It was nighttime and I led Scott up the stairs to the tree house. We were the last ones here it looks like.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late, my mom made me put on my jacket and then she made Y/N do the dishes"

"No, you made me do them because you didn't want to do the dishes and asked me to do them for you"

"You said you didn't care!"

"Doesn't matter!"

"Hey want a s'more?"

"No, I'm good"

"Some more what?"

"No, no you want a s'more?"

"I haven't had anything yet so how can I have some more of nothing?"

“You're killing me, Smalls…”

Oh god, Ham can explain that I'm going over here. I have had enough of Scotty for one day.

"Y/N, right here"

I looked down and saw Benny laying on the floor. I sat next to him and he smiled at me.

"Okay quiet you guys!"

I looked up to see Squints standing above everyone. I shifted in my spot on the floor. I looked over at Squints again

"Quiet! Are you trying to wake it up? It just went to bed!"

"What just went to bed?"

a cloud of 'shhs' went around the tree house, directed at Scott

"The Beast"

I didn't think that 'thing' could hear us but I guess so

"Oh yeah!"

"Shh!"

"Now quiet! The legend of the beast goes back a long time before any of us could pick up a baseball, back to a place called Mertle's acres. It all started 'bout… 20 years ago when thieves kept stealing junk from Mertle's acres junkyard. So Mr. Mertle, the guy who used to own the place, got him this new pup from the dog pound. He fed him whole sides of beef and turned the pup loose in the junkyard, and the pup was grateful. And so in a few weeks the pup grew into the beast and he grew big! And he grew mean! So he can protect the junkyard with only one thing on his mind, to kill everyone that broke in! And he did. And he liked it a lot. The beast was the most perfect junkyard dog that ever lived, a true killing machine. But after a while, the cops started getting phone calls for the people reporting all the missing thieves, the ones the beast had killed. It added up to about 120-... 173 guys. It's true! They never found a single body. Some people say they all got away, But we all know what really happened...The beast ate them! He ate the booone and all. The beast was too good at his guard dog job so the police said he had to be retired. My grandpa, Squidman Palledorous, was police chief back then. And he ordered Mr. Mertle to turn his backyard into a fortress and chain up the beast an- and put him under the house, where it can never get out to eat children and stuff. And that's where it's been for 20 years and that's where it will be for the rest of its life. Cause when Mr. Mertle asked the cops how long he had to keep the beast chained up like a slave, they said until… For-ev-Ver, For-ev-Ver, For-ev-Ver, For-ev-Ver... And so the Beast sits there under that lean-to, Dreaming of the time when he can break the chain and get out. Dreaming of the time he can chase and kill again!"

"See man? That's why you can't go over there. Nobody ever has, nobody ever will"

"One kid did, but no one saw him again"

"That ain't true"

"Yeah it is. He got eaten!"

"Nuh uh!"

Scott stood up from his spot in the floor and everyone faces him

"No, none of this is true. You're just making this up to scare me and Y/N"

"Oh yeah? Stick your head out that window, and look down"

"Scotty you don't have to do it"

"No, I'm proving them wrong!"

He walked over to the window and looked out of it.

Everyone braced themselves against something. Or my case, someone.

He screamed a few seconds later and ran towards us.

"He's down there!"

"You bet he is"

"And whatever goes over that fence… Stays there"

"Becomes the property of the Beast… Forever"