When Jenny stepped off the school bus and opened the door to the house, Mister Officer Higgins was waiting there with an important looking woman. They both introduced themselves to her and said some other stuff. At first Jenny hadn’t realized what the adults were saying to her. They seemed serious, but adults always seemed serious about something. It finally sunk in when Mommy ran up and wrapped her arms around Jenny.

  “It’s okay, Sweety,” Mommy said, stroking Jenny’s hair, “Agent Holly here protected us from the monster. It won’t ever hurt you again.”

  “Monster?” Jenny said.

  “That’s right,” Mommy said, “That horrible thing that was in your room.”

  Jenny’s eyes went wide. Her heart tightened and her legs turned to noodles. Her lungs stopped working, but with the last of her breath, she looked at Miss Agent Holly and breathed out her next question, “You killed Frankenbug?”

  She ran to her room. The cage was empty, but that happened a lot, so that was no reason to believe Mommy was telling the truth.

  Then she saw it.

  There was blood on her windowsill.

  “No it got away, but we’ll find it out there.” Miss Agent Holly said from behind.

  Jenny sucked in a breath and then another. All she could do for a good while was breathe.

  Mommy came up and hugged her tighter this time and whispered over and over, “It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re safe.”

  Jenny hugged Mommy back. She was so relieved. That Frankenbug was okay.

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  “Frankenbug isn’t dangerous.” Jenny said, “He’s a good boy.”

  “Whatever that thing was, it was not a safe pet,” Mister Officer Higgins said.

  Jenny tried to explain, “But..”

  “That thing was dangerous.” Mommy cut her off, “I know you get excited about bugs, sweety, but you need to be careful. What if you got hurt? I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

  Mommy started to cry and Jenny hugged her harder. Jenny didn’t want her to hate Frankenbug, but she didn’t want her to cry anymore.

  “I’m sorry,” Jenny said.

  “No, Sweety, I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have been around more to be with you instead of. Instead of…”

  Miss Agent Holly cut in before Mommy could start crying again. “Kristy, may we borrow Jenny to ask her some questions? We’ll be quick, I promise.”

  Mommy stood and wiped her face, smearing her makeup even more. “Of course. Jenny, please try your best to be polite and answer their questions. Afterwards, we can go get some ice cream.”

  Jenny nodded and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Jenny did her best to answer the questions, but she didn’t know much other than how Frankenbug grew and what he ate and what words he knew. She tried her best to be helpful, but her mind was elsewhere and she was scared to give too much information to these people that wanted to hurt Frankenbug. She decided to tell them about what bugs she fed him and how he could talk and learn words, but she hid details about his favorite foods.

  She needed to find Frankenbug and warn him about these adults that were hunting him. If she didn’t find him first, then they might kill him. She tried several more times to explain that Frankenbug was a good boy, but they wouldn’t listen no matter how she explained it.

  Since explaining things to them didn’t work, that only left Jenny one solution: she needed to find Frankenbug on her own first and warn him.

  As Jenny kept answering questions, she decided that she would sneak out later that night and find Frankenbug. She needed to be careful though, since if she was caught she would likely lose her only chance. The way Mommy was acting, it was obvious she would try to stop Jenny.

  When Mommy was asleep, Jenny packed her favorite things and snuck out the window. She had a mission. She had to find frankenbug. She needed to make sure he was okay.