Page 19 of Monsterland Mayhem

“Yes. I took the cloud slide.” He points to a fog off to the right. “That’s a much faster route when running off a cliff.”

Running off a…?I glance up and realize the “tree” I’m hanging in is rooted maybe a hundred or so feetaboveme.

Gods…“I didn’t even see it,” I whisper aloud.

“I know.” Craze’s voice draws my attention back to him as he folds his athletic arms across his chest. “Want to know how to get down from there?”

“I… yes. Yes, I do.”

He smiles. “Excellent. Laugh.”

I stare at him. “What?”

“Laugh,” he says again.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s an action typically inspired by something funny,” he explains, like I’m some sort of idiot. Although, he doesn’t say it condescendingly, just matter-of-factly.

“No, I know what laughing is; I don’t understand how that’ll help me get down,” I tell him, somewhat exasperated. Not necessarily by him—well, maybe alittlebecause of him—but mostly from this whole wild experience.

“Try it,” he tells me. “Try laughing and see what happens.”

“I’m not sure I’m in a laughing mood,” I return through my teeth.

“Hmm.” He taps his chin. “Well, a song might do. Can you sing?”

“Are you serious?”

“Typically? No. Right now, though, yes.” He gifts me with a quick grin. “Want me to sing to you instead?”

This man is insane,I decide, just gaping at him.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” he murmurs, then tilts his head back and… and begins tosing.

My lips part as the haunting melody reaches my ears, his voice deep and borderline hypnotic. I’m so transfixed on himthat I don’t even realize I’m moving until I feel the sticky branch slither against my wrist.

Startled, I glance at it, then gasp when I realize it’sreleasingme. But I’m still a good twenty feet in the air.

“Craze…”

He doesn’t acknowledge me, too lost in his song to hear me. I can’t understand a word he’s saying. It’s some language I don’t speak.

“Craze!” I try again, louder this time.

He ignores me, his voice seeming to grow louder.

I quiver, the dark tune weaving some sort of enchantment over my being. I’m practically transfixed on the male below, his voice stirring an unhealthy fascination inside me.

“Craze,” I manage as the Gum Tree releases one of my arms. My left leg almost immediately follows, leaving me hanging haphazardly in the air. “I’m going to fall!” Which I know is the point, but not from this height!

I shriek as my other arm goes free, the branch only loosely around one ankle now.

Shit, shit, shit!

I cover my head as the sticky substance lets go of my final limb, sending me straight toward the ground.

And into a pair of waiting arms.