Page 32 of The Vacation Toy

“But that noise—”

I shook my head. “Wasn’t us.”

KNOCK KNOCK!

Now all three of us looked to the door, which had quite a commotion going on behind it. There were bright lights. Sounds.

“You guys in there?” a male voice called out.

All three of us moved as one, stepping in front of her protectively.

“C’mon, open up already!”

The voice was jovial, booming with an almost theatrical glee. And yet somehow, it was also very familiar.

I glanced back at my friends questioningly, but all they did was shrug. With nothing left to do I reached for the knob. Twisted it…

And that’s when all hell broke loose at once.