The Muffeys were going to Merry. The family of three had packed up their life back in Dodgson—all of which was now inside the moving van trailing behind their car—and were headed towards a new life in the quiet town of Merry. The family had been planning to move for several months, although Henry Muffey believed that it was his wife Laura who had really been the one to pursue the idea. In any case, there was little left behind back in Dodgson, so there was no really choice other than to start anew in Merry.

“Aren’t the sites beautiful?” Laura asked out loud, more to herself than anyone else. “It’s very peaceful, it’s all fields and rolling hills.”
“Exactly, and we’ve been seeing nothing but fields and rolling hills. It’s the prairies, mom. There’s nothing else to see.”
That was their son Tom. Now, Tom Muffey wasn’t exactly excited about their moving to Merry, and he had several reasons he could think of to justify himself. Firstly, he had to leave behind his few friends back in Dodgson, which was annoying since he was kind of slow making new friends.
Secondly, having lived in Dodgson his whole life, he was accustomed to the excitement of city life. He dreaded to think how quiet, how boring, Merry would be compared to Dodgson.
Thirdly, which probably annoyed Tom the most, was that today was his birthday. What better day to move than my birthday? he thought to himself. It probably wouldn’t have bugged him so much though if his parent’s hadn’t forgotten it was his birthday too, since they were busy getting ready to move. When they had finally realized what day today was, his father had come up with a quick lie that “moving was his birthday gift” and that they had something special planned for him when they got there. He thought it would’ve been better if they’d just admitted that they’d forgotten his birthday completely.
What a way to spend his sixteenth birthday.
Laura said nothing in return to her son’s snarky comments. She had learned to just ignore them most of the time, since they usually led to petty arguments that went nowhere anyway. Besides, she thought, he had an excuse to be a bit moodier than usual since she and Henry had forgotten his birthday. That was kind of bad. She wished she felt worse about it though.
The car turned down a side road, and the moving van followed. Far down the end of the road was forest. It turns out the town Merry was built in the middle of woods, in the middle of the prairies, which was just odd in itself. Before the opening in the woods was a sign:

WELCOME TO MERRY
“The home of solitude.”

Oh great, Tom thought sullenly, solitude is just what we need.
“Solitude, isn’t that just what we need!” Laura said. “Quiet will be nice for a change.”
Henry and Tom said nothing, and the rest of the car ride was quiet; solitude. As the car traversed the winding road, Tom noticed a large house through the woods. It looked like a mansion that probably belonged to some rich family. The weird thing about the house though, was that when he looked at it, he felt a slight chill tingle down his spine.
For some reason, Tom Muffey thought that Merry would be anything but solitude.

Bif Tyler was 17 years old and good looking. Those were probably his only notable attributes, as the attribute ‘intelligence’ had somewhat overlooked. That is not to say he couldn’t use the two that he had to his advantage, which he did.
Bif Tyler had overall well defined features, which included a chiselled face, brown hair with hazel eyes, and a tall and slightly muscular figure. He was good looking, and that was a straight fact. This advantageous attribute led him to being a very popular person as Merry High, which of course led to many other things including his girl Tara, the cheerleader. He really liked Tara for the past 3 weeks that he’d known her, so he decided he was going to save up for a car, so he could impress her.
That’s why Bif was working as a lawnboy. Well, there was Tara, and of course there was the fact that he did not meet the minimal IQ requirement for a service industry like Uncle’s Deli. He did however know how to start a lawnmower, so he was in business. The tips he got also seemed to be very generous, from the women who hired him, and that weird man down the street.

At the moment, Bif was standing in the back yard of the largest house in the area, the Weiss Manor, which was located at the edge of town. He was trying to start his lawnmower up again, since it wouldn’t work for some reason after it ran over that huge rock.
“Aw, screw it.”
He gave the lawnmower a kick, and went to sit under the oak tree in the center of the yard. The back yard of the Weiss Manor was a huge area, completely surrounded by hedges, and a large barred fence. The yard was filled with many large trees, which cast shade over most of the yard, and there was a fenced garden near the back. He knew the Weiss family was also known to have an absurd number of cats around their house at night, although for some reason not a single one of them was ever seen out during the day.
Bif took out his cell phone and was searching through his contacts for Tara’s number, which he was having trouble finding. He didn’t add her to his favourites yet since they had made out so far. He’d favourite her like he did with his ex Sherry after they’d done a bit more. That’s why he wanted to buy a car. If I get her a car, I’ll score with her for sure, he thought.
When he’d found her number, he was about to dial it when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He turned and saw a humongous grey caterpillar clinging to his bare shoulder, its head had torn through his shirt and was now buried into his flesh.
“****!” he cried out in disgust.
Bif dropped his phone and grabbed the caterpillar with his hand, and yanked it out of his shoulder. He looked at the caterpillars head and saw that it was covered in blood, and then saw the dark red spot in his shirt where the bite was, which now burned like crazy.
Oh my god, he thought, and flung the disgusting little bug as far as he could. He touched his shoulder with his opposite hand and felt the cloth was dampened with blood. What the hell kind of caterpillar was that? he thought to himself which he tenderly patted his wound. At that moment, several other grey blobs had fallen from the leaves of the tree above him and landed on his back. Shortly after that, Bif felt several more burning stings in his back.
Bif cried out in pain, and then thrust himself backwards against the giant oak’s base, squashing the fat grey caterpillars on his back. However, the vibration of crashing into the tree had sent several more caterpillars falling down on him from the tree. Bif now felt them biting into his scalp, earlobe and neck.
Bif was yelling out in fear as he scratched at the caterpillars madly, pulling them off his body. As he struggled under the tree, more and more of the caterpillars began dropping down on him, awakened by the ruckus. His body was now covered in over a hundred of the squirming fat caterpillars, biting his body. As he pulled them off his body and crushed them in his hands, he saw that his hands were now covered in blood.
It’s my blood, he thought. Oh god, these things aren’t just biting me, their sucking my blood.
He felt woozy and light-headed, and his vision was starting to become obscured, either by dizziness or the caterpillars covering his face. It didn’t really matter though, because he passed out a few moments later, and he fell over face first into the ground. His body looked like a one big squirming heap of the caterpillars.

From the house, Adele Weiss came out the backdoor and walked down the steps. She had heard some hollering only thirty seconds ago, and came out to see what the problem was. She walked across the lawn towards the giant oak tree in the center. As she walked around the tree, she saw the squirming heap of the caterpillars. They slowly began to crawl away, revealing the body of Bif Tyler, which was now completely motionless and very, very pale.
“Oh dear,” she said nonchalantly.
With that, Adele walked back towards the house, very calmly. She walked into the house and called out to her husband, Alfie, and told him to get the shovels. She wanted to be quick about this and hoped she didn’t get too dirty.
This is terrible, she thought to herself. I’m supposed to start preparing dinner in forty minutes!