Oh, rats

It's funny how the people who you think are completely nuts turn out to be the ones with all the answers...

The ones who people call: paranoid, insane, lunatics, attention seekers, deranged... the list goes on and on, and in most cases if the majority of a town thinks you're crazy, there's probably some justification--just sayin'. That's what happened in my little town of Slumbers Down. Not many people lived there because of this giant, imposing factory on the outskirts of town that supposedly was involved in animal related experiments...mostly just testing new drugs and medications--however there were plenty of rumors that experiments were being done on more than just rats and pigs, if you know what I mean.

I grew up under the impression that if I was bad my parents would sell me to the factory workers to be used for whatever wacky experiments they would subject children to. Of course, now that I think back I don't think my parents would have actually sold me to a bunch of psycho scientists, but let's face it, kids are pretty impressionable...Which is a nice way of saying comepletely and hilariously gullible. You have to be careful what threats you use on them--some can never forget. Like my friend Toby for example--his parents used to tell him that if he wasn't in bed on time the goblins would come and nibble his toes off... what freaks, right? What sort of demented parents would subject a child to that kind of fear...? Anyway, he's eighteen now and he still can't sleep without something covering his feet. Even if it's flippin' hot outside, he must have a sheet on top of his precious toesies (otherwise the goblins'll get 'em, of course). It actually used to be quite funny really, if you thought about it... Which I did... A LOT. My brother Travis and I loved to tease good old Toby about the "goblins". If only we had known...Well, I'll get to that.

The goblins were actually part of the whole science experiment rumor--Toby's parents didn't completely make up the goblin thing. So, supposedly the goblins were comprised of experiments gone wrong at the factory. Pigs with two heads that could walk on their hind legs and had monstrously sharp teeth... Rats the size of big dogs with unnatural webbing between their arms and sides so that they had the ability to fly... and then the worst and most dangerous goblins were the ones that used to be people, like you and me. They said that the humans used in experiments were the bad guys who carried life sentences from the prisons of the nearby counties...It would be pretty convenient, wouldn't it? Just ship away the dangerous criminals to be used for the advancement of science? That way they could actually contribute to society. Ha, yeah right. More like the government didn't want to pay for their room and board anymore, and who really cares if a few murderers and rapists go missing, never to be found again? No one, that's who.
Anyway, supposedly these human goblins were super agile and had heightened senses--especially of smell. I would not want to meet one of those things...

Oh, and did I mention that all of the rumors said that the goblins ate only meat? ANY meat? Meaning: PEOPLE.

Pretty ridiculous though, right? Nothing to worry about...? Couldn't possibly be true...?

That's what I thought too. So when Betty and Jonathan Thornton--already considered a little cuckoo due to their obsession with taxidermying everything they killed (which was pretty much any forest creature you can think of--seriously, their house was like Noah's Ark...Only the stuffed heads edition)-- came rushing into the town hall during a very boring meeting about whether or not this guy named Phil had stolen this other guy, Collin's, cow from his little backyard pasture, there was quite a fuss. Everyone wanted to escape the monotony of:

"Phil, I know you've had your eye on that cow!"
"Collin, I did NOT steal your stupid cow!"

And Collin's gasp as he shouted, "How dare you call Bessy stupid!" and I swear, Collin was as offended as if Phil had called his mother stupid or something. "She was the most intelligent cow you have ever seen, believe me. In fact, the other day she..."

But no one got to find out what Bessy did "the other day" because that's when the Thorntons burst into the hall and started rambling on about how they had just tracked down a goblin and killed it in the woods. I guess they really had killed virtually every forest creature if they had to resort to tracking down fairy tales.

As you can imagine, there was quite a fuss. The Thorntons took off to lead the way to its body, and a mob of curious people, (some eagerly hoping that their suspicions would be proved correct and others dreading it), swarmed in their wake. I was one of them.

I won't bore you with all the details of the rest of that night...how when everyone got there the thing's body had conveniently disappeared and the Thorntons were condemned as attention seeking liars. Everyone in town beat down on them pretty hard actually...I felt bad for them, but hey, what could a 16-year-old do right?

A couple days later they took off into the woods for good, and I thought I had seen the last of them...Until the day when all of the rumors became facts and life as I knew it was altered forever.

The day the world changed is kind of a blur to me now...what, with all the confusion, screaming...fires erupting randomly, howls and snarls being heard in the streets, doors slamming, car alarms going off, gunshots, flapping of wings... In short, UTTER CHAOS.

I don't know if you've ever been in a fear filled situation, such as a robbery, where everything's normal until some guy takes out a gun and points it at the employee behind the register. You're absolutely shocked--this isn't supposed to happen in real life, not to me at least, right?...only in movies should this be a reality. And then when the cops ask you later to describe the thief, you just can't remember. Weird right? You'd think your recollection would be all the more crystal since the incident is branded into your mind so deep. But no, it's just the opposite. Anyway, that's what happened to me.

I remember waking up to the sound of a door slamming in my house, and the sound of my mother screaming. I think I dismissed it at first as a nightmare, but then I saw a slight glow emanating from outside through my window, and I looked out and saw the chaos on the streets. People running, screaming, scattering... Some with bags of their possessions, others merely trying to hang on to their children... It was surreal. I couldn't believe it. That is, until I went downstairs and discovered the reason for my mother's screams.

My father was brandishing his "emergency-use-only" shotgun, and at his feet was what appeared to be a very dead, mutant pig. Its teeth protruded from its slack jaw, the incisors about an inch long, and to my horror I saw that it had not one--not even two--but THREE heads. I think I screamed too...and before I could ask what was going on my father was attacked by another goblin that had just broken through one of our home's many windows. My mother screamed again, told me to get Travis and RUN, and then said that she and my father would find us. Not to worry.

"Find the Thorntons," she said, "they'll know what to do".

So I ran. I got Travis--who had slept through the craziness somehow...Only 8-year-olds, I swear--and we hit the road.

After that is especially blurry...We ran as long as we could through the tumultuous streets... somehow managing to evade all the goblins, although there were some close calls, and eventually we made it to the woods. Which, not that surprisingly, were not any less scary than the town. I mean, sure, they were more quiet, but that's even creepier, if you ask me.

So after walking around like automatons with only the light of the full moon (how ironic, huh?) to guide us, we eventually passed out under one of the seemingly infinite amount of trees.

I don't know how long we slept there, but when I woke up the face of Jonathon Thornton was looming over me. I was both shocked and relieved, for I believed him to be our savior.

"Come with me," was all he said before he took off, walking pretty quickly, through the forest. I hastily woke up Travis and dragged his sleepy, zombie-like self with me to follow Mr. Thornton.

"Where are we going?" I asked.
"To my house. We're nearly there."

What seemed like HOURS later (evidently Mr. Thornton's and my views of "nearly" were quite different), I finally spotted the Thorntons' humble abode. It was suspended above the ground, a ladder hanging down from its minuscule porch. Their house in the trees was cruder than the house Travis and I had occupied, its walls made of rough logs, no glass in the windows. That's good, I thought, remembering how the goblin had broken through our window at home and gotten my dad...Dad--but my burst of anxiety was halted by the startling shout of Mrs. Thornton from above, saying, "Jonathon? That you honey? You better have brought us back something good for dinner, because if I have to eat one more--"

That was when she finally spotted Travis and I. "Oh, goodness gracious, what the devil are they doing here?" she asked, as she made her way down the ladder.

"They had to run away," said Mr. Thornton.
"Run away...Why, aren't those Bob and Linda's kids? The...oh, what is it...? The...The Rodgersons?"
"Yes, but town's not safe anymore. The goblins are out of their cage."

Mrs. Thornton looked horrified by her husband's words, and was about to ask another question when little Travis beat her to it.

"Where are Mommy and Daddy?" Travis asked me heart-breakingly.

"Don't worry, Trav, they'll find us soon. Don't you worry." But there was cause to worry. What if they hadn't survived the goblins' attack? What if their bodies were rotting away somewhere, or worse, feeding the evil science experiments, nourishing them so that they could track down more people...like us.

I was about to ask what we should do, when Mrs. Thornton screamed, "Something's coming! Hurry, to the house!"

Without further ado we all rushed up the ladder that led to the Thorntons' home in the trees, about twenty feet off the ground. Like a giant, extra sturdy tree house. Mrs. Thornton led the way, with Travis behind her, me behind him and then Mr. Thornton bringing up the rear. I reached the house's small porch just in time to see a mob of frightening, nightmarish creatures approaching in the distance...and then, to my horror, I saw that yet another rumor was true as Travis shouted, "What are those flying things?" and I replied, "Oh, rats..."


Inspirational Quote of the Day:
"Their house in the trees is cruder than the house Travis and I occupy, its walls made of rough logs, no glass in the windows." ~ The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.