خون هیولا فصل شانزدهم

Monster Blood Chapter 16

That afternoon, about an hour before dinnertime, Evan called Andy. “Can I come over?” he asked. “I have a small problem.”

“Sounds like a big problem,” Andy said.

“Yeah. Okay. A big problem,” Evan snapped impatiently. “I’m not in the mood to kid around, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry,” Andy replied quickly. “Any sign of Rick and Tony? They’re not your problem, are they?”

“Not at the moment,” he told her. “I told you, they were gone by the time I caught up with Trigger. Disappeared. Vanished. Trigger was still barking his head off. Somehow I dragged him home and got him in his pen.”

“So what’s your problem?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you. I have to show you,” he said. “I’ll be right there. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and hurried down the stairs, carrying the bucket. Kathryn was in the kitchen, her back to him, chopping away at something with her big butcher knife. Evan hurried past and darted out the door.

Andy’s house was a modern, redwood ranch style, with a low hedge of evergreens running along the front. Her dad, she said, was a fanatic about the lawn. It was clipped a perfect inch and a half above the ground, smooth as a carpet. A flower garden stretched along the front of the house, tall orange and yellow tiger lilies bobbing in the gentle breeze.

The front door was open. Evan knocked on the screen door.

“What’s with the bucket?” was Andy’s greeting as she let him in.

“Look,” he said, out of breath from running all the way to her house. He held up the aluminum bucket he had taken from Kathryn’s garage.

“Oh, wow,” Andy exclaimed, raising her hands to her face as she stared into it wide-eyed.

“Yeah. Wow,” he repeated sarcastically. “The Monster Blood. It’s grown again. Look. It’s almost filled this big bucket. What are we going to do?”

“What do you mean we ?” Andy teased, leading him into the den.

“Not funny,” he muttered.

“You didn’t want to share it,” she insisted.

“I’ll share it now,” he said eagerly. “In fact… do you want it? I’ll give it to you for a bargain price—free.” He held the bucket toward her.

“Huh-uh.” Andy shook her head, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Put it down, will you?” She pointed to the corner behind the red leather couch. “Put it over there. It’s giving me the creeps.”

“Giving you the creeps!?” Evan cried. “What am I going to do? Every time I turn around, it grows some more. It’s growing faster than Trigger!”

“Hey!” they both cried at once.

Both had the same thought, the same frightening memory. Both suddenly remembered that Trigger had eaten a ball of the green gunk.

“Do you think…” Evan started.

“Maybe…” Andy replied, not waiting for him to finish his thought. “Maybe Trigger’s growing because he ate the Monster Blood.”

“What am I going to do ?” Evan wailed, pacing the room nervously, his hands shoved into his jeans pockets. “The stuff is getting bigger and bigger, and so is poor Trigger. I’m all alone here. There’s no one who can help me. No one.”

“What about your aunt?” Andy suggested, staring at the bucket on the floor in the corner. “Maybe Kathryn can think of something—”

“Are you kidding? She can’t hear me. She doesn’t want to hear me. She hates me. She just sits at her jigsaw puzzle and argues with that horrible black cat all day.”

“Okay. Forget the aunt,” Andy said, making a dispirited face.

“Perhaps if you told Dr. Forrest—”

“Oh, yeah. For sure,” Evan snapped. “He’d really believe that Trigger is turning into a giant because I let him eat Monster Blood.”

He threw himself down on the couch. “I’m all alone here, Andy. There’s no one to help me. No one I can even talk to about this.”

“Except me?”

“Yeah,” he said, locking his eyes on hers. “Except you.”

She plopped down on the other end of the couch. “Well, what can I do?” she asked hesitantly.

He jumped up and carried the bucket over. “Take some of this. Let’s split it up.”

“Huh? Why don’t we just toss it in the trash?” she asked, staring down at it. The green gunk was pushing up near the top of the bucket.

“Toss it? We can’t,” he said.

“Sure, we can. Come on. I’ll show you.” She reached for the bucket handle, but he shoved it out of her reach.

“What if it outgrows the trash can?” he asked. “What if it just keeps growing?”

Andy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Also, I have to save it,” Evan continued excitedly. “If it’s really the thing that’s causing Trigger to grow, I’ll need it as proof. You know. To show the doctors or whatever. So they can cure Trigger.”

“Maybe we should call the police,” Andy said thoughtfully, tugging at a strand of hair.

“Oh. Sure,” Evan replied, rolling his eyes. “They’ll really believe us. For sure. ‘We bought this stuff in a toy store, officer, and now it’s growing bigger and bigger and it’s turning my dog into a giant monster.’”

“Okay, okay. You’re right,” Andy said. “We can’t call the police.”

“So, are you going to help me?” Evan demanded. “Will you take some of this stuff?”

“I guess,” she said reluctantly. “But just a little.” She climbed to her feet, carefully stepping around the bucket. “I’ll be right back.”

She left the room, then quickly returned, carrying an empty coffee can. “Fill ’er up,” she said, smiling.

Evan stared at the coffee can. “That’s all you’re going to take?” he complained. Then he immediately softened his tone. “Okay. Okay. It’s a help.”

Andy crouched down and dipped the coffee can into the middle of the bucket. “Hey!” she cried out. Her hands flew up and she tumbled back onto the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Evan hurried over to her.

“It was pulling the coffee can in,” she said, her features tight with fear and surprise. “Sucking it. Look.”

Evan peered into the bucket. The coffee can had disappeared under the surface. “Huh?”

“I could feel it pulling,” Andy said shakily. She regained her perch over the bucket.

“Let’s see,” Evan said, and plunged both hands into the middle of the Monster Blood.

“Yuck,” Andy said. “This is really gross.”

“It’s pulling. You’re right,” Evan agreed. “It feels like it’s pulling my hands down. Wow. It’s so warm. As if it’s alive.”

“Don’t say that!” Andy cried with a shudder. “Just get the can out, okay?”

Evan had to tug hard, but he managed to pull up the coffee can, filled to the top with the quivering green substance. “Yuck.”

“You sure I have to take this?” Andy asked, not reaching for it even though he was holding it out to her.

“Just for a little while,” he said. “Till we think of a better plan.”

“Maybe we could feed it to the Beymer twins,” Andy suggested, finally taking the can.

“Then we’d have giant Beymer twins,” Evan joked. “No, thank you.”

“Seriously, you’d better watch out for them,” Andy warned. “If Trigger scared them away this morning, they’ll be looking to get back at you. They really think they’re tough dudes, Evan. They can be vicious. They could really hurt you.”

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up,” Evan said glumly. He was still pulling tiny, clinging clumps of the Monster Blood off his hands and tossing them into the bucket.

“I was watching a video before you came over. The first Indiana Jones movie. Want to watch it?”

Evan shook his head. “No. I’d better go. Aunt Kathryn was busy making dinner when I left. Chopping up some kind of meat. Another great dinner, sitting there in silence, being stared at by Aunt Kathryn and her cat.”

“Poor Evan,” Andy said, half teasing, half sympathetic.

He picked up the bucket, now only two-thirds full, and let her walk him to the front door. “Call me later, okay?” she asked.

He nodded and stepped outside. She closed the door behind him.

He was halfway to the sidewalk when the Beymer twins slipped out from behind the evergreen hedge, their hands balled into red, beefy fists.