by Unknown
You Are A Monster
By Edward Packard
Illustrated by Judith Mitchell
WARNING!!!
Do not read this book straight through from beginning to end! These pages contain many different adventures you may have when you are kidnapped by an evil scientist and transformed into a monster. From time to time as you read along, you will be asked to make a choice. Your choice may lead to success or disaster!
Each adventure you take is the result of your choice. You are responsible because you choose! After you make each choice, follow the instructions to see what happens to you next.
Think carefully before you make a move. Life as a monster is not easy. Your choices will affect whether you change back into the way you were, or remain trapped as a monster forever—or something even worse!
Good luck!
Turn to page 1
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EDWARD PACKARD is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School. He developed the unique storytelling approach used in the Choose Your Own Adventure series while thinking up stories for his children, Caroline, An-drea, and Wells.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
JUDITH MITCHELL was born and raised in New York City. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Chatham College and has also studied art at the Columbia University School of Arts and at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Ms. Mitchell is the illustrator of Outlaws of Sherwood Forest, Enchanted Kingdom, Mystery of the Secret Room, and Seaside Mystery in Bantam's Choose Your Own Adventure series. When the illustrator isn't working, she enjoys music, animals, cooking, collecting antiques, and travel. Judith Mitchell lives in New York City.
The blue Mercedes screeches to a stop beside you.
"Get in!"
The heavyset man wearing a black homburg isn't kidding. Before you can run, a man jumps out of the back and shoves you inside. The car speeds off. None of the passing motorists notices—you've been kidnapped!
Wedged in the backseat between two thugs, you try to think about what you can do.
"Look, you must think I'm someone else— some rich kid you can get ransom for—"
"Shut up. We want you." The muzzle of a .45 jabs into your side.
The Mercedes swerves around a corner, headed toward an outlying district.
A blindfold pulls tight over your eyes. "You were looking curious," a voice says.
It must be about ten minutes later when the car stops and you hear the door opening.
"Get out!" A firm grip is on your arm.
When your feet touch the ground, you tear the blindfold off, twist out of the man's grip, and start to run!
CLUNK! A gun butt comes down on your head. You're out cold.
Turn to page 68.
Dr. Firenze gives you a sedative, so you hardly feel it when he injects you with his genetic formula. It isn't long before you begin to feel strange sensations. Within a few hours it's clear what's happening: you're shrinking—and that's good news. The bad news is that you're not getting back the fine, young body you once had. Instead, you're becoming spindly and smaller than you were, and you still have hair all over! What's worse, you're growing a tail! And when you try to talk, all you can make are little screechy sounds!
You can't help but think about what it is you're becoming, especially when you notice you've developed a tremendous craving for bananas.
The hospital staff provides you with everything they think you want, even going so far as to install a trapeze in your room. One day while you're hanging by your tail you hear footsteps coming down the hall. You drop down on your bed just at the moment Dr. Firenze, Amanda, and Mr. and Mrs. Vandergraft walk into your room. You sense that they've come because Dr. Firenze has done everything he can for you, and it's time for the next stage in your life to begin.
Turn to page 96.
When everyone is reasonably used to having you around, and after you've helped clean up the kitchen, you all sit down in the living room for a family conference. There aren't any seats big enough for you and you don't want to break anything, so you just sit on the floor in front of the fireplace.
Your spirit has been lifted by coming home, most of all because you've been accepted by your family and know everyone still loves you, even though you're a monster.
But now suddenly you feel very let down and depressed. How can you go to school the way you are? No matter how nice your family is, you're going to be nothing but a repulsive and terrifying sight to everyone who sees you—at best an object of curiosity, like some freak.
Your head droops, your brain feels numb, you don't know what to say. You've never felt lower than you do right now.
Turn to page 7.
Dr. Nair holds up his hand. His thin mouth lengthens into a smile. "It's too late. I've already implanted you with the genes of a young gorilla, who was himself implanted with genes of a giant bear."
"Wha—?"
"Now," Dr. Nair interrupts in a brisk and businesslike tone, "someone will bring you dinner, some books, and a TV set. I want you to feel relaxed ..."
Before you can reply, this strange and terrifying man walks out the door. A lock turns.
You run to the window. You're on the second story of a run-down, old brick building. The window faces onto a paved inner courtyard. Two cars and a truck are parked below. The building encloses the courtyard, except for the entrance, where an armed guard is posted.
There's a bathroom attached to your room. You look inside, but it offers no means of escape. Your heart sinks. It's not going to be easy to get out of this place. Then, the real shock comes as you glance at your arms. They seem thicker and longer than you remember, and a downy growth of dark brown hair has appeared on the back of your hands.
Turn to page 81.
"It's Vargas!" Meyerstraub yelps.
Vargas, you remember, is the man Meyerstraub wanted you to frighten.
"Get us out of here!" Meyerstraub screams at the pilot as you clamber on board.
The jet engines roar even before you have the hatch shut. The plane starts down the runway.
The helicopter, traveling faster, swoops closer.
"Duck!" the pilot yells.
A hail of bullets rips through the fuselage! One of them nicks you in the back. For the first time you see the blood of a monster—your own blood!
Turn to page 105.
"It's terrible what you've been through," your mom finally says. "I only hope the police can catch the man who did this to you."
You nod.
"I can see you're feeling down," your dad says. "It's perfectly understandable, after your ordeal."
"I think it would be a good idea for you to see Dr. Rasmussen," your mom says. "He's a very good psychiatrist, and maybe he can help you adjust to the situation you're in."
"Yes, that's a very good idea," your dad says. "I think you'll find it very helpful to talk to Dr. Rasmussen."
You hardly stir from your place on the floor. At last you look up. "Sure, Mom, Dad . . . anything you say."
Turn to page 13.
Every day you keep growing. It's near the end of the first three weeks when you first bump your head while walking into the bathroom. It doesn't hurt, it just knocks a strip of wood off the transom, but it's this fact—bumping your head—that makes you realize you've been pretending you're still the regular, normal kid you were before. Finally you dare to look at yourself in the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. There you are, or there's part of you—for you have to squat and wiggle from side to side to see all of yourself.
You let out a scream that rattles the windows and echoes through the yard. Your body is as massive and hairy as a gorilla's, but your face is far more frightening: Your black-capped snout is like a griz
zly bear's. Your jaws and two sharp, slightly curved fangs remind you of a saber-tooth tiger, and your huge, overhanging brow looks like that of a hammerhead shark.
You slap at the bathroom door. It flies off the hinges. The mirror shatters. You roar in agony and rage. There is no doubt what's happened: You are no longer the person you were—YOU ARE A MONSTER!
Turn to page 90.
Another car is traveling fast down the road. Best to keep out of sight for now, you think, ducking behind a thick clump of bushes. Peering through the branches, you see that the car is a police car. So is the one behind it, and the one behind that! They're stopping in front of the house. One car blocks the entrance. Two cops jump out. Each has a hand on his holster as if ready to draw. They must have been tipped off about Dr. Nair and figured out that he's the one who kidnapped you. But they showed up too late. If only they'd found out about him three weeks ago, you'd still be the happy, normal kid you were, instead of the weird, hulking monster that you are now.
You hear a cop yelling from inside the courtyard. One of the others pulls his gun. Should you come out of hiding and explain what happened? After all, the cops are on your side—except that if you show yourself the way you look, one of them might just blow you away!
If you come out of hiding, turn to page 87.
If you stay hidden, turn to page 14.
"I've been thinking about your future," says Mr. Vandergraft. "The way I see it, you can never be really happy—never lead a normal life—unless you can be turned back into yourself again."
"But how can that ever happen?" you wonder aloud.
"Well, for one thing, there's a new unit at Federal Hospital, specializing in genetic change. The director, Dr. Firenze, is practically a genius. He might be able to return you to your normal self. But I have to tell you, it may be risky. If it doesn't work ..."
Mr. Vandergraft's voice trails off, but you don't have to hear his words to know what he was about to say. He's thinking that you might end up in an even more monstrous form than you're in now.
Turn to page 89.
Two days later you find yourself in the office of Dr. Karl Rasmussen, the renowned psychiatrist, He is a large man who sprawls, rather than sits, on the leather chair he pulls out from behind his desk.
"Sit wherever you like." He motions you toward a leather sofa and an oversized chair next to it. "Maybe you'd like to sit on the floor and lean back against the sofa."
"ARRRAGH," you say softly, and sit on the floor so you're now eye-level with the famous doctor.
"You certainly are quite a monster," he begins.
"I'm not a very happy monster," you say. "I can never lead a normal life. I can't go to school looking like this—everyone will be afraid of me. Or make fun of me."
The doctor nods. "Yes, that may happen for a while, but not for long."
"Really? Why?"
"Because you'll know how to handle the situation. " Rasmussen's eyes twinkle while he talks, as if he is delighted at thinking how well you will adjust.
"How do you mean?" you ask.
"Well," the doctor replies, "imagine that you were a normal student and one of the other kids was the monster. How would you react?"
Turn to page 82.
You stay hidden in the brush while the police search the house. You have nothing better to do, so you practice learning to talk again. Your mouth has changed so much, your tongue feels as if it's tied in knots. The cops seem to be taking forever. You wonder what they thought of the splinters of wood they found upstairs where you smashed down the door to your room.
Finally they come out, muttering among themselves. They drive off, but you know they'll be keeping a close eye on the place until they find Dr. Nair. Meanwhile, you've got to figure out what to do—you need as much food as three grown men, and you don't have any money.
Maybe someone would take you in as a pet. You could go home, of course, but your family would be just too broken up to learn that you've turned into a monster. For now it seems better to have them just think you ran away.
You wander along, keeping behind hedges and walls. You're in the richest part of town, and most of the houses are set well back from the road. You've only gone a short way when you have to duck through a hedge to keep from being seen. You almost run into a woman cutting flowers in her garden.
Turn to page 54.
"My men will show you to your room," Meyerstraub purrs. "It's specially made for you out of concrete and steel. You'll get all the good food you like, so you ought to be pretty happy."
And so you're in prison once again, besieged, lonely, and endangered.
Your bed is soft, but you can't get much sleep. In the morning the guards come for you, and once again you are brought before Meyerstraub. Smiling and cheerful, he says, "Well, Monster, I hope you slept well. Now it's time for you to go to work."
"What do you mean?" you say.
"Do you know who I am?"
"You're a big crime boss," you answer.
"Not a big boss. I'm the biggest—the king— you got that?"
You nod your huge, shaggy head.
"And I'm king because I get what I want. You know how I get it?"
"No," you say.
"I get it by using the carrot and the stick. I appeal to two major human traits: greed and fear. And I do that by doling out lots of money, and an equal amount of terror."
You sit there dumbfounded by what Meyerstraub is telling you. Yet you also know that he speaks a dark truth: Money and terror are the tools by which he has amassed so much power.
Turn to page 25.
You continue on over the brow of the rise and across a spacious, sloping lawn graced with magnificent trees. As you walk past a sprawling copper beech tree, a voice calls down from above.
"I see you, Monster."
You try to see who's calling down from the branch—and find a girl, perhaps ten or eleven years old.
"I see you too," you answer. "Do you live in that big house?"
"Uh huh," the girl replies. "My name is Amanda Vandergraft, and I like you."
"Like me? That's amazing! Everyone else hates me. Why would you like me?"
"You didn't hurt my dogs," Amanda says, "so I know you're a nice monster." She jumps down from the tree and lands a few feet away from you. "You're nice, but you're ugly."
You hang your head. "I know."
She reaches up with her little hand and touches your right paw. "I've read all about you in the newspapers, and you're on all the news programs on TV. The police are looking for you."
"I know—"
"Why haven't you gone home to your family?"
"I don't think they could handle it," you reply, "knowing their kid has turned into a monster."
"I see what you mean," says Amanda. "Well, you can stay at our house for a few days. We have lots of room and plenty of extra food in the freezers. It's up to you."
"Your parents wouldn't mind?"
"I think I can talk them into it," Amanda says firmly.
You're grateful for Amanda's kindness; at the same time you're feeling a little homesick. You're not sure what to do.
If you decide to accept Amanda's invitation, turn to page 65.
If you decide to go home, turn to page 55.
A few days later you start school again. None of the kids tease you or make comments. But you almost wish they would. They're too respectful, as if they've all been told you're very fragile and they have to be nice. Even your best friends talk to you very softly and respectfully, as if you're a very old person visiting the school.
But gradually things loosen up. By the end of the year you've been elected president of the Student Council and, of course, captain of the football team. You've more friends than ever and, feeling good about yourself once again, you learn more too.
When you graduate, you write a book, My Life as a Monster. You appear on all the talk shows and in music videos (you cut a few records of your own), and make it big in the movies and on the stage. In j
ust a few years you earn three Grammys, five Emmys, two Tonys, and a couple of Oscars. By then lots of people are calling you "that lucky monster."
The End
Another week has passed. You're still in police custody and being guarded twenty-four hours a day. You miss your family and friends, but you just can't face their seeing you as a monster—at least not now. You've been looked at, examined, photographed, and talked to by dozens of detectives, politicians, scientists, and reporters. All these people have asked you so many questions, you have a stiff tongue from answering.
You've learned things too. You've found out that the cops know Dr. Nair is the evil scientist who transformed you, that he's still at large, and that everyone is worried what he'll do next. One reason they want to catch him is that he's the only person in the world who might be able to reverse your condition, except for maybe a doctor at one special hospital.
The mayor himself arrives and informs you of their decision. "Look," he begins, "you're an innocent victim of this man. And we're doing everything in our power to bring him to justice. You are entitled to your freedom, but for your own safety as well as others', we can't give it to you. You would frighten too many people. If you were found wandering around loose, sooner or later some crazy nut would shoot you."
"What about my civil rights?" you say. "You have no right to keep me locked up!"
The police commissioner shakes his head. "The fact is, you have no civil rights," he says brusquely. "They only apply to people—and you're not a person anymore—you're a monster!"
Turn to page 102.
It's four A.M. You're standing outside the bedroom door in the Key West oceanfront villa of Guillermo Vargas, who is supposed to be second only to Meyerstraub as the most powerful crime boss in the world.
Two men with machine guns are downstairs. Meyerstraub has warned you that they'll finish you off unless they hear Vargas screaming. That'll be the only proof they'll accept that you've done your job.