She missed seeing her grandparents everyday, especially her grandma, who had been her constant companion her entire life. She knew her grandmother was dead, but the picture kept reminding her of her, whenever something reminded her of her grandpa or her aunt.
"Hey, mom. Is my dad here yet?" she asked as she put the photo album back onto its shelf.
"No," her mom replied with a sigh. "He should get here soon." She sat down on the sofa. "Where is he anyway? He never gets home this early."
Pexy shrugged. "I don't know. We haven't exactly kept in contact lately."
The phone rang at that moment, startling Pexy and making her jump. She rushed to get the phone off the receiver, knowing that if it wasn't for her mother picking it up, she might have accidentally thrown it across the room.
It wasn't her father's ringtone. "Hello, you've reached Pexy Sharacter's residence," she answered. She heard another voice on the line, a male one. It sounded strange and distorted. Like something was wrong with the connection. The next words that came out of the mouth startled her:
"Are you listening?" the stranger asked.
Pexy frowned. What did he mean, she wasn't listening?
"Yes," she answered hesitantly.
A loud screeching noise came through the speakers that Pexy barely recognized as laughter. "Good. Listen carefully."
His tone became serious. "Because if you listen carefully, I can give you what you want. You will be a hero of justice."
Pexy raised her eyebrows. Was he crazy? Who even said stuff like this? She wondered if she should hang up the phone, or tell her mom, and then thought better of it. She still had an hour and a half before her grandfather would show up, which meant she still had plenty of time. But there was something strange about the message...
"Okay," she said slowly. "What do I have to do?"
There was a brief pause. Then:
"Wait for me at a place we use to call our secret lair. If you do what I say when I arrive there, the world is yours." With that, the line went dead.
***
Pexy stared at the closed door of the bathroom. She was alone, having left her bedroom a while ago. She didn't feel comfortable being in her own house at night – after all, she could be watched. Plus, the house was large enough for her to hear any intruder coming, even if it was just in passing, if there was nobody in the house. She didn't want to take chances with her own safety. Not tonight, at least.
So, in the hopes of distracting herself and giving her mind a break from worrying about her dad, she decided to do something she used to enjoy doing when she was younger. She grabbed her laptop from her desk and sat down in her desk chair, opening a document and starting it on an open web browser.
She logged into the local internet, checking how many websites there were that had information about monsters or magic and stuff like that. She found one site called "Monsterpedia", and typed the word in. The website loaded in a matter of seconds. She clicked on it, and immediately saw it had a bunch of articles about monsters.
And there was nothing about a secret lair, she noted with disappointment.
She scrolled through the website, looking for anything about a monster called 'Red Skull'. She found several interesting facts and theories, as well as videos from some of the shows in the Monsterpedia that contained pictures of monsters, but nothing mentioned a secret lair.
"Great..." she murmured. She continued clicking through the page. She ended up reading a summary that talked about Red Skull and his army of magical beasts. Apparently, they lived in a mysterious land called Nightmare Land. And apparently they possessed the power to kill humans with their minds. That sounded pretty cool.