Hi everyone. Here's Chapter 2. I hope you enjoy it! Also, at the bottom of the page there's a question about the chapter. If you can answer it in your reviews that would be great. I'll post the answer with the third chapter.


Chapter 2

I stormed down some odd block in rage. How could Dad do that to me? Why? Why couldn't he tell me that he had another family?

I looked up at a street sign. Wow, I thought. I seriously ended up on Fred's street. That's just typical of me.

I decided to see if my friend returned home from New York. He always stayed with his grandparents there for most of the summer. He should be back by now.

I walked toward his apartment building and inside the alley that his window overlooked.

Fred, by the way, was my best friend. He was held back a few grades due to medical problems, so he towered over everyone else. Both of his legs were bent awkwardly from a childhood injury that didn't heal properly, so he understood what it was like to be handicapped like me.

I smiled at the sight of the fire escape ladder being down. The window was open as well. Yes! He was home!

I was about to call up to him when I heard a vicious growl behind me. I whirled around to see the biggest dog I've ever seen.

I was petrified of dogs. When I lived in Huston with my aunt, just after my mom died, our neighbor had a Chihuahua named Amigo. My neighbor, who was a few years older than me, was a good friend to me, but was horrible at giving names. The dog should have been called the Spanish word for evil instead of friend. The thing always yapped at the mailman, scaring him to death. It once chewed up my neighbor's mom's tool box and nearly took my hand off. I had to get countless stitches and hated dogs since then.

So seeing a dog made me nervous enough. But the hound being fifteen times my size and having razor sharp fangs and fiery red eyes multiplied my fear by a thousand times.

I stepped back from the beast. "Uh…"

The dog barked at me and pounced. I did the worst thing I could think of: scream.

I threw myself at the brick wall of the apartment building and grabbed the lid of a metal garbage can, using it like a shield.

Its claws sliced right through the metal.

I pushed the lid at the hound and ran toward the fire escape.

The hound's claws were stuck in the lid. It struggled to pull them out and gave up. It lunged for me again, with the sound of metal crashing with concrete ringing in my ears.

That's when I heard the eerie music.

I looked up to see Fred standing on the fire escape, playing furiously on some weird pipe instrument. He gave me one of those inside-joke winks, which I didn't get.

Then out of nowhere, grass began to poke through the cracks of the asphalt and grew around the paws of the canine with the rhythm of the music. Soon the dog was bound to the ground, struggling to get up.

Fred stopped playing the pipes. He pulled a baseball bat out of nowhere and tore of his jeans as he leaped at the beast.

Yes, he literally tore off his jeans.

Immediately my face burned hot. I yelled his name, completely embarrassed.

He pounded the beast with his bat in mid-leap and it disintegrated into sand.

He stumbled as he landed, his feet making a loud clip-clop sound.

Only he didn't have feet. He had hooves.

I nearly fainted when I realized that his lower-half was covered with a heavy layer of dark brown fur.

"U-umm…" I stammered, pointing at his legs. He looked down at them and shrugged. He casually put his pants back on.

I just stared at him, dumb-founded. What I thought was a baseball bat melted into an old-fashioned club in his hand. He shoved his Boston Red- Sox baseball cap on his head, which had fallen off when he jumped off the fire escape, covering the little stubby horns that now poked of out of his black curly hair.

He grinned at me. "Hey Rebecca. What's up?"


Right, so here's the question: Who do you think was Rebecca's neighbor in Huston? As I wrote above, please leave your answers in your reviews. Thank you, and I'll try to post Chapter 3 as soon as I can.