The Beast with 1000 Eyes (2 page)

“Osu
what
, Stella?” he always jokes. “Oh soooooo . . . glad to meet you?”

I hate that lame joke!

Osu
is important. Sensei taught us that. It's the Japanese word for patience, determination, and perseverance. Brick doesn't have any of those.

Sensei clapped again and asked Brick to demonstrate a kick for the rest of us.

He stood very silent for a moment and then, in a burst of energy, kicked so hard, his entire body flew through the air.

Even I was impressed.

“Nice footwork,” Sensei said. “Stella, why don't you demonstrate the same kick?”

I stared at Sensei but did not move. I felt my cheeks turn red. Then I remembered my dream. Even in the dream, I was about to thrust a powerful kick into the air—and I couldn't do it.

What did it mean?

Somehow, I knew that mastering that kick was very important. It would get me my black belt, make me a star in Sensei's eyes, and maybe even help me get the B-Monster.

I, Stella Min, also known as the Ninja, needed to figure out how to make it really happen.

CHAPTER 1

B-MONSTER BET

Wednesday morning, I was heading to the Monster Squad's usual table at the back of the cafeteria when something hit my head.

It was a piece of pepperoni.

A moment later, Damon sped by with his tray. That boy was armed and dangerous on pizza day.

“Hey, Stella,” Lindsey said to me when I came to the table. “I can't believe you got the macaroni and cheese. It glows in the dark.”

I stared down at my lunch tray and shrugged. “I don't care if it's radioactive yellow, I'm hungry,” I said defiantly.

As I slid in beside Jesse, he turned to me. “We were just talking about the B-Monsters,” Jesse said. “Which one do you think is next?”

Interesting timing
, I thought.
Maybe my dream last night really was a clue.

“Last night, Dad and I watched
Zattack of the Zombies
, which was awesome as usual, followed by the digital, re-mastered version of
They Came from Planet Q
, including super-scary deleted scenes! I wonder if it's one of them?”

“Those extra scenes aren't scary,” Damon groaned. “They're lame-o. Those robots from Planet Q are for babies!”

“Molloy,” Lindsey warned. “Don't be rude.”

“I can't help myself,” Damon said. He scratched his head. “Now if you want
really
scary B-monsters, how about the Martians from
Martian Mayhem
? Or that mega-beast from
Tuskadon
? And don't forget the alien plant life in
Wait Until the Earth Explodes
. That's classic.”

“Classic? You have got to be kidding!” Lindsey blurted. “
Explodes
is the dumbest B ever made.”

They were all getting so off topic and I actually had something relevant to add. I leaned in and whispered, “I dreamed about a B-Monster last night.”

Everyone stared at me. I took in a big breath because I was afraid that what I was about to tell them would sound really crazy.

“No way!” Lindsey said. “Where was it from? What was its name?”

I shrugged. “I don't know for sure. It had something like one thousand blinking eyeballs,” I said. “And it could move surprisingly fast. It made terrible squishing noises when it moved.”

“Well,” Jesse said thoughtfully, “sounds a little like Señor Cyclops, but that B-Monster only has
one
creepy eyeball, not a thousand. And Señor moved super slow.”

“Hold up!” Damon said. He pulled a very crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. He keeps this running list of B-Monsters in his pocket for exactly this purpose!

He's like the B-Encyclopedia.

“That's it!” I cried when he read the last name on the list. I remembered seeing the name ‘
Beast with 1000 Eyes'
on the back of one of Mom's photographs of San San.

“Whoa!” Damon said. “The B-monster is from
The Beast with 1000 Eyes.
But that's impossible. The movie was never released.”

“And if an original reel was never released, then according to the rules Leery gave us, the monster could not come back to life, right?” Lindsey observed.

“Not necessarily,” I said. “An original reel could still be viewed even if it never was shown in a theater.”

“So what are you saying, Stella? Do you think
you
can predict the next B-Monster coming to Riddle from some dumb dream?” Damon cracked. “What are you, B-Monster psychic?”

“Damon, stop being so obnoxious!” Lindsey cried.

“I'm not!” Damon went on. “I'm just saying that if we were B-Monster psychics, Leery would have told us that! And he would not make us do research every time there was a new B-Monster in town. We'd just magically ‘know' how to eliminate the monsters.”

“I don't know if we're all psychics. But I still think dreaming about the B-Monster with the eyeballs means
something
.”

“Yeah, it means you have monsters on the brain. That's just a side effect of being in the Monster Squad,” Damon said.

“Maybe the dream isn't psychic,” Jesse said. “But it could still be a hint. We could investigate this Eyeball Beast and see where it takes us . . .”

“Yeah! I think we
should
look into it,” Lindsey added. “Tomorrow after school, let's head up to Leery Castle to see what Walter and Leery know about this monster.”

“Fine,” Damon groaned. “But I won't believe the B-Monster is here unless we get real proof.”

“Proof like what?” Lindsey asked. “Walking, talking eyeballs?”

“Yes!” Damon said. “And lots of them.”

CHAPTER 2

CALLING DR. LEERY

After school on Thursday, the four of us met in the school parking lot and headed to the Nerve Mountain bus stop for our trip up to the castle.

As we rode the bus, sunlight dimmed outside and everything was bathed in a funny, yellow light. I could just make out the top of the castle turrets as we rounded a bend in the road.

“Do you think Leery will even be home today?” Jesse asked.

“Doubtful,” I said.

We'd already gotten very used to the fact that Oswald Leery was usually out of town.
Way
out of town. He spoke to us via videophone or online news feeds. No one in the Monster Squad had ever met the guy face-to-face.

When we got to our stop, we jumped off the bus and headed toward the massive gates that circle the castle grounds. We call these gates Crabzilla gates because they have the Crabzilla B-Monster carved into them. We punched in the old password MANTIS from our previous B adventure. It still worked. That meant that Walter and Leery couldn't have seen the new B-Monster yet. The password only changes once the next monster has been identified.

“Stella! Damon! Lindsey! Jesse! Is that
you
?” Walter shouted from the front door. He had seen us coming on his security cameras. “What on Earth are you doing here?”

“We need to ask you about the next B-Monster,” I said. Walter looked confused. “Next B-Monster? Already? I'm not sure how much I can tell you, especially with Dr. Leery being in Antarctica right now ...”

“Antarctica?” I laughed out loud. I never thought of Antarctica as a place people actually went to before.

“Come in! Come in!” Walter said. “Let's talk inside!”

We briskly followed Walter up to the front door and into the castle.

As soon as we got into the castle, Walter passed around an enormous bowl of cheesy-flavored larva crunch. He made the best snacks.

“So what do you want to know?” Walter asked.

“Stella had this dream,” Jesse said. “About a B-Monster we've never seen.”

“Yeah, and now she thinks she's B-Monster psychic!” Damon cracked.

“Hmmmm.” Walter scratched his chin.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

Walter took a deep breath.

“There is something I need to show you, Monster Squad,” he said. He pointed down a long corridor behind him. “I've been waiting for the right time to tell you all about a secret area in the castle. It might help you, Stella, to figure out that dream.”

I peered down the hall. I knew the vault was back there.

But what else?

“Dr. Leery calls this the belly of the castle,” Walter said as we walked toward it.

I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that, though.
Belly
sounded like we were about to be eaten up.

“Are there other rooms?” I asked.

“Oh yes. Dr. Leery's deepest, most well-hidden tricks are here,” Walter said. “Are you kids ready to explore?”

Ready? Was he kidding? I was jumping out of my skin.

“Can I take pictures?” Lindsey asked, holding up her camera.

“As long as you don't show them to anyone besides me, Leery, and your fellow Monster Squadders. What I am about to show you is highly confidential.”

“What's here? Do these rooms help to identify which B-Monster will arrive next?” Jesse asked.

“Sort of.” Walter shook his head. “Inside these rooms are possible clues. But as Dr. Leery says, the only sure proof of a new B-Monster is acute visual contact.”

“A cute
what
?” Damon asked.

“Acute visual contact,” Walter said. “That means that a B-Monster must make a public appearance. The members of the Monster Squad can only stop a B-Monster once they've seen him.”

As we walked along, Walter led us past the familiar door marked VAULT, the place we'd been many times before to find and watch reels. The cold, stone walls seemed to move in on us a little bit and I tried to think of something un-scary, but my brain kept playing tricks on me.

We passed doors with more dangerous-looking signs like KEEPOUTORELSE! and DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT MASK.