“Who wants to play DARK,” Cooper jump-shouted as he entered the TV room with his best friend Miguel.

Cooper was a big kid, older than the rest by four years and bigger than the rest by two feet. He often felt stifled when his cousins came over. They were all girls. His little sister was a girl. His whole family seemed to be made up of little girls with ribbons in their hair, dirt on the knees, and an unending desire to scream at the tips of their tongues. He didn’t mind it so much when they left him alone, but the days when his mother relegated him to the TV room with the girls instead of just letting him hang out with the adults on the screened-in back porch were just unbearable. He often wondered why he had to play with them because he always saw himself more of an adult than a little kid at this stage in his big kidness.

Harper pushed her bangs away from her eyes with the back of her hand in exasperation and sighed. She said, “Go away, Cooper! We’re busy playing school! I’m showing Lily math.”

“Mom says we all have to play and since I’m about a billion times smarter and better than you, we’re playing what I want!” said Cooper while he erased his sister’s chalkboard easel.

“Hey! We were playing with that! Go play with Miguel somewhere else,” said Harper.

As Cooper’s little sister, she felt like she would forever live in his shadow—this was something she understood even at seven years old. Cooper was always making the grown-ups laugh with his stupid school jokes and sassy attitude and whenever she tried to do the same, she always fell short. She wanted desperately to be her own person and play the kinds of games she liked, so she was always happy when he cousins came over, especially Lily, because they were so close in age and Lily always wanted to play  her girly games.

Cooper continued erasing the board while Miguel raced around the room making fart noises in the crook of his arm. He said, “Oh, relax. Lily wasn’t even having fun.”
“She was so!”

“Was not! Just ask her. You’ll see. She’d rather play DARK with me and Miguel.”

“Lily, what would you rather play: school or DARK?”

This always happened whenever Lily went to see Cooper and Harper. She was an only child and really loved seeing all of her cousins. Sometimes she pretended that they were actually her brother and sister so she could see what it felt like. Other times, she couldn’t be bothered to indulge either of them by taking sides. She actually wanted to play a game she made up called POP DIVAS because she saw Mariah Carey jump up in the air on TV and for one shining moment, she looked like a human letter Z. Lily had been practicing her Z jump in her bedroom and wanted to show Harper, but she was too shy to do it unless she was pretending to be Mariah Carey. When Harper shot down her idea and suggested yet another game of school, Lily was angry. She couldn’t wait for Cooper to inevitably come in and ruin their game so she could do something else, and it would be his fault, not hers.

She said, “Um, it was okay, but what is DARK?”

Harper folded her arms in front of her chest and pouted while Miguel bounced around like Cooper’s very own hype boy.

“See? I told you!” said Cooper as he stuck out his tongue at his sister. To Lily, he said, “DARK is just hide-and-seek in the dark.”

“Oh, but it’s sunny out,” said Lily, relieved that it was broad daylight and that she didn’t have to risk being called a baby because she was afraid of the dark.

“Not in the basement,” Miguel whispered in her ear.

“Maybe you go play DARK and we’ll keep playing school. Right, Harper?” Lily asked, trying to keep it cool.

Harper knew Lily was afraid, but her feelings were too hurt by her cousin’s interest in the boys’ game, so she said, “No, I think we should play DARK.”

“Oh, okay.”

Cooper led the children to the top of the basement stairs and said, “Okay, here’s the rules: I’m IT and when I count to ten, you all hide and then I’ll turn off the light and come downstairs and find you in the dark. Ready, on your mark, get set, GO!”

The children stampeded down the stairs and in the rush, Lily forgot she was afraid. She found Harper’s old crib, which was being used to house all of her dolls, and she burrowed down between Fozzie Bear and a porcelain doll with elegant auburn ringlets. She closed her eyes and thought she heard all the other kids, including Harper, run back up the stairs. She opened her eyes and had just enough time to see that it was true before Cooper turned off the lights and slammed the door.

She was alone. In the basement. In the dark. At first, she thought she should just stay still and pretend she was hiding like she never knew she was being tricked by the other kids, but then she heard a low growl from the alcove by the furnace.

Lily pulled the goggles and cape off of a Super Grover and put them on herself. She willed herself to act like a big girl as she quietly stepped out of the crib and onto the cold concrete floor.

A low mist unfurled itself toward her feet from the alcove. It kissed her ankles and started taking shape as writhing tentacles. The growl was closer now.

She yelped and ran up the stairs. She tried the door, but Cooper and Miguel were holding it, laughing, and calling her a baby. She began whimpering and then howling to be let out when the light switch wouldn’t turn on the dim basement lights. She looked down and saw that the misty tentacles were climbing up the stairs after her and her screams to be let out were drowned by the boys’ laughter.

The growling was in her ears. The tentacles were on her feet, wrapped around her legs, climbing up around her body, and then they pulled her down and back, into the alcove.

Everything went quiet and the mist dissipated. Cooper thought she had enough and opened the door.

He switched on the light. The basement was silent.

“Lily? Olly-olly-oxen-free.”