The Christmas Rat

He is one weird Christ­mas visitor—his hair and mous­tache an unearth­ly white-blond, his voice a gruff rum­ble. He fills the apart­ment door­way. From two met­al cas­es he pro­duces what a boy would expect from an exter­mi­na­tor: Tox­ic roach pow­ders and poi­so­nous fog bombs. But a crossbow?

Eric is fas­ci­nat­ed at first. He’s been bored this snow­bound vaca­tion, and has already zapped about a zil­lion Zergs. Antsy, he’s even sneaked a look at the Christ­mas presents hid­den beneath his par­ents’ bed. Then Anje Gabrail, this exter­mi­na­tor, appears, talk­ing a lit­tle mad­ly about his war against rats—about killing them.

“The worst,” Anje says. And if Eric sees one in the Eden Apart­ments, he is to call Anje’s twen­ty-four-hour cell phone imme­di­ate­ly. Lat­er that Mon­day, the fourth day before Christ­mas, a rat does appear in the build­ing’s basement—and Eric finds him­self sud­den­ly, fright­en­ing­ly swept into Anje’s venge­ful army.

As either part­ner … or victim.

With only a flashlight.