Chapter 3
Our parents eventually left the room, leaving me, my sister and the creature alone.
"What the hell is going on?" Maya said, her voice shaky. The Frog Man was still in the room, not moving, just staring.
"I have no idea," I replied honestly. "This isn't normal."
Maya exploded. "Oh, really, you think so do you? A giant mutated freak is standing in the corner of my room at two in the morning and all you can say is "this isn't normal'?" she shrieked.
I looked at her. She was losing it. She was usually like me, cool and calm, but this monster had really gotten to her. The Frog Man suddenly jumped forward, quick as lightning, and landed an inch in front of me. Maya screamed and I stumbled backwards uselessly and hit the wall. Okay, this really wasn't normal. I felt panic rise up in me and I think it had finally sunk in what was happening. There was a Frog Man in front of me. I opened my mouth and a wide range of swear words came spilling out of my mouth. I shouted every curse word I knew and some I thought I made up on the spot.
"What the hell is going on?" I yelled.
"You're gonna wake Mum and Dad!" Maya hissed, grabbing my arm. I closed my mouth suddenly and forced myself to calm down. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself somewhere calm. I was on the beach, listening to the waves crashing onto the sand, kids laughing and running around, birds singing. I sighed contentedly. Being at the beach always calmed me down. Except, I wasn't on the beach, which I became increasingly aware of as my sister's voice broke my concentration and I sank back into the realms of reality.
"Harlan?" Maya asked, giving me a shake. "What the hell are you doing? You're just gonna close your eyes and ignore the giant frog creature?"
I opened my eyes and sighed in annoyance. "Well that was the plan, yes. Thanks for ruining that for me. Now what?"
"What is it? Why do you think it's here? Do you think it wants to kill us?" Maya said quietly, panic in her voice.
"I think if it did we'd already be dead," I said, and then turned to the Frog Man. "What are you?" I asked slowly, as though talking to an idiot. For all I knew, I was.
The Frog Man didn't answer. He just kept staring. "What do you want from us?" I tried again. Still, nothing. "Get lost!" I growled, waving my arms at it. To mine and Maya's surprise, he obeyed. He disappeared, leaving me and my sister alone in her bedroom.
We stood in silence for a few moments, wondering if what had just happened was real. These series of events was certainly enough to make ones such as us to question our sanity.
"Why can't Mum and Dad see him?" I wondered aloud, breaking the silence.
"Maybe he's one of those things that only kids can see?" Maya suggested.
"What things?" I asked with a scowl, turning to face her. If she was talking about those monsters from horror movies I was going to be angry.
"Like...I don't know. Some movies..." she began, struggling to find a reasonable response.
"Forget about movies, Maya. This isn't a movie. It's real and it's happening to us. What the hell is going on? Am I hallucinating? Or...that's it," I said, clicking my fingers, my irritation disappearing and suddenly being replaced by realization and relief. "I'm dreaming aren't I?"
Maya stared at me as though I'd just grown a second head. Considering what had happened that night so far, that wasn't all that unlikely. I raised a hand to my neck, just to be sure. Nothing. I smiled. I only had one head...for now. I decided to stop thinking about the possibility of growing another head, because I was really starting to worry for my mental health.
"How can you be so calm?" Maya hissed at me, and she sat down on the bed.
I shrugged. I never believed in monsters, so I was never scared by horror movies or ghost stories, but this one was real. I thought I should feel a bit more scared than I did, but I just felt curious. What was it? What did it want with me and my sister?
We eventually decided that it was pointless standing around all night, and that we should probably head off to bed, though both of us were wide awake thanks to the shock of seeing a real life monster.
So we went to bed, though I was pretty sure neither of us got a wink of sleep, thinking about the Frog Man and whether he'd really gone, whether he'd really existed. It felt like a dream. It must have been a dream. Things like that just didn't happen in the real world. Was I going crazy?
The next morning my alarm clock went off at exactly 7:00 am. I practically dragged myself out of bed and got ready for school. I could barely keep my eyes open, and Mum was still mad at us because of our so-called 'prank', so and she hardly spoke to us all morning. Not that that bothered me. I was angry at her for being so ignorant.
My first class for the day was maths with Mr. Thornton. I usually found it hard to concentrate during classes, but now I didn't even bother trying. I was way too tired and my thoughts kept drifting off to the Frog Man. My friends, Jaden, Heather and Ryan, kept talking to me, but I was too tired to care about what they were saying, and only gave vague one-word answers. They gave up after a while and talked amongst themselves, but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything except sleep at that point.
The day went pretty well in regards to normality. That is, until the afternoon. It was when we were walking home from school when Maya and I saw the Frog Man again. He was standing next to a bunch of kids by the bus stop staring at us with his small beady black eyes. His green bald head tilted to one side, as though he was awaiting an order. I stopped in my tracks and I heard Maya's breath catch in her throat. My own breathing became heavy as I stared at the Frog Man. He looked even worse during the day. The sun glinted off his slimy-looking head and his long pink tongue flicked out, making my blood run cold. My glance flickered to the other kids walking by. None of them seemed to notice the strange half-man half-frog creature, even the group huddled right next to him. It was like he was invisible to everyone but me and Maya.
"Him again," Maya whispered, her voice trembling. "He's back."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," I said bitterly, rolling my eyes.
"You're welcome, Lieutenant Sarcasm," Maya replied
The Frog Man stepped towards us slowly, his hands behind his back. I thought he was holding a weapon of some sort and was planning on killing us, and got prepared to run. My sister and I backed off, trying to get as far away from him as possible as quickly as possible without drawing too much attention to ourselves. The Frog Man easily caught up with us – I was surprised at how fast he could move for something so big - and stopped about two metres in front of us. We stopped moving when he did. He looked much uglier up close. He did nothing for a moment, and then he extended his arms out to us. I realized he was holding something in his hands. His hands, like his head, were frog hands, light green with dark green spots on them. It took me a second to see what he was holding, but when I did my eyes widened. Maya gasped.
He was holding Phinnie!