Read Friday Night in Beast House for Free Online

that Mark doubted the breadth of his knowledge. ‘Maggie’s daughter. What I hear, she’s as deranged as her mother was. Five’ll get you ten she’s got a critter or two over there right now.’
    ‘Maybe,’ Mark said. He turned away from the man, approached the cordoned-off area around the hole in the floor, and stepped up beside the little girl. The mother and father looked at him, then returned their attention to the hole.
    Mark looked at it, too, though he’d seen it many times before.
    Just a hole in the dirt, probably only a couple of feet in diameter.
    Can I fit in there? he wondered. Sure. I must. It’s big enough for the beasts and they’re bigger than me.
    ‘That’s where the beast comes out,’ he explained in a voice plenty loud enough for everyone to hear.
    The little girl looked up at him. Her parents turned their heads.
    ‘We know,’ said her father. ‘We’ve seen the movies, too.’
    ‘Have you read the books?’ Mark asked.
    The father shook his head and resume looking at the hole.
    ‘What’re you looking at?’ Mark asked.
    ‘What do you think?’ the father asked.
    The mother gave Mark a tiny frown.
    ‘Waiting for the beast to come out?’ Mark asked.
    ‘Please,’ the man said.
    ‘It might, you know.’
    The girl, gazing up at him, raised her eyebrows.
    ‘Yesterday,’ Mark said, ‘a beast came popping up out of this very hole and snatched a little girl.’ He put a hand on her shoulder. ‘She was just your size.’
    ‘Don’t touch my daughter,’ the mother said.
    ‘Excuse me.’ He removed his hand.
    The father glared at him.
    ‘And stop trying to scare her,’ the mother said.
    'I’m not trying to scare her. I just wanted to warn her. This big white naked beast actually popped up yesterday and grabbed a little girl no bigger than your daughter and dragged her down into the hole with it.'
    The daughter looked good and scared.
    Her father whirled toward Mark. ‘Look, kid…’
    ‘The girl was screaming .’
    The mother said to her daughter, ‘He’s making this up, Nancy. He’s a mean person and…’
    Crouching low enough to look at the girl straight in the eyes, Mark said, ‘It ate her up!’
    She screamed.
    The mother threw her arms around the girl.
    The father stomped toward Mark. Red in the face, he stormed, ‘That’s enough out of you, young man! That’s more than enough!
    Putting up his open hands, Mark backed away. ‘Hey, hey. Take it easy, okay? I’m just concerned about your little girl, man. You don’t want her to get eaten up by a beast, do you?’
    The girl screamed again.
    ‘We’re getting out of here, the mother blurted. She picked up the girl. ‘You too Fred. Come with us right now.’ She hurried toward the stairway.
    Fred glared at Mark, then looked at his wife and said, ‘I’ll be right with you, honey.’
    ‘Now! He’s just a trouble-maker. He probably wants you to hit him so he can sue us. Don’t give him the satisfaction.’
    He nodded. ‘I’ll be right with you.’
    ‘No you won’t. You’ll come now!’
    Fred sighed. Then he leaned in close to Mark and snarled, ‘What I oughta do, you little fuck, is rip off your head and shit down your neck.’
    ‘What you oughta do,’ Mark said, ‘is lay your hands on some original material.’
    Fred cried out in rage and reached for Mark’s neck.
    As Mark lurched backward, the wife yelled, ‘FRED! NO! ’ and the bearded man leaped out in front of Fred to hold him back.
    ‘It’s all right, fella,’ the bearded guy said. ‘Take it easy, take it easy. The kid’s just a little wise-ass. Don’t let him get to you. Huh? Come on, now. Come on.’
    Holding Fred like a friend, the bearded guy walked him toward the stairway.
    With the sobbing child in her arms, the mother climbed the stairs backward to keep her eyes on the situation.
    Fred, still held by the bearded guy, started up the stairs. He muttered, ‘It’s okay. I’m fine. You can let go.
    But the bearded guy held on.
    Near the