Twenty sets of eyes watched Evan. Beads of sweat formed on his temples. One of those pairs of eyes, watching from beyond the playground’s chain-link fence, glowed red, but Evan had bigger problems to worry about than hallucinations. That creature was a hallucination. Just like last time, and the time before that.
The hot August sun beat down on him as he stepped up to the kickball “plate”—a discarded hat his class kept hidden under some wood chips. Why had he come up with that idea? If there were no bases, he wouldn’t be in this situation. Kickball was fun when you got to be the one pitching or catching the rubber ball, but the pressure of playing on offense ruined it.
At the edge of Evan’s vision, the creature with red eyes crept closer. Its long black snout was almost touching the metal. Except it couldn’t touch it because it wasn’t real. It wasn’t.
Evan took a deep breath. Though some of the other sixth-graders played foursquare or ran around the playground, almost all of Evan’s class stood in the field or behind him in line. They watched him like a pack of dogs waiting for a squirrel to jump down from a tree.
What if he struck out? What if he missed and twisted his ankle? He couldn’t afford to get injured. His basketball team had a big game tonight, and he was their best shooter. Well, their best shooter during practices. He still hadn’t made a three-pointer in a game.
The pitcher crouched toward Evan. She pulled the ball back behind her.
What if he kicked it over the fence and he had to climb over after it? No one had kicked it half that far before, but it could happen. Then he would be stuck in detention for leaving the playground, and Principal Wheaton would call his Mom. He’d come home and see her standing with her arms crossed, a disappointed frown on her face. Then tomorrow, he’d be alone at recess because no one would pick the kid that lost—
Whoosh.
The ball rolled right over the base.
“Strike one!”
Evan looked up at his teammates, eyes wide.
“Come on, Ev!” Silvus shouted from third base. The boy scrubbed a hand through his shaggy blond hair and pointed at the pitcher. “Pay attention!” Silvus had a certain knack for being a pain. Maybe it came with being Evan’s best friend.
Evan gritted his teeth. “Thanks. I was wondering what I did wrong!”
The creature nudged the fence experimentally with the back of its massive paw. It watched Evan without blinking. It seemed to be…calculating. No. It was not calculating because it was not there.
The pitcher caught the ball from her teammate and crouched again.
Most likely, Evan would end up kicking the ball straight to an enemy player. With his team already at two outs, they’d trudge off the field in defeat, glaring at Evan.
No! He could do this. He just had to keep his eye on the ball. He could do this.
The ball rolled quickly toward him. He stepped toward it and kicked with all his might.
Wham!
The ball went speeding to the right.
“Foul ball!” someone shouted just as the ball slammed into the back of a girl’s head, snapping it forward. Her glasses went flying onto the concrete.
The kickball players went silent.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Evan mumbled. Of all the scenarios running through his head, he’d missed this one. Carina would hate him now. Of all the girls to hit with a kickball…
No one else seemed to hear the quiet pop of the first link in the chain fence snapping beneath a razor-sharp claw.
Evan started jogging towards the fallen glasses.
The pitcher raised her hand to her mouth. “I said foul ball!”
“You still have one more strike!” Silvus yelled.
I’m not an idiot. Evan came to a stop at the girl’s glasses which lay in two pieces, split between the lenses. He tried to ignore the continued popping coming from somewhere behind him. If he ignored it, it would stop. It always did.
Evan turned around and smiled sheepishly at Carina. She waited by the four-square court with two of her friends, arms crossed, hair still messy from the impact.
“Sorry,” Evan said. “I promise I’ll fix—”
A scream ripped through the air.
Evan froze.
A dozen more screams erupted from behind him. Kids sprinted past him in a frenzy, their eyes wide with terror. He spun around. Panic rose in his chest like a hot bubble.
Behind Evan’s fleeing classmates, the creature widened the gap in the fence with its saber teeth. The two glowing red eyes in the center of its rat-shaped head surveyed the playground with devilish interest. They came to rest on Evan once again. With the grace of a cat—its body was shaped vaguely like one—it slipped its sinewy form through the gap.
This was impossible. The creature was not real. None of the creatures he saw were real.
One of Evan’s classmates nearly knocked him over as she fled.
If they could see it too…
Evan dropped the glasses and ran.
His legs floundered beneath him. The other kids pulled ahead.
“Get inside!” Ms. McKamie shouted, voice trembling. Her thin frame was mostly hidden behind the door as she ushered kids into the cafeteria hallway, her eyes never leaving the creature.
Paws thumped on the concrete behind Evan, each step louder than the previous. He would never make it to the doors.
The paw-beats were almost on him. Evan cried out in desperation, but his legs wouldn’t go any faster.
He leaned too far forward.
Time seemed to slow. His wrists hit the ground first, scraping the skin open. Tucking into an uncoordinated role saved his knees, but his shoulder wrenched at its socket.
Flat on his back, Evan didn’t even have time to register the pain.
The creature was mid-air, leaping towards him.
Evan screamed and scrambled backwards. He turned around and launched to his feet. Somehow, the creature didn’t land on him.
He sprinted to the closest refuge he could see—the playground. His feet slid on the wood chips. He came to a stop at a set of slides and threw himself beneath them. His pulse hammered all through his body like a drum. Any second and the creature would catch up to him and tear him apart. He shut his eyes.
Moments seemed to pass. Maybe it was just seconds. Evan opened his eyes. He strained to hear. Nothing.
A whimper cut through the silence.
Cautiously, he poked his head out from behind the slide. The doors to the cafeteria were closed. All was still and eerily quiet. Except—
Oh no.
Not far from where Evan had stumbled, the creature stood over Carina, who lay on the X made by the Foursquare court. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her face was turned away from the creature’s breath. Saliva dripped in a string onto her face.
She needs my help!
He sprinted towards her. Just as he arrived, the creature opened its mouth wide and swallowed him whole.
No, that would not happen. Evan got to his knees and pushed the image aside, but it was immediately replaced by another. He ran to Carina’s rescue again. The creature’s claws swiped deep, deadly gashes across his chest.
Evan squeezed his eyes shut, tears slipping out the sides. More images came flooding in: his grandparents clutching their hearts as they heard the news of his death, his sister Bella crying at his funeral, his mother visiting his graveside with flowers.
Evan’s breaths came in ragged gasps.
“Stop!” he told the images.
But they just kept coming. Bella, sitting in her room alone, looking at the bunk where Evan once slept. Ambulance lights flashed on the ceiling; the news of Evan’s death is too much for their grandpa’s already unstable heart. Grandma stands at her second funeral and stares numbly at the grave, no tears left to cry.
Evan sobbed and fell onto the ground. Wood chips poked his legs, but he barely noticed them.
Something shook the fence. Maybe another creature here to find him cowering under the slide.
Evan opened his eyes, the scene blurred from the tears. He wiped them away with the back of his hand.
It wasn’t another creature. A tall man with brown hair light like Evan’s and even shaggier strode towards the center of the playground. A green robe billowed behind him with each step.
He carried a sword.