I was finally able to sleep right, when I was suddenly woken up by what I thought was an earthquake. I jump straight off the bed, hitting the floor with a loud thump. The covers fell over me. I yanked them off me and looked up from the floor to see AJ, staring down at me with that shit eating grin on his face. “What the hell man?” I got up and rubbed my back side. That fall really hurt. “Time to get up, numb nut. Aunty Rose made pancakes, better get your shit in gear before its all gone.” With that being said he walked out the room, slamming the door behind him. I rubbed my face and got ready, hopefully by the time I’m done, there will still be some food left, I hope.

As I was making my way to the kitchen, I stopped to look out one of the blurry windows. “Really creepy, ain’t it?” murmured Brian. I turned to see him looking over my shoulder to the window. I nodded my head. “Yeah, really creepy.” I’ll tell you now, the kitchen was pretty creepy too. You know that TV show ‘Tales From The Crypts’?, and how his basement was all dirty and stuff, well the kitchen was giving it a run for its money. It was dark, not dark like you can’t see your hands in front of your face dark, but dark enough. Almost as dark as the night before. The only source of light was the light coming from the open back door, you could hear the sounds of the swamp, birds chirping, bugs making little clicking noises. It was kind of annoying.

“Is it safe to have the door opened wide like that?” asked Howie. “Couldn’t someone just walk right in?”

“Again Howie, we’re in the middle of a swamp, there aren’t anymore people around, just us. The only thing that can get in here are bugs, and a gator or two.” said AJ. He started snickering to himself when he saw the look on Howie face. “He’s just messing around. Right Alex?”

Oh, that’s not a good sign. If Kevin calls AJ by his real name, then that means he’s sort of in trouble, of course, nothing really ever happens because, well, Kevin’s kind of given up on him in a way. “I’m just pulling your leg, man.” He playful punched Howie in the arm and took a seat. Howie didn’t seem so convince since he was still looking out side. I looked over to see Kevin’s Aunt over by the stove, a spatula in one hand, a huge plate of blueberry pancakes in the other, I could smell them from where I was seating, it smelled like heaven. If heaven smelled like pancakes. She put the spatula and plate down and wiped her hands on her apron. She then picked the plate back up, she placed in the middle of the table.

“Did ya’ll have a good nights sleep? I hope you did.” She went over to the pantry and took out five glasses. She then poured orange juice in it and gave them out. She then place some more food on the table, I was surprised that there was anymore room left. There was bacon, sausages, biscuits, grapefruit and blah, blah, blah, you get the idea.

We all looked at the food, then back at each other. Kevin without looking at Aunt Rose. “Aren’t you going to have any, Aunt Rose?”

“Oh no, I’ve already eaten, ya’ll just help yourselves.” she sat down and watched us all eat as much as we could.

Just then Uncle Bucky came in carrying what looked to be a dead rabbit, dude I didn’t need to see that! Poor Howie almost chocked on his food when he saw it. “Morning boys. Look what I caught, ain’t she a beauty. Finest looking rabbit I’ve did catch.” Rose turned around, her mouth hung open when he saw the dead animal in his hand. “Buck, get that thing out of my kitchen, its leaking blood on the floor!” He putted the thing in a brown bag and stomped in. He removed his hat and took a seat next to Kevin. “Boy, I’ll tell, this baby gave me quit the work out, but in the end I caught it. You’ve ever gone hunting before son?” It took me a while to realize that he was talking to me, I looked up from my plate. I was going to talk, but Kevin gave me his ‘look’, which basically said finished the food first then speak. I swallowed the food and burp, but I did cover my mouth.

“Um no, but I’ve gone fishing.” I said. Hey, its better then nothing, right? “Fishing huh? I ain’t never been fishing, I’m more into the hunt, then just seatin’ on my ass all day on some boat. What about you Kevin, you go huntin’ with your dad?”

I didn’t really listen to Kevin and his uncle’s talk about killing animals, I was still wondering about that door and why we could go to it. That’s when I took the chance that I still had.

“Um, well you please excuse me?”

“Where you going Sweetie?” asked Aunt Rose.

“I need to use the bathroom.”

“Oh, well its on the left on the second floor, dear.”

I said thanks and dashed upstairs. The hallway is a lot creepier when your by yourself. I started towards the door, when I reached it, I placed my ear to it. At first I thought I was hearing things, but then I realize that I could hear breathing, and a few growls. “I thought you were going to the bathroom?” I nearly jumped fifty feet when I heard Brian voice. “What the hell man, stop doing that! What are you doing here anyway?”

“I was going to my room, because, well, take a look for yourself.” he pointed to his shirt. It was had a big blue stain on it. “Aunt Rose?” “Aunt Rose.” he said. “She accidentally dropped a batter of blueberry pancakes on me.”

“Okay, well you better hop to it then.” We stood there for what seem like a good five minutes or more. The awkward silence was starting to get to me and I knew he knew it. “So, you gonna tell me why your standing out side this door?” I could do three things.

One: I could say that I thought this was the bathroom.

Two: Tell him the truth. Or

Three: Hit him over the head with a club and dump his body.

I think I should go with two, the others just seem too stupid. “I heard growling coming from here last night. I know that Kevin’s uncle said not to come here but, I wanted to check it out for myself.” Okay there I said, you happy now. “Nick, you know we’re not….” Brian went dead quiet when we heard footsteps. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into a room. We hide behind the door, hoping that whoever that was wouldn’t find us. The mystery person as it turns out is Uncle Bucky, who was carrying a huge plate of Aunt Rose’s blueberry pancakes with him. He balanced the plate in one hand and long nightstick, that police use in the other. He put it down by the side off the door and dug into his pocket. He pulled out a golden key and slipped it in. He open the door, but not all the way. Then, I heard the same growling noises, but now, there was hissing involve. “You better stay back or you ain’t gonna get a thing.” said Uncle Bucky. Whatever he was talking to, stopped hissing and started whimpering. He place the plate inside and then he walked in, closing the door behind him. We would have moved, but we were a little to scared to, so we stayed put a little longer. He then came out of the room, wiping his hands on his already dirty looking pants. Uncle Bucky started whistling a weird tune to himself and walked off.

Once he was out of sight, Brian and I came out of the room. Was I the only one who was starting to think that Aunt Rose and Uncle Bucky were hiding something, something really, really bad? Brian grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the stairs. When we got back to the kitchen, have of the pancakes had been eaten. I looked over at Howie, AJ and Kevin, they all look like they were about to keel over. “You didn’t actually try to eat all that did you?” Brian asked. “Its AJ’s fault, he dared me, I said no, then he double dog dare me and you can’t go back on a double dog dare. So we got in to all out eating contest.” said Howie. “No one won.” said Kevin. He put a hand to his stomach and belched. “Nice one.” said Brian.

As the guys talked, my mind wonder back to what went on upstairs. What was Uncle Bucky doing with all those pancakes? Why was he creeping along so silently? It was a mystery I had to solve.

If only I had minded my own business…..