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Monster Blood Chapter 28

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.