نفس خون آشام فصل 02

Vampire Breath - Chapter 2

“Give me a break,” the werewolf said.

Of course it wasn’t a real werewolf. It was Tyler’s dad.

“What are the three of you doing?” Mr. Brown asked, pulling off his overcoat. He had blond hair and blue eyes like Tyler.

“Scaring Tyler to death,” Cara told him.

He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you do that last time?”

“We do it every time,” I replied. “Tyler loves it.” I patted the kid on the back. “You love it—right?” “I guess,” he said in a tiny voice.

Tyler’s mom stepped into the room, straightening her sweater. “Were you telling werewolf stories to Tyler again, Freddy?” she demanded. “Last time, he had nightmares all night.” “No, I didn’t!” Tyler protested.

Mrs. Brown tsk-tsked. Mr. Brown handed Cara and me each a five-dollar bill. “Thanks for baby-sitting. Do you want me to walk you home?” “No way,” I replied. Did he think I was some kind of wimp? “It’s just across the street.” Cara and I said good night to the Browns. I didn’t really feel like going home yet. So I walked Cara home. She lives on the next block.

The full moon shone down on us. It appeared to follow us as we walked, floating low over the dark houses.

We laughed about my werewolf story. And we laughed about how scared it made Tyler.

We didn’t know that it would be our turn to be scared next.

Really scared.

Saturday afternoon, Cara came over. We hurried down to my basement to play air hockey.

A few years ago, my parents cleaned the basement up and turned it into a great playroom. We have a full-sized pool table and a beautiful, old jukebox down there. Mom and Dad filled the jukebox with old rock-and-roll records.

Last Christmas, they bought me an air hockey game. A big, table-sized one.

Cara and I have some major hockey battles. We spend hours slapping the plastic puck back and forth at each other. We really get into it.

Our air hockey games usually end in wrestling matches. Just like real hockey games on TV!

We leaned over the air hockey game and started to warm up, shoving the puck slowly back and forth across the table. Not trying to score.

“Where are your parents?” Cara asked.

I shrugged. “Beats me.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t know where they went? Didn’t they leave you a note or something?” I made a face at her. “They go out a lot.”

“Probably to get away from you!” Cara exclaimed. She laughed.

I had just come from karate class. I stepped around the hockey table and made a few karate moves on her. One of my kicks accidentally landed on the back of her ankle.

“Hey—!” she cried angrily. “Freddy—you jerk!”

When she bent over to rub her ankle, I shoved her into the wall. I meant it as a joke.

I was just goofing. But I guess I don’t know my own strength.

She lost her balance and slammed hard into an antique china cabinet filled with old dishes. The dishes rattled and shook. But nothing broke.

I laughed. I knew that Cara wasn’t really hurt.

I reached out to help pull her off the front of the cabinet. But she let out a roar of attack—and came hurtling into me.

Her shoulder caught me in the chest. I uttered a hoarse choking sound. Once again, I saw stars.

While I gasped for air, she grabbed the hockey puck off the game table. She pulled her hand back to heave it at me.

But I wrapped my hand around hers and struggled to wrestle the puck away.

We were laughing. But this was a pretty serious fight.

Don’t get me wrong. Cara and I do this all the time. Especially when my parents are out.

I pulled the puck from her hand—and it went flying across the room. With a loud karate cry, I swung free of her.

We were both laughing so hard, we could barely move. But Cara took a running start and plowed into me once again.

This time she sent me sailing back… back. I lost my balance. My hands shot up as I crashed into the side of the tall china cabinet.

“Whooooa!”

I landed hard. My back smashed into the wooden cabinet’s side.

And the whole cabinet toppled over!

I heard the crash of broken plates.

A second later, I fell on top of the cabinet, sprawling helplessly on my back.

“Ohhhh.” My cry turned to a painful moan.

Then silence.

I just lay there on top of the fallen cabinet, like a turtle on its back. My hands and legs thrashed the air. My whole body hurt.

“Uh-oh.”

That’s all I heard Cara say.

A simple “Uh-oh.”

And then she hurried over. She reached down, grabbed my hands, and tugged me to my feet.

We both stepped away from the fallen cabinet.

“Sorry,” Cara murmured. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I know,” I said. I swallowed hard, rubbing my aching shoulder. “I think we’re in major trouble.” We both turned to check out the damage.

And we both cried out in surprise when we saw what the old wooden cabinet had been hiding.