03 - Monster Blood Read online

  And Sarabeth was now a young woman with fiery red hair and pale skin and yellow eyes, the same yellow cat eyes that had haunted Evan since he’d arrived. The young woman was dressed in a swirling black gown down to her ankles.

  She stood blocking the doorway, staring accusingly at Kathryn.

  “You see? She’s the one,” Kathryn said, quietly now. And the next words were intended only for Sarabeth: “Your spell over me is broken. I will do no more work for you.”

  Sarabeth tossed her red hair behind a black-cloaked shoulder and laughed. “I’ll decide what you will do, Kathryn.”

  “No,” Kathryn insisted. “For twenty years, you have used me, Sarabeth. For twenty years you have imprisoned me here, held me in your spell. But now I will use this Monster Blood to escape.”

  Sarabeth laughed again. “There is no escape, fool. All of you must die now. All of you.”

  27

  “All of you must die,” Sarabeth repeated. Her smile revealed that she enjoyed saying those words.

  Kathryn turned to Evan, her eyes reflecting her fear. “Twenty years ago, I thought she was my friend. I was all alone here. I thought I could trust her. But she cast a spell on me. And then another. Her dark magic made me deaf. She refused to let me lip-read or learn to sign. That was one way she kept me her prisoner.”

  “But, Aunt Kathryn—” Evan started.

  She raised a finger to her lips to silence him.

  “Sarabeth forced me to cast the spell on the can of Monster Blood. She had warned me that I was allowed no guests, you see. I was her slave. Her personal servant for all these years. She wanted me all to herself, to do her evil bidding.

  “When you arrived,” Kathryn continued, her back still pressed against the fireplace mantel, “she first decided to scare you away. But that was impossible. You had nowhere to go. Then she became desperate to get you out of the way. She was terrified that you would learn her secret, that you would somehow free me of her spell. So Sarabeth decided that you had to die.”

  Kathryn’s eyes fell. She sighed. “I’m so sorry, Evan. I had no choice, no will of my own.” She turned her eyes to Sarabeth. “But no more. No more. No more. As I plunge myself into this ghastly creation, Sarabeth, I will end your spell. I will end your hold over me.”

  “The children will still die,” Sarabeth said quietly, coldly.

  “What?” Kathryn’s eyes filled with fury. “I will be gone, Sarabeth. You can let the children go. You have no reason to do them harm.”

  “They know too much,” Sarabeth replied softly, crossing her slender arms in front of her, her yellow eyes aglow.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Evan whispered to Andy, staring at the seething green glob.

  “But how?” Andy whispered back. “Sarabeth is blocking the doorway.”

  Evan’s eyes darted around the small room, searching for an escape route.

  Nothing.

  Sarabeth raised one hand and drew it toward her slowly, as if summoning the green glob.

  It quivered once, twice, then moved obediently in the direction of her hand.

  “No! Sarabeth—stop!” Kathryn pleaded.

  Ignoring Kathryn, Sarabeth gestured with her hand again.

  The green gunk bubbled and rolled forward.

  “Kill the children,” Sarabeth commanded.

  The enormous glob picked up speed as it rolled across the carpet toward Evan and Andy.

  “Let’s rush the door,” Evan suggested to Andy, as they backed up away from the rolling Monster Blood.

  “She’ll never let us past,” Andy cried.

  “Kill the children!” Sarabeth repeated, raising both hands high above her head.

  “Maybe one of us can get by her!” Evan cried.

  “It’s too late!” Andy shrieked.

  The bouncing, pulsating, green glob was just a few feet away.

  “We—we’re going to be sucked in!” Evan screamed.

  “Kill the children!” Sarabeth screamed triumphantly.

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  The glob rolled forward.

  Evan sighed, feeling all hope sink. Frozen in place, he felt as if he weighed a thousand pounds.

  Andy grabbed his hand.

  They both closed their eyes and held their breath, and waited for the impact.

  To their surprise, the Monster Blood emitted a deafening roar.

  “Huh?”

  Evan opened his eyes. Andy, he saw, was staring at the doorway, beyond Sarabeth.

  The Monster Blood hadn’t roared.

  “Trigger!” Evan cried.

  The huge dog bounded into the doorway, its deafening bark echoing off the low ceiling.

  Sarabeth tried to get out of the dog’s way. But she was too late.

  Thrilled to see Evan, Trigger enthusiastically leapt at Sarabeth—and pushed her from behind.

  Under the weight of the gigantic paws, Sarabeth staggered forward… forward… forward—raising her hands as she collided with the Monster Blood.

  There was a wet smack as Sarabeth hit the surface of the green glob.

  Then loud, disgusting sucking noises.

  Her hands hit first. They disappeared quickly. And then Sarabeth was in up to her elbows.

  And then the glob seemed to give a hard tug, and her body hit the surface. Then her face was pulled in, covered over.

  Sarabeth never uttered a sound as she was pulled inside.

  Whimpering with joy, completely unaware of what he had done, the dog loped into the room and headed for Evan.

  “Down, boy! Down!” Evan cried, as Trigger happily leapt at him.

  And as the dog jumped, he began to shrink.

  “Trigger!” Evan called in astonishment, reaching out to hold the dog.

  Trigger didn’t seem to notice that he was changing. He licked Evan’s face as Evan held on tightly.

  In seconds, Trigger was back to normal cocker spaniel size.

  “Look—the glob is shrinking, too!” Andy cried, squeezing Evan’s shoulder.

  Evan turned to see that the green glob was rapidly growing smaller.

  As it shrunk, the Beymer brothers fell to the floor.

  They didn’t move. They lay facedown in a crumpled heap. Their open eyes stared lifelessly. They didn’t appear to be breathing.

  Then one blinked. The other blinked.

  Their mouths opened and closed.

  “Ohhh.” One of them uttered a long, low groan.

  Then, pulling themselves up slowly, they both looked around the room, dazed.

  The trapped robin had also fallen to the floor. Chirping furiously, it flapped its wings wildly and fluttered about the room in a panic—until it found the open living room window and sailed out.

  Andy held on to Evan as they stared at the Monster Blood, expecting Sarabeth to reappear, too.

  But Sarabeth was gone.

  Vanished.

  The Monster Blood, shrunk to its original size, lay lifeless, inert, a dull green spot on the carpet, no bigger than a tennis ball.

  The Beymer brothers stood up uncertainly, their eyes still reflecting terror and confusion. They stretched as if testing their arms and legs, seeing if their muscles still worked. Then they scrambled out of the house, slamming the screen door behind them.

  “It’s over,” Kathryn said softly, moving forward to put an arm around Evan and Andy.

  “Sarabeth is gone,” Evan said, holding Trigger tightly in his arms, still staring at the tiny wedge of Monster Blood on the floor.

  “And I can hear!” Kathryn said jubilantly, hugging them both. “Sarabeth and her spells are gone for good.”

  But as she said this, the screen door swung open and a shadowy figure stepped into the living room doorway.

  29

  “Mom!” Evan cried.

  He set down Trigger and hurried to greet her, throwing his arms around her in a tight hug.

  “What on earth is going on here?” Mrs. Ross asked. “Why did those two boys come bursting out like that? They lo
oked scared to death!”

  “It—it’s a little hard to explain,” Evan told her. “I’m so glad to see you!”

  Trigger was glad, too. When he finally had finished jumping up and down and whimpering, Kathryn led Evan’s mom to the kitchen. “I’ll make some tea,” she said. “I have a rather long story to tell you.”

  “I hope it isn’t too long,” Mrs. Ross said, glancing back questioningly at Evan. “We have a four o’clock plane to catch.”

  “Mom, I think you’ll find this story interesting,” Evan said, flashing Andy an amused look.

  The two women disappeared into the kitchen.

  Andy and Evan dropped down wearily onto the couch.

  “I guess you’re going forever,” Andy said. “I mean, to Atlanta and everything—”

  “I’d like to… uh… write to you,” Evan said, suddenly feeling awkward.

  “Yeah. Good,” Andy replied, brightening. “And my dad has a phone credit card. Maybe I could get the number and… you know… call you.”

  “Yeah. Great,” Evan said.

  “Could I ask one small favor?” Andy asked.

  “Yeah. Sure,” Evan replied, curious.

  “Well, it’s going to sound strange,” Andy said reluctantly. “But can I… uh… can I have the little bit of Monster Blood that’s left? You know. Sort of as a memento or something?”

  “Sure. Okay with me,” Evan said.

  They both turned their eyes to where it had come to rest on the carpet.

  “Hey—” Andy cried in surprise.

  It was gone.

  Scanning, formatting and

  proofing by Undead.