Voodoo in the Swamp (9/22/05 - 9/28/05)

Peter Bradbury was watching the news. The Ritual Book was stolen from the Wyoming Museum of Weird Things.

Peter was a thirteen year old detective in training. He took off his baseball cap to reveal messy dark hair. Peter didn't think about his messy hair because he was always trying to solve a problem. He took a pen and wrote down the case under his hat. Then he slid it back on his head and left his home.

Three minutes later, Peter parked his bike next to the museum. He entered the modern museum.

Peter walked past the Voodoo Ruby exhibit and into the Ritual Book's exhibit. He looked carefully around the crime, and the only out of the ordinary thing he could find (besides the Ritual Book being stolen) was a green coin. Engraved in the coin was the letter "M". As Peter was about to pick it up, a man wearing a suit and a tie walked in.

"What do you think you're doing?" he said with authority.

"Settle down," an old man said, walking into the room. Peter knew the face anywhere. It was his mentor. "This is my student, Peter. He is supposed to work on cases like this."

The frustrated dark-haired man left silently, change jingling in his pocket.

"Who was that?" asked Peter.

"Bruce Williams," said Robert Lee, Peter's mentor. Robert was a wise old man with a gray beard and gray hair. "Bruce is a businessman, but no one give him respect. You shouldn't either."

Robert left, leaving Peter to survey the scene. He picked up the coin. It oxygen-treated copper. He put the coin in his pocket.

Just then, a reporter burst onto the scene. "This is Molly Miller, reporter, haircutter, and financial director."

"Do you always talk to yourself?" asked Peter.

"Is that an insult!" Molly's auburn hair seemed to turn redder, and her face was steaming. Molly left the exhibit.

As Peter looked at the scene, he saw a piece of gray hair. But as he was about to pick it up, someone exclaimed, "The ruby! It's stolen!"

Peter rushed to the Voodoo Ruby exhibit. Although the ruby was stolen, there was no broken glass. The ruby was here as he walked in, so the ruby was stolen while he was inside.

Security was reviewed, but the screen went black when the ruby was stolen. Peter was suspicious of the security guard, because the only way to turn off security was to go to the security room and turn it off.

"I wasn't in the room because I was walking my shift," defended the security guard, Scott Robertson. Scott was a middle-aged, dark-haired, fat man wearing a guard uniform. Peter wrote down the security guard's dialogue and left.

That night, Peter was watching the news on his fifty-inch plasma TV. Ghosts were sighted around Fisherville's Swamp. The swamp was across the street from Peter's home, so he quickly ran out the house as a reporter on TV said, "In other news, Molly Miller has gone missing."

Peter entered the swamp. Carved into a tree were the words "Go back". He trudged on. The water was knee-deep when Peter heard a lady scream. He rushed to the sound.

He couldn't find the lady, but as he was about to move on, he saw a coin on the tree stump. A green coin. With an "M" on it. And the coin was surrounded by blood.

Peter moved closer to the coin, but he stopped on something squishy. He picked the heavy thing up and it was Molly Miller! Peter was completely surprised. He could mark her off his list now.

Or could he? She could have been killed by her creations. He thought about the case as he walked through the murky swamp.

"What does 'M' mean?" he said to himself. "Where are the ghosts?"

Suddenly, a white figure emerged from the darkness. Peter was frozen in his spot. It came closer and closer. He had to make a run for it. But he couldn't move. The figure was just a blob. A blob with a sword.

*It can't attack me*, thought Peter. *It's a ghost.* But the ghost *could* attack him. But Peter could not attack the ghost if he tried.

The ghost came closer and closer. The ghost's sword rose to the sky. Peter was still frozen with terror. As the ghost began its downswing, Peter's life flashed before his eyes. Peter had to move.

Peter fought his way to his brain. Then, as quick as you could say "onomatepoeia", Peter was running for his life.

If Peter ran like a dog, the ghost flew like a hawk with very powerful wings. The ghost's sword was its talons. Then, a quick slash, and Peter was on the ground.

Lucky for Peter, his head landed on a tree stump instead of in the disgusting, brown water. Although head blood went everywhere, Peter was alive.

Also lucky, the ghost thought Peter was dead, so it left. When Peter awoke fifteen minutes later, it took a few seconds to remember what happened. The ghost charged at him, and then he slashed his sword. "I am lucky to be alive," Peter said to himself.

Peter shouldn't have said that.

A gigantic monster had heard Peter. The monster was green, with a face like a bulldog. It had two fangs sticking up from the bottom of its mouth. And the monster was very strong.

POW! Peter heard a noise. He quickly turned his head. A tree was going to fall on him!

Peter ran to the left and dodged the tree.

Then he ran toward the monster. But the monster had a few tricks up its sleeve.

"Get him!" The monster had a resonant voice. Almost like...

Just then, Peter spied the Ritual Book and the Voodoo Ruby. They were at the center of the swamp, on a sandbar. Peter ran to it.

All of a sudden, ghosts came out of nowhere. They flew toward Peter. Peter kept running.

The ghosts got closer. And closer. And closer. Peter was only a few feet away from the Ritual Book. Peter grabbed it.

"No!" bellowed the monster.

Peter opened up to the table of contents. "Go away ghost" was on page fifty-seven.

Peter read from page fifty-seven, "Weak-minded spirits of all, you shall go away once and for all. A shooba lite-a totwick dictionary." (In Ritual language, this translates to, "A snack is in the Ritual Book.")

All the ghosts flew into the pages of the Ritual Book.

"Good job," said the monster. Peter recognized that voice. It was...

Just then, a red fireball was being thrown.

There was no time for Peter to move. The last thing Peter remembered was him trembling in fear.

He awoke in the hand of the monster. Peter looked down. On the ground was the Ritual Book.

Peter knew his fate when the monster opened its mouth. Guess who didn't brush its teeth this morning.

In a last attempt, Peter punched the monster's fragile fang. A shard flew up in the air. Gravity took it down. It landed on the Voodoo Ruby. Peter was hoping it would smash. But it didn't.

Peter sighed deeply. *So this will be my fate*, he thought.

But the ruby shook on its stand. It fell to the ground and smashed.

The monster shrank. Smaller and smaller it got. Soon, it was too small to hold Peter. Peter fell to the ground. Then, the monster was a human.

Peter would recognize that face anywhere. And he couldn't believe it. It was his mentor, Robert Lee.

"Why?" asked Peter. "Why?"

But Robert was running too quickly.

*My mentor is a maniac*, thought Peter. *My mentor is a maniac.*

"Why?" Peter wondered. "Why?"

Peter went back into his past and found that his mentor never liked him that much.


THE END