Chapter Three

Sam and I were in his room, reading the comic Edgar and his brother had given him the night before.

"Ten o'clock. Lights out." Mom said, making us jump. She put Sam's curtain jacket up. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Uh-huh." Sam and I answered.

"Okay. Night-night, sweetheart. Casey, when you get tired, you need to go to your room, alright?"

"Yeah, I know." I said, not looking up from the comic. Sam was petting Nanook, and looked up as Mom left.

"Mom?" he said.

"Uh-huh?" Mom turned. Sam pointed at the closet door. "Oh. Sorry." Mom said, and closed the closet door. "You know, I can never sleep with the closet door open either." She turned, and faced us. "Not even a crack. Sam, Casey, this is a terrible thing to admit, but I think that, um," as Mom was saying this, she sat down on the bed. Sam put the comic down. "One of the reasons I divorced your father was because he never believed in the closet monster."

There was laughter. We jumped, and saw Grandpa in the doorway. He had something behind his back.

"Dad. Dad, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that." Mom said.

"Brought you something to dress up your room with, Sam." Grandpa said, and took out a stuffed beaver from behind his back. I tried to show no weirdness on my face or anything, and so did Sam. "How do you like that, huh?"

"Thanks, Grandpa." Sam said.

"Oh, Dad, really. You shouldn't have." Mom rolled her eyes up at the ceiling. When Grandpa looked away, Sam and I were grimacing.

"Yeah. Lots more where he comes from." Grandpa said. He set the stuffed beaver down on Sam's bed stand. "Good night, Sam. Good night, Casey."

"Good night, Grandpa." Sam and I said at the same time. Mom walked over to us.

"Lights, you two."

"As soon as we finish this comic, okay?" Sam said. I nodded.

"Okay." Mom said. "Night-night, honey." When she said that, she was talking to both of us. She tapped her hand lightly on the head of the beaver.

"Good night, Mom." Sam and I said. We tried to go back to the comic, but couldn't because the damn beaver was staring at us. Sam put down the comic, and pointed at the beaver.

"You're history, buddy." He said. He picked up the beaver, as if it was going to attack him, got up, opened the closet door, put the beaver in, and then shut it. He got back into the bed, and we finished the comic. When he did, I got up.

"Alright, Sam." I said. "I'm going to go to bed."

"Okay. Good night." Sam said, turned off his lamp.

"Night." I said, and left the room. I walked past Michael's room, and noticed there was no light on. I opened his door, and his bed was empty. It was just like how it was last night-some mattress showing, sheets and blankets thrown about, half of the pillow hanging on the bed.. I shut the door, confused. Then, shrugging it off, and went to my bedroom.

The next day, Sam woke me up around eleven in the morning. I about smacked him.

"Let's go to Michael's room." I said. Sam looked confused.

"Why?"

"Because, last night, I looked in, and he wasn't there."

Sam looked even more confused, and then we walked out of my room, and into Michael's. He was there, fast asleep.

Now, I was even more confused than I was last night.

```~~~LATER~~~```

Sam and I walked into Michael's room.

"Mike." Sam said. "Wake up." He opened the blinds, making Michael just open his eyes and look at him. "It's Mom." Michael closed his eyes as Sam grabbed the phone, and placed it on Michael's chest.

"Mom's home?" he asked.

"No, on the phone, Mike."

"What time is it?"

"It's two o'clock."

"Yeah. Time to wake up." I said.

"Give me those sunglasses." Michael told us.

"You need your sunglasses to talk on the phone?" Sam asked, doing as he was told. "Are you freebasing? Inquiring minds wanna know."

Michael put on the sunglasses, and flipped Sam off. My eyebrows shot up.

"Ooh." Sam said, as we high-fived. Michael picked up the phone, and put it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Michael, are you still in bed?" we heard Mom ask.

"No. I'm up."

"Michael, wou-would you do me a favor? Max asked me to go to dinner with him after work tonight. Would you stay home with Sam and Casey?"

" Look, Sam and Casey are old enough to stay by themselves right now."

"Yeah, we don't need a babysitter, Mike." Sam said.

"Shh." Michael told my twin, making him shut up.

"Look, Michael. You come home in the middle of the night, you sleep all day—" at this, Michael let the phone drop to his shoulder. Sam and I heard Mom continue talking. "I work all day. The twins are always alone. You know, it's been a long time since somebody asked me to go to dinner. I'd like to go. Okay?"

Michael lifted the phone up. "Okay, Mom." He said.

"Thanks, honey. It's a real favor. Bye-bye." Mom said, and hung up. Sam and I looked at each other, and then left the room.

"Who's Max?" Sam asked.

"I think that's Mom's new boss, or co-worker or something." I answered.

"Oh." Sam said, nodding.

```~~~LATER~~~```

Grandpa ran in, looking around for something. He placed the stuffed dog down, a smile plastered onto his face.

"Hey, anything around here that might pass for an aftershave?" he asked, opening a cabinet.

"How about some Windex, Grandpa?" Sam asked, walking over to the windowsill above the kitchen sink.

"Yeah, yeah. Let me try some of that." Grandpa said, walking over to him. Sam took it off of the windowsill, and smelled it before he held it out to Grandpa. He took the Windex, sprayed some on his hands, and rubbed it on his face. Sam laughed. I just looked at Grandpa like 'what the fuck are you thinking?'

"You have a big date tonight, Grandpa?" Michael asked, walking in. He still had his sunglasses on.

"Ah, ha-ha-ha." Grandpa chuckled, as he walked over to Michael and the stuffed dog. "Just going to drop by some of my handiwork to the Widow Johnson." He said.

"What did you stuff for her? Mr. Johnson?" Michael cracked a joke. No one laughed.

"Yeah, well, I'll see you three guys later." Grandpa said, put on his hat, and left.

"That's wasn't funny, Mike." Sam snapped. I watched Grandpa leave in his truck. He honked his horn, and it played a very off-beat tune of La Cucaracha. "I'm gonna make you a sandwich."

"Don't bother." Michael said, taking off his glasses. He threw them on the table.

"Lose the earring, Michael. It's not you. It's definitely not you."

"Piss off."

"You know, all you do is give attitude lately. You watching too much Dynasty, bud?"

Suddenly, we heard engines outside, making the three of us jump.

"What the hell...?" the rest of Michael's sentence died off. The pots and pans shook. The windows and doors shook. About everything was shaking, basically. Nanook stood in alarm. We heard screeching, and he began barking. Michael went into the living room, Sam and I behind him. We heard whooping. Lights kept shining into our eyes. Michael went towards the door.

"No, Mike." Sam warned. "Mike, don't open the door. Mike!" Michael opened the door. "Mike, don't."

But when he opened the door, everything just stopped so suddenly, just like it had started. All we felt was the wind in our faces, and all we saw were the leaves blowing about, and all we heard were the wind chimes.

"What's going on, Mike?" Sam and I asked.

"Go take your bath." Michael said. Sam left the room.

"I go first!" he said.

"Nu-uh! Ladies first!" I yelled. Sam ran into the bathroom, and shut the door. So, just to scare him when he got out, I sat by the door. I heard Clarence 'Frogman' Henry's Ain't Got No Home playing on the radio. Sam was singing along with it. And he, for some odd reason, had Nanook in the bathroom with him. I heard panting and footsteps coming up the stairs, just as Sam began singing in a high-pitch. Michael walked up to the door, and slammed his hand on it as I hid. He turned the knob, and opened the door. I heard Nanook bark, and then saw him jump out at Michael, making me scream. Michael and Nanook fell down the stairs as I just stood there, my knees literally shaking. Soon, the door opened, and Sam came out in his robe. We looked at each other.

"What happened?" Sam asked me. I just pointed down the stairs, and the two of us walked down. "Mike? Michael, are you there? Nanook?" Sam turned on the light, and we saw Michael there. "Michael?" Michael was holding his hand, which had blood on it. "Mike, what happened?"

"Nanook." Michael said, simply. He seemed like he had something that he had something stuck in his throat, and couldn't get it out.

"What about Nanook? What did you do to my dog, you asshole?"

"Nothing. I didn't hurt him. He bit me. This is my blood." Michael explained, as he slowly got up. Nanook walked over to us, and Sam and I began to pet him.

"Why did he bite you, Mike? Huh? What did you do to him?"

"He was protecting you." Michael said, standing up. Sam and I froze.

"Oh, my God." I said.

"What?"

"Look at your reflection in the mirror." Sam said. Michael turned around, and walked up to the mirror, wide-eyed, and gaping at his reflection. He was transparent. Sam held up a hand, and he could see it behind Michael. "You're a creature of the night, Michael. Just like out of a comic book." Sam said, and we started up the stairs. "You're a vampire, Michael. My own brother, a goddamned shit-sucking vampire! You wait until Mom finds out, buddy!"

"Sammy, Case, wait!" Michael said, coming after us. "Sam! Casey!"

"Stay back! Just stay back!" Sam yelled, as we ran into his room.

"Just wait—Just let me talk to you— Wait a minute! Sam! Casey!" We ignored Michael's desperate pleas for him to explain, and slammed and locked the door in his face. We heard him calling our names, and pounding on the door.

"Get away from us, Mike!" Sam said, closing the other door, and locking it.

"Sammy. Case. Sammy, Case, open the door." We heard Michael plead. Sam and I dug around through the comic books until Sam found the one that we needed. He sat next to Nanook on the bed, and picked up the phone. He looked at the comic book. It said "Frog Brothers" and then the number. I looked up.
"Edgar Frog. No wonder he didn't say his last name." I muttered. Sam looked at me.

"Do what?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Nothing. Just dial the damn number." I said, and then Sam looked at the book, and then dialed the number on the back of it. He held the phone in the middle. We heard it ringing, and then,

"Frog." Answered a deep voice. It was Edgar.

Thank God, I thought.