Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself for whatever he might find. "The only thing that scares Quiggly is fear itself!" he thought to himself. "And today, I feel fear in the darkness!" With the flashlight on, Quiggly entered the room slowly. "If you don't mind, I'd like to give you something to write about." At first he didn't see anything and walked slowly in the direction of the sounds. He then saw the foot hanging above him. Quiggly froze and turned on the flashlight and immediately turned it off. He looked up. "That isn't a human hand! What is it? I think it has big black wings!" Quiggly said aloud. Then he turned on the flashlight again and shone the light into the eyes of the winged creature. It was a huge black cat! "Quiggly! You're a chicken! A chicken!" the cat said and laughed. "You're a chicken! A chicken!" He got up, but did not chase Quiggly who was still staring at him, frozen in place. "What am I? What am I?" the cat repeated the words and smiled with his big wide mouth. "Am I an evil cat? Why am I here? Or did I come here on my own volition? Well, either way I must have. It could not have been Quiggly's imagination and his fear that got the better of him that made him call me." Quiggly stood motionless. "Hmm... a good chicken?" the cat said in his best imitation of a chicken voice. "He sounds sooo funny!" Quiggly walked to the center of the cat's cage. "I don't want to stay here anymore! I'm frightened of this cat! He frightens me. My fear of him has led me here." Quiggly turned off the flashlight. "I don't want to stay here anymore! Quiggly the chicken wants to get out of here! I think I should go back to the kitchen. I think this cat will come back to that area. If it is really a cat, not the devil who lives there!" Quiggly walked away from the cage, not looking back. The cat followed him. "Why is he here? Why is he here?" With each step Quiggly felt a new fear grow within him. "Now he's chasing me. He's going to catch me and kill me!" He walked faster but the cat also walked faster. "The fear of being caught is giving me goose bumps!" Quiggly said as he heard the cat getting closer and closer. He was now running. "Quiggly's fear of the cat is going to make the cat catch him. He's not a chicken. He's more like a scaredy cat!" The cat was even closer now. Quiggly was scared. He was running for his life. It was hopeless! The cat was now almost on top of him. He looked around, terrified. There was no escape. Quiggly was so scared that he began to scream. "I am caught! I am a chicken! I am a chicken! I am a chicken!" Quiggly did not know if he was speaking the truth or if it was just a lie that he made up for the sake of his very life. Then he did something that he had never done before. He flew up into the air and out of the mouth of the cat. The cat began to chase him. Quiggly was about to fly away in terror. "Foolish chicken!" "What was that? What did he say?" Quiggly asked himself. He landed on a branch of a nearby tree and looked down on the cat. "Why are you here? Why? Why?" Then Quiggly began to see more than one cat. There were many cats there. They were not only cats; they were all strange, black animals with big, wide eyes. Some had feathers, some had claws, and some had wings. They were all looking at him. He could tell that they were very, very angry. Then, in the middle of the cat's territory, a voice spoke to him. It was as if someone were speaking to him, someone in the trees behind him. "This cat is not the devil! He is part of the devil. He is your friend. He has your best interest at heart." He turned around and saw a bird flying away. He followed it until he stopped looking into the tree. Suddenly, he found himself back in his own body. He opened his eyes and looked around, confused and still frightened by what he had just witnessed. "What was I saying earlier, before this... this other thing happened?" he wondered to himself. He looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh no! I've got to get my little chicken to sleep. I'm late for church!" Quiggly put on a smile on his face as if he were getting ready to go to church for the first time. He walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed the plate of chicken with his left hand. He walked back to his desk where his two children and his wife were sitting with their heads bowed, looking forward. He quietly laid the plate of chicken on the table, keeping his head facing downward toward the food. "I guess I should serve it up to my children. It's chicken!" When he reached the back of the table, he looked to see if his family was looking at him, and then, as he pretended to be shocked at his own actions, he picked up a piece of chicken, placing it under his chin, then lifted the rest of it into his mouth with one hand. As he was mumbling a grace before eating, he leaned in toward the plate of food and bit a piece of meat off, taking it all into his mouth, spitting the bone away. He looked back at his wife and children with the smile still on his face. "This one's for the kids!" he said as he chewed loudly. The children smiled as they smiled at his good attempt. He continued to eat as he looked at the clock, wishing he could have been on time to hear his pastor talk about the devil and the things that go on in this world. "Oh, he really must be late today!" he thought to himself, the smile still on his face. He remembered that he had to go pick up a special chicken to bring to church. "What can this one be like?" Now his face grew serious, as if the weight of the world was upon him. "I guess it is about the devil and the devil's den, that other world," he said in a low, calm voice, shaking his head and closing his eyes. He sat there looking at the sky. "A special chicken to pick up... something about the devil and the devil's den, that other world. It all seems so scary." He began to look at his watch again. "It's already half past... the chicken is late. It's going to be late," he said as he jumped up, walking to the refrigerator. This time, he picked up the special chicken from the plate and carried it by himself, turning and walking toward the back door. He opened it and stepped out on the back porch. "Quiggly the chicken's late again! I just wish he'd learn to keep up with the time!" He stepped out on the back porch. "Where are my two little chickens? I wonder what they are up to in the middle of the afternoon? I wish they would get the idea that they are suppose to be in bed. So many things to do this week, though. I'm surprised they aren't listening to me!" He walked around the house and toward the barn. "Maybe they're helping with the Sunday chicken dinner. It'll be so much fun with all my friends coming... well, maybe they're helping my brother, Tom. I'm not too sure about that. I wonder what he's doing today. If they don't help me, they won't get the chicken until tomorrow!" He walked along the side of the barn with the chicken toward the chicken coop. "I'm going to keep this chicken in my yard. This is not a small chicken. My wife is going to freak out about having to have a chicken. Oh, how I would love to be a chicken myself. I could just stay inside and eat chicken all day and all night and never go outside. I'd rather eat chicken than work." He put the chicken in the coop. "It will be so much fun to have so many people over for dinner. They won't even know the difference. The food is always the same. Just a chicken or a roast beef. They'll never know! Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Once the chicken was safe in the coop, he took a deep breath and began to walk away, happy that the chicken was in his own territory. "Hmm... I better get the little chicken some dinner. It must be hungry. I've had to keep it up this long." He walked out of the chicken coop and made his way back toward the house and the bedroom