Chapter 1

"Five more minutes, Max. Its almost time for bed."

Max made no acknowledgment that he heard his mother. She tried again putting a little more motherly authority behind her edict. " Max, I want you off the computer in five minutes. You need to start getting ready for bed."

This time she got the slightest of nods while Max perused a website on optical physics.

"Max!"

Suddenly very annoyed, Max spun around. " I heard you the first time Mom. Geeze."

She sighed and remembered to keep her voice even and calm. " Max we talked about this. When you hear me you must communicate to me with your eyes and your mouth. I can't see you when you're staring at the computer screen and I can't hear you when you mumble."

Max lowered his head and glared at his mother through the top of his eyes. His hands were clenched. She could see an eruption coming on.

As Max sat there shivering with frustration. He couldn't understand why she didn't just leave him alone. He wasn't tired so why should he have to go to bed. He needed to do some more research before he went to bed anyway. She was an adult. She was supposed to be smarter than him but she wasn't. She couldn't possibly comprehend what he was trying to do, and therefore Max didn't feel the need to explain it to her. Max looked directly at his mother and spoke deliberately loud so she would not in any way misunderstand, "I'm busy right now!"

She looked directly back and calmly said,"You can be busy for the next...." She looked down at her watch," Three and a half minutes. Than you have to brush your teeth and put on your PJs."

" I'm not done yet."

" Book mark that page and come back to it in the morning."

She could see the wheels in his head turning as he weighed the consequences of throwing a fit now in the hopes of instant gratification versus giving up the computer now for the possibility of internet all day tomorrow. Max had come a long way in past few years. There was a time when an incident like this would have sparked an hour long rage of kicking and screaming. She had spent many hours holding Max clamped in her arms as he thrashed about screaming hateful insults at her. She didn't feel up for that tonight.

"Fine, five more minutes." Max concluded the negotiations by spinning back around toward the computer in his chair.

His five minutes was used up in their little stand off but Evangeline Hunter had anticipated that. She usually gave herself at least an hour long bedtime buffer. Lately, though, Max had been more willing to accept the concept of a specific time set aside for sleeping, rather than his usual "sleep only when your tired... or dead" phisophy. She hoped that the behavioral therapy was working and that they wouldn't have to rely so heavily on the medication that not only calmed his rage and frustration but also curbed his laughter and smiles.
Two years ago Max was diagnosed with a mild form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome. He was highly intuitive in math and science but concepts like telling time and perceiving distance were as foreign to him as euclidean geometry was to Evangeline. He also had extreme difficulty in multitasking. Max would focus completely on a single task until its completion, becoming easily frustrated and angry if he was interrupted or the task was impossible to complete by himself in one sitting. Max had a very hard time at school as well because he didn't see possession or ownership like most people did. Objects were meant serve a purpose and the purpose of those objects went beyond our desire to have them. If Max thought you couldn't ride a bicycle as well as he could, he would take it from you, by force if necessary, and ride it properly thus fulfilling the bicycles potential. It wasn't anything personal it was just the way Max believed the universe worked. Try explaining that to a crying seven year old with a bloody nose, wailing that Max had hit him and stole his bicycle.
The fact that when Max was two his father had passed away in a sudden car accident made caring for Max all the more difficult. She had bring this young man of exceptional ability and handicap through life, teaching him all that she thought was best but knowing that there was always something missing. A perspective that she would never be able to glean wisdom from, that of man of a father. She would sometimes lie awake and imagine what her husband might have said to Max if he had the opportunity in his last moments. Most of what she came up with didn't sound like him and she would wonder if she ever really knew him all. He always did think of the future though, that she knew and thanked him for every day. The life insurance and assets were more than enough to provide for the both of them while setting some aside for Max's future. But Evangeline would have given up all the financial security in the world to have her husband back, even though at the time of his death they were having difficulties. Having Max had put an unexpected strain on the marriage. Everything had always come so easy for her husband, she supposed that he thought that having a child would be like falling off a log. However, when when the moment came to step up and be the father he had always hoped he would be, he found himself lacking and pushed himself away from the object that brought out his inadequacy: Max. She wondered if he would have ever been able to become that man he hoped he'd be or if his death was a heartache and suffering suffered now in place place of a different heartache in the future.

The rest of the evening went on more or less according to plan and by nine, thirty Max was in bed and under the covers. Evangeline sat on the bed next to him.

"Did you brush your teeth?"

Max leaned forward and breathed heavily into her face. His mother coughed and tried to fan the warm breath away from her face.

"Mmmm. Minty fresh." Max smiled and chuckled at her over exaggerated response. She smiled back and adjusted the top of his blanket. 

"Aren't you too warm under this thick blanket?"

"No not really."

"O.K.." She stopped fidgeting with it and leaned down to kiss Max on the forehead."I love you baby."

Max turned his head, annoyed at his mothers attempt at physical attention. "Mom don't. I don't like kisses."

She leaned back and tried not to show the hurt her son's rejection had caused. She went back to adjusting the blanket. "O.K. Good night baby."

"Good night." Max replied. 

Evangeline got up and walked toward the door. She turned off the lights as she exited the room and looked back one last time at Max as she closed the door.

Max lay there for a while listening to his mother's footsteps move down the hall and then down the steps towards the living room. As soon as he was sure her attentions where elsewhere, flipped back his covers and tuned on the two large flashlights he had been hiding there. Max got out of bed and turned the lights on to better asses his readiness. Two flashlights with new batteries, check. String attached to the bedside lamp switch, check. A light up sword(in case of emergencies), check. The fish tank light was off and books stacked around the base of the bed. Max played out every possible scenario in his head making sure he was prepared for any contingency. Satisfied that everything was in place, Max turned his flashlights on again careful to never be in darkness without a light and flipped the overhead light switch off. As he positioned himself back in bed he turned his flashlights on and off five times each reassuring himself each time that their light would be there when he called for it. 

Max was excited, which was bad because he couldn't stop fidgeting. He knew one would never come unless it thought he was asleep. Max was just about to abandon the whole project and turn on his night light to read when he heard something at the end of his bed. Max froze, all his senses heightened by the promise of a hunt. The next few moments felt like hours to Max as he held himself as ridged as possible so as not shiver with excitement. He heard it again. Something was feeling at the books that surrounded his bed. Max's fingers caressed his flashlights under the covers feeling exactly where the button was. Max peered down towards the foot of the bed just in time to see one the stacks at his feet slowly move away from the bed. A moment later the second stack slid back. Max held his breath, waiting for the thing to come out.

It was so quiet and smooth Max almost missed it. A thin sleek hand followed by another reached up and grabbed the footboard. Max could see that the hands were almost human except that the skin was unnaturally pale and each finger tapered into a black talon that clicked softly as it came to rest on the footboard. Max closed his eyes. The monster had to believe that he was asleep or it would retreat. Max tried to relax his body in order to sell the illusion completely. Max opened one eye slightly to mark where the monster would be making his move. The dark figure was pulling itself up at the end of the bed. Timing was everything. If Max moved too soon it could retreat back under the bed but if he moved too late... he didn't follow that thought to it's conclusion. The monster had begin to make it's way around the end of the bed. It was go time.

Max lifted his arm from under the covers and simultaneously clicked on the flashlight in his hand. The monster was momentarily illuminated revealing a grey slimy creature, with an almost bat-like head and solid black eyes. Max had just just enough time to take this in before the monster made a break for the end of the bed. Max was ready though with his other light and used its beam to cut of his escape rout. The monster tried another tactic leaping at Max. Again Max was ready, using the beams in tandem to herd the monster away from him. The monster danced around the room trying to avoid the beams. Max could see smoke coming off of it's skin where the lights had come into contact with it. The monster was in pain but still it made no sound. This was more difficult than Max had expected. The others Max had encountered weren't this active and were usually subdued very quickly. Max realized he would have to turn on the bedside lamp to capture this one. Max glanced over to find the string that was connected to the switch. He couldn't see it. His night vision was ruined by the flashlights glare. He focused back on the monster which was trying to find an opening to escape or attack. Max looked back again for the lamp string and in doing so he lowered one of his lights for just a moment but a moment was all it needed. The monster jumped at one the walls ricocheting itself toward Max. Flinging himself off the bed, Max avoided the monster's talons by inches.

He wasn't sure if he had dropped them out of fright or lost them in the fall but Max's flashlights were gone. He could still see the beam of one illuminating the far side of the bed. He contemplated jumping over there until it moved. The flashlight was being picked up. Max heard the button click and room was dark. A hissing laugh came from the other side of the bed. Max saw it rise up in the shadows. It's bent form poising itself for a final attack. As Max franticly looked around for the other flashlight his hand came across the hilt of the sword. Simultaneously, the monster leapt at Max as he switched on the sword swung it at the oncoming beast. As the glowing blade made contact with the monster's flesh a burst of steam erupted and the sound searing flesh mingled with the toy sword's "swooshing" sound effect. The monster was flung aside and Max leapt up, anticipating another attack. But none came. The monster had disappeared. 

Max cautiously surveyed the room with his glowing sword held out before him. But the monster was gone. Max sat in chair by the desk breathing a sigh of relief. As much fun as it had been catching the monsters over the past month, this one was a little too close. He sat in the darkness the sword across his lap, making plans for better booby trapping his room when suddenly several small white flakes floated downward in front of his eyes. Max was puzzled and followed the trail of falling flakes up their trail. The monster clinging to the ceiling knew that it was discovered and fell upon Max. The sword was little protection this time. It broke the moment the monster landed. Luckily for Max it was an awkward landing and he was able to use it's momentum to fling the monster across the room towards the door. Max could feel that his shirt was ripped and a warm tingling sensation spread across his back. He couldn't think about that now the monster was already up and poising itself for another charge. Max looked around quickly for a light of any kind. A foam dart gun lay on the desk. Max grabbed it up and aimed. The monster leaped. A barrage of darts flew at the monster some bouncing harmlessly off it's slimy skin, some missing altogether, but one hitting it's mark. The yellow dart careened into the light switch on the other side of the monster. The room was immediately illuminated and the monster writhed in mid air, steaming and curling itself into a ball. It curled itself so tightly that it actually shrunk and as it did so a waxy, plastic coating formed around it until it landed in Max's lap as a harmless blue and red robot toy. 

Max was shaking. He dropped the dart gun and reached for the toy robot. He was furious. He hurled it against the wall. He took the remnants of his broken sword and began bashing at the toy coated monster while screaming.

"You thought you had me! You thought you had me! You thought you had me!

Evangeline burst into the room in her night robe.

"Max! What are you doing? What's the matter?"

Max kept on beating the robot with the shattered remains of the sword. Evangeline rushed over to Max and took him in her arms trying hold him while he screamed and flailed at the toy on the floor. She felt a wetness on his back and when she looked at her hand it was covered in blood.

Later that night, at the hospital when Max had calmed down, he told his mother that he had a bad dream and woke up scared. He rushed out of bed and fell back on the corner of the footboard. But after stitching him up the doctor told his mother privately that they looked like claw marks of a large cat. 

When they got home much later that night. Evangeline put Max in her bed. He sleepily tried to get up."I have to clean my room."

"No baby. We'll do that tomorrow."

He sat up in bed insisting," No I just need to do one thing."

"Tomorrow. O.K."Evangeline tried to gently push him back down.

"No. I have to do it right now." He wrestled himself from his mothers grip and ran toward his room. He was relieved to see they hadn't turned off the lights when they left. The robot lay in the middle of the floor, the shattered pieces of plastic sword around it. As Max bent down to pick it up he could feel the stitches in his back stretch. He let out a small groan. Max held the thing in his hand. There were no marks on it. No evidence of the bashing it had taken. Max expected that though. He knew there was only one way to destroy the monster for good. Max walked over to the fish tank on his dresser and turned on the light. He then dropped the monster in. Max stood there staring for a moment. His mother came in behind him.

"Max, we can clean this up tomorrow. Lets go to bed."

Max kept staring at the submerged robot. "Yah I'm tired. I'll take care of this tomorrow."