Chapter 4

Moonlight was streaming through the window when Seth finally ran into the house. In his excitement, he tripped over a figure on the ground. It was Dale, who was still snoring slightly. Still breathless from his run from the hill, he had to pause to take a few deep breaths before attempting to speak. "Dale, Dale! I found him! I found Warren!" he shouted, shaking Dale awake.

Dale looked up sleepily and mumbled, "Don't make me break your nose." Dale threatened.

"Break my... what?" Seth asked. He gave Dale a confused look. Dale shook his head never mind so Seth continued. "I seriously found Warren! Well, at least the extra demented bag thingy."

"Really! That's great! Where is he?" Dale asked looking behind Seth as if Warren was there hiding.

"Um, well I really don't know where Warren is at this moment but Bubda might!" Seth said, shrinking back slightly.

"If you found the bag how could you not find Warren?! He's supposed to be in there, right?!" Dale roared. Seth raised his hands slightly to calm him.

Dale's outburst brought the rest of the family downstairs. "What's going on?" Kendra asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, there you are Seth! Do you know what time it is? It's nearly midnight!" Grandma shouted. "We were so worried about you!" Seth shot her a 'Really, now is not the time' looks.

"Seth said he found the bag but he didn't find Warren. That's impossible, right?" Dale asked.

"Well, maybe Warren was able to get through the vents..." Kendra said hopefully.

"No," Seth countered, "You can't see the vents from the inside. It's like their not there when you look inside."

"Well this is getting us nowhere! We can all discuss this when the sun is up outside, so I'm going to bed!" Vanessa's voice was slightly muffled through her broken nose. Seth gave her nose a questioning look before looking at the others.

"She's right." Dale murmured. "Now, I'm sleeping on this couch so ya'll should get out."

Everyone started to disperse when Seth yelled, "Wait! Bubda could tell us something. Like how Warren got out of the bag!" That stopped everyone in their tracks.

"Well, ask him what happened to Warren and where he is!" Dale shouted sitting up.

"Yeah!" The others chorused except Vanessa who folded her arms across her chest. Even though she like Warren a little bit she absolutely loathed Dale, most likely because her perfect nose was deformed.

"Okay, Bubda you can come in!" Seth shouted out onto the porch.

Bubda peeked around the open doorway leading to the porch, "Bubda come in?"

Grandpa blinked in surprise a few times. "You got Bubda to come out of hiding?" He asked.
"Yeah. But I will be having to play a few rounds of Yahtzee with him for it." Seth said motioning for Bubda to sit down.

Bubda sat, "Yahtzee?" he asked holding the game up.

"No! You need to tell us what you know about Warren's disappearance." Seth explained.

Bubda started shaking involuntarily, "Warren bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad!" Bubda started quietly but with each 'bad' his voice got louder. "No Warren!" Bubda ended with stomping his foot twice.

Everyone stood there for a while, dumbfounded. Then Kendra broke the silence. "Can you at least tell us how he got out of the extra-dimensional-space-backpack-thingie?"

"Warren make great wind with arm-flaps then he gone!" Bubda described, flailing his arms in emphasis like a baby bird failing to take flight. "Big blue Warren use arm-flaps." Bubda added.

"What are you, a chicken?" Vanessa asked sarcastically.
Ingnoring her, Grandpa asked, "What do you mean 'arm-flaps'?"

"Warren not human..." Bubda whispered.

Blue Warren? Arm-flaps? This is nuts. She thought. Kendra looked at Dale to see if he was understanding any of it. At first Dale was in complete shock. Then he tapped his chin while staring at the roof. Suddenly a light bulb seemed to appear above his head and Dale slowly smiled. "I gotta go..." Dale said then dashed up the stairs. Kendra had a feeling Dale knew something he wasn't telling. Just a hunch.