STORY 2: ATTACK OF THE KILLER BLANKET

STARRING:
Linus Van Pelt
Lucy Van Pelt
Charlie Brown
and Linus's Blanket as itself

DAMIEN: The saying "Don't mess with what doesn't belong to you" comes to mind when I think of this tale. One boy's security blanket finally takes vengeance on those who doesn't respect it.

One fall morning in Sparkyville, a young boy named Linus was walking down the street, dragging a blue blanket behind him. He was with his best friend Charlie Brown. They were coming from school. Linus's sister, Lucy, was coming up to the duo.

"You and that stupid blanket!" sneered Lucy to her brother. "You know how embarrassing it is to have a brother who drags a blanket everywhere he goes?! Charlie Brown here may be wishy-washy and dull, but even HE doesn't drag a blanket wherever HE goes!"

Linus just groaned. It wasn't the first time Lucy had complained about him having a blanket, but he was getting tired of hearing the same tired whining about it from her. If it wasn't her complaining about it, some of the kids were teasing him about him holding a blanket.

"How many times must we go through this, Lucy?!" he asked his sister. "I need it for security. It calms me down and makes me feel safe."

"Charlie Brown has that beagle of his," Lucy retorted. "Doesn't Snoopy guard the house, Charlie Brown?"

"He's supposed to," Charlie Brown replied, "but I don't think he actually does anything besides sleep and eat at night."

"Now that you mention it, he's not much of a dog, is he?" shrugged Lucy. "Getting back to you, Linus, you need to give up that blanket sooner than later. Maybe I should start a Blankets Anonymous like Alcoholics Anonymous for Alcoholics, but with Blanket-aholics!" And Lucy went past them to talk to Violet and Patty, her friends.

"I get tired of her coming down on me just because I need a blanket for security!" groaned Linus. "I know I need to let go of it sooner or later. It's inevitable. But why does she feel she has to rush things when I'm not ready to give it up?"

"Couldn't tell you, Linus," said Charlie Brown. And they headed for Linus's house to hang out for a bit.

Later that night, Lucy went into Linus's room. He was sound asleep with his blanket in his hand, and he sucked his thumb. She quietly slipped the blanket out of his grasp without waking him up. Then she went outside and took it somewhere where no one could find it. And she had made it to Monte Woods. When she made it to a clearing in the woods, she had spotted a hole that someone had dug before. She looked inside the hole, but it was empty.

"What could've been in there before?" she wondered. She shrugged it off and threw the blanket inside the hole. Then she filled it up with dirt and went back home. Once back she snuck back into bed and went to sleep.

"He may not appreciate this now," she said to herself, "but he will once he feel that he don't need no dumb cloth for security!" And she went to sleep.

The next morning, a frantic Linus was tearing his room apart looking for his blanket. He couldn't find it anywhere. He knew Luc had something to do with it disappearing, even if he didn't have proof. He made a beeline towards her room.

"YOU GOT RID OF MY BLANKET, DIDN'T YOU?!" he screamed.

"Yes, I did," said Lucy, not hiding the fact she did the deed. "I took it somewhere where you can never find it. Now you'll have to learn how to live without it."

"THAT'S THE POINT! I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT!" And then Linus fainted out of nowhere. Lucy picked him up.

"Oh stop with the hysterics, you blockhead!" she said with no sympathy. "You'll be fine."

"PLEASE tell me where it is!" Linus pleaded with her.

"Just forget it, Linus," said a smug Lucy. "It's gone. Forever!"

"FOREVER?!" And Lucy went into the kitchen to get some breakfast. The anxiety Linus had before was replaced with pure unadulterated rage. He ran into the kitchen and with strength he never had before he pinned his sister to the wall.

"NOW YOU LISTEN TO ME, LUCY!" he said, voice sounding demonic. "YOU MESSED WITH SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T BELONG TO YOU! SO FOR TAKING AWAY MY BLANKET, I CURSE YOU! I CURSE YOU, SISTER! MAY I HAVE VENGEANCE!" And for the first time, Lucy was speechless, even scared a bit. He eventually let his sister go and walked out of the house into the garage. He looked inside a box he stored out there and pulled out a mysterious old book. He opened it and read a passage in Latin. Back in Monte Woods where the blanket was buried. The ground where it was buried started moving up and down.

Later that evening, Lucy was alone in the house watching TV. Linus had went to Charlie Brown's to spend the night so he'd feel better about his lost blanket. Plus Sally was happy that he was there, too. She had told him about a doll that kept coming back. Linus didn't know if to believe that or not.

Lucy kept watching TV, when she heard a thump outside the house. She got up and looked out the window, but didn't see anyone or anything. She went back and sat down continuing to watch TV. She then heard the thump again, but it was louder this time. She was startled by the thump. She went to the door and looked outside.

"Is anyone out there?"

No one was around. The streets were eerily quiet. She went back inside. As she continued to watch TV, all of the sudden the power went out.

"Good grief!" she moaned. "Just what I need!" She found a flashlight in the drawer in the kitchen and went down to the basement. She looked at the circuit breaker to see if she needed to pop back in a circuit. She reset everything and the power came back on.

"Well that's taken care of."

Lucy went back upstairs to finish her program. Things were quiet for a while. But then the house started shaking and rumbling really violently. She thought an earthquake was happening, until she remembered that they didn't live anywhere near fault lines.

"What in the world is going on tonight?!"

All of the sudden, lightning flashed from outside, and the door flung open. Nothing was there at first. But when the lightning struck a second time, a tattered blue blanket appeared on the stoop outside.

"It couldn't be! Could it?!"

Lucy walked slowly to the blanket and spied it. She took a closer look at the tag that was on the blanket. It read, "Property of Linus Van Pelt". Lucy's blood began to run cold at that moment. Was Linus's curse coming to fruition?

"Get a grip, Lucy! That stupid beagle of Charlie Brown's must've found it and dug it up, then returned it here. He's done it before; who's to say he didn't do it again?" Lucy picked up the blanket and brought it to the backyard where they had a trash burner.

"It will really disappear now!" And she threw the blanket into the burner and closed the lid. Then she went back inside the house. But when she was back inside, the blanket was there, but now it was upright! Lucy got scared at that point.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! I JUST THREW YOU AWAY! HOW ARE YOU STILL HERE?!"

After another lightning strike, multiple blankets appeared and surrounded Lucy. She shook with fright. She knew she messed up big time. Outside the house, some of the neighborhood kids walked by thought they heard faint screaming coming from the house. They looked only for a brief moment, but then shrugged thinking it was the wind and kept walking.

The next day, the police were looking for Lucy, who had disappeared without a trace. They were searching the house, but aside from spilled popcorn, nothing was out of place. No blood or fingerprints were found. Linus was asked about the last time he saw his sister, and he told the police it was before he went to his friend's house. They found his blanket laying on the floor, dirty but still intact.

"Does this belong to you, young man?" asked the officer.

"My blanket!" cried Linus. "It's back!" And he grabbed the blanket and hugged it. It's going to need a cleaning, but I'm glad it's back home." And the police continued to question the parents about Lucy's disappearance.

In Monte Woods, some kids were walking in the clearing, when one of them spotted a white shoe with a black stripe sitting on what looked like a freshly filled hole.

"Some poor girl must've lost her shoe while playing out here," said one kid looking at the shoe. He put it down and he and the girl he was with kept walking. Some folks still say they hear a faint voice of a girl saying, "That stupid blanket!" whenever they walk Monte Woods.

UP NEXT, THE WEREBEAGLE'S OFFSPRING