Do you know who a sneak is? That’s me. I look like a black pile of hair with big cat eyes. I have sharp claws that scratch the furniture at night and legs that peek out from under the covers. I mean, I should do that. I just like kids so much. Sometimes I secretly watch them during the day when my parents and my brother are asleep.
They’re so cute. They play amazing games and I really, really want to play with them. But of course I’m not allowed to. I’m a creature of the night. And at night the kids are sleeping, they’re no fun.
Now I realize I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Bobby Boo, and I’m a sneak. I live in a seventh-floor apartment in a big city with my family. My brother Sneak is the exact opposite of me. He loves to come out at night to scratch and scare children. Mom and Dad praise him for it. They say I’m old enough to go haunting too. They say my big night is coming soon.
It didn’t take long before it was here. As soon as it got dark, I was to head to the children’s room to scare and hunt for the feet that peek out from under the covers.
“And scratch hard,” Squeak winked at me, his eyes flashing into the darkness. No wonder the kids are scared of him. He gave me the creeps.
I slipped quietly out of the crevice behind the closet. I gingerly padded towards where the beds stood and the children slept quietly.
“You need to stomp and breathe more heavily,” whispered Squeak, who stayed behind the closet but leaned out so he wouldn’t miss anything.
Okay, then. Breathe more heavily.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Something stirred in the crib. Did I wake them up?
“Huff, huff, huff,” I released a deep breath again and stomped a little.
“Mommy, mommy,” said a voice from the crib.
I quickly crawled under the bed and waited for footsteps to approach from the hallway. The door opened, and feet came into the room – that was all I could see from under the bed. Someone turned on a small light.
“What is it, Amal?” a woman’s voice asked. I recognized the voice; it was their mother.
“You must have forgotten to close the window. The wind is blowing,” Amal said sleepily.
Her feet reached the window.
“The window is closed. You must have had a bad dream, sweetie. Go back to sleep. Good night.”
The light went out, The feet walked away, and the door closed.
It was my moment again. I don’t think I’m very good at breathing heavily, so I’ll skip it. I stepped carefully on my paws and crept towards the bed where Amal was sleeping. I pulled my claws out and brought them closer to the bed. There was a scratching sound. In a few strides I was at the wardrobe. I exhaled loudly. The sounds, the scratching and breathing, sounded so eerie in the dark that I shivered even though I didn’t want to. I could still feel Squeak’s eyes on me, surely he was watching me so he could tease me later. But what if someone else was watching me?
I turned behind me. Huge orange eyes were shining from the darkness!
“Uaaah!” I screamed and ran.
I ran behind the closet so fast that I knocked down Squeak on the way.
The kids woke up and wondered what it was.
“I guess the cats are fighting down below the window again,” said the older boy. They both calmed down and went back to sleep.
“What on earth are you doing?” wondered Squeak as he got up from the ground.
“Someone was there! He was looking at me! He was laughing and scratching and had huge orange eyes!” I described hurriedly, barely catching my breath.
He smacked his forehead with his paw.
“Bobby, you are such a dork! Don’t you know there’s a mirror on the cupboard? You saw yourself!”
“Do I look that scary?”
“No, you look more scared. Congratulations, by the way. You just successfully scared yourself,” sneered Squeak, leaning out from behind the closet into the room and adding: “And you put the kids to sleep. Mr. Sandman is no match for you.”
So that was my first haunting. It didn’t work at all, according to Squeak. But I’d say it was pretty good. I scared myself so much that I was afraid to look in the mirror for two days.
