03 - Monster Blood (5 page)

“Well…” Evan started hesitantly.

“We were welcoming him to the neighborhood,” the one named Rick said,
grinning at his brother.

Tony started to add something, but Andy interrupted. “Well, leave him alone.”

“Are you his
mother
?” Tony asked, snickering. He turned to Evan and
made goo-goo baby noises.

“We’ll leave him alone,” Rick said, stepping toward Andy. “We’ll borrow your
bike and leave him alone.”

“No way,” Andy said heatedly.

But before Andy could move, Rick grabbed the handlebars. “Let go!” Andy
cried, trying to pull the bike from his grasp.

Rick held tight. Tony shoved Andy hard.

She lost her balance and fell, and the bike toppled over on top of her.

“Ohhh.”

Andy uttered a low cry as she hit her head on the concrete curb. She lay
sprawled on the curb, her hands flailing, the bike on top of her.

Before she could get up, Tony reached down and grabbed the bike away. He
swung his legs over the seat and began to pedal furiously. “Wait up!” his
brother called, laughing as he ran alongside.

In seconds, the twins had disappeared around the corner with Andy’s bike.

“Andy—are you okay?” Evan cried, hurrying to the curb. “Are you okay?”

He grabbed Andy’s hand and pulled her to her feet. She stood up groggily,
rubbing the back of her head. “I hate those creeps,” she said. She brushed the
dirt and grass off her shorts and legs. “Ow. That hurt.”

“Who
are
they?” Evan asked.

“The Beymer twins,” she answered, making a disgusted face. “Real heavy-duty
dudes,” she added sarcastically. She checked her leg to see if it was cut. It
was just scraped. “They think they’re so cool, but they’re total creeps.”

“What about your bike? Should we call the police or something?” Evan asked.

“No need,” she said quietly, brushing back her dark hair. “I’ll get it back.
They’ve done this before. They’ll leave it somewhere when they’re finished.”

“But shouldn’t we—” Evan started.

“They just run wild,” Andy interrupted. “There’s no one home to check up on
them. They live with their grandmother, but she’s never around. Did they give
you a hard time?”

Evan nodded. “I was afraid I was going to have to pound them,” he joked.

Andy didn’t laugh. “I’d like to pound them,” she said angrily. “Just once.
I’d like to pay them back. They pick on all the kids in the neighborhood. They
think they can do whatever they want because they’re so big, and because there
are two of them.”

“Your knee is cut,” Evan said, pointing.

“I’d better go home and clean it up,” she replied, rolling her eyes
disgustedly. “See you later, okay? I have to go somewhere this afternoon, but
maybe we can do something tomorrow.”

She headed back to her house, rubbing the back of her head.

Evan returned to Kathryn’s, walking slowly, thinking about the Beymer twins,
daydreaming about fighting them, imagining himself beating them to a pulp in a
fight as Andy watched, cheering him on.

Kathryn was dusting the front room as Evan entered. She didn’t look up. He
headed quickly up the stairs to his room.

Now what am I going to do? he wondered, pacing back and forth. The blue
container of Monster Blood caught his eye. He walked over to the bookshelf and
picked up the can from the middle shelf.

He pulled off the lid. The can was nearly full.

I guess Trigger didn’t eat that much, he thought, feeling a little relieved.

Trigger!

He’d forgotten all about him. The poor dog must be hungry.

Putting down the Monster Blood, Evan bombed down the stairs, leaning against
the banister and taking the stairs three at a time. Then, running full-out, he
practically flew to the dog run at the back of the yard.

“Trigger! Hey—Trigger!” he called.

Halfway across the backyard, Evan could see that something was wrong.

Trigger’s eyes were bulging. His mouth was wide open, his tongue flailing
rapidly from side to side, white spittle running down his chin hair onto the
ground.

“Trigger!”

The dog was gasping hoarsely, each breath a desperate, difficult struggle.

He’s choking! Evan realized.

As Evan reached the dog run, Trigger’s eyes rolled back, and the dog’s legs
collapsed under him, his stomach still heaving, the air filled with his loud,
hideous gasps.

“Trigger—no!”

Evan dived to his knees beside the dog and began to tug at Trigger’s collar.
The collar, Evan saw, had become way too tight.

The dog’s chest heaved. Thick white spittle flowed from his open mouth.

“Hold on, boy. Hold on!” Evan cried.

The dog’s eyes rolled wildly in his head. He didn’t seem to see or hear Evan.

“Hold on, fella! Just
hold on
!”

The collar wouldn’t budge. It was buried tightly under the dog’s fur.

His hands shaking, Evan struggled to pull the collar over Trigger’s head.

Come loose, come loose, come
loose,
he begged.

Yes!

Trigger uttered a pained whimper as Evan finally managed to pull the collar
away.

“Trigger—it’s off! Are you okay?”

Still panting hard, the dog jumped immediately to his feet. He licked Evan’s face appreciatively, covering Evan’s cheek with
his thick saliva, whimpering as if he understood that Evan had just saved his
life.

“Easy, boy! Easy, fella!” Evan repeated, but the dog continued to lick him
gratefully.

Evan hugged the excited dog. This had been a close call, he knew. If he
hadn’t come along just then…

Well, he didn’t want to think about it.

When Trigger finally calmed down, Evan examined the collar. “What made this
collar shrink like that, boy?” he asked Trigger.

The dog had walked over to the fence and was frantically slurping water from
his bowl.

This is plain weird, Evan thought. The collar couldn’t have shrunk. It’s made
of leather. There was no reason for it to shrink.

Then why did it suddenly start choking Trigger?

Evan turned to Trigger, studying him as the dog lapped greedily at the water,
breathing hard. He turned and glanced back at Evan for a second, then returned
to his frantic water slurping.

He’s
bigger,
Evan decided.

He’s definitely bigger.

But Trigger was twelve years old, eighty-four in human years. Older than Aunt
Kathryn.

Trigger was too old for a late growth spurt.

It must be my eyes, Evan decided, tossing the collar to the ground. This
place must be making me see things.

Kathryn was at the kitchen door, calling Evan to lunch. He poured out a bowl
of dry food, shouted good-bye to Trigger, who didn’t look up from the water
dish, and hurried to the house.

The next morning, an overcast morning with an autumn chill in the air, Evan
made his way to Andy’s house. He found her huddled under a big maple tree in the
neighbor’s front yard. “What’s going on?” he called.

Then he saw that she was leaning over something, her hands working quickly.
“Come help me!” she cried, not looking up.

Evan came jogging over. “Whoa!” he cried out when he saw that Andy was
struggling to free a calico cat that had been tied to the tree trunk.

The cat screeched and swiped its paw at Andy. Andy dodged the claws and
continued to pull at the big knots in the rope.

“The Beymer twins did this. I know it,” she said loudly, over the shrilly
protesting cat. “This poor cat was probably tied up here all night.”

The cat, in a panic, shrieked with amazingly human-sounding cries.

“Stand still, cat,” Evan said as the terrified cat swiped its claws at Andy again. “Can I help?”

“No. I’ve almost got it,” she replied, tugging at the knot. “I’d like to tie
Rick and Tony to this tree.”

“Poor, frightened cat,” Evan said quietly.

“There,” Andy said triumphantly, pulling the rope loose.

The cat gave one last cry of protest, its tail standing straight up. Then it
darted away, running at full speed, and disappeared under a tall hedge without
looking back.

“Not very polite,” Evan muttered.

Andy stood up and sighed. She was wearing faded denim jeans and a pale green,
oversized T-shirt that came down nearly to her knees. She lifted the bottom of
the shirt to examine a hole the cat had managed to snag in it.

“I can’t believe those two creeps,” she said, shaking her head.

“Maybe we should call the police or the ASPCA or something,” Evan suggested.

“The twins would just deny it,” Andy said glumly, shaking her head. Then she
added, “And the cat’s not a very good witness.”

They both laughed.

Evan led the way back to his aunt’s house. All the way back, they talked
about how they’d like to teach the Beymer twins a lesson. But neither of them
had any good ideas.

They found Kathryn concentrating on a jigsaw puzzle at the dining room table.

She looked up when they entered, squinting at them. “You like jigsaw puzzles?
I like to keep my mind active, you know. That’s why I like puzzles. Your mind
can get flabby when you get to be my age. A hundred and twelve.”

She slapped the table gleefully at her own wit. Evan and Andy both flashed
her agreeable smiles. Then she returned to her puzzle without waiting for a
reply.

“She’s going to drive me bananas!” Evan exclaimed.

“Evan—she’ll hear you!” Andy protested, cupping a hand over his mouth.

“I told you, she’s completely deaf. She can’t hear me. She doesn’t
want
to hear anyone. She
hates
everyone.”

“I think she’s sweet,” Andy said. “Why does she wear a bone around her neck?”

“Probably thinks it’s cool,” Evan cracked.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Andy urged, pushing him toward the stairs. “I still feel
weird talking about your aunt right in front of her.”

“You’re a crazy old coot,” Evan called to Kathryn, a big smile on his face.

Kathryn looked up from her puzzle pieces to cast a cold stare his way.

“She heard you!” Andy cried, horrified.

“Don’t be dumb,” Evan said, and started up the stairs, nearly tripping over
Sarabeth.

Up in Evan’s room, Andy paced uncomfortably. “What do you want to do?”

“Well… we could read some of these great books,” Evan said sarcastically,
pointing to the dusty old books that lined the walls. “Maybe find a spell to
cast on the Beymer twins. You know. Turn them into newts.”

“Forget about newts,” Andy said dryly. “Hey—where’s the Monster Blood?”
Before Evan could answer, she spotted it on one of the shelves.

They raced across the room for it. Andy got there first and grabbed the can.
“Evan—look,” she said, her eyes growing wide with surprise. “What’s going on?”

She held up the can. The green gunk had pushed up the lid and was flowing up
out of the can.

“Huh? Did the top break or something?” Evan asked.

He took the can from her and examined it. Sure enough, the lid had popped
off. The gooey green substance was pushing up out of the can.

Evan pulled out a handful of the green gunk. “Weird,” he exclaimed. “It’s
expanding,” he said, squeezing it in his hand. “It’s definitely growing.”

“I guess so!” Andy exclaimed. “It grew right out of the can!”

“Hey—it’s not cold anymore,” Evan said. He balled it up and tossed it to
Andy.

“It’s really warm,” she agreed. “Weird!”

She tried to toss it back to him, but it stuck to her palm. “It’s getting
sticky,” she reported. “Are you sure this is the same stuff?”

“Of course,” Evan replied.

“But it wasn’t sticky before, remember?” she said.

He pulled another warm hunk of it from the can. “I guess it just changes after the can has been opened.”

He squeezed the stuff into a ball shape and tossed it to the floor. “Look—it stuck to the floor. It didn’t bounce.”

“Weird!” Andy repeated.

“Maybe I should throw it in the trash,” Evan said, prying the sticky glob
from the floor. “I mean, what good is it if it doesn’t bounce?”

“Hey—no way,” Andy said. “We’ve got to see what it does next.”

A soft mewing sound made them both turn toward the door.

Evan was surprised to see Sarabeth standing there, her head cocked, her
yellow eyes staring at him.

Or was she staring at the glob of Monster Blood in his hand?

“That cat looks so intelligent,” Andy said.

“It’s as stupid as every other cat,” Evan muttered. “Look. She wants to play
ball with the Monster Blood.”

“Sorry, cat,” Andy said. “It doesn’t bounce.”

As if she understood, Sarabeth mewed unhappily, turned, and padded silently
from the room.

“Now where am I going to keep this stuff?” Evan asked. “It’s too big for its
can.”

“Here. How about this?” Andy asked. She reached down to a low shelf and came
up with an empty coffee can.

“Yeah. Okay.” Evan tossed his hunk into the coffee can.

Andy squeezed hers into a flat pancake. “Look. It isn’t glowing the way it
used to, either,” she said, holding the pancake up for Evan to see. “But it sure
is warm. Almost hot.”

“It’s
alive
!” Evan screamed playfully. “Run for your life! It’s
alive
!”

Andy laughed and began to chase Evan, menacing him with the flat, green
pancake. “Come get your Monster Blood! Come and get it!”

He dodged away, then grabbed it from her hand. He squeezed it together,
balling it up in one hand, then tossed it into the coffee can.

They both peered into the can. The green substance filled it up a little more
than halfway.

“Go ahead. Taste it,” Andy urged, poking the can in his face. “I dare you.”

“Huh? No way. I double-dare you,” Evan said, pushing the coffee can back to
her.

“Double-darers have to go first,” Andy insisted, grinning. “Go ahead. Taste
it.”