Monster Blood is Back

by R. L. Stine

  I glanced behind us to see if the monstrous gunk was following us—and tripped over something. A rake on the lawn.

  Pain raced up my body. I struggled to get back to my feet.

  Too late.

  Too late!

  The sky appeared to darken to green. Like a floating green cloud, it swept over Nicole and me.

  I made a loud thunnnk sound as my back stuck to the gooey surface. I uttered a terrified cry and struggled to keep my head out where I could breathe.

  Nicole and I both stuck to the wall of Monster Blood. I squirmed and pulled and tried to heave myself free. But I wasn’t strong enough.

  “It’s got us!” Nicole cried, beside me. “It’s … sucking us inside!”

  I could feel the pulsing force of the Monster Blood as it pulled me deeper into the green goo. I slapped at it with both hands. But my back was stuck tight against it. As it pulled me in, the bubbling sound almost drowned out the screams and cries of the other prisoners.

  I turned and saw Hess’s head poking out from inside the green wall. The rest of his body had disappeared inside the gunk.

  My hands disappeared inside the goo. I was helpless now. I glanced around—and saw Ashli and Nathan staring back at me from INSIDE the Monster Blood!

  I turned to Nicole. Her eyes were wide with terror. Large teardrops rolled down her cheeks. The ball of Monster Blood bounced, and she disappeared inside it.

  “S-sorry, Nicole,” I stammered. “I’m so sorry.”

  And then over the screams and the bubbling of the Monster Blood, I heard another sound.

  A low roar.

  Like beats of distant thunder.

  A pounding noise. Like boots thudding against the ground.

  With a hard tug, I pulled my head away from the goo and turned my eyes toward the approaching sounds. “Huh?” I uttered a gasp.

  And stared at a group of giants. Hurrying toward us. A bunch of giant boys?

  They had to be thirty feet tall! They were trotting fast, swinging their arms as they ran. Boys as tall as trees … And wait!

  That boy’s face! Was it Toby? A giant Toby leading the pack?

  Now I really AM dreaming! I told myself.

  This can’t be happening!

  But yes, I was staring in shock at a giant Toby. And I recognized some of his friends. Kids he had invited to his birthday party. Only huge. I had to tilt my head and gaze up into the sun to see their faces.

  The other prisoners grew silent as the giants came near.

  “Hey, Toby—!” I tried to shout to him. But in my terror, no sound came out of my mouth.

  I wanted to wave. But my hands were stuck to the side of the pulsing Monster Blood.

  “Toby! What happened to you? What are you doing?” That’s what I wanted to shout. But now my voice came out in a choked whisper.

  And then Toby and his friends were standing in front of the wall of green goo. And they were as tall as the goo.

  “Sascha!” Toby’s voice boomed, so loud my name rang in my ears.

  He grabbed me around the waist with his enormous hands. And yanked me from the sticky gunk.

  He spun me away from the Monster Blood and set me down on the ground. And then Toby turned and began ripping away at the green wall.

  I sat on the ground, struggling to catch my breath. And I watched Toby’s friends—the other giant boys—frantically rip and tear at the Monster Blood. They pulled off big chunks and tossed them to the ground.

  Giant Toby hoisted Nicole into the air and set her down beside me. She sat blinking and shaking her head. Droplets of Monster Blood clung to her hair.

  I saw Ashli and Nathan staggering away. Hess escaped and went running back toward the TV studio.

  Toby and his giant friends shouted and cheered as they ripped the wall of Monster Blood to shreds. Big chunks of it shimmered dully on the grass.

  It didn’t take long for everyone to escape. Toby and his giant friends tossed the last shreds of the gooey green gunk to the ground.

  Then they formed a circle around Nicole and me. We climbed to our feet, still breathing hard.

  “Are you both okay?” Toby asked. His voice boomed down at us.

  “T-Toby,” I stammered. “What happened? How did you do this?”

  He grinned. “Remember? When you left the house? I told you I had a secret.”

  I blinked. “Secret? What secret?”

  “The second can of Monster Blood,” he answered. “I think you forgot about it, Sascha.”

  The second can? Yes. I did forget.

  I bought two cans. I left the second one in my closet.

  Toby’s grin grew wider. “I found the second can, and guess what? I brought it downstairs to my party.”

  “Toby, you didn’t—” Nicole started.

  He nodded. “Yes, I did. I passed the can around and we all ate some. It was awesome!”

  “But look at you!” I cried. “You’re all giants!”

  “No problem,” he boomed, leaning over me. “I read the small print on the can.”

  He motioned to his friends. They turned away from us and spread out over the grass. Then they began stomping the ground with their gigantic feet.

  Thud. Thuddd. Thuddddd.

  Nicole and I watched as the boys stomped on the chunks of Monster Blood. Smashed them. Crushed them.

  I grabbed Nicole’s shoulder. “Look—the pieces of Monster Blood are shrinking!”

  Thud thud thuddd.

  Yes, as the boys stomped on them, the green chunks were shrinking. And as Nicole and I watched in amazement, the boys shrank, too.

  “Ta-daa!” Toby raised his fists over his head in triumph. “We’re all back to normal!” Everyone cheered and fist-bumped.

  “What do we do now?” Toby asked.

  “Go home!” I exclaimed.

  Nicole and I burst out laughing, just from being so happy the whole thing was over. We turned and started to follow Toby and his friends.

  But we stopped when we saw a man running toward us, frantically waving his arms.

  Heston Hill. “Hey—! Hey—!” he shouted to us, gripping his phone in one hand. He stopped and took a few seconds to catch his breath.

  “I—I—I got the whole thing on video!” he stammered, raising his phone in front of us. “Forget cooking! This is going to be the best horror show ever!”

  I felt so happy. I kept clapping Nicole on the back and cheering. I felt as if I had won a war. I guess I actually had.

  The Monster Blood was gone, and so were all my worries. I could breathe normally again. I could feel all my tension melting away.

  I gazed up at the blue sky. So beautiful. So shiny and clear.

  “Hey, wait—!” I uttered.

  I stared up at the sky—and gasped when I suddenly realized I wasn’t standing up. I was lying on my back.

  Why am I here, stretched out on the ground?

  My head throbbed. I twisted it to the right. I saw Nicole gazing at me, her eyes wet with tears, her face pale and tight.

  And then I saw the ambulance. The two young men in light blue uniform shirts. Paramedics?

  Paramedics? For me?

  I shut my eyes against the pulsing pain of my headache.

  When I opened them, Nicole was leaning over me.

  “Wh-what is happening?” My voice came out in a choked whisper.

  “Oh, I’m so happy!” Nicole gushed. “I’m so happy you’re awake, Sascha.”

  “Huh?” I squinted up at her, not quite understanding.

  “We were on our way to the TV studio,” Nicole said, wiping a tear off her cheek. “But we never made it. That car … it came squealing around the corner and knocked you over. You hit your head, Sascha. You’ve been out cold ever since.”

  My mouth dropped open. I stared up at her. “Really? Really??”

  Hey, was it a dream or not?

  If it was a dream, why is Nicole’s hair still sticky with green goo?

  And what’s that gloppy green gunk bu
bbling under your bed?

  Don’t stick around. Better go check it out.

  I’m going to get something to eat. That story made me hungry—hungry for more HORROR! Hahahaha.

  Don’t worry. I’ll cook up another story for you when I return with another Goosebumps SlappyWorld book.

  Remember, this is Slappy’s world.

  You only scream in it!

  Well, do you believe it?

  Here I am, Todd Coates, a city kid my whole life, from Queens, New York. I’m bouncing on a bus through Wisconsin Dells, on a narrow bumpy country road. Watching the trees blur past. And the fields … the dry, brown farm fields stretching toward who-knows-where.

  Todd Coates. From the Greatest City on Earth. The Big Apple. On my way to living on a farm for a year. Is that possible?

  The only farms I’ve ever seen were in the movies. They looked like living on Mars to me. I mean, where do the farm people go for good Thai food? And do they have Wi-Fi?

  I’m not a nature guy. Maybe you’ve guessed that. Sure, I see trees when I’m rollerblading in the park. But I’m not sure I’ve ever even touched a tree.

  I lie in my bed at night and listen to the garbage trucks out on the street. The whine and growl of garbage trucks are like a lullaby to a city kid like me. But farm life? I couldn’t picture it.

  Guess what? I had nightmares about the farm. I saw myself sleeping on a pile of hay with chickens pecking at my pajamas.

  But don’t get me started about nightmares.

  Anyway, here I was, on this squeaky bus, on this county road, sunlight and shadows rolling across the windows. We passed the town of Baraboo, so I knew we were getting close. My cousins’ farm is about twenty miles west of Baraboo. It’s near a town called Moose Hollow, so small it’s not even on the map. Believe that?

  I don’t mean to make fun. My Aunt Clara and Uncle Jake are great people. When my parents had to go off on their long business trip, they were the only ones in my family who could take me.

  Aunt Clara said it would be an educational year for me.

  She got that right!

  I didn’t know my cousins Mila and Skipper very well. But I was glad I wouldn’t be the only kid on the farm. Mila is my age, 12. And Skipper is a few years older.

  I FaceTimed with them a few times. Mila seemed nice. A little quiet and shy. Aunt Clara likes to gush. I mean, she’s always rah-rah like a cheerleader. I think she could get excited over cornflakes in the morning.

  Uncle Jake was the opposite. He kept scratching his cheeks and clearing his throat and muttering away from the phone. I guess he doesn’t like FaceTime.

  And Skipper was weird, too. He’s about a foot taller than everyone else in the family. He has a croaky voice, like it’s still changing. And he seemed really tense. He kept blinking a lot and glancing around. I don’t know what his problem was.

  The second time I FaceTimed with Skipper, he slid his face up real close to the screen, and he whispered, “Todd, don’t believe everything you hear.”

  How weird was that?

  I mean, I hadn’t heard anything at all.

  Do you think he was trying to scare me?

  The bus hit a hard bump, and I nearly went flying from my seat. It was late afternoon, and the shadows across the farm fields were stretching longer.

  I pulled my phone from my jeans pocket and tried to call Mom and Dad back in New York. They were still home. They weren’t leaving on their trip till the weekend.

  But all I got was silence. No cell service way out here in the wilderness. I couldn’t even send a text.

  I slid the phone back into my pocket and pulled out my harmonica. My stomach was starting to feel fluttery. I could feel myself growing tense as we came closer to Moose Hollow. And one thing that always helped to calm me down was to blow a little blues on my harp.

  It’s not anything fancy. It’s a Hohner Special 20 in the key of C. Sort of a beginner’s harmonica. My parents bought it for me for my eleventh birthday.

  I’ve spent so many hours practicing on it that I should be a lot better. But I don’t care. Playing the instrument always makes me feel good.

  I brought two special things with me to the farm. One was the harmonica. The other was a red plastic lighter. I never light the thing. I don’t even know if it will flame anymore. My Grandpa Dave gave it to me a few days before he died. He carried it with him everywhere. Always in his pocket. Maybe he even slept with it. I don’t know. I do know he thought it was special. So I’ve treasured it as a good-luck charm ever since.

  I gripped my harmonica and squinted out the dusty bus window at the passing fields. What were those animals poking up from the dirt? They weren’t squirrels, and they weren’t rabbits.

  Maybe I really had traveled to another planet!

  I raised the harmonica to my mouth, slid it back and forth a few times—and started to play. I don’t really play songs on it. I sort-of free-form it. I like to get a rhythm going and then improvise a melody.

  I was pumping out some pretty good sounds when a shout made me stop. It was the bus driver up at the front. He was a red-faced old guy with a blue-and-white bandana tied around his bald head.

  “Put that away, kid,” he called. “Back in your pocket, okay?”

  “I was playing softly,” I said. I sat halfway to the back, so I had to shout.

  R.L. Stine says he gets to scare people all over the world. So far, his books have sold more than 400 million copies, making him one of the most popular children’s authors in history. The Goosebumps series has more than 150 titles and has inspired a TV series and two motion pictures. R.L. himself is a character in the movies! He has also written the teen series Fear Street, and the Mostly Ghostly and Nightmare Room series. He is currently writing a series of graphic novels entitled Just Beyond. R.L. Stine lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, an editor and publisher. You can learn more about him at rlstine.com.

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  #1 SLAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

  #2 ATTACK OF THE JACK!

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  #7 IT’S ALIVE! IT’S ALIVE!

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  #12: MY FRIEND SLAPPY

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  Also available as ebooks

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  MONSTER BLOOD

  THE HAUNTED MASK

  ONE DAY AT HORRORLAND

  THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB

  BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

  SAY CHEESE AND DIE!

  THE HORROR AT CAMP JELLYJAM

  HOW I GOT MY SHRUNKEN HEAD

  THE WEREWOLF OF FEVER SWAMP

  A NIGHT IN TERROR TOWER

  WELCOME TO DEAD HO
USE

  WELCOME TO CAMP NIGHTMARE

  GHOST BEACH

  THE SCARECROW WALKS AT MIDNIGHT

  YOU CAN’T SCARE ME!

  RETURN OF THE MUMMY

  REVENGE OF THE LAWN GNOMES

  PHANTOM OF THE AUDITORIUM

  VAMPIRE BREATH

  STAY OUT OF THE BASEMENT

  A SHOCKER ON SHOCK STREET

  LET’S GET INVISIBLE!

  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUMMY 2

  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUMMY 3

  THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF PASADENA

  THE BLOB THAT ATE EVERYONE

  THE GHOST NEXT DOOR

  THE HAUNTED CAR

  ATTACK OF THE GRAVEYARD GHOULS

  PLEASE DON’T FEED THE VAMPIRE

  THE HEADLESS GHOST

  THE HAUNTED MASK 2

  BRIDE OF THE LIVING DUMMY

  ATTACK OF THE JACK-O’-LANTERNS

  ALSO AVAILABLE:

  IT CAME FROM OHIO!: MY LIFE AS A WRITER by R.L. Stine

  Goosebumps book series created by Parachute Press, Inc.

  Copyright © 2021 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, GOOSEBUMPS, GOOSEBUMPS HORRORLAND, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First printing 2021

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-35580-2

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