I raised an eyebrow. “What’s so special about human kids?” I asked.
“Their taste.” Brad shuddered. “According to the aliens, all the best space restaurants have human kids on the menu.”
A chill prickled through me.
“It’s like those restaurants you go to where you can pick your own live lobster,” Brad went on. “They have shelves of dolls, and people can select the one they want to snack on. The waiters take the dolls to the kitchen and…well, you get the picture.”
For a second I felt dizzy. This story was too horrible to be true! Then again, last week I would have thought growing talking dolls were too weird to be true, too.
“So.” Tyler narrowed his eyes. “So why are you on somebody’s shelf instead of a plate in an alien restaurant somewhere?”
“I don’t know,” Brad mused. “The last thing I remember is some alien shrinking me. I just knew I was going to be eaten the next time I woke up.” He squirmed around. “Instead, I’m here. Tied up. They must have accidentally left me behind or something.”
He paused, thinking. Then he let out a gasp. “I just remembered something! The programming—the device!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“The aliens brainwashed me. They programmed me to signal them in case I escaped,” the doll-boy said. “Did I do anything strange the first time you tapped me up?”
“You reached under my bed for something,” I remembered.
The doll-boy glanced at the bed. “Oh, no,” he moaned. “It’s too late. I’ve already activated the device.”
“What device?” I asked.
“It’s under the bed,” the doll-boy told us.
Tyler knelt down and flipped up the bedspread.
“What’s that?” he yelped. A pink pulsing light spread out from under my mattress. I noticed that faint dentist-drill whine again. I guessed it had been going on all along, and the quilt muffled the sound. I stooped and peered under my bed just as Tyler reached for something. It was a little pink glowing pyramid.
“It’s a beacon to call the aliens to Blairingville. They programmed me to activate it. Now they’re following it to this house!” The doll-boy struggled against the bungee cords.
I kneeled beside the bed. I peered at the pink pyramid. Light flashed from it in irregular waves.
“How long has it been broadcasting? How long ago did you make me big?” the doll-boy asked.
“It was last night,” I answered.
“What time is it now?” He turned his head and looked at the bedside clock. “Nine-fifteen!” he cried. “Oh, no!”
“What?” Tyler demanded.
“You’ve got to let me go,” Brad told us in a low, tense voice. He strained against the bungee cords. “If that beacon has been broadcasting for almost twenty-four hours, the aliens will be here any minute. You have to untie me! We have to hide!”
I wasn’t sure that I should trust this guy. I mean, what if he was lying? What if he was just trying to get us to let him go?
I didn’t have to wait long for my answer.
A low thrumming noise sounded from outside the house. It thumped the floor under me. Shaking it.
Tyler ran to the window, lifted the curtain, and peered outside. “Randi,” he choked. Lavender and red light pulsed against his face.
I raced to join him. And gasped in shock.
In the backyard next door, glowing with purple and red lights, a large, saucer-shaped ship hovered above the ground.
“They’re here!” Brad cried, thrashing around. “They’re here! We have to hide! Hurry!”
Tyler and I glanced at each other. Tyler dropped the curtain. We ran to Brad and unhooked the bungee cords around him. Brad struggled out of the quilt, then gripped Tyler’s shoulders and mine. “We have get away from them! Do you understand?” The look in his eyes was totally intense.
I felt sweat trickle down my neck.
“Where is a good place to hide?” Brad demanded.
I panicked. We hadn’t spent much time exploring the house. We had no idea where to hide—especially from aliens.
Then it hit me. “The off-limits closet,” I said.
“I still have the key ring,” Tyler told us, patting his pocket.
I grabbed Alex, who was sleepy and whiny, from his crib.
Tyler got the closet unlocked, and we all piled into it. Brad backed into one of the boxes we had opened earlier. It fell over, and some of those weird little things inside scattered on the floor.
“What the—?” Brad stooped down, his hands darting among glittering objects.
I grabbed stuff, too. We had to stop making noise!
Tyler pulled the door shut and was trying to get the key into the lock from the inside. “This isn’t going to work,” he rasped. “We can’t lock it from the inside.”
“Maybe if we’re all really quiet,” I began.
“No,” Brad snapped. “If they can get in…”
“Waaaaaaaaah!” Alex bellowed.
“Quiet!” I whispered at him, putting my hand over his mouth.
Alex continued sniffling and sobbing, but very softly.
Brad gripped my arm. “We need a better place to hide.”
“I know,” I whispered. I wished I could think of something!
We sneaked out of the closet, and Tyler locked it again. We headed for the staircase. Maybe if we could get downstairs fast enough, we could rush outside.
But purple lights flashed through the first floor of the house. We heard little scrabbling noises from below us. They sounded like sticks scraping on wood. The air reeked of ammonia.
We couldn’t see them, but we knew. The aliens—the kid-eating aliens—were already downstairs.
“There’s a huge tree out my bedroom window,” Tyler whispered. “It’s got a branch that we can climb out on. Let’s go!”
We sneaked into Tyler’s bedroom and eased the door shut. Brad ran to the window, opened the curtains, and inched the glass pane up.
There was a giant tree out there, but it looked pretty far away. Also, it was so dark. I couldn’t see the tree very well. My entire body quaked with fear.
Brad got on his knees on the windowsill. He lunged across to the tree and landed on the big limb—no problem. He inched along the limb away from us.
“Hey!” Tyler whispered. “Help us with Alex!”
Brad edged back along the limb and held out his arms.
“Don’t wanna, don’t wanna,” Alex muttered.
Tyler climbed on the windowsill, then turned and held out his hands. I gave Alex to him, then grabbed the back of his pants. I didn’t want him falling out the window as he handed Alex over to Brad. “Be careful,” I pleaded.
Brad took Alex and slid toward the tree trunk again. Then he climbed down a couple branches, leaving the big branch free.
Then Tyler crouched on the windowsill. He leaped across to the branch. Oof! He landed on his stomach. His face paled, but he held on while the branch dipped up and down. He edged along the branch to leave me some room.
I climbed up on the window ledge. More scrabbles and clicks sounded from downstairs.
The aliens! It was now or never.
I leaned out—jumped for the branch. And missed!
I grabbed frantically and managed to catch hold of it. The rough bark scratched my hands. I wasn’t going to be able to hold on for long!
“Come on, Randi,” Tyler whispered from above, touching my hand. “Arm over arm.”
I remembered the playground equipment I loved to use as a kid. I was a pro on the monkey bars.
I made my way into the tree’s big canopy. Brad guided my feet to a lower branch.
I leaned against the tree, sagging with relief.
“We can’t stay here,” Brad murmured.
He was right. I could see the backyard, and the spaceship that had landed in it. It looked like the top and bottom of a merry-go-round squashed together without the horses in between. A ramp stretched out fr
om the bottom. These…things ran down the ramp.
They looked like pony-sized lizards—like the velociraptors in that cool dinosaur movie. Except that they had long, purple, curved tales with rattle things on the end.
And two huge fangs poking out of their mouths like a snake.
They were huge space reptiles—with legs!
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Brad whispered.
The space reptiles ran between the spaceship and the back door. They didn’t seem interested in the side of the house, so we were in the clear—for now.
Brad climbed down a few branches and dropped to the ground. He held up his arms so we could lower Alex into them.
I was scared and limp and tired, but I made my arms and legs work. I climbed down out of the tree. Tyler followed.
A loud chittering noise sounded from the house.
I glanced over and saw one of those awful reptile heads peering out of the living room window!
No! I thought. It can’t see me! I froze in my tracks.
The reptile made screechy noises, like cars crashing into each other, metal denting other metal. Two more heads poked out of the window beside the first one. No! They knew we were here!
Tyler grabbed my arm. “Come on! Run!”
I stumbled toward the street, but deep down I knew there was no way we could outrun them all!
The four of us were toast!
“Run!” Brad yelled. He shoved Alex into my arms. My baby brother tightened his grip around my neck as I ran.
The chittering and screeching noises closed in on us. What if I tripped? Would they eat us right here?
No. I couldn’t trip, I wouldn’t, I told myself.
We put on a burst of speed. Tyler ran beside me. Brad pulled on ahead. I heard the aliens’ reptile feet scrabbling on the sidewalk. The sound was getting louder. They were closing in!
Brad reached the end of the block and stopped under the street light.
Something hard stepped on my heel, nearly jerked my shoe off. The sharp smell of ammonia invaded my nostrils.
Terror shot through me. The space reptiles were right behind us!
Tyler grabbed my shoulder and pushed me. I ran faster than I ever had before.
We stumbled into the circle of light the street-light cast on the sidewalk. Brad snagged my arm as I tried to dash past him.
“What are you doing?” I managed to huff.
He pointed behind me, slowing down.
The space reptiles were running away!
“They’re not disguised,” Brad explained. “So they can’t stick around long, and they can’t risk being noticed by anyone. If we go anywhere people can see us, they’ll have to leave us alone!”
“Let’s go to the mall,” Tyler suggested. “It’s Saturday night. There are probably tons of people there!”
We checked for aliens in the street. The coast was clear. We ran and ran, from the light of one street-lamp to another.
At last we reached our destination. I was never so happy to see a mall in my life! We pushed inside and headed straight to the video arcade, where local kids were playing way outdated games. I didn’t know any of those kids, but right then I loved them all.
Tyler ran over to the Addams Family pinball machine. It was one of his favorites. I sat down on the chair of a racetrack simulator nobody was using, and placed Alex in my lap.
“They’ll never follow us here,” Brad said. He smiled at all the flashing screens. Messages blinked across them:
FIGHT ALIEN INVADERS! SAVE THE PLANET!
Yeah, right. Let someone else fight the aliens, I thought.
“We can’t hang out here all night,” I muttered. I shifted Alex in my lap. He was heavy and sleepy now.
“We won’t have to,” Brad reassured us. “They can’t stay at your house long. They didn’t come prepared for a stealth mission. When they want to stay a while, they use human bodies.”
“Use human bodies?” I asked. “Hold on. You mean besides eating humans, they take over their bodies?”
“Yup. They make replica bodies and switch their thoughts into them,” Brad told us in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Wow.” I heaved a sigh. “It’s so much to try to understand at once.”
Brad’s face softened. “Yeah. I guess it must be. I’ve been living with it longer, so it makes more sense to me.” He smiled. “Just relax. You’ll be okay now.”
He strutted over to the pinball machine where Tyler was. The two began playing.
I leaned back in the chair of the racing game and closed my eyes. I was pooped.
Then I glanced outside the arcade into the mall. It was so reassuring. People—normal people—wandered around, shopping.
Normal people…like Mom and Dad.
Wait, wasn’t that—yes! Mom and Dad walking by the arcade! We’d be safe with them!
I tightened my grip on Alex and ran into the mall. “Mom! Dad!” I called. They turned and stared at me, shocked expressions on both of their faces.
“Randi! What are you doing here?” Mom asked.
Alex woke up and looked around. “Mama?” he said. I let him down and he ran to her. “Mama!” He hugged her around the knees.
“What is going on here?” Dad demanded. “Randi, who gave you permission to leave the house at night?”
Mom leaned over, detached Alex from her legs, and swung him up into her arms.
“I—” I tried again. I was never going to be able to explain this, I realized. Not unless Mom and Dad came home and saw the aliens for themselves.
And I wanted them to! I wanted them to call the police or the FBI or whoever was supposed to deal with alien invaders!
On the other hand, I never wanted to go back to that house again!
“Blairingville seems safe enough,” Dad went on, “but I still don’t want you wandering around in a strange place at night.”
Safe? Blairingville wasn’t safe! Our own house wasn’t safe.
“I—” I said again.
“What’s gotten into you?” Dad persisted.
“Big lizard at the house,” Alex babbled. “We climbed out a window and jumped on a tree. I almost failed.”
“What?” Mom asked, her voice faint.
“Lizard, big lizard!” Alex yelled. “It stinked!”
“Randi!” Dad said. “Have you been letting Alex watch horror movies again? You know he gets nightmares!”
“No! I—”
“You are grounded, Randi! You are grounded for the rest of this vacation!” Dad yelled.
“But—“ I began.
Tyler came dashing out of the arcade with Brad behind him. “Mom! Dad! Am I glad to see you!” Tyler cried, and he rushed over and hugged Mom. She should have known right then that something was wrong. Tyler never hugged unless he was ordered to.
“Tyler,” Dad said in a low, serious voice. “Did you let Alex watch horror movies?”
“Huh?” Tyler asked. “What do you—”
“Well, you’re grounded, too, young man,” Dad interrupted.
I tugged on his sleeve. “Dad, you have to listen. We weren’t watching horror movies. Alex is right. There were giant reptile creatures at the house.”
“What?” Dad demanded.
“There were. Tell him there were, Tyler! Tell him!”
Brad whispered something in Tyler’s ear. Tyler laughed.
Huh? Giant fanged lizards from space almost caught and barbecued us, and my twin brother was laughing?
How could he?
“Randi fell asleep while we were watching this movie,” Tyler said. His voice was really strange. It sounded—detached. Distracted. “She dreamed the whole thing. We didn’t climb out the window. We walked over here.”
“That’s not true!” I cried.
“Grounded!” Dad yelled back. “Both of you!”
Dad never grounds us for anything. I felt horrible. Then I thought: being grounded means we have to stay in that house.
“We didn’t know we were
doing anything wrong,” Tyler continued in his weird voice. “Mom, Dad, this is Brad Mills. He lives here in town. He said he’d watch out for us, show us where the other kids spend their Saturday nights.”
“You know you’re not supposed to leave the house without permission,” Dad said, but his voice calmed down a little.
“Hi, Brad,” Mom said. “Larry, aren’t you glad the kids are making friends here.” She shot Dad a look.
He thought for a couple minutes. He sighed. “Okay, you guys. This is your first offense for this trip. I won’t ground you for it. But from now on, no leaving the house at night without permission from me or Mom, got it?”
“But, Dad—” I insisted.
Dad frowned deeply at me. “Randi!”
“We understand, Dad,” Tyler said in a rush. “Say, can Brad spend the night tonight?”
“We’ll check with his parents,” Mom offered.
Brad smiled that perfect smile at her. “Thanks, Mrs. Freeman,” he said. She smiled back.
“Well, we were about to head back and check on you,” Dad said. “I think it’s time we all went home.”
“Sure, Dad.” Tyler grinned.
What was wrong with my brother? “But what about—” I began. What if the space lizards were still there?
I swallowed the rest of my sentence. If the aliens were still there, Mom and Dad would call the police. That would be okay by me—as long as the aliens didn’t see us.
We made it home okay in the station wagon. No aliens came after us. But when Dad parked in the driveway, I didn’t want to get out of the car. What if there were still aliens in the house?
Dad stared at the front door. It gaped open. Light from inside spilled across the porch.
“Did you kids leave that door open?” Dad demanded, glaring over the seat at us.
“No!” Tyler and I cried at the same time. We hadn’t used the front door all evening. Just an upstairs window.
“Wait here,” Dad ordered all of us.
“But shouldn’t we call the police?” I asked.
“It’s okay. I’m just going to check this out,” Dad murmured. He got out of the car and crossed the lawn, peering at the house.
But—what if the aliens were waiting for him? I leaned forward to yell to Dad to come back, but Brad, beside me in the backseat, put his hand over my mouth. “Don’t worry,” he whispered so Mom couldn’t hear from the front seat. “They’re gone.”