Free The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe by Dan Poblocki Page B

gotten in when the door blew open?”
    “I don’t know.” Mazzy stepped closer to him, their shoulders now pressing together. “Maybe.”
    The rest of the group joined them at the doorway.
    “Call the police,” Felicia demanded.
    Ingrid shushed her as something crashed in the other room. They all screamed and stepped back. Except for Gabe. He planted his feet, straining to peer through the grainy darkness. After a moment, he realized he was channeling Meatpie. His courage was imaginary, but it seemed to work anyway. A vague shape shifted the shadows. His mind filled in the gaps, and the form became vaguely familiar. This was no dog. The intruder was something larger. Much larger.
    That familiar thought tickled the back of his skull for the third time in as many hours. The Hunter will come for you…you and your new friends.
    An enormous figure stepped toward the light of the living room, a shadow solidifying into something tangible. The group screamed. “What is that?” one of them shouted. The thing bumped into a side table, knocking the piece of furniture over with a crash.
    Glancing over his shoulder, Gabe saw his friends cowering by the far wall. The thing in the other room could easily rush thedoorway and trap them in here. There was no way out, unless one of them opened a window, and even then, with the meadow sloping steeply at the back of the house, a fall to the ground would be great. Too frightened even to speak, he stumbled backward.
    From the parlor, heavy steps creaked across the old floor. A moment later, the living room’s lamplight hit the intruder. A beastly silhouette filled the doorway. Shaggy hair hung from every inch of its wide body. It opened its black mouth in what appeared to be a smile filled with strangely blunt teeth. Ingrid shrieked. “Is that a…costume?” said Malcolm, sounding only slightly more restrained.
    The world seemed to spin as Gabe reeled with both confusion and anger. “Not quite.” He cleared his throat and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. “His name is Milton. Milton Monster.”

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” SAID FELICIA, stepping toward Gabe and away from the group. She kept her eyes on the thing in the doorway. “What the heck is a Milton Monster?”
    “A puppet.” The word whisked from Gabe’s lips like smoke, uncontainable now that it finally had been released.
    “Whose puppet?” Malcolm asked.
    “My father’s,” Gabe said. It was over. With his mask removed, Gabe had only moments before he turned back into the loser he’d learned to be.
    “But how is it moving around?” Mazzy asked, coming up beside him again. “Is it robotic?”
    Her question was like a punch. Gabe snapped his attention back to the doorway. “No,” he said quietly. “It’s not a robot. It’s a suit.” Milton Monster seemed to stare at them. “You wear it. The controls are inside. Hidden levers and hooks and strings.”
    “Then who…” Felicia’s voice trailed off.
    The puppet’s chest moved slowly as someone inside breathed deeply.
    “Seth?” Gabe whispered. “Is that you?” He almost expected the puppet to respond with another animal growl. But it only continued to stare and sway slightly.
    “ Seth Hopper? ” Felicia asked. “No freaking way.” She stomped toward the beast, stopping right in front of it. Milton towered nearly two feet over her. “What do you think you’re doing?” she said, anger shaking her voice. “Freak!”
    “Uh,” Gabe tried to speak up, “Felicia…” But she wasn’t listening to anything but the sound of her own voice.
    The creature tilted its head, as if in amusement.
    “You’re going to regret this,” said Felicia. “Big-time.” She reached up and shoved at the puppet’s chest. She pushed hard, but she only ended up sending herself into a backward stumble. Finding her footing, she looked unsurely back at Milton. “Seth?” she said, her voice a specter of what it had been seconds earlier.
    Milton shook its head, long