Chapter 1
The Beginning

Okay. It could have been a dark and stormy night like most adventure beginnings, but I couldn't tell you. Rain could have been slashing against the window. Who knows. Probably someone, but not me.

Where was I? I was having a nightmare in bed. Second one this week. I was lying under a tree. All of a sudden there was a Bogeyman towering above me. He was wearing a cape with a hood.

Now if you don't know what a Bogeyman is, I'll tell you. They are basically ghosts that hide under blankets and scare kids like me.

Yeah, I am deathly afraid of Bogeymen. I have never actually seen a Bogeyman in real life, but I hear them all the time. When it's dark, they send messages with their minion crickets.

Back to the nightmare. The ginormous Bogeyman reached into his cloak and pulled out a handful of confetti. Yes, confetti. He started throwing it in the air. The rainbow colored paper began floating down. Then BAM. I woke up.

I jumped out of my covers and strangled my alarm clock. It wasn't ringing though. It was only four o'clock in the morning. My alarm wasn't set to go off until six. I set my clock back on my nightstand.

Instead of getting back in bed, I walked over to the window. I flipped the curtains back and looked outside. It wasn't dark and stormy. It was a cool, early summer morning.

No Bogeymen were visible from my window. Luckily there weren't crickets chirping either. The streetlight's yellow light reflected off the dark empty street. The streetlight flickered like it was sending a message. I figured it was saying hello so I said hello back.

Once I was satisfied that it was safe, I climbed back in bed even though I laid awake for a long time. I wasn't able to convince myself to fall back to sleep. You never know if you'll have another nightmare.

I threw off my covers and crept to my door. I gently twisted the doorknob. The door creaked as I opened it. From what I could tell everyone was still asleep. My parents' light was off, so was my older sister's.

I opened my door further. Suddenly, something fell behind me. I jumped so high I probably almost hit the top of the door frame. My heart started beating double time.

Very cautiously, I turned around to see what fell. It was only one of the name letters on my door. They spelled my first name, which is Ronny. But now it spelled onny. My full name is Byron J. Morel, but most people just called me Ronny. I rehung the letter and looked down the hall.

Just as my heart rate returned to normal, I thought I saw something move. I knew it couldn't be a pet because we didn't have any. I had always wanted a cat or an owl though.

My eyes hadn't tricked me. Sure enough, there was a dark figure at the end of the hall. My mind screamed at me over and over. It was telling me that it was a Bogeyman.

I bolted to my sister's room across the hall. Before I smashed through the door, I saw the Bogeyman walk towards my parent's bedroom. I jumped on Astrid's bed and started to shake her awake.

“Astrid,” I whispered.

“What is it,” she moaned.

I ran back to the door and gently closed it. “I saw a Bogeyman in the hall,” I announced.

“A Bogeyman?” Astrid flipped on her nightstand light. I sat down in front of the door as the guard. Astrid, who was seventeen, looked more awake now.

“I saw a real Bogeyman walk towards Mom and Dad's room,” I assured her.

Astrid ran her hand through her dark hair. She stared at her clock. “It was probably Dad. The giraffe must have had her baby.”

Suddenly everything came back to me. My dad, who was the head zookeeper, was staying at the zoo all night while the giraffe had her baby. “Maybe we can see the baby later,” I suggested.

“Not if you don't get some more sleep.” Astrid crawled out of bed and walked me to my room. She said goodnight and went back to bed.

I forgot about my nightmare for the moment and fell asleep.

~ ~ ~

A few hours later I woke up to the smell of bacon. I jumped out of bed and shut off my alarm. I shimmied into my summer clothes. Today was the first day of summer break!

That meant no school. And no school meant more time to spend at the zoo. It also meant I got to eat popsicles and go to the park more often.

Summer was the best!

Once I was dressed, I ran down the hall to the kitchen. My nose served right as usual. Astrid was frying up bacon while Mom cooked up eggs.

“Did the giraffe have her baby?” I asked my mom.

Mom tried to straighten my bed head. “No, not yet.”

I pulled out a barstool and climbed on top of it. I propped my elbows on the bar and watched the bacon sizzle.

“What are we going to do today, Mom?”

“Well, today I'm meeting with Mrs. Rhodes. So you and I are going to the park,” Mom informed me.

I felt my spirits fall down a notch. I liked the park. Mom and Mrs. Rhodes could talk for days, but I didn't mind that because I loved playing pretend on the playground.

The real problem was Mrs. Rhodes' son. Tray Rhodes and I didn't get along. Like, at all. He was a short, pudgy kid who thought I was weird for still playing pretend at age eight.

“Can I stay home today?” I asked.

“No, because Dad will be home sleeping and Astrid will be at work.”

A small ember of hope still burned though. I wasn't sure if Tray's school was out yet. He went to a different school than me.

Dad walked into the kitchen just as Mom finished cooking up the eggs. I hopped off my stool and hugged Dad. “When is the giraffe going to have her baby?”

Dad grabbed some plates from the hanging shelves above the counter. “I wish I knew, Ronny. Hopefully today.”

I snatched up four forks and placed them next to the plates as Dad set them down. Mom and Astrid put the food on the table. We all sat down in our usual spots and prayed.

I dished up some eggs onto my plate. I had to wait for the bacon. Mom took a piece of bacon then handed me the plate. I only took two because that's all I was allowed.

We ate breakfast in silence for the most part. Mom and Dad talked to each other quietly. Astrid read a giant book while she ate. I found it odd that Dad didn't read his newspaper with breakfast like he usually did.

I finished off my eggs and bacon and started towards the kitchen to put my plate in the sink. I stopped short though. Dad had opened his newspaper now and was reading it. The whole thing was written in French.

French was my first language. How did I know French? Both my parents, my sister, and I were French, so I grew up speaking French. We didn't live in France anymore. We lived in America now.

I found it strange that Dad had a French newspaper in America, but that's not what made me stop. It was the headline. It read:

Bogeymen suspected behind the disappearance of magical animals.

I closed my eyes tight before opening them again. The headline was different and the words were in English now. I wasn't sure if I was seeing things or not.

After putting my plate in the sink, I headed down the hall to finish getting ready.