Camp NaNoWriMo: Since He Was Gone- Chapter 1

     It all began with a laugh, a cry and a thud. The laugh was so loud it made Zane sit up in bed. It came from across the street and it sounded like the laugh of a madman. It gave him the creeps.

     Before Zane could lie back down, the laugh was replaced with a desperate, piercing cry. The cry of a wounded animal. Or a man reduced to the state of an animal.

     That cry was followed by a thud so heavy it sounded like a boulder falling to the floor.

     Or a dead body.

     Zane ran into his sister’s room. A drastic measure reserved strictly for emergencies.

     “Anika, wake up.”

     “Go away,” Anika moaned, her voice muffled by her pillow. She tried to burry under her comforter, but Zane gave her a hard shove.

     “It’s important.”

     “What is it?”

     Zane told his sister what he heard.

     She cocked her head, listening. All was silent now. “And you’re sure it was him?” She gestured in the direction of the house across the street.

    “Uh-huh. C’mon-we have to do something!”

     Grumpily, Anika followed Zane downstairs. Hearts beating fast, they cracked open the front door and peeked out. There was a full moon above and in the pale, silvery light they could see the house like it was day time. And yet there was nothing to see. The house across the street looked completely peaceful.

     Anika stared at it, more curious than she had let on. Their new neighbor moved in two months earlier. They knew next to nothing about him, only that he was supposed to be some kind of author- a profession that might be suspicious in the eyes of some but intrigued her greatly.

     “Maybe he was reading one of his books out loud,” Anika suggested. “I heard writers do that.”

    “It wasn’t words; it was a laugh then a scream and then a-“

     “So what do you want to do? Knock on his door?”

     Zane shrugged, unhappy. He didn’t know what he wanted to do.

     “He won’t let anyone in during the day time,” Anika continued. “Can you imagine how mad he would be if someone barged in on him in the middle of the night?”

     “He won’t be mad if he’s dead”

     Anika rolled her eyes. “Maybe he was watching a sitcom and that was the laugh you heard. Then he switched to a horror movie-“

    “And then what? He knocked the TV over?”

   “Why not? Aren’t all writers supposed to be crazy?”

    Zane laughed, his mind turning to the mystery series he was reading: A Secret Series by I.B. Unknown. If their neighbor’s books were anything like I.b.’s, he must be completely nuts.

    His sister was right, Zane thought: in a writers house, sounds didn’t necessarily mean what you thought they did.

    Remembering the many twists and turns in I.B.’s books, Zane allowed Anika to lead him up stairs.

    Shortly afterward, the door of their neighbor’s house opened, and a pair of eyes glanced out into the night. Satisfied he wasn’t being watched, the owner of the eyes crept out if the house.

     A moment later he vanished.

     Out in the distance came the sound of a dog howling at the full moon.

~

Whelp, I hope you liked it. 

Camp starts tomorrow. 
I'm pretty excited. And ready to write. 
Do you like my pen name?
Charlotte Rose Novak.