Me and smalls arrive at the treehouse. Everyone is already there sitting down. I go over to benny and sit next to him. He puts his arm around me and smiles. I smile back. We are near ham who is making all the s'mores. Smalls goes over to him.

"Hey, you want a s'more" ham offers.

"Some more of what?" Smalls asks, confused.

"No,no, you want a s'more?" He offers again.

"I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have more of nothing?" He says. I laugh.

"What an idiot" I whisper to benny, he laughs.

"You're killing me, smalls" ham says. "These are s'mores stuff" pointing at the food in front of him.

"Okay pay attention!" He says. "First, you take the graham" holding it up. "You stick the chocolate on the graham" he puts the chocolate on top "then you roast the mallow" he puts the marshmallow on the candle. Me and benny are watching this, still shocked that smalls didn't know what a s'more was. "You stick it on the chocolate" he continues.

"You're gonna set the place on fire, ham" I say. Benny agrees.

"Then, you cover it with the other end" he ignores us.

"Hey ham, make me one of those" says Timmy.

"Yeah, me too" says tommy

He's too focused to acknowledge them. "Then you eat it" he takes a bite "kind of messy, but good. Try some." He offers it to smalls.

"Okay. Quiet, you guys." Says squints "Quiet! Are you trying to wake it up?"

"It just went to bed."

"What just went to bed?" Asks smalls.

"Shhhh"

"The Beast." They all say

"Oh, yeah!"

"Shh!"

"Now quiet." Orders squints

"The legend of The Beast goes back a long time... before any of us could even pick up a baseball. Back to a place called Mertle's Acres. It all started about, mmm, years ago,

when thieves kept stealing junk from Mertle's Acres junkyard. So Mr. Mertle, the guy that 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 that he could 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 from people...reporting all the missing thieves, the ones The Beast had killed. It added up to about 150 guys. It's true. They never found a single body. Not one. Some people say they all got away. But we all know what really happened. The Beast ate them. He ate them bone 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 chiefback then. He ordered Mr. Mertle to turn his backyard into a fortress... and chain up The Beast and put him under the house...where he could never get out to eat children and stuff. That's where he's been for years. And that's where he'll be for the rest of his life. Because Mr. Mertle asked the cops how long... he had to keep The Beast chained up like a slave. they said until forever. Forever. Forever. Forever. Forever. Forever. 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." Says benny

"Nobody ever has. Nobody ever will." Says squints

"One kid did, but nobody ever seen him again." Says ham

"That ain't true." Smalls says

"Yeah, it is" says ham "He got eaten."

"Nuh-uh. No. None of that's true." Exclaims smalls "You guys are just making this up to scare me."

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

Smalls looks out of the window. A few seconds later, he runs away. "He's down there."

"You bet he is."

"Whatever goes over that fence...stays there."

"It becomes the property of The Beast...forever."

I burst out laughing. All the boys look over confused.

"You guys actually believe that?!" I burst out with laughter again.

"Huh" they all look at each other, still confused.

"So you are all scared of a DOG!?" I'm still laughing

"Ahaha you boys are so weird"

"You're the weird one. It's terrifying!" Yeah yeah says.

"Whatever, I'm going to sleep." Bennys arm is still wrapped around me. I keep it there and go to sleep.