Excerpt from Only Child by Rhiannon Navin, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

POP—19 POP—20 POP—21

Everything was hot and wet and smelled bad and I started to feel dizzy from it all and my stomach didn't feel good. Then all of a sudden it was quiet. I couldn't hear any more POPs. Just the crying and hiccupping in the closet.

And THEN there were a TON of POPs that sounded like they were right by us, a lot of them in a row, and loud sounds like stuff crashing and breaking. Miss Russell screamed and covered her ears, and we screamed and covered our ears. The closet door opened because I let go of the metal piece and light came into the closet and it hurt my eyes. I tried to keep counting the POPs, but there were too many. Then they stopped.

Everything was completely still, even us, and no one moved a muscle. It was like we weren't even breathing. We stayed like that for a very long time—still and quiet.

"huh, huh, huh." There was a knock on the door and a loud man voice said, "Hello, anyone in there?"

Excerpted from Only Child by Rhiannon Navin. Copyright © 2018 by Rhiannon Nevin. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.