Chapter 1

My name is Jack Black and I work at the wonderland museum. Most people call me midblack. I work as a custodian in the museum. I clean things and polish stuff and scrub windows and tidy up at the end of the day. Somone once told me that it is an atrocious job, but I like it. I rent a small flat in the city center and has a broken bed inside it. I’m lonely at night but am very busy during the daylight because it is especially busy in the summer. It is not so busy in the winter and only five times a week no one visits. 

Usually at night, a girl chucks stones at the broken window and whispers, “Oi, let me in!” I gaze at her wondering what would be the right thing to do. It is almost midnight and the museum is closed. She looks frozen to death, so I opened the window and she slivered in like a snake desperate to be inside. She stares at me with dark pith black eyes as she perched on the window ledge, she says, “Hide me!”     

Before I continue with continue with what happens next, there is one story about our street I should probably tell you about. It happened so long ago, well, not so long ago, just three weeks ago, not many people remember exactly what I told them. Most people believe that there is a local legend that a monster fly’s out of the sea into a particular street but no one knows why. Apparently, it is a type of variety known as a Mander, also known as the Daggermander, and only comes out at midnight out of the dark sea. It smells like clam shells and ships wood. It left claw marks on the wall of the flat as if it were an angry badger. They say in the dawn or at midnight it howls like a wolf. When the locals here it, they shut the doors and close the curtains. 

Some say the creature must have been searching for something, but no one knows what for. Some say it could have been searching for food. Some say it was looking for his own kind. I’ve, never seen it in sunny weather, but, when the street lights turn on, it shows in the pitch black night. 

” Why on earth do you need to hide at this time of night?” I whispered back to her. ” What’s wrong?” 

“I’ve seen it!” She exclaimed, ” Hide behind something, quick!”