Our secret base is in the old tree deep in the woods.

Ryan got his diy badge and helped to make a door so that animals won’t eat our snacks, and even waterproofed the top with an old tarp so that we could meet up when it rains.

“What are we rebelling about again?” Ryan asks, fiddling with his sewing kit.

“Something to do with parents?”

I scowl at him over my papers.

“We are rebelling against the parent-stealers, remember? They took your mom?”

“Oh, yeah. That guy with the beard.” Ryan says absentmindedly, sewing on his latest patch. “He smells weird. I don’t know why mum went with him.”

I jab a finger in his direction.

“Exactly! We have to find out how to get our parents back, your mum and, mine too. I heard that Elliot might want to join - he says the bearded guy visits him every night and his dad screams a lot.”

The papers I shuffle are a diagram of all the houses in the neighbourhood.

“I think we’ve narrowed it down to Pine Street. He might live there, because of the weird smell.”

I produce a paper clipping carefully sheared from my dad’s morning paper.

‘RESIDENTS COMPLAIN ABOUT SMELL.’

It’s only a few lines, something about a gas leak.

Ryan suddenly looks up as someone does the secret knock on the door.

I go to answer it but he stops me.

“What’s brown and sticky?” He shouts.

There’s silence from the other side, then the secret knock again.

I reach for my weapon as Ryan peeks through the gap in the wood.

“It’s him.”

Ryan asks again, “What’s brown and sticky? -“ before quickly replying to himself - “A STICK!”

His shoe kicks open the door and I throw the salt at the crouching man who screams.

His beard is as pointy as his horns and the salt makes him scream.

Ryan’s crosses that he made last week send him tumbling away, foul smoke coming from where the salt hit him making our eyes water.

We know the drill - it’s happened before.

The floor is made of an old blanket and we grab the corners and make a bag from it.

Ryan grabs the tarp too, and together we retreat back to the neighbourhood, hoping that he won’t follow.