It was a perfect lift-off, there was no sound, no shaking of the earth, as house number 52668 took off like...well like a spaceship. Across the street, 17 year old Adam Cooper said to himself “I’ve had way too much to drink.” He scratched his head, turned, and kept right on walking. Adam had already stayed out way too late at the party, and he was going to get it when he got home. The time was precisely 2:37 a.m., if they didn’t hear him stumbling around when he came in, they’d know by the hangover he’d have when he woke up. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, and focused on stumbling toward home. There were fewer street lamps on this particular street, and there was little need for them, no one ever drove down this street this late at night, and no one was ever awake this late. So, because of this fact, it was very dark. It was so dark that the figure in the shadows had gone completely unnoticed by Adam.

Adam had not been the soul witness of this lift-off. The difference is that Adam was drunk, but the figure didn’t really car. The screen door of the house Adam was walking in front of creaked, and Adam jumped. In the dead silence and still darkness of the street, every little sound Adam heard set him on edge. He knew these were the consequences of taking large quantities of caffeine with the alcohol, but he did it anyway. Still, that flying house had creeped him out. He finally reached the end of the street, which opened onto a road that had a few more street lights. He began to cautiously stumble down this new road.

This street, like the other, was silent and empty. As he walked, he thought back to the party. Adam couldn’t remember what had made him decide to get so wasted. He knew he was going to have to walk home, and that neither of his parents worked Saturday mornings. Yet, he still could not seem to summon the willpower to resist. Something flashed in the corner of his eye. He would have snapped toward it, but his response time was more like a crawl with all the alcohol in his system. Of course, there was nothing there, it was just the beer. He kept walking. Then a few minutes later, once again out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw someone walking. “What is he doing out this late?” Adam thought.

He stumbled another block or so before turning his head back to get a better look at the person...but he was gone. “That’s weird” Adam thought, “He was just there.” He turned back around and...there he was standing right in front of him. Adam jumped back and fell down, hitting his head hard on the sidewalk. He got back up and the man was gone. At this point, Adam decided, beer or no beer, this was creepy. With that decision, he ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction, which was not very fast with all the alcohol in him. However, he was capable of enough rational thought to remember that Nick’s house was just a couple hundred feet back.

Nick had been at the party, and his parents worked from early morning to noon. Perfect! There was no way Adam was going to try to make it home after that. It took longer than it should have to get there with falling down every five seconds but he finally made it, and he slammed his whole body into the door. He pushed the doorbell a couple times. Luckily, Nick was awake still, so it didn’t take him long to answer. “Hey Adam, what’s going on? You look pretty spooked.” Adam took a moment to catch his breath. “I’m pretty sure it’s the beer, but there was a creepy guy following me. Mind if I stay here for the night? My parents will kill me if I go home like this anyway.” “Yeah, totally” Nick replied.

Adam walked in, stumbled over to the sofa, and crashed. He woke up at 11:30 a.m., grabbed a bite to eat, waited for a bit for the hangover to subside, then left with a thank you “This is a new record for me.” He said to Nick as he was leaving. “I only threw up twice.” When he got home he went straight to his room, changed clothes, and put on some Old Spice to get rid of the alcohol smell. He searched the house, luckily Emily was at her friends Birthday party and Dad was at work. But that didn’t account for Mom...”She must be running errands” He said to himself as he entered the kitchen again. “You could say that” said a voice, closing the refrigerator door. It was the man from the night before, his sweat shirt hood covering his face. In his hand was...a carton of milk, which he poured himself a glass of.

Adam grabbed the phone, dialed 911 and...the line was dead. He dropped the phone and ran across the room to the back door...it was locked! He reached for the key above the door but it wasn’t there, of course. Most likely all the doors were locked so there was no point in running. Then he turned around and the guy was still standing there, calmly making himself a sandwich. Adam yelled “Who are you?!” the man looked up, his face completely darkened by the hood except for his glowing red eyes. “Goodbye Adam Cooper.”