10 years old or not, Burton Guster was not afraid of the dark.
No sir. Not him.
That was a silly fear anyway. What could the dark actually do to him? It was just the absence of light, really. What was that going to hurt?
He told himself this even as his eyes darted around the interior of the small tent, but then his mind so helpfully supplied all of the things the darkness could be concealing, and Gus swallowed hard.
On second thought, why had he allowed Shawn to convince him to convince his parents that he should go camping with the Spencers? Now he was going to die in his sleeping bag from… something. He wasn't sure exactly what. There might be a rogue bear or a mountain lion who got really, really lost… and if they were lost, they might be hungry, and if they were hungry—
"Gus!" Shawn's hissed whisper, accompanying the sudden riiippp sound of the tent's zipper being undone, was the last thing Gus had been expecting.
He threw his pillow the short distance to the tent's opening, catching Shawn in the side of the head. "Shawn! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"'Almost,'" Shawn repeated, and Gus could practically see the grin that Shawn's tone implied. "But not actually."
Gus swallowed and cleared his throat. "Shawn, what are you still doing awake? Your dad sent us to bed hours ago."
"You're still awake," Shawn pointed out. Before Gus could retort, his friend continued, "Wanna go inside?"
Blinking, Gus inclined his head. "What? Shawn, we're supposed to be camping."
"Well, my dad wants us to be learning something about survival skills," Shawn admitted, "but," he lowered his voice conspiratorially, "I think every bug in Santa Barbara is after me. Besides," he continued, his tone rising back to its previous volume, "I know a way inside around all the squeaky floorboards. We can sleep in my bed tonight and then be back out here before my dad wakes up."
Gus wrinkled his nose. Shawn's plans never seemed to… well, never really go according to plan. However, the more Gus thought about it, the more he was starting to like the idea. Any plan that involved him not having to sleep on the hard ground all night was starting to sound like a very good plan. And then all it took was for him to think back to the possible wild animals that could be roaming around—neighborhood or no neighborhood—and he swallowed and nodded. "Okay fine. We'll do it, but if we get caught, remember this is all your idea."
Shawn grinned. "We're not going to get caught. I told you: we'll pull this off and be back in our sleeping bags before Dad even wakes up in the morning. It'll be fine!"
As Gus followed Shawn across the backyard and toward the Spencer house, he couldn't shake the feeling that Henry Spencer was just waiting to pounce on the duo as soon as they stepped foot in the house. By the time Shawn turned the doorknob, Gus was starting to wonder if a black bear really would be that much worse right about then...
