Raids and Rescues by Bryan Chick

Author:Bryan Chick [Chick, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780062192301
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-09-24T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

THE OPENING

After supper that night, Mr. and Mrs. Nowicki left for parent-teacher conferences, and dropped Megan off at Ella’s on their way. In his room, Noah sat at his desk with a novel in his lap, his thoughts less on the story and more on tomorrow’s rescues.

Shortly after eight o’clock, a loud click! came from the closet, and he looked up. He waited for more sounds. Slanted light fell into the closet, revealing little more than clothes dangling from hangers.

Click! Click!

The noise again. It seemed too loud to be coming from the furnace. Maybe the boards in the wall were creaking.

The clicks were followed by a new sound. Something like a groan, but different.

He set down his pen and pushed out his chair, careful not to make a sound. If he walked to the other side of the room, he’d have a better view. On his way across the floor, he scanned his clock: 8:19. How soon before his parents would be home?

He came to a stop when his new angle revealed piles of clothes and shoes. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He waited, leaning forward. No further sounds came. What he’d heard must have been the house settling. But still . . . all the weirdness from his closet lately . . . How could he be sure?

Intending to walk back to his desk, he instead found himself moving forward again. He could just peek in, assure himself nothing was wrong.

The floorboards creaked and popped beneath his feet. Just a few steps away from the closet, he stopped and listened. A distant car revved its engine, but nothing else.

He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. Then he walked into the closet, where the scene that greeted him stopped him cold. In the wall where the heat vent had been, a velvet curtain the size of a beach towel dangled. A pile of crushed drywall lay beneath it in a cloud of dust. On the shelves and dangling from the racks were monkeys, five of them. Short, daggerlike teeth filled their mouths, claws curled out past their fingertips, and patches of black skin were visible in bald spots along their mangy hair. They stared at Noah with yellow eyes filled with hate.

The velvet curtain swung out as another monkey crawled through the portal, raising the total to six. Two were spider monkeys and the others were howlers, each as black as coal.

Noah took a step back. He might be able to get out and shut the closet door with the same motion, locking the monkeys inside. But he would have to be swift.

One of the monkeys let loose a bloodcurdling squeal, and above its head, its tail curled one way and then another. The other monkeys tensed and prepared to pounce.

Noah grabbed the doorknob and jumped back into his bedroom, swinging the door around with him. But before he could shut the monkeys in, one lunged off a shelf and landed on his chest, the tips of its claws piercing his flesh.

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