Dance with Me

“Squawk! Squawk!”
The bird was bright green with a black beak. It
flapped its wings at Pete. 
“Squawk!”
Pete grabbed the cage and shook it. Feathers scattered. All the birds in
the tent started to go crazy. “What did you say, you, stupid bird? Foxy, are
you in there?” No, it didn’t make any sense for Foxy to be inside the bird,
but Pete didn’t care. Since when did any of this make sense at all?
Whatever was happening to him was 
still
happening to him and he’d had
enough. “You’re not going to win! You hear me? You. Are. Not. Going. To.
Win.”
“Hey, kid, take it easy!” Someone grabbed Pete’s shoulder and turned
him around. “What’s the matter with you?”
Pete pulled away from the man, a teacher at the school. Mr. Berk or
something like that. “Nothing’s the matter.” Pete wiped the sweat from his
forehead and blood from his cheek. “Nothing.”
Nothing except for a chain of freak accidents that involved losing an eye
or an arm. Nothing except for a robotic fox that wanted him to become a
pirate—or dead—whichever came first. Chuck had to be right. He had to
get back to face Foxy to finish this once and for all.
Mr. Berk reached out a hand. “You don’t look too good. You’re bleeding
from your eye. Let’s go to the nurse to get you checked out.”
Pete pulled away. “No! I’m fine!” he insisted.
“All right, take it easy. What happened to your cheek?”
“Too much has happened to me.” Pete just shook his head. “Too much.”
How could he begin to explain?
“I just want to help,” Mr. Berk said. “What’s your name?”
“No, you can’t help me. No one can. He’s after me and he’s never going
to stop. I believe him now, I thought I could fix it all by apologizing.” Pete
laughed bitterly. “Yeah, funny, huh? Like ‘sorry’ ever fixes anything. But I
had to try, right?”
“Who’s after you, kid? What’s his name? We can sit down with the
principal. Get this all sorted out. You just have to calm down, take a deep
breath.”
“You don’t understand! There’s no sitting down or talking! He’s a
freaking robot!”
Mr. Berk’s eyes widened. “A robot? Help me to understand. Let’s just sit
down a moment. You can talk to me, okay? Sometimes we think things are

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worse than they really are. But once we stop and look at the whole picture,
it’s not that bad at all. Believe me, kid. Happens all the time.”
“No, it’s bad. 
Really bad.
But I know what I have to do now. It’ll all be
over soon. I have to go back to the point of origin, where it all began. I have
to face the villain.” Before the teacher could stop him, Pete slipped away.
He booked it down the school hallway, drenched in sweat. A hall monitor
yelled for him but Pete ignored what he was saying. 
Had to get out. Had to
end this.
When he shoved open the doors, looking back over his shoulder,
the hall monitor was talking into his radio. Pete missed a step and fell,
stumbling down the school’s front steps. His knees and palms were scraped,
and his body felt bruised, but he pushed himself to his feet to keep running.
As he raced across the school’s lawn, he dug out his phone and clicked
on Chuck’s number. It went straight to voice mail because Chuck was still
in class.
“Chuck!” Pete heaved into the phone, short of breath. “You were right!
It’s been Foxy all along. I have to go back to face him! Freaky stuff is still
happening, but no way is Foxy going to win, Chuck. No freaking way! I’m
sorry I didn’t believe you, little bro! Meet me there as soon as you can! We
can finish this together!”
In a blind panic, Pete rushed off the sidewalk and into the street. He
sensed something speeding toward him and he turned—that’s when a truck
smashed into him with extreme force. His body went flying, his limbs
twisting, and one moment felt like forever. Then he crashed, his body
slamming the hard ground. He felt a crack, then a shatter. The force scalded
his skin against the road as he rolled and rolled, leaving a path of blood
behind him. Pain was everywhere, then everything went dark.