Chapter Five: Don't Hide from Your Happy Face

I didn't know what to believe about what was to be expected of our encounter with the Shadow Man last night. After all we've been through since moving to Supernaturalville recently, I knew it wouldn't be the last time we'd see the Shadow Man again.

Mom and I walked carefully out the basement while I turned off the light and closed the door. "Let me check the house to see if nobody else is lurking around, kid," Mom said. I understood and followed her.

I couldn't believe it when we walked through the poorly lit kitchen, to find the kitchen mess up. The contents from the kitchen cabinets were still wide open. And almost everything in our kitchen refrigerator had been tossed out of it.

Spilled milk dribbled down from the tipped over open milk carton on the bottom of the shelf. Bloody packages of spoiled hamburger meat dripped from the open drawers in the cold refrigerator. The white light kept blinking on and off in the open refrigerator.

There was no sign of the suspicious clown marionette dolls anywhere. But they trashed and left a mess in our kitchen. Mom wasn't pleased when they trashed everything in our house. "I'll call the maintenance crew tomorrow morning. And have them come over and help us get the house back in order," Mom explained.

Mom sat the spilled carton of milk back up. And found the lid lying on the kitchen floor next to the puddle of bloody hamburger meat packages on the floor. "It really happened, didn't it, Mom?" I asked, watching Mom spot and span up the kitchen floor.

She shook her head. "No. It was an animal burglary. Some wild racoons and badgers broke into our garage last night. And raided our kitchen," Mom said. "We don't mention what we think what really happened, okay?" Mom said. 

I didn't know what to believe, myself. I was scared it might happen again. I gasped when I heard something in our garage. "What was that?" I asked Mom. Trying to get her attention. But she ignored me. And told me it was my imagination. "You're not just going to ignore that crashing sound, are you, Mom?" I asked her, impatiently.

She put away some bloody plastic meat wrappings in the kitchen trash next to her. We both jumped again. Something knocked on the door to our garage in the kitchen. I wrapped Mom in a tight bear hug. I realized I was squeezing her shoulders too tight. But I didn't care. I was scared out of my mind!

Mom and I got to her feet. Something thumped in the garage. Making us scream and hold onto each other. "Who's there?!" Mom screamed nervously. Mom quickly grabbed a sharp steak knife out of the kitchen drawer and held it out in front of her for defense. 

The garage doorknob jiggled and turned. Somebody was trying to break in! "No! Get away from us!" Mom screamed. She pushed me aside. Grabbing hold of the jiggling doorknob, I ran up to Mom to defend her.

"Be quiet," Mom warned me. We backed up against the wall. The doorknob stopped jiggling and trying to turn open. All was silent. I couldn't imagine who would be trying to break in to scare us.

The house creaked and we waited a moment to listen for movement. When nothing stirred, Mom put the knife back in the kitchen drawer. She sighed with relief. Mom walked over to me and gave me a hug.

"Can you be brave for me, my love?" Mom asked me, hopefully. I nodded and Mom wiped away some watery eyes. "I don't know what's happening in Supernaturalville these days, honey. But I will make sure nobody tries to scare the daylights out of us, again," Mom said.

I wanted to tell Mom she was right. But the fear in our eyes and the anger in her voice, told me it would keep happening to us. No matter what I do to keep myself from getting out of control, I wanted to promise Mom I would never do anything to let anyone take me away from her.

"We've got to keep staying strong," Mom continued. I didn't take my eyes off Mom. She had me worrying again about our stay in Supernaturalville. I don't know what made us want to come to this weird little town. Obviously, it has secrets it doesn't want anybody finding out about.

Then, the garage door opened. Appearing in the doorway, was the return of the terrifying Shadow Man! "I need you to get you two to join in our graveyard celebration," he said. He started floating toward us.

I don't think anything about it. I kicked him in his crotch… and he stumbled backward into the garage with a thud. I didn't want to check on him. I grabbed hold of Mom and we bolted out of the kitchen. 

Mom quickly grabbed a sharp butter knife from the kitchen drawer. And we hid behind the couch in the living room. "Who is this man, Wesley? Why is he after us?" Mom cried, her hand was making the knife tremble in her hands.

I didn't know myself. I didn't think he was somebody to get to know. "Maybe if we ignore him, he'll go away?" I suggested. Mom nodded and she gulped nervously in fear. As we heard the Shadow Man coming through the kitchen again. 

I grabbed hold of Mom and we hurried out of the living room. I almost bumped my head against the wall. Trying to avoid my shadow gets the Shadow Man's attention. Who was going through our kitchen cabinets and looking for something we had. It might interest him. 

My heart almost stopped beating. I heard the Shadow Man in the kitchen let out a growl of anger. Tossing some kitchen plates out of the top cabinet, Mom and I almost got caught going into a storage closet in the hallway.

"We've got to get help," Mom whispered to me in the storage closet. I put a hand over her mouth. As shadows covered the bottom of the crack of the dimly lit storage closet we were hiding inside of. There was another moment of unsettling silence…

Then, the doorknob started jiggling open…It seemed the Shadow Man knew we were in here! Mom and I were so scared to hide alone from a crazy man trying to make our lives difficult. 

Mom looked at her little sharp butter knife she held in her shaking hand. Watching the doorknob continue jiggling open, Mom stuck the sharp knife through the closet door! Hearing a painful yelp and the sound of a body falling to the ground with a thud, Mom slowly opened the storage closet door…

There was nobody in the hallway. Mom looked at her sharp butter knife and it was covered in blood! But there was no suspect of anybody being around the poorly lit hallway. "What just happened?" Mom asked, in disbelief. I shook my head. I was shaking with fear. 

I didn't know what to believe. My eyes were watery and I couldn't understand how a stalker could suddenly just disappear. It didn't make any sense. He must've wandered off somewhere. Wounded and trying to hide from us.

He left a trail of muddy footprints on the carpet. Followed by some blood dripping from his wound. Following it back into our kitchen, we stopped. We huddled behind the wall next to our kitchen.

We saw what looked like the Shadow Man was gathered with his stuffed clown marionette dolls next to the open refrigerator. They were tossing out the vegetables and healthy food. Looking for more raw meat.

It wasn't looking too good in our kitchen. Shadow Man started glowing and disappearing. In the flash of lightning from the thunderstorm. When he returned to normal, after the flash of lightning came back, the Shadow Man took the form of a darkly handsome knight in shining armor.

His clown marionette dolls jumped up and down around him excitedly. "The princess will come to me when I give her the signal," the Shadow Man explained. Closing the kitchen refrigerator door, the Shadow Man in his shining knight armor, took out a half-open package of bloody raw hamburger meat and started to devour the meat hungrily.

He walked out of the kitchen through the garage door. Will his hyper little helpers followed after him. The kitchen was a mess. "I'll call a housecleaner sometime tomorrow. We'll need help cleaning this mess up," Mom said.

I slowly walked over to the garage door in our kitchen next to our bathroom door. I slowly opened the garage door. Peeked inside our dark garage…But there was nobody there. Just our little bug car. 

When suddenly, I turned on the lights in the garage and screamed! The Shadow Man appeared in the driver's seat of our yellow bug vehicle! He laughed.