The Christmas Rat by Avi

floor.
    I checked the clock. It was almost midnight! The alarm hadn’t rung.
    I crept into the living room, gazed out the window. The street below was deserted and still looked dead cold. I looked around at the tree and the presents. Then I realized my Christmas stocking was gone. It made me gasp. I couldn’t even believe it. Maybe my parents had moved it. But I doubted it. I mean, it wasn’t anywhere.
    Was it Anje I heard walking around our apartment? Had he come in and taken the stocking? What was he going to do with it? Or was taking it meant to be bait—for me?
    It might have been. But there was no way I could stay put. I figured I’d go crazy. I had to know what was happening.
    I walked down the whole six floors. When I reached the basement door, I cracked it open a little and peeked in. The lights were off.
    Holding my breath, I eased the door wide enough to let me squeeze through the gap. Then I closed it behind me very slowly, making sure it didn’t click.
    I breathed deeply and listened. I couldn’t see or hear, but there didn’t seem to be anything unusual happening.
    I began to wish I had kept Anje’s flashlight. But suddenly a really scary thought filled me. That glowing. Maybe the glow—I don’t know how—had been protecting me. I didn’t know how it worked, any more than I knew what Anje was all about. But, as long as I had it, things had been, like, okay for me. Well, sort of. Only I’d given the flashlight to the rat. Now, he was safe, maybe—and I wasn’t.
    So I stood there, trying to decide what to do. Maybe, I thought, I could get the flashlight back. I tried to remember where the rat had been heading.
    Moving from the door, I started making my way down the corridor, hands before me.
    I couldn’t see of course, but by then I had a good sense of where things were. The further I went the more I knew that flashlight was gone.
    But then I had another idea. Why shouldn’t I turn on the basement lights? You know, to make myself feel safer. And the lights would keep the rat in his hiding place. I had nothing to hide. This building was where I lived.
    Standing there, I tried to figure out where I was. If the basement door was back there, the electrical room was . . . here.
    I moved in that direction. My foot touched something hard. I reached out. It was a wall. When I felt around I touched a door. My heart leaped. Had I found the electrical door so easily? Fingers extended, I groped for a door handle. And found it. Twisting it, I pulled. The other times it had opened. This time it wouldn’t.
    Had Anje locked it? Did that mean he was expecting me? Waiting for me in the dark?
    I turned away from the door, but didn’t go far. Maybe, I told myself, I should just get out of there. Why should I care what happened to a rat? Just because it was alive? Big deal. What about me? Didn’t I want to be alive? I kept telling myself, You’re stupid, you’re stupid.
    Now I knew that right across the way from the electrical door was the elevator. What did I care if I was heard? I just needed to get back there, call the elevator down, and be free.
    I took four steps across the floor and, if my hands hadn’t been in front of me, I would have smashed right into the wall.
    I felt about. There was a door. It had to be the elevator door. I fumbled for the button. That would be by the side. Cool. I found it fast and pushed it. Except . . . nothing happened.
    I pushed it again. A few times. There was no sound from the elevator. I didn’t know how he did it, but I was sure as anything that Anje had turned it off. The way I once did to my folks.
    Now I was fairly screaming to myself: Get out of here! I turned around, moving fast. Too fast. I tripped on my own feet, started to fall, twisted and righted myself. Stood straight.
    When I was steady I realized I had turned around so much I no longer knew which direction I was facing.