Free The Dead Boys by Royce Buckingham

work, for the bedroom now appeared completely different than it had before.
    The clothes hanging around him in the closet were no longer old and decayed but neat and pressed. Across the room, the cat-eye marbles were clean and sparkled in their jar, and the hockey game looked shiny new, as though waiting to be played with. In fact, the room appeared just as it might have in 1950.
    Cautiously, Teddy stepped out of the closet and walked over to the bed. He felt the kid-sized indentation in the sheets on the bed and was surprised to find it warm. Someone had just gotten out of bed.
    As Teddy stood by the bed, a hand reached through the open window by the headboard and pushed the drapes aside. Teddy turned to see a familiar face appear in the window frame.
    â€œSloot!” Teddy exclaimed. “I found you!”
    â€œI was about to say the same thing, bucko.” Sloot grinned back at him.
    â€œOkay,” Teddy said, “let’s get you in here.”
    â€œNo, let’s get you in here ,” Sloot shot back. “If my dad catches you in my room . . . well, he’s a bit of a hothead, I’ll tell ya. I ain’t supposed to have friends over at night. C’mon, let’s scram. We can hole up in the tree.” Sloot motioned for Teddy to come to the window, then ducked out of view.
    â€œWait,” Teddy called. He stepped to the window frame and stuck his head through. The swirling darkness outside made it impossible to see. He was just about to point the halogen lamp out the window when a half-dozen hands grabbed him and yanked him through.

CHAPTER 18
    Teddy fell to the ground. He could only see vague shapes in the dark, and a strong wind was blowing sand in his eyes. He felt flailing limbs and bodies around him, wrestling him to the ground. He thrashed and struck out in all directions with his fists and feet. He felt one punch connect with something solid—flesh and bone. Then a body leaped on him and pinned him down.
    â€œSloot! Help!” he yelled. But no help came. Sloot had left the window moments before the hands pulled Teddy through, but now he was gone.
    It occurred to Teddy that perhaps the police had come and they were the ones holding him down. Maybe they’d grabbed Sloot too, or he’d run away from them. Then he had a scarier thought—it might be Henry Mulligan and his hoodlum friends.
    Teddy felt himself being lifted and carried. He still couldn’t make out the figures, and he couldn’t keep track of which way they were taking him. Not that it really mattered—he’d lost all sense of direction in the struggle.
    Don’t panic , he told himself.
    With great effort, he stopped himself from squirming and tried to think. By the number of hands on him, he judged that there were three, maybe four of them. Police would have identified themselves, he thought, so it probably wasn’t cops. But whoever had him wasn’t talking, so he’d have to wait to figure anything else out.
    He didn’t have to wait long. They were half dragging him now, and the halogen lamp was dangling by its cord behind him. The lamp caught on something in the dark, and it jerked the battery in Teddy’s backpack, which tightened the straps on his shoulders and yanked him free of their grasp.
    Teddy fell to the ground and immediately scrambled away from the group. He heard their footsteps shuffling around in confusion, and he desperately fumbled along the ground in the dark for the light. He found the halogen and, holding it out like a shield, he flicked on the switch.
    Five hundred watts of light suddenly blew the darkness back. The glare hurt his eyes, and he was blinded for a moment. He heard eerie squeals of pain, commotion, and panicked footsteps. When his eyes adjusted, whoever had attacked him had retreated beyond the lamp’s range into the darkness and dust. But he knew they were still out there beyond the dim edge of the light’s