The Creek Read Online Free PDF

play in the woods.” Her voice lowered a notch. “Caleb’s a dangerous boy.”
    A warbling voice came over the car’s CB radio, and Officer Cox grabbed the mike desperately.
    “Butch here,” he said. He listened for a moment, grunted. He turned to Mrs. Bukvic. “I appreciate your concern, and I’ll keep an eye on things, but that’s all I can do at this point.”
    Mrs. Bukvic looked panicky. “But Officer Cox, it’syour job to protect us! You know what that boy is capable of!”
    Butch Cox looked over at Penny and the boys perched on the curb, and seemed to shudder for a moment. Then he turned back to the mothers and said, with genuine regret, “I know, Betty Ann, but my hands are tied until—”
    “Until that demon does something we’ll regret for the rest of our lives!” Mrs. Bukvic interjected hotly. She turned on her heel and stormed back to her house, her dog getting in one final yip before trotting after her.
    Officer Cox started up his car and drove down around the cul-de-sac and back up the street, quickly, not even bothering to heed the stop sign at the corner.
    The remaining mothers eyed the kids like a pair of wrathful goddesses.
    Mrs. Albright wagged a finger at them all. “You kids are to stay out of those woods, and away from that creek.”
    “But, Mom,” Benji protested.
    “No way,” Mac said, immediately regretting his words.
    Mrs. McHale looked at him sternly. “That goes for you, too, mister,” she said in a firm voice, her curlsbobbing in emphasis. “Or else.”
    Mac lowered his head like a beaten dog. “Yes, ma’am,” he whispered.
    The women turned and walked back to their respective homes.
    “Just great,” Mac hissed.
    “Do we have to listen to your mom?” Teddy asked, confused. “She’s not our mom, right, Penny?”
    Penny didn’t say anything. She was deeply shaken by the reactions of the other moms; it confirmed that her fears were well-grounded.
    “This is what we get for waiting for Oren,” Mac muttered angrily.
    Oren came skateboarding down the block. He ground the back of his board to a stop and flipped it up expertly. “What was that all about?” he asked.
    Mac glared at him.
    Penny had been having the same nightmare for years.
    She’s running through the woods and there is a monster chasing her, right on her heels, so close she can feel his breath tickle the nape of her neck. But something holds her back, slows her down—something like Teddy, who can’t keep up with her becausehe’s too small, or Baby Sam, who is too heavy to carry, who she ends up half dragging along the forest floor, pine needles catching in his footie pajamas. The real nightmare becomes keeping Teddy or Sam with her and not abandoning them to the force chasing her, because without them she’d be able to run like the wind. She is that fast. But with her brothers, it is like she is running with cement shoes, every step hard; they hold her back. She wakes up just as the monster has almost reached her, just as she feels the cold dead tendrils creeping around her shoulders, trying to pull her down, drag her into the black depths.
    Sometimes in the dream it’s a faceless boy who chases her through the woods, dogging her heels easily like a loping predator. In the worst ones he has a knife, a long sharp one, the kind she cut her finger with, and she can see it flashing in the gloom when she looks over her shoulder. She’s running down the narrow trail that leads toward the creek, and there he’ll be, right on her tail, his sinewy arm reaching for her, his cigarette breath hot on her cheek.
    And then she would wake up, wanting to scream, flailing for the switch of her bedside lamp. Too scared to go back to sleep again, she would stay up until dawn reading comics until she knew for sure thatnothing could hurt her here in this safe, warm house, in her pink room with the canopy bed, with Georgie the bear beside her.
    Whenever she had these nightmares, Penny thought of Nana, of what she would