Excerpt: Circus Performer Rick and his Incredible Flying Scrambled Egg Sandwich

There the woods sat, just as they had every night; the same trickle of moonlight, the same dark, looming branches. Patrick found his mind quieting when he looked at them. He had wanted to explore them the moment they first arrived at the house, yet for some reason it seemed impossible to find the time during the day. He could wait until the weekend as he had originally intended…
But they were so close. Hardly thirty, maybe forty feet from the edge of the house. He could be there within minutes, taking in what had been eluding him for days. It was the one unresolved aspect of his life at the moment that he felt he could do something about, and the answer was in view.
He considered the danger again. It couldn’t possibly be that dangerous. He doubted there were any gaping chasms or rabid badgers waiting for him… The worst thing that could probably happen was getting a nasty gash on some unseen outstretched branch, and that would only require some disinfectant and a bandage.
But the darkness…
It was really dark. How would he even be able to see where he was stepping? And though he was hesitant to admit it, it was just an outright scary thought. If he had a flashlight it would be frightening enough, but they were probably all still packed away in the unending boxes that the family brought from the old house. He would be completely blind, depending on the few beams of moonlight that might make the trip down through the branches.
He was surprised by how close he was actually coming to making the attempt, but as usual reality eventually set in and he decided it was just too unnerving an idea. But the split second before he could lie down something black caught his eye.
Just a little blurb of darkness under the trees, Patrick’s first thought was that it might be some animal, but then decided it was probably just a rock or something.
Then it moved.
He thought it might have just been a trick of his eye, but then it hopped on little black legs out of the shadow of the trees and into the moonlight.