NASARU
an excerpt

An hour later I jerked awake.

I didn't move. I kept my head down on Lucy’s jacket, letting the bit of drool on my mouth sit there for a moment while I assessed the situation. Whatever woke me was not happening now. All was calm, quiet.

No noises could be heard other than the sounds of steady breathing from the rest of the children. After a minute or two I risked raising my head. Nope. Nothing was in the room, either. Every thing looked fine.

I hadn't been dreaming, I knew that. What woke me up, then?

I sat up and wiped the bit of drool off of the corner of my mouth with the tip of a finger. Slowly, ever so slowly, I put my hands on the arms of the chair and stood. Still nothing. Scotty was not dreaming anymore, either. Jerrod was still sleeping. No one was causing mischief.

The door, I decided. This door had a window. I could easily look out in to the hallway and check if any thing was near. There shouldn't be. If there was, Lucy would be crying by now. She would've known it was there. Someone would be doing something.

It was just way too quiet in here.

I tip-toed sideways to the door and stopped on the side of it, out of view of the window. I listened for a moment but heard nothing. If everything was okay, why was my heart pounding so hard?

On three, I told myself. One, two…

I darted in front of the door and looked out the window. Nothing. The lights were on, a bit dim, but they were still on. The hall was empty.

This was too weird.

I turned to check on the children and stopped. A creature stood inches from me, its grin so horribly wrong that all of the hair stood up on the back of my neck. My arms erupted in goose flesh. I was too shocked to scream – instead I let out a small, scared noise.

Magic eater. How did it get in here?

My gaze darted to the kids. All of them were still sleeping, all of them were still okay. I swallowed.

The thing looked like a twisted, warped version of what might have been a child at one point. It was about four feet tall, proportionate arms, legs, head, and torso. It was, however, missing clothes, genitalia, ears, and body hair. Its skin appeared slimy, like a frog’s. The grin was toothless.

And its eyes were sewn shut.