if necessary, but he couldn’t let fears about being dubbed a tattletale cost him his—
“No.” Nick let out a mean-spirited chuckle. “He doesn’t give a crap about a zit-faced loser like you. Don’t be so gullible, Floren.”
Toby had no response. He braced himself in case Nick intended to start throwing punches.
“By the way, somebody took a dump in your locker,” said Nick, chuckling again as he walked away.
For a second, Toby considered flinging one of his text-books at the back of Nick’s head. The thick hardcover history book would leave one hell of a skull dent. But, no. It would cause far more trouble than it was worth.
He tried to think of something biting and clever to shout after him, something that the other kids would chant for the rest of Nick’s high-school career, but the best he could come up with was “Fatso!” And Nick wasn’t overweight. So he remained silent.
Oh well. He didn’t need friends like Nick anyway. He had Owen.
As Toby trudged through the forest, he wondered if considering Owen his friend was kind of sad. Even having a human friend who didn’t talk and lived in a cave that took over an hour to walk to might be a little sad by itself. When you added the whole “monster in the woods” element, this might be absolutely pitiful. And scary.
Well…so what? It wasn’t as if he and the monster were making babies. If he enjoyed coming out and throwing food to it, whose business was it of anybody else’s? Except for maybe his parents, if things went terribly wrong and the monster devoured his intestines.
Screw ‘em all. Especially Larry and Nick. He wished he could toss Nick’s head over to Owen and see if he liked the taste better than chocolate.
Nah. If he was going to feed Owen, he should feed him something with higher nutritional content than Nick’s head.
Behind him, in his peripheral vision, he thought he caught a glimpse of movement. His heart gave a jolt and he quickly looked over there, but saw nothing.
Relax. You’re in the forest. Things move in the forest. Happens all the time. It’s those eerie stillnesses that you’ve got to watch out for.
He kept walking. He had maybe a mile to go before he reached Owen’s cave. Perhaps he could get Owen to relocate, find him a nice den of sticks or something.
More movement, from the same spot. He only saw the source of the movement for a fraction of a second, but it was enough to identify his follower.
Did Larry really think he was that oblivious?
Well, discounting the fact that Toby had walked this far into the forest without realizing he was being stalked…
He pretended not to have seen anything, then continued walking. Now what? Call him out? Run after him with his hunting knife, screaming incoherently?
He decided to keep going and feign ignorance until he came up with a really good plan.
Somebody else moved. So he had both Larry and Nick after him. Crap. They must’ve been following from a much farther distance and just now decided to sneak up closer.
No brilliant plans immediately sprung to mind. He needed something that would keep these psychos away from him forever.
Having a fanged, clawed, hairy beast jump out at them would be a pretty good deterrent against picking on him in the future, wouldn’t it?
Oh, yeah.
But, no, of course he couldn’t do that. Too many holes in the plan, and when it was time to reveal Owen’s existence to the rest of the world, he’d much rather do it on his own terms instead of the terms of a couple of bullies with wet crotches on their pants running shrieking to the authorities.
“Tooooooby,” said a ghostly voice behind him.
Damn.
“Tooooooby, why are you in the woods all aloooooone? Don’t you know you can get huuuuuuurt?” It sounded like Larry, who was clearly behind a large oak about a hundred feet away.
“I’ll call the cops.”
“Using what? A tin can and string?” This was Nick, who was behind a different tree.
“You’re not supposed to
“No.” Nick let out a mean-spirited chuckle. “He doesn’t give a crap about a zit-faced loser like you. Don’t be so gullible, Floren.”
Toby had no response. He braced himself in case Nick intended to start throwing punches.
“By the way, somebody took a dump in your locker,” said Nick, chuckling again as he walked away.
For a second, Toby considered flinging one of his text-books at the back of Nick’s head. The thick hardcover history book would leave one hell of a skull dent. But, no. It would cause far more trouble than it was worth.
He tried to think of something biting and clever to shout after him, something that the other kids would chant for the rest of Nick’s high-school career, but the best he could come up with was “Fatso!” And Nick wasn’t overweight. So he remained silent.
Oh well. He didn’t need friends like Nick anyway. He had Owen.
As Toby trudged through the forest, he wondered if considering Owen his friend was kind of sad. Even having a human friend who didn’t talk and lived in a cave that took over an hour to walk to might be a little sad by itself. When you added the whole “monster in the woods” element, this might be absolutely pitiful. And scary.
Well…so what? It wasn’t as if he and the monster were making babies. If he enjoyed coming out and throwing food to it, whose business was it of anybody else’s? Except for maybe his parents, if things went terribly wrong and the monster devoured his intestines.
Screw ‘em all. Especially Larry and Nick. He wished he could toss Nick’s head over to Owen and see if he liked the taste better than chocolate.
Nah. If he was going to feed Owen, he should feed him something with higher nutritional content than Nick’s head.
Behind him, in his peripheral vision, he thought he caught a glimpse of movement. His heart gave a jolt and he quickly looked over there, but saw nothing.
Relax. You’re in the forest. Things move in the forest. Happens all the time. It’s those eerie stillnesses that you’ve got to watch out for.
He kept walking. He had maybe a mile to go before he reached Owen’s cave. Perhaps he could get Owen to relocate, find him a nice den of sticks or something.
More movement, from the same spot. He only saw the source of the movement for a fraction of a second, but it was enough to identify his follower.
Did Larry really think he was that oblivious?
Well, discounting the fact that Toby had walked this far into the forest without realizing he was being stalked…
He pretended not to have seen anything, then continued walking. Now what? Call him out? Run after him with his hunting knife, screaming incoherently?
He decided to keep going and feign ignorance until he came up with a really good plan.
Somebody else moved. So he had both Larry and Nick after him. Crap. They must’ve been following from a much farther distance and just now decided to sneak up closer.
No brilliant plans immediately sprung to mind. He needed something that would keep these psychos away from him forever.
Having a fanged, clawed, hairy beast jump out at them would be a pretty good deterrent against picking on him in the future, wouldn’t it?
Oh, yeah.
But, no, of course he couldn’t do that. Too many holes in the plan, and when it was time to reveal Owen’s existence to the rest of the world, he’d much rather do it on his own terms instead of the terms of a couple of bullies with wet crotches on their pants running shrieking to the authorities.
“Tooooooby,” said a ghostly voice behind him.
Damn.
“Tooooooby, why are you in the woods all aloooooone? Don’t you know you can get huuuuuuurt?” It sounded like Larry, who was clearly behind a large oak about a hundred feet away.
“I’ll call the cops.”
“Using what? A tin can and string?” This was Nick, who was behind a different tree.
“You’re not supposed to
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