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The Tes he’d rather do than get stung all over his body by s It was a long list and included being dropped in a boiling vat of vinegar and having his toenails removed with hot pincers Two days after the attack, he’d returned ho much better, but the experience reain Without any doubt, he knew the Gnat Rat and its stinging bugs had been the single worst thing that had ever happened to him And that included the time Billy "The Goat" Cooper had alirls’ locker roo horror he felt, Tick was madly curious to knohere the Gnat Rat had coone The boxy contraption s because his dad said he never saw it and saw no signs of a nest or a hole anywhere in the walls or floorboard The Rat would’ve been iht next to it in his rooical hole it lived in Either way, Tick knew he could never look at the world in the sae made him feel sick, fascinated, and scared, all at the same ti to hide their suspicion that some serious child abuse had occurred But they found dozens of stingers, just like the ones that came fro, coupled with the obvious fact that Edgar and Lorena Higginbottom were perhaps the two nicest people to ever live in Deer Park, and quite possibly the world, quickly dissolved the distrust of the doctors toward the parents
Though they said no fewer than a hundred tieted Tick and no one else, let alone the fact that bees rarely attacked during the middle of winter, the doctors eventually let the matter drop and sent Tick hoht, picking at the bandages covering his ar than the lone victi was how quickly Tick healed He almost felt disappointed he wouldn’t missin bed, staring at the ceiling late the next Tuesday night, he couldn’t sleep More than ever before in his life, Tick felt terribly afraid His life was at risk, and for what?
He’d put on a show for his fa jokes, but he knew he did it more for himself than anyone else He didn’t want to accept the horror of what he’d experienced, didn’t want to accept the potential for worse things to come But the fear crashed down on him after dinner and he’d never felt so hopeless
Sighing, he sat up in bed and retrieved the letter and clues fro moment As he did, he felt the last ounce of bravery drain from his spirit Quietly, he crept fro room
It was the only rooas-log fire had heated the entire roo air across Tick’s face as he sat directly in front of it, staring at the licking fla since fallen asleep, and he had been extra, extra careful not to wake his freakishly light-sleeping dad This was Tick’s ripped the first letter tightly in his right hand, clenching a fist around the wrinkled cardstock He didn’t knoorked, but he trusted the instruction told to him by the mystery-person, MG If ever he wanted it to stop, just burn the letter and everything would "cease and desist" Tick had no doubt it was true, just as he had no doubt that Gnat Rats, Tingle Wraiths, and an eight-foot-tall woman named Mothball really and truly existed
Burn the letter, stop the h his mind a thousand tinat attack Only two clues in--ten to go--and he wanted to quit Desperately wanted to quit How could he keep going, when things worse than the Gnat Rat inbottom, a kid with a pretty decent brain but the body of a thirteen year old, fight the forces that some unknown ene his legs under hiht about the tre the letter into the fire not two feet in front of hi it crinkle and shrivel into a crispy ball of black flakes, of returning his life back to normal He could do it and be done Forever
And then it hit hi that started somewhere deep down in his stoers and toes
The first letter said many lives were at stake Whether that meant ten or ten thousand, Tick didn’t know Neither did he have any idea hoelve clues, written to hi to do with saving people’s lives But could he really risk that? Could Tick really be a coward and throw this challenge to the flaht be on the line? When so many people’s lives were on the line?
Even if it were just one person?
What if that one person was Kayla and her life was in the hands of soripped Tick’s heart, squeezed it hard He pictured Kayla’s big-toothed smile, her cute look of concentration when she played on the cole fits when Tick tickled her under her ar bad happening to his little sister made him feel a sadness that was heavy and bleak
In thatin the wars far beyond what any kid should have to conte to himself that he would never waver from it, no matter what
In that moment, he answered the question posed to hie to choose the difficult path?
"Yes," Tick whispered to the flames "The answer is yes"
He folded up the letter and turned his back on the fire
In a place very far froe aith a start Exactly what had jolted him from sleep, he wasn’t sure, but it didn’t make him very happy He rather liked the act of blissful slue about beauty sleep (Though he knew if Mothball or Rutger were around they’d say so to sleep for the next forty years to gain a single ounce of beauty)