خون هیولا فصل یازدهم

Monster Blood Chapter 11

“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.