want to play neat for speed? Freddie considered this for a brief moment, nodded and stepped inside. They did not see the Eden twins that day. Then came the rain. It fell and drove for five days straight. Thunder and lightning, they came off and on but the rain fell hard and steady, almost continuously for five days. On day three, Mark's parents announced a spontaneous trip to Cleveland to visit his uncle's family. Mark didn't want to go, but he didn't have a choice. He spent much of the trip thinking about Spencer, wondering what that weird look in his eyes had been. Often, when he was not thinking about Spencer, he was thinking about Maggie Hoping she was okay.

15:16Freddie's parents would not let him leave the house. They feared he would get sick if he went out in the rain. He spent much of the week staring out back windows of the woods, hoping the cowboy and clubs fort was holding up. He watched the stream rise from day to day and was threatening to spill over. The rain mercifully ended before it did. On the sixth day, when the sun started playing Peacaboo with their saturated yacht, Freddie and Maggie met in the muddy bank of the furious river that had been there quite stream only a few days before. Where's Spencer? Freddie asked. He didn't think Maggie looked very well. Her face had the same sort of pain as when she did her appendix removed a few years before. He's supposed after the lawn, very weak. He probably didn't look so great either. He's still at home, Maggie replied. He didn't want to come out. He hasn't really left his room much since the woods, you know? Freddie asked. Why? I don't know. I guess he's sick. He won't really talk to me. Whenever I try to talk to him, he gets really mad and tells me to go away from him. I had mom and dad say he's not eating anything, but I hear him get up at night and get into the fridge.

16:18He's been eating all the lunch meat. Maybe he's just in a bad mood because of all the rain, Freddie offered. I don't think so. I think he has to do with what happened in the woods. Freddie, what was that? What chased us? Freddie shrugged. He had pondered as often during the five days of involuntary isolation. He wished he hadn't read that monster book the day after the chase. It had put all sorts of ideas into his head. Well, I think whatever it was did something to Spencer. He's just not himself and his room stinks. It smells really bad, even outside it, like by the door. When Mark's back, let's try talking to Spencer together. All of us, Freddie suggested. Nadia agreed. The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon aimlessly wandering the loose bag of the stream, checking out where it had eroded away, leaving clear streaks loops. Mark returned the following day at the day Spencer disappeared. The stream still reached. It didn't come up as high as at the day before, but the water was still far too violent across. Maggie had been crying when she found Mark and Freddie observing the stream together.

17:19She said Spencer had left before breakfast. She wanted to know if they had seen him. Freddie said he hadn't. And I literally just got back from visiting my uncle, said Mark. This stood in a triangle, looking at each other, wondering what the next right move could be. You should probably tell your parents we don't know where he is, Freddie pointed out. Okay, we can Maggie was interrupted by one of those twisting cracks they had heard the day chase through the woods. Freddie, the only one facing the woods at the time, screamed as stumbled back. Mark and Maggie turned just in time to see a tall tree, still vibrant with life, tip over and crash into the stream. Most of its leafy fingers landed on their bank. The trunk stress crossed the dangerous water, creating a bridge. Freddie stammered. How did it? The bank must have eroded away. Under the roots, Mark speculated. Spencer, Maggie said. She took a few steps forward and stopped. Did you see him? Mark asked. I don't know. Let's go tell your parents Freddie recommended once more. No, it was him.

18:20He's right over there. Before either Freddie or Mark could stop her, Maggie was off. She caught her way through the leaves of the fallen tree until she found the solid center. She used branches to hold herself up until she was over the water. Then she had to crawl across the smoothrunk on Alphaus. Mark and Freddie left with no other choice to cover her. Maggie ran off in the direction she had seen the flash of yellow the same shade as her father's favorite hat. Spencer was there. She knew it probably thanks to whatever neurological and kid made her hands go numb before. She suddenly halted. She had thought Freddie and Mark were right behind her. Had she run too fast for them to follow? Surely she thought she would be able to hear them soon. But she felt so alone. The thick still began to poke at her nose with something hostile. She recognized it from standing outside Spencer's room. With extreme trepidation, she called Spencer. So there, he looked over there and I'll keep looking this way, Mark instructed Freddie. Freddie bade. He broke away at an angle, constantly looking over his shoulder like an owl to make sure Mark was in clear sight at all times.

19:22Maggie, he whispered harshly. The woods were so quiet again. He wondered where all the birds and animals he normally heard from his yard were. Freddie found out a little further in a tree which had been directly in front of him shifted left in his vision. He saw Maggie just beyond it. He called her name then turned and shouted for Mark. When his eyes fell on Maggie again, she was looking at him. A look of lost bewilderment blew up her eyes and made Freddie wonder if she was really seeing him at all. One of the trees behind her moved. A shit stepped away from the tree it had been sheltering behind and Freddie saw it wasn't a tree at all. Maggie, watch out, he screamed. It was far thinner than most of the trees, but nearly as tall. Freddie didn't know of any animal that could grow so tall. Clusters of what he had thought were dead branches were actually the creature's lawn fingers dangling down nearest knotted knees. The beast looked like a skeleton wrapped in a giant wet paper bag. Freddie had been massively spared a good look at his face. When Maggie turned to see what Freddie was screaming about, it took an enormous step back and vanished into the foliage. You goad, is she good?

20:24Mark asked as he caught up. His breathing slowed by an immediate fraction when he saw Maggie looking days but in heart. Geez, I thought she was going to get scorched by another tree the way he screamed at her. There was was. Maggie asked, you saw it too? A monster, the fort. Where is the fort? Right over there, I'm pretty sure Mark said. He pointed back to where he had come from. All three of them ran. Mark wasn't sure what Freddie and Maggie were talking about. A monster? But he ran all the same. The mention of the fort made him crave its familiarity, the false sense of security. The fallen tree which had fallen their forts entrance appeared ahead. Mark scooped there and X to his right ear, gesturing for Freddie and Maggie to hurry on ahead. They passed him in each duffery entrance. Mark stayed up for a few seconds on his own so he could listen for any signs of approach. Then he crawled into the fort backwards. Freddie planned to the spare board they sometimes used to cover the entrance into the dirt by the opening. He hoped whatever they were running from relied on sight and not say smell or heat.

21:26Some of the monsters from the book track prey with those senses. The one he saw had been so huge that despite its weak looking frame, he imagined it would make easy work of this or call for it. So what did you guys see? Mark asked. I don't know. I barely saw it before it disappeared. Maggie replied. Freddie was too busy flipping through the pages of Miles Monsterman adjury. He uttered a victorious grunt then spun the book around to show his fans. He had opened to a page that showed a horrible looking creature that was practically just bones and teeth. The sun can yellow orbs in its skull could barely be cold eyes, more like floating bobs of pale light. This was an artist's rendering, of course, but Maggie thought she recognized the skeletal legs. They looked eerily similar to what she had seen disappearing into the brush. When to go, Freddie stated. I think this is what's after us. I think it's been waiting for us out there in the woods. I thought all that stuff was fake, Maggie said. Then, batting away tears, she asked, what would you dispense her? She couldn't look away from the picture in the book. Freddie noticed her frozen gaze and turned the picture back to himself for her benefit.

22:28It might have gotten him that day we all got chased. It might have you no possessed him. It's like a demon. That was when he started acting weird, right? Mark said more than asked. Maggie nodded. It dies if it is a when to go, this is bad. Freddie sounded out the words, but very little is known about how to defeat a when to go, since it is both a physical body and a spiritual form. Simply destroying the body will not kill the when to go. So how do we fight it? How do we get it out of Spencer? Maggie asked, wordly. Freddie held up a finger. How long? Okay, here it is. They're countless rituals and customs for pee-pee preventing. How long? Okay, here. Some allies, such a silver, are known to repel when to go, and in two recorded cases have even expelled them from those possessed. Mark was fingering his necklace under his shirt and pulled it out at the mention of silver. He began to examine it, but he had no idea what he might be looking for. Is that made of silver? Maggie asked, now sounding hopeful. I'm not sure, I think so.

23:29It's a family thing. I think my dad said it was real silver when he gave it to me. Maybe we could wait, SHH. Freddie crouched real low and went still. Maggie and Mark froze. Drew McIntyre here from WWE. Wheeled in the claymore can be a life of chaos. When I'm not dominating in the ring, Chumba Casino is how this warrior takes a wee break. With hundreds of online social games and new weekly releases, there's always something fresh to try. And those daily busts, next level, even my free time feels like foul-halla. So when life feels like a battle, kick up your feet, have some fun, and let's chumba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Boyd, we're prohibited by law, CTs and Cs. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. Something was outside to fort. The board above them grown to something leaned down on it. It was trying to find a way in or make one. The evil sense became more powerful than ever. The children held their breath, both out of fear and an unwillingness to suck down the taint today. The Y, flat board that comprised their roof buckled. One single triangular splinter crack and split away.

24:30Then the pressure was relieved. Large footsteps backed away from the fort then faded to nothing. Before anyone could speak, a rapid rush of smaller footsteps that came running back to the fort. They came from the same direction as the big ones that left, but there was no way they could have belonged to the same creature. Footsteps started around the fort, then, with a hissing slide, something pumped against the board, blocking the entrance, and knocked a pounded twice, and the board flopped over. Even before, they could recognize him, Spencer into the fort. His face looked emaciated beneath his dad's Wolverine's head, and he smelled like decade of death. Mark nervously said, hey, Spencer. Spencer lunched at him, clawing, gnashing his teeth. He knocked Mark onto his back and snouted him. Mark screamed. The others moved to help. As they clamored for purchase on Spencer's clothes, he bit down on how Mark raised in defense. Long, needle-sharp teeth that did not belong to a little boypierce through the flesh and muscle of Mark's palm from both sides. He howled an agony as blood painted Spencer's face in spires. Freddie hit him in the back of the head with the thick monster book and Spencer,

25:32other thing that looked like him, lunched at Freddie instead. He knocked the book out of Freddie's hand with one casual swoop. The other hand was close behind, grabbing Freddie's limp wrist before he could react. It brought Freddie's hand to its mouth and effort to see bit his pinky and ring finger clean off in one horrific chump. Freddie did not scream or cry out. He fell back and looked down at what was left of his hand in disbelieving all. Lod shot out from his stomach like a double-bowled squirt gun. The creature wearing Spencer's face opened wide for another greedy bite. Maddie threw herself at it. She and Spencer were roughly the same size, so the full weight of her body knocked a clear away from her friends. But from there, the creature had all the advantage. Rather than push her off of itself, it hugged her tight, squeezed her until she couldn't breathe. She felt its mouth open against her collarbone. The wicker points of his teeth pricked her in a dozen places. She brazed for the terrible bite, unable to fight against it. What Maddie had not seen was that while the creature had been occupied with Freddie, Mark had recovered some of his wit. When Maggie knocked a creature over, Mark had slipped his silver cross necklace over his head.

26:34He now held it out in front of him, the chained hot. When Mark saw Maggie couldn't get away, he dropped to the ground beside the struggling bodice. He ripped Spencer's hat off the things prunny head and got his attention before its teeth could pierce Maggie's flesh. Mark shoved the necklace down around the things head. It reacted instantly, screeching and writhing. It released Maggie and she scrambled back towards Freddie. The thing that looked like Spencer screeched and wrought until it turned purple. It clutched at the silver necklace, but every time it tried to pull it off, its plastic movements caught the necklace on its neck or its ears. Little tufts of smoke started rising from its skin wherever the metal touched it. Mark grabbed it's shirt and started pushing it toward the opening. Maggie saw what he was doing and joined. Freddie just kept staring at his hand. He gave me back my brother, Maggie screamed at the agonized creature. If him back or will kill you, one of Spencer's bony hands made a pass at her face. He got caught in her hair. She had her a terrified squeak, but Mark easily pulled on it to arm and removed the hand from her hair. Mark and Maggie, together, managed to push the stinking thing

27:34through the opening out of therefore. It howled and screeched the sound echoing once it was outside. They watched it through the opening as it scrambled to its feet and stumbled away. Once it was out of sight, they listened. Soon, the agonized cries, so painful they could almost make you feel sorry for the creature, faded to silence. But the children didn't dare celebrate until the horrible smell faded to. Now their attention turned to Freddie. Mark's own hand had already stopped bleeding for the most part. He was lucky. Freddie continued to lose blood and grotesque boots and his face had turned gray. We need to get him to his parents. Mark said, obviously, Freddie? Freddie, this in, Maggie begged. She could get no reaction from him. She thought about vampires and another monster from the big book that might have saved their lives. She wondered if that thing, the when to go or whatever it was, might have turned Freddie with its bite. But she decided that couldn't be the case because Mark had also been bitten and she saw nothing but grim determination on his flushed face. Mark took his shirt off and tore off a strip. He had seen this in a movie. He tied the shirt tightly around Freddie's bleeding hand,

28:36then tied the strip around his own. Help me lift him, Mark said. He and Maggie worked together to carry and drag Freddie out of the fort. He seemed only vaguely aware of anything happening to around him. They let him to the stream with some difficulty then stopped. They gazed across a fallen tree which had allowed them to cross and foes she entered the trap laid for them in the woods. How are we going to get him across? Maggie asked. Mark looked up and done the stream. He saw, miraculously, Freddie's mom crouched over one of her garden beds. Mrs. Sanchez. Mrs. Sanchez. Mark yelled across the stream. She didn't hear him. She had headphones on him and was bobbing to music. Freddie faulted and almost fell. Maggie joined Mark in yelling for Freddie's mother. The combined voices finally got her attention. Mrs. Sanchez ate of Mark and Maggie and helping Freddie cross the fallen tree then ran him up to the house in her arms. The Sanchez's family car was squealing out of the driver before Maggie and Mark even made it up to the houses. Freddie would be okay. Without any immediate threat, Mark's adrenaline waned.

29:38Suddenly his hand hurt. But I'm hay. I hate to leave you right now, but I kind of he saw Maggie had collapsed into a seated position and the grass and was crying. Go was all she said. She looked up at her own house, wondering what she would say when she saw her parents. What would she tell them about Spencer? Was he dead? Maggie looked. Mark suddenly shouted. His voice practically turned her head for her back the way they had come. Some leaves were rustling, getting pushed aside. Mark helped Maggie to her feet and they prepped to run. Spencer's hat was the first thing they saw. Then the rest of him emerged from the woods. Mark and Maggie started running. Vise, wait. Spencer's voice clearing confused came after them. Mark kept running, but Maggie stopped. She turned. Her twins faced and looked trivial and prunish anymore. His skin looked vibrant and normal. Around his neck dangled, marks over necklace. It didn't appear to bother him in the slightest. Spencer is that really? Maggie called across the stream.

30:38Mark now stopped and turned back to. When Spencer crossed the fallen tree and joined his sister, they embraced. Maggie smelled sweat and doubt and the stale odor of days without a shower. What to her in that moment? Those smells were wonderful. They were the smells of her brother. When the Coburn Club returned to school, entering the sixth grade now, their reputation didn't seem to matter anymore. Something changed with the transition from elementary school to middle school. Nobody cared if they were in an exclusive club or had a hidden fault. The only thing anyone seemed to pay attention to regarding the former club was Friday's missing fingers. So the former Coburn Club began starting rumors again. Rumors about an evil monster that looked in the woods behind Coburn Avenue. Ironically, no one believed them, at least not publicly. The story told by Friday, Mark, and Maggie and backed up by Spencer. Kept any more kids from exploring back there. The fort rotted away with no one to maintain it. The roof collapsed first, exposing the rest of the repurposed wood. All the boards turned black and green and sagged. But in the memories of the former Coburn Club,

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