The Midnight Intuders
Chapter 1
It was a windy night, and twelve-year-old Kate wasn’t sleeping well. As she tossed and turned in bed, she thought heard a noise. It sounded like a branch scraping against the house, but she wasn’t totally sure. She stopped moving around and listened closer. A moment later she heard a voice right outside her bedroom window say, “Edward, we need to be quieter. They’ll hear us!”
That did it. In a flash Kate was out of bed and running quietly to her parents' bedroom. “Dad! Dad! Wake up! Dad!” Kate shook her father. “Wake up!”
Kate’s dad, Mr. Dunlap, mumbled something and sat up in bed. “What’s the matter?”
“Dad! I heard a person outside my window say something to someone!”
“Are you sure it wasn’t your imagination?” Mr. Dunlap asked, thinking of his daughter’s wild imagination (especially in the middle of the night), and not wanting to leave the comfort of his warm and cozy bed.
By this time Mrs. Dunlap had awakened. “What’s going on?” she asked in a very sleepy voice.
Kate said, “I heard someone outside my bedroom window! I’m sure it wasn’t my imagination.”
“Okay, I’m coming,” Mr. Dunlap said. He grabbed his flashlight and threw his bathrobe on.
“I’ll just stay here,” Mrs. Dunlap said. She didn’t want to get out of bed in the middle of the night for what might be nothing. “Be safe if there really is someone.”
Mr. Dunlap decided that if there really were someone there, it would probably be safer to check on him from inside the house, looking out the windows, instead of going outside.
There was nothing to be seen from the windows. Mr. Dunlap decided to check from outside. He was grabbing his shotgun, just to be safe, when both he and Kate heard a crash come from somewhere upstairs.
Oh, no! thought Mr. Dunlap, thinking of his wife in bed upstairs, and the possibility of a burglar or two being up there somewhere also. Clutching his gun, Mr. Dunlap silently climbed the stairs. Kate followed him, thinking that the safest place for her to be right now was probably right behind her father.
First Mr. Dunlap made sure that his wife was okay, and she was fine. However, she did decide to get out of bed and follow her husband and daughter. But after looking through the entire second story of the house, Mr. Dunlap had to admit that there was no one there. Feeling a bit puzzled, and not sure what to do next, he was looking around in the hallway when Kate grabbed his arm and exclaimed, “The attic!”
“Oh, you’re right!” Mrs. Dunlap cried in a whisper. “You didn’t look in the attic!”
Mr. Dunlap looked at her and Kate, contemplating whether or not he should take them up to the attic with him. “Stay right here,” he told them, much to Kate’s relief. “I’m going to see what’s going on up there.”
Kate, an only child, was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, adventure-loving girl. She was also pretty brave. But the prospect of meeting a burglar in the attic was a little too much. So she gladly stayed behind with her mother at the foot of the stairs, while her father made his way up the attic stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible.
Just as there was another loud crash Mr. Dunlap swung open the attic door. His jaw dropped open in surprise at what he saw!
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