54 - Don't Go To Sleep by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page A

true.
    I missed my mom. It seemed like I hadn’t seen her in a long, long time.
    If only there were some way I could bring her back, I thought as I closed my
eyes.
    When I was very little, she used to sing me to sleep. I remembered the
lullaby she sang. It was all about pretty ponies….
    I hummed the song to myself. Before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep.

 
 
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    I opened my eyes. I rubbed them. Had I fallen asleep?
    Yes.
    Where was I?
    I looked up. Plain ceiling.
    I looked around. Bare walls.
    A door.
    A window. With bars on it.
    “No!” I cried, furious. “No!”
    I was still in the same room, in the same house in the woods.
    I was still a prisoner.
    My plan didn’t work.
    Now what could I do?
    “Nooooooo!”
    I was so angry, so frustrated, so scared, I jumped up and down in a rage.
    My plan hadn’t worked. I had no more ideas. I didn’t know what to do.
    Now I knew for sure there was no escape for me.
    I was doomed.
    I heard Lacie and the two guys in the other room. They were getting the
sleeping potion ready.
    They’d put me to sleep forever. I’d never see my mother, or Greg, or Pam
again.
    How could they do this to me? It wasn’t fair!
    I didn’t do anything wrong. Not on purpose, anyway!
    Thinking about all this made me angrier and angrier. I screamed,
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”
    And it sounded strange to me.
    I screamed again, not so loud this time.
    “Nooooo!”
    I thought I was saying, “No.” But that’s not what I heard.
    I heard a squeak.
    “No!” I said again.
    “ Eee! ” I heard.
    It was my voice. But it wasn’t a human voice.
    I looked at myself. I’d forgotten to do that. I’d been so terrified to find
myself still trapped—I didn’t think that maybe I had changed.
    But I had changed.
    I was small. About eight inches tall.
    I had tiny little paws. Gray fur. A big bushy tail.
    I was a squirrel!
    My eyes went to the window. I could easily squeeze through the bars now.
    I didn’t waste a second. I scampered up the wall and wriggled through the
bars.
    I was free!
    Yippee! I did a little squirrel somersault to celebrate.
    Then I ran through the woods as fast as I could. I found the path to town.
    I scurried through town on my little squirrel feet. It seemed to take a long
time. Short distances felt longer to me.
    All was quiet in town. Normal. No sign that a monster had ever stomped
through, chomping on cars.
    I guess that reality disappeared, I thought.
    This is the new reality. I’m a squirrel.
    But at least I’m an awake squirrel. It’s better than being a boy who
has to sleep forever.
    I sniffed the air. I had an amazing sense of smell. I thought I could smell
my house from the middle of town.
    I raced across the street. But I forgot what my mother always told me.
    Look both ways before you cross.
    A car peeled around the corner. The driver couldn’t see me.
    Huge black tires bore down on me. I tried to scurry out of the way.
    But I didn’t have time.
    I shut my eyes. Is this how I’ll end up? I wondered.
    As roadkill?

 
 
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    SCREECH!
    The driver slammed on the brakes. The car squealed to a stop.
    Then everything was quiet.
    I opened my eyes. One tire came so close, it touched my ear.
    I zipped out from under the tire and across the street. The car sped away.
    I reached the sidewalk. A dog stood guard in a yard. He barked at me.
    Whoops! I dodged him and ran up a tree. The dog chased me, barking furiously.
    I camped out in that tree until the dog got bored. His owner called him. He
trotted away.
    I sneaked out of the tree and dashed through the yard.
    The rest of the way home I dodged cars, bikes, people, dogs, cats…
    Then, at last, I found myself staring up at my house. It was nothing special, my house. Just a white square house with
peeling paint.
    But it looked beautiful to me.
    I had a new plan. An idea that would stop this craziness once and for all.
    I hoped.
    My whole problem had started when I slept in the guest room, I knew. That’s
where