The Monsters Hiding in Your Closet by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CBAY Books

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Saturday morning at 9 a.m., after having first explained to my mother that I was going visiting at a new friend’s house, I knocked on Judy’s front door with an old-fashioned brass lion-headed door knocker mounted on it. The house had turned out to be an old Victorian that had been painted tan and green at some time in the past. From the outside it looked to me like a place an old scholar, and a miniature Sphinx, would live. Judy and her mother answered my knock pretty quickly.

“You must be Judy’s school friend!” Judy’s mother, who looked remarkably like Judy, said with a pleasant smile.

“Yes. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Caymot. My name is Sasha Delmon,” I replied politely, shaking her hand.

“Nice to meet you too,” she started to respond, but Judy, who was dressed in the same clothes as yesterday and the day before, grabbed me and said, “Okay, Mom, we gotta go talk school stuff. We’ll be down for lunch, okay?”

“O-okay,” said her mother, clearly startled as Judy practically pulled me from her mother’s grip and dragged me up two flights of red-patterned carpeted stairs to her room and shut the door behind us.

Inside Judy’s white-walled bedroom there were still a few boxes left to be unpacked, but the things that were out were neatly arranged on decorative shelve; her bed with its flowered comforter was carefully made, her homework desk was organized, and the rest of the room was clean. There was such a contrast between Judy’s room and Judy’s appearance that it made me believe her story all the more. She strode over to her brown closet door and threw it open, making sure to stand to one side so I could have a clear view inside. My mouth dropped open at what I saw—there with a large enough body to block the entrance stood a tan- furred lion-bodied animal with white bird wings and a brunette-haired woman’s head. A Sphinx for real!

“You can see me?” the Sphinx asked me after I gasped.

“Yes, I can,” I replied in wonder.

“Hmmm. I’ve never had to deal with more than one person at a time before. Well, the conditions still stand, young ones: Once a day, when you are before me, you must answer a riddle to get by me. No assistance may you be given in answering the riddle. And if you aren’t correct, you will be denied entry. And if you leave before answering, you are conceding defeat for that day.”

“What is your riddle?” Judy asked with suppressed eagerness.

“At night they come without being fetched; by day they are lost without being stolen.”

I smiled, but Judy’s face fell. “I didn’t see that one in any of the books!” she muttered.

After a few seconds of quiet the mythological creature said, “Answer me, child.”

“Don’t pressure me! There was never a time limit on answering in mythology!” Judy retorted.

The Sphinx was silent. Judy stood there for some minutes more, the look on her face slowly going from eagerness to defeat.

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