James Dashner: The Journal of Curious Letters

“All the way from Alaska,” she continued. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

“Uh… I don’t know actually. Whoever it was just signed it M.G.”

“Alaska, huh?” Dad said. “Hey, maybe your pen pal knows old Aunt Mabel up in Anchorage. Wouldn’t that be something?”

“I highly doubt it,” Mom answered. “That woman probably hasn’t set foot out of her house in ten years.”

Dad gave her a disapproving stare.

Lisa chimed in, her plate already empty. “Tick, how can you not know who it is? Didn’t you have to give them your address?”

“We told you not to do that unless we checked it out first,” Dad said, his brow creased in concern. “You know what the world’s like these days. Is this from someone we’ve already approved?”

Tick suddenly lost every ounce of his appetite. “I don’t know, Dad-yeah, I think so. It didn’t say much. It was kind of dumb, actually.” He wanted to tell them the truth, but something about the letter made him nervous, and he bit his tongue instead.

He forced the rest of his pancake down, anxiously waiting to see where the conversation went. For several moments the only sounds were the soft clanks of silverware against plates, drinks being put back on the table, Kayla babbling about her favorite cartoon. Finally, his dad mentioned the big game between the Huskies and the Trojans, opening up the morning paper to read about it.

Relief washed through Tick. When he stood to take his dishes to the sink, his mom put her hand on his arm.

“Would you mind taking Kayla out to play in the snow? She’s been asking for it all morning.”

“Uh… sure,” Tick replied, smiling at his sister even though his thoughts were a million miles away. “Come on, kid.”

Late that night, after watching the movie Dad had brought home-a creepy sci-fi flick where the hero had to travel between dimensions to fight different versions of the same monster-Tick lay on his bed, alone, reading the letter once again. Night had fallen hours earlier and the darkness seemed to creep through the frosted window, devouring the faint light coming from his small bedside lamp. Everything lay in shadow, and Tick’s mind ran wild imagining all the spooky things that could be hiding in the darkness.

Why are you even doing this? he asked himself. This whole thing has to be a joke.

But he couldn’t stop himself. He read through the words for the hundredth time. The same ones jumped out at him without fail.

Dreadful time of need.

Indubitably and despicably deadly.

Very frightening things are coming.

Lives are at stake.

Courage to choose the difficult path.

Who would send him such a-

A noise from the other side of the room cut him out of his thoughts. He leaned on his elbow to look, a quick shiver running down his spine. It had sounded like the clank of metal against wood, followed by a quick burst of whirring — almost like the hum of a computer fan, but sharper, stronger-and it had only lasted a second or two before stopping.

What in the world…

He stared at the dark shadow that arrowed across the floor between his dresser and the closet. He reached for his lamp to point it at the spot, but froze when he heard the noise again-the same mechanical whirr, but this time followed by a series of soft thumps that pattered along the carpet toward him. He looked down from the lamp too late to see anything. Tick froze. It sounded like a small animal had just run across the room and under his bed.

Tick pulled his legs to his body with both arms, holding himself in a ball, squeezing. What was it? A squirrel? A rat? What had that weird sound been?

He closed his eyes, knowing he was acting like the biggest baby on the planet but not caring. Every kid’s nightmare had just come true for him. Some… thing was under his bed. Probably something hideous. Something crouching, ready to spring at him as soon as he got the nerve to peek.

He waited, scared to open his eyes. Straining his ears, he heard nothing. A minute went by, then two. He hoped an ounce of courage would magically well up inside him from somewhere, but no such luck. He was thoroughly and completely creeped out.

A sudden image from an old movie popped in his head: a horrible, monstrous gremlin eating through the bottom of his bed, straight through to the mattress, biting and chewing and snarling. It was all Tick needed.

Moving faster than he’d thought possible, Tick jumped off the bed and sprinted for the door, ripping it open even as he heard the sound of small feet scampering across the carpet behind him. He bolted out of his room and quickly closed the door.

Something slammed into it from the other side with a loud clunk.

Five minutes later, Tick’s dad stood next to him in front of the closed door to his room, robed and slippered, flashlight in hand. “Are you sure?” he asked, his voice still deep and rough from having woken up. “Did you see it?”

“No, but I heard it loud and clear.” Tick shuddered at the memory.

“Was it a rat?”

“I don’t know. It… It sounded like a machine or something.” Tick winced, sure his dad would finally send him to an insane asylum-first his bizarre behavior at breakfast that morning, now this.

“A machine? Tick, what book were you reading before you went to bed? Stephen King or something?”

“No.”

“Was it the movie we watched?”

“No, Dad. I promise I didn’t imagine it. The thing had to have been huge-more like a… a dog or something.” Tick felt stupid and resolved to quit babbling.

“Well, I guess opening the door is all there is to it, then.”

Tick looked up at his dad, whose face wore a scared, tense expression, and felt oddly relieved that his old man was just as spooked as he was. “Let’s do it, Dad.”

Dad smiled, flicking on the flashlight. The hallway light was on as well, but Tick thought you could never have too much light when searching for mechanical demons that ate through the bottom of beds before gobbling up the child who slept on it.

Several seconds passed, the two of them staring down at the brass doorknob.

“Well?” Tick asked.

“Oh… yeah.” Somewhat sheepish, Dad reached forward and twisted the handle, pushed, then pulled his hand back like he expected a troll to jump out and bite it off.

As the door swung open with a long, groaning creak that echoed through the house, a wave of light from the hallway spread over the carpet like a rising tide. Tick tensed, sure the strange something would dart at them the second it had a chance, scuttling across the floor like a possessed badger. But he saw nothing unusual.

Dad reached around the edge of the doorframe and turned on the bedroom light. In an instant, every last shadow in the room disappeared, bringing a completely different feel to everything.

Tick felt his fear go down a notch. Just a notch. “Maybe it went under the bed again.”

Letting out a big sigh, Dad walked over and knelt down next to the bed, where a heavy quilt draped nearly to the floor, hiding the space underneath. “Listen, Tick, I’m not gonna lie to you-you’ve got me just as freaked out as you.”

“Really?”

“Let’s just say if something runs out at me, I’m going to scream like a little girl and run to your mom.”

Tick laughed. “Me, too.”

Dad quickly pulled up the quilt and beamed the flashlight under the bed, sweeping it back and forth like a sword of sunshine. Nothing but a few random books scattered across the dusty carpet. “Not under there,” he said with relief. He leaned against the bed to push himself to his feet-no small effort for a man the size of Edgar Higginbottom.

“The closet?” Tick said, licking his dry lips.