Free It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) by Edward Medina

been a sudden warning of unwelcome visitors. They quickly executed a well planned, well rehearsed, and frequently enacted series of events in order to make them appear to be invisible.
    But the old man couldn’t resist a peek. He needed to look. He needed to see who had come to visit. He parted the curtains that one of them had thrown shut and what he saw shocked him. What he saw made him move into the light. Her husband was exposing the secret of their deception and his wife would have none of that. As gently but as firmly as she could, she put her hand over his mouth, pulled him back and closed the curtains.
    Then the illusionists presented the best part of their trick. They truly disappeared. It was a stellar performance. Repeated, Mathias was sure, in home after home, shop after shop. But the performance was forced. All of this seemed forced upon the people that lived in this place.
    Something was terribly wrong here. Like the town, this room was eerie. Like the town, it wasn’t really empty. It just felt empty. It was haunted by the energy of the very recently departed. Mathias felt they were somewhere nearby. They were hiding. They were frightened. They weren’t afraid of the dark. It was their friend. They were afraid of what comes in the dark.
    Whatever forced this existence upon these people was also nearby. It wasn’t hiding. It wasn’t frightened. It wasn’t afraid of the dark. The dark and It were friends, but in a very different way. The people here use the dark to stay safe. Whatever was out there in the dark uses it to terrorize them.
    Mathias saw a figure in the doorway. It made his heart stop. It was an old man. No bigger than a child. His hair was long, grey, and wild. Mathias tried to take a breath but couldn’t. His face was so pale and his eyes were lit from within, with fury. His stare was burning through Mathias who still couldn’t breathe.
    Mathias closed his eyes and took a labored breath. When he dared open them, the old man was gone. He had been replaced by Mouse who had been standing there all along. Imagination is the best magician in the dark.
    “You can be unnerving, little man,” Mathias said, a little louder than a calm man should.
    The boy said nothing. Exactly what Mathias had come to expect from him. Mouse was a mystery. Mathias knew nothing about him except his silences. He had no idea where the boy came from, or what his intentions were. There was something about the boy that was beginning to make him feel leery.
    There was something about the boy that had made the old man risk everything to call out to him.
    “We should go,” Mouse said. “We should leave.”
      Scary places can make you suspicious. Even of your friends. So Mathias decided to question Mouse.
    “I arrived at a place called Sandbox Harbor this morning,” he began. “I’m still here, but this is not the same place. I fell asleep in my bed, and woke up falling out of a tree. That’s how I arrived here. In the clearing, before you appeared, I heard a door open and close. Mouse,” he continued, “how did you get here?”
    The boy looked like he was going to answer the question, when he turned his head to his left. He was looking at something. Something or someone was out there with him. Mouse stepped out of the doorway and out of his line of sight.
    In the time that it took Mathias to reach the doorway, Mouse had made his way back to the square. He was standing in front of the dry fountain. He was looking in the direction of the path at the edge of the village. Mathias walked slowly towards the boy and stood next to him.
    “Mouse,” he said gently, “do you know this place?”
    The boy looked up at him. His eyes were open wide, but there was no hint of fear in them. Mathias envied him.
    “Yes,” was all he said.
    Mouse turned back towards the road. He was looking deep down the dark path.
    “What is it?” Mathias asked as he tried to see what the boy was seeing.
    Mouse cocked his head a bit. He