Dangerous Games

00: Prologue

Prologue

The basement was a gloomy, decaying place and not even the sun shining high overhead could detract from the ominous feelings radiating from that area. Grim covered the windows and tall, wild grass blocked the sun from penetrating the bottom-most layer of the house. Weeds grew in defiance of any lawnmower, daring the lawn-conscious inhabitants to groom the abandoned home. None ever did, but the desire was always there.

Spiderwebs decorated nearly every corner and hung from columns of boxes that had been stacked over time. Thick gray dust soiled the faded sheets that covered the forgotten furniture and mold grew along the walls and exposed piping. Water stains gave mute evidence of a past break in the pipes and now served as a silent reminder that someone had once called this bleak building home. The basement smelt of dank with a hint of old copper.

It was the perfect place to hunt the Boogeyman.

Alastrina Quinn slowly climbed down the rickety old stairs, testing each step before settling all her weight. Her tiny hands clutched at the railing for support as she scanned the room below. Her only light came from the keychain flashlight she had borrowed from her mom's purse. It barely cut through the murky gloom, causing her to move slower then she felt the leader of such an endeavor should go. She had to be the leader, it was her idea.

When she reached the bottom, safe and sound, she motioned for her best friend to follow. Gretal Zimmer had the good flashlight, which the ten-year-old refused to let Allie use.

Allie and Gretel became best friends in preschool when Allie shoved Kevin Long into a mud puddle for pulling Gretel's pigtails. The two girls quickly bonded over the fact that both their families had immigrated from Germany an Allie impressed Gretel with her stories of gypsy mystics and magical battles. When Allie got the idea to become a great monster hunter, Gretel followed loyally behind.

“Allie, are you sure about this,” Gretel asked, her voice squeaking with terror. The light shook wildly in her hands, causing the shadows to retreat and return in the oddest patterns.

“Of course I'm sure,” Allie said, her tone far more confident then she felt. She had to be the brave one. She was older then Gretel by one month and that made her the responsible one. “No one's lived her for years and Oma said that the Boogeyman liked abandoned buildings.”

“Couldn't we just set up a trap by your bed? Or the closet? Bobby told me the Boogeyman lives in the closet.”

Allie rolled her eyes. “Bobby Hudson doesn't know anything. He's a boy! Boys are stupid.”

Gretel whimpered. “Couldn't we have brought him anyway? Boys are supposed to be brave, right? And protect girls. That's what your brother says, anyway.”

“Evan is older then us, so of course he's brave. He's in high school,” Allie said with a touch of pride. In the back of her mind, she wished she had brought him with them. Things just weren't as scary when Evan was there to protect her.

“We shouldn't be here,” Gretel sniffed. “We'll get into trouble.”

“Only if they catch us,” Allie said. She swung her little keylight at Gretel and frowned when he saw her friend chewing on the ends of her dark hair. Gretel only did that when she was scared. It made Allie a little mad that her friend could show fear, but she had to be brave. “Give me the light. You're not holding it steady, you big baby.”

“I'm not a baby,” Gretel pouted. She held the flashlight a bit steadier, ready to prove that she could be just as brave as Allie.

Allie knew that Gretel was right. This was different from her normal monster hunting schemes. All that Alastrina ever wanted was to be like the heroes in her grandma's stories from her native Germana. Oma Schultz had been the daughter of a real gypsy queen, forced to flee to America during World War Two, helped by a secret underground society of Irish Fae. The gypsy troupe had been some kind of Monster Hunting squad that protected people from all sorts of dark demons that preyed on human flesh. Allie wanted to live up to the name of their most celebrated heroine, Ysvelt, whose name she carried.

Batting a bit of cobweb from her strawberry blond hair, Allie focused her smaller flashlight in a far corner of the room. She thought she saw something scamper in the shadows.

“Gretel, shine the light over this way. I think I saw something.” Allie was determined to come away with something that would put her in the same league as her Oma's heroes. She had already met a real vampire (old man Donovan down the road) and was friends with the only wererat family on the block. Her father's family owned a bound Fae, but it wasn't enough. Everyone already knew that vampires and 'thropes and Fae existed. She wanted to find something that no one else had seen before. If she couldn't find the Boogeyman, then her next goal was to prove that Mrs. Hilder's dog was really a demon. Allie was sure she had seen its eyes once glow red.

“Allie, please, I'm scared,” Gretel whined. “What if the Boogeyman is real?”

“So what if he is,” Allie said, moving towards the corner. “It's not like he does anything except jump out and scare you. He's not dangerous.”

“That's not true,” Gretel protested, causing the light to shake again. “My mommy says that the Boogeyman takes bad kids and eats them.”

Now that she mentioned it, Allie remembered that Oma said the same thing. The Boogeyman stole bad kids who didn't do their chores or disrespected their parents and took them to his lair. There, he ate them. But, Evan told her that the Boogeyman only scared kids who didn't go to sleep like they were supposed to, and Daddy said that the Boogeyman wasn't real.

Allie pushed a box aside to see if she could find any evidence that something other then spiders and dust balls lived in the basement. She wrinkled her nose when she saw a dead mouse and kicked it out of the way. “Will you keep that light still? I can't see anything.”

“I want to go home!”

“Fine, then, go!” Allie turned to her friend in disgust. “I shouldn't have brought you. You always chicken out. Maybe I should have brought Kevin. He's not scared of anything.”

“I'm not a baby,” Gretel cried. “I don't want to do this anymore. We'll get into trouble.”

Allie scoffed, “We'll get in trouble. You're always worried about us getting in trouble and we never do. We might get grounded, but it's okay.”

“That's easy for you to say,” Gretel muttered. “My daddy will blister my butt.”

“No he won't. You told me that the last time. He only threatens to blister your butt, but all he really does is bore you with stories of what could have happened.”

“Yeah, well, this time he's going to beat me.”

Allie rolled her eyes and walked over to Gretel. “Give me the flashlight,” she demanded. “If you won't help me, then give me the light and I'll do this on my own. I should have let Kevin join us. He would never chicken out.”

“That's not fair! Kevin Long is a boy and a wererat!”

“So? He still wouldn't chicken out on me.”

Gretel clutched the flashlight closer to her chest. She shook her head and backed away. Allie sighed and reached out for the flashlight. Just then, a noise came from the shadows behind them. Allie whipped around, her small light poking into the darkness.

“Shine the light over that way,” Allie said as she made her way back over to the corner. She had to wait for Gretel to shine the light before she could proceed. Using the brighter light as a guide, she found her way to where the sound came from. She shined her little light in the corner and frowned. Now, there were two dead mice.

“That's odd,” Allie muttered. She had kicked it out of the way. She remembered doing that. Reaching down, she pushed one mouse and screamed. It wasn't two mice. It was one, cut in half length-wise.

She was about to turn back to Gretel, to tell her that they were leaving, when the light went out. Allie stood there, plunged in darkness. The only sound she could hear was her own panicked breathing.

“Gretel, turn that light back on! Come on, that's not funny!”

Allie stumbled towards where she remembered Gretel had been standing. She knocked into a box, hitting her knee. She knew that Gretel was too big a baby to pull this stunt. Kevin or Bobby or Evan would turn the lights off on her, but not Gretel. Gretel was afraid of the dark and still slept with a nightlight, a blankie and hid her teddy bear under her pillow.

When the light remained off, Allie started to get really scared. She felt her way back to where Gretel had been standing, shining her pathetic light around the basement. One of Gretel's shoes was on the floor, but there was no sign of her friend.

“Okay, Gretel, you can turn the light on. Okay, you got me! Please? I'm sorry I called you a baby. Turn the light on and we'll go. We'll do whatever you want.”

“My mommy says that the Boogeyman takes the bad kids and eats them.” Gretel's voice sounded from the left. Allie turned her keylight towards Gretel's voice, but she could see nothing in the gloom.

“I know,” Allie said. “You said that already.” She strained to see in the dark. Had the shadows been this overwhelming before? Had the darkness been this suffocating.

“He eats only the naughty ones.”

“Gretel, this isn't funny!”

“Bad little girls are his favorite.”

Allie swung her light around as Gretel's voice came from the right. She saw nothing, but she could hear something moving in the shadows. Something that dragged along the floor and clicked like knives across the concrete.

Allie whimpered as the noise got closer. She could feel hot breathe on her neck, but when she turned, it was gone. She could hear chains rattling, but there were no chains in the basement. Instictively, Allie knew that the basement was changing. She could hear the dead mice scurrying in the dark, water dripping from long dried pipes and the smell of old copper got stronger.

“Okay, Gretel, I'm scared. Happy? You're scaring me!”

Please, be Gretel. Please, don't be the Boogeyman. Let this just be Gretel and she'll turn the light on and laugh and I'll have to suffer being called a baby for a few days. Please, God, let this just be Gretel.

“Bad little girls taste like the sweetest meat,” Gretel's voice said from behind her. “Fear makes them tender.”

Allie picked a direction and ran. She could only pray that she picked the right one. Whatever was going on, she knew it wasn't a prank. Gretel was not going to turn the light on and say, “Gotcha!”

She tripped and fell heavily on the stairs. She could taste blood and her head hurt from knocking against the edge of the wooden steps. She didn't care. The stairs meant freedom. She could get help! She could get an adult to come down and save Gretel. With renewed strength, she started to scramble up the stairs.

“You're not leaving here!”

That wasn't Gretel's voice. It was a man's with a thick German accent like Oma's. A large hand wrapped around one of Allie's legs and yanked her down the stairs. Allie screamed as the wooden edges cut into her legs and skinned her hands and knees. She was tossed to the floor by the large man.

She lay there, curled up in a ball. She was in pain and didn't want to move. Her arms hurt, her legs hurt, her head hurt and she was scared. She wanted her mommy or Evan or Oma. She would settle for Kevin or Bobby. She wanted the real Ysvelt to appear and save her. She wanted this all to be a bad dream and that she'd wake up, safe in her bed.

And Ysvelt was afraid, for the demon had found her. Her battered body could not fight on anymore. But, she knew that her people would parish if she did not fight the strength to go on. So, she pulled herself up, despite her broken bones and many wounds, and pushed onward.

Remembering the stories of her Oma, Allie brushed away her tears. If Ysvelt could to it, so could she! Alastrina Ysvelt Quinn was not going let anything stop her from escaping this monster!

Feeling around to get up, Allie's hand grasped a very familiar cylinder object. Quickly, she snatched up Gretel's flashlight and switched it on, beaming the stronger light into the shadows. She couldn't find the mysterious man, but she did find Gretel.

Her friend was laying on the floor, her black hair tangled and dirty. The little blue dress that Mrs. Zimmer had spent weeks making was torn and smudged with grime. In the back of Allie's mind, she knew that they would get in trouble for ripping Gretel's dress. The Zimmers were going to visit Gretel's grandmother and now Mrs. Zimmer would have to find another pretty dress for Gretel to wear.

“Gretel,” Allie whispered. The light glittered off the blood that oozed from the cut on Gretel's head and her arm was bent in an unnatural angle.

“Gretel, come on, wake up.” She shook her friend slowly, her eyes darting back to the shadows. She knew the man was watching them, she could feel his eyes on her, taste his excitement in the air. It was obvious where they were, the light a beacon in the murky darkness. She had to get Gretel up and find a way out of there before he attacked them again.

“She can't help you now,” the man's voice taunted. “No one can help you.”

Allie pulled her hand back, leaving a bloody print on her friend's shoulder. She swung the flashlight around towards the man's voice, but she found no one. Her bravery was fading and the pain was pushing at her body. All she wanted to do was curl up and cry.

“Leave us alone! When my daddy finds out about this, you'll be sorry!”

The man laughed, sending shivers up Allie's spine. “Let them come, little girl. No one will ever find you. You are mine now!”

Trembling, Allie called out, “Who are you!”

“I am the Boogeyman.”

“The Boogeyman isn't real!” Allie shut her eyes and cried out again, “Not real!”

That chilling laughter came again. “Oh, but I'm very real, Mädchenkind.”

“Not real! Not real! No one believes in a Boogeyman. You're not real! You're just a fake!” She hoped that her daddy was right when he had told her that if she stopped believing in silly things like monsters, they went away. If she made herself believe that there was no Boogeyman, he couldn't hurt her.

The man chuckled. “That's not going to work. I don't need your belief, I already exist. I have existed for centuries, feasting on the sweet flesh of naughty children like you.”

“Go away!”

“Sneaking into this old house,” the man murmured. “I'm sure your parents wouldn't approve. Sinful child, just begging to be eaten. Walking right into my lair. Today is my lucky day, ja?”

“Go away,” Allie begged, tears flowing down her cheeks. “You're not real! I don't believe in you.”

“I think you believe,” the man's voice purred in her ears. Allie swung the flashlight around and saw his face for one quick instant before he grabbed it out of her hands. Sharp claws broke the light and plunged her world into darkness once more.

The Boogeyman grabbed Allie and dragged her into the air by her throat. She struggled, scratching at his hands. “Here I thought I had just gained a meager meal, but no! I have quite the prize, ja? Foolish little Mädchenkind. Sneaking into my domain. How very brave of you.”

Allie whimpered and started to cry. He was hurting her and it was getting harder to breathe. She felt him duck down for an instant and she knew that he was picking up Gretel. With a lurch, he took off in the darkness, taking them deeper into his lair.

“The first thing I'm going to do with you is pull out those gypsy eyes after you've witnessed Hell, my little Tochter des Mondes,” the Boogeyman snarled. “I'm going to skin you and your little friend and suck the meat off your bones.”

Outside, no one heard the screams of those little girls.