"Grack!"

The sound came from the hall, and I froze where I crawled. Was there a goblin out in the hall? I took a breath. I could lock myself inside my room. Then, even if there was a goblin in the hall, there wouldn't be a problem. I could handle it by locking it out. So long as I kept the door closed, the goblin would eventually be caught by Grandma.

I slapped my head softly. Grandma. She was asleep by now. What if she didn't wake up and deal with the goblins? What if they took her while she was asleep? The possibilities rushed through my mind and added mountains on top of my hills of worries.

"You have to see," I said to myself, clenching my fists. "You have to check. If there's a goblin out in the hall. You have to know."

I stood up, looking at the door. It was taller than I ever remembered it being. Was the knob always so high up? Had the keyhole always been large enough to swallow my hand whole? I stood there, trembling as I fought to control my racing heart.

I needed a weapon. I needed a tool. I needed something to arm myself against the goblin. I thought back to my Grandma's words as I looked around the room. What could I use to fight off the goblin? What could I bring with me to give me the confidence I needed? I licked my lips as my eyes settled on a shadow.

A toy sword made out of thin wood rested against the foot of my bed. I used it to play with my friends out in the fields during the day. We would pretend to be knights and go on grand quests. I tiptoed over to the edge of my bed and grabbed hold of that blade. I held it up into the darkness, and my grip stayed true.

"Alright, goblin," I whispered, turning to the door. "I'm coming for you!"

I slinked over to the door with my wooden sword and peered around the corner. In the hallway, illuminated by the dim moonlight coming from an open door, a goblin stood, scrounging across the ground with its long fingers. It picked up a stray cloth, what looked like an abandoned rag that had been left on the floor. It brought the rag up to its nose and took a deep sniff.

I shrank back into my room so that I could only peek at the goblin down the hall.

"What did grandma used to say?" I asked myself as I closed my eyes. "Something about a goblin in a hall."

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Never before in my life would I have imagined that I would need to remember all the little rules for defeating goblins. If only I had remembered all of Grandma's sayings. Yet, they were slipping past my mind, blending together from all the times she had said them over the years. I wanted to cry. I wanted to close myself in my room and huddle there until morning. I bit my lip. That didn't change the fact that Grandma was still out there. She was in danger, and the fact that I hadn't listened was the problem.

"If you find a goblin in the hall…" I whispered, closing my eyes and concentrating. "If you find a goblin in the hall… If you find a goblin in the hall—distract it with a ball!"

That was the answer I had been searching for. I set back into my room, searching for a ball. I had a little red rubber one that we always played around with when I was bored on a rainy day. Grandma and I would toss it back and forth in the room, bouncing it off the walls of my room and nowhere else. The other rooms in the house had too many things to break. That was what she always told me. I searched the room, checking every nook and cranny until I found the little red ball.

"Aha," I whispered, picking the red ball up from where it had fallen between my dresser and bookshelf.

Now, I had precisely what I needed. I headed back to the door and looked into the hall. The goblin was still crouched on all fours across the floorboards, its nose dangerously close to the ground as it sniffed and searched for something. I focused on my breathing. In and out. I was going to throw the ball down the hallway and sacrifice it to distract the goblin. Grandma would thank me later once I made sure she was safe.

"Grack!"

The goblin looked up, its yellow-slitted eyes finding me in the darkness. I knew the time was upon me, and I threw the ball with all my strength down the hall. The goblin's eyes followed the ball as it sailed through the air in an arc and fell against the ground. However, that wasn't the end of the path. The ball was a bouncy ball, and it wasn't just going to stay still.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The ball bounced down the hall, and the goblin gave chase immediately. Gathering my courage, I ran after the goblin, toy sword in hand. I needed to make sure that the goblin was distracted enough that he wouldn't come back. I only had one ball to distract the goblin.

"Grack!" the goblin jumped into the open closet at the end of the hall, searching for the ball.

"Hah!" I yelled, charging to the closet and slamming the door closed on the goblin.

"Grack!"

Thud.

The goblin slammed against the closet, and I searched the hall for anything to bar it in. I found what I needed nearby: one of the chairs Grandma kept near the small table in the hall. I quickly set the chair against the door handle and leaned it so that the chair blocked the goblin in. For the second time that night, following my grandmother's advice, I managed to beat a goblin.

"Grack!"

The sound didn't come from the closet but from behind me. I turned and saw the stairs down to the first floor. My heart sank. It was not one goblin, not two goblins, but three goblins in the house. I licked my dry lips as I tried to remember Grandma's stories. Another goblin to beat if I hoped to find her somewhere in the house.

"If you find a goblin on the stairs—"