The others quickly jumped to their feet.
“Show us,” Halley said, but Mimi snatched the bag away.
“Stop,” she said importantly. “One thing you should know. It has a weapon.”
“A weapon?” Koby repeated.
“Really?” Oscar asked, concerned.
“Yes. A kind of spike,” Alice explained.
“A sharp spike,” Mimi said emphatically.
“You mean a bit like a needle?” Minnie asked.
“Maybe,” Mimi answered, nodding.
“We didn’t get a good look at it,” Alice explained.
“If it has a sharp spike, why doesn’t it escape from that bag? The bag is paper,” Koby asked.
Did the creature bouncing around in the bag understand human speech? Or was it a mere coincidence that as soon as Koby spoke, the first ripping sound was heard? A small, sharp spike pierced the paper bag and began to tear a hole in it, persistently twisting and stabbing.
“It’s poking through the bag! It’s going to get away!” Mimi shouted. Alice began to scream and jump up and down.
“Let’s get out of here!” Oscar yelled, and hid behind Halley’s back.
“Quick, get something hard, like a bucket!” Halley called, but nobody moved an inch. Nobody fetched the bucket, because, as if bewitched, they were all staring at the hole, which was getting bigger and bigger every moment. The needle-like spike was sharp and the user extremely quick.
In a few seconds, the tear was big enough, and out peeked a tiny, snub-nosed, and greenish face, undeniably a little like a frog or a bulldog. Two bright water-colored eyes flitted belligerently every which way, staring at the children. A thin brownish-green hand appeared in the tear and wagged the spike menacingly.
“Now it’ll attack,” Alice piped up, terrified.
“No . . . what’s up with it now?” Halley asked.
The creature had frozen on the spot. Its minute nostrils fluttered. It turned its head, slow and majestic, like a bloodhound. It was no longer interested in the children. It had noticed something else.
A low growling sound was coming from the hall closet, like a giant cat purring.
“I don’t believe it,” Halley whispered.
The monsters had woken up. Their wild yellow eyes were open and looking straight at the spiky creature peeking from the bag, who was staring back at the monsters.
“Perhaps they know each other,” Mimi whispered to Alice.
There was a popping sound when the monsters, wedged in the doorway by their bellies, yanked themselves loose. Growling menacingly, the monsters turned toward the creature. They no longer appeared clumsy and heavy. Every movement was smooth and controlled. All of a sudden, the monsters were magnificent, strong, and very dangerous. Their yellow gazes were fixed on the creature waving its spike.
Peering out from the bag, the fairy-troll let out a defiant shriek. It shook its silvery spike fiercely and squawked: “Ah-ah-ah!”
Then it slashed the paper bag with its little sword so that the tear was twice as big.
The creature shot out of the bag, spike at the ready, squealing: “Ah-ah-ah! Ee-ee-ee!” It flew in a wild circle in the air.
The monsters’ growling became louder. It was beginning to sound very threatening.
“Can we get out of here?” Minnie asked in a tiny voice, and sidled behind Halley, where Oscar was already cowering.
“Ah-ah-ah-ah!” squealed the flying frog creature, darting about.
“Let’s go,” Koby said nervously.
“Where to?” Mimi asked, looking in turns at the flying fairy buzzing on one side of them and the growling monsters on the other. They were in the middle of an imminent fight, and with no escape route. Alice let out a sob and grabbed Mimi’s hand. Mimi squeezed tight to comfort her and slipped her other hand into her bathrobe pocket. It was almost like holding the bathrobe’s hand.
Now the flying frog made a ferocious dive and shot straight toward the monsters. It was attacking.
“Watch out!” Halley managed to call before there was a cloud of dust, and everything disappeared in an all-pervading gray-black cloud.
CHAPTER 14
Koby Has an Idea
THE STAIRWELL WAS SILENT and echoey, but at least there wasn’t one speck of monster dust floating around. The children went down the stairs, coughing. Koby held Mimi tightly by the hand. Mimi held Alice’s hand; she was coughing and spluttering. Alice’s other hand was held by Oscar, who with his other hand pulled Minnie, her eyes so full of monster dust that she couldn’t see anything.
“Three more steps,” Oscar said to Minnie, who was gingerly feeling her way, her eyes squeezed shut. “Left turn now, then a few steps. Here’s a threshold, don’t trip, good . . . Now we’re in the bike storage room.”
Alice coughed and coughed. Koby led the chain of children through the bike room toward another door.
“There’s a sink; Minnie can wash her eyes, and Alice can have a drink of water,” Koby said.
What had happened back in their apartment on the fifth floor was amazing and terrible at the same time. The monsters had let off some kind of a dust bomb. All the dust, black smoke, or whatever it was had puffed out of the monsters’ matted, ragged coats—as if beneath the thick fur there were hidden a thousand dust capsules waiting to be discharged. And then: PUFFF! Showers of dust!
It was probably a monster defense mechanism, Koby thought. Like a skunk’s stink shower. Perhaps Runar knew something about this. They had to get the book from upstairs as soon as possible. But not yet. Not until the dust had settled. Not until the attack upstairs was definitely over. Koby still shuddered at the memory of the monsters’ whirring hum and the flying fairy attack.
“There’s the sink,” Koby said, clicking on the light in the basement corridor. “You can wash your faces here. I’ll get an old towel from our basement storage. Oscar, can you give Alice a drink?”
Koby left the others coughing by the sink and went off. He wanted to be alone for a minute. It was exhausting to not understand what was happening around you.
Koby pushed the key into the lock on the thick metal door and turned it. The heavy security door opened unexpectedly easily and almost silently. Koby stepped into the narrow passage between the wire storage cages. In the basement everything was just as it always was. It was comforting. The storage cages overflowed with stuff: balcony furniture, battered suitcases, skis and sleds, high chairs, old newspapers, rolled-up rugs.
Koby walked to the end of the passage and stopped by the last storage cage. It was their cage, and it was overflowing with nothing. Mom had left it tidy and organized. There were handy storage shelves on the walls, and on the shelves were boxes upon which Mom had neatly written the contents: WINTER CLOTHES (KIDS), OLD DISHES SET, CAMPING GEAR + CAMP STOVE, TENT, SLEEPING BAGS . . .
Camping gear and sleeping bags, Koby thought while opening the cage door. Why did they have camping gear, when nobody ever went camping? The idea of the family camping almost made him laugh.
But suddenly Koby realized that he had walked straight into the solution. The whole apartment was full of choking gray dust and . . . whatever. The bathrobe had been right: they could not stay there. But where would they go? Grandma’s house was far away, and they had no vacation cabin. The solution was camping, of course! And for camping, you needed camping gear, tents, and sleeping bags. Camp stove, absolutely!
Koby climbed onto the step stool that was kept in the basement storage. He reached up and grabbed the camping gear box, but it was too heavy to get down. He needed Halley to help.
Koby jumped off the stool and ran the whole length of the passage back to the sink. The others now looked almost clean. Most of the dust had been washed off, and Alice had stopped coughing.
“Have you got the towel?” Oscar put his hand out, dripping with gray water.
“Oh, no, sorry, I forgot,” Koby answered, out of breath. “Where’s Halley?”
A silence descended on the basement c
orridor; the only sound was the calming hiss of the tap they had left running. Indeed, where was Halley? Had she walked down the stairs with them? Had anyone held her hand? Had anyone seen Halley in the basement? An ominous thought descended like a storm cloud.
“Halley got left behind upstairs.” Mimi’s voice was shrill. “Come, Alice, let’s go.”
“Stop!” Koby shouted. “Not yet! Let’s think!”
But all that was left of Mimi and Alice was the slam of the door. The girls had gone.
CHAPTER 15
Halley’s Observations
SO, WHERE WAS HALLEY? At home, of course, on the fifth floor. She sat in the kitchen, covered from head to foot in gray dust, with a piece of paper towel in front of her mouth serving as a mask. Monster dust made you cough.
On the floor lay a toy fishing net, bought on the beach the previous summer. It was in shreds. In the middle of the kitchen table stood a glass cookie jar, inside which a tiny, angry creature with a spike dashed about, jabbing at the jar walls with its weapon.
The creature was so odd-looking that one would have thought Halley was sitting there staring at it. But no. Halley was craning her neck to see into the hall, squinting.
The mail slot opened.
“Halley, are you in there?” Mimi whispered. “We came to rescue you. Give us a sign if you can hear this.”
“Could you open the door for Mimi?” Halley asked Oscar’s monster, who was standing nearest to the door. The monster, looking sad and defeated, turned obediently to the door.
Mimi and Alice slipped into the hall and bumped into the monster.
“Uh-oh, oops!” Mimi exclaimed, backing off quickly. She looked around. “Halley? Where are you?”
“Here, in the kitchen,” Halley replied.
The monster slouched back to the wall, a dust-gray cloth hanging from its hand. It had been washing the wall. Minnie’s monster stood in front of the gray-streaked bathroom door, wiping it down. The rug was gone, perhaps taken to the balcony.
“So they’re cleaning up now?” Mimi asked, surprised.
Halley nodded.
“Of course. Whoever makes a mess cleans it up. That’s the rule we have.”
“Where’s Grah?” Mimi asked.
“Cleaning the living room,” Halley said. “That’s not as dirty as in here. But Grah is so embarrassed that it may start crying again. I hope it doesn’t. If it could talk, it would probably be saying sorry all the time. That dust bomb was something they’re really not supposed to do. I said to the monsters, ‘No worries, we’ll clean up now.’ And they immediately started cleaning. Where are all the others?”
“In the basement. We thought that you were in mortal danger,” Mimi said. “But you seem to be quite all right, and you even got that fairy into a jar!”
“Come and see,” Halley said, nodding proudly. “It was quite easy to catch, but it managed to tear the net to shreds. Look at that spike. It’s not a sword.”
“What is it, then?” Mimi asked, staring at the angry creature darting here and there. “I can’t see—it moves too fast.”
“It’ll tire itself out soon,” Halley said. “Then look at the spike really closely.”
Mimi put her face up to the cookie jar. The creature stopped and hovered on the spot, wings buzzing, staring defiantly at her.
“It’s got a lovely little nose and funny sticky-out ears! And its skin is just like a frog’s,” Mimi said.
“Check out the spike now, before it’s on the move again,” Halley told her.
Mimi looked. The spike was metallic, hollow, and quite pointy. The creature held it tightly in one hand. The upper part of the spike was as sharp as a newly sharpened pencil, but only on one side.
“Looks a bit like a drinking straw,” Mimi said. “One of those straws you use to poke a hole in a juice box.”
“Exactly,” Halley said. Mimi was really quite clever for a little sister.
“Is it a straw? What does it drink through it?” Alice wondered. “Shall we give it some juice? See if it can drink?”
“Where did you leave all the others?” Halley asked. “Can you go get them? Koby will want to see this, I’m sure.”
“Are you OK staying here alone with all these monsters?” Mimi asked.
“What do you think?” Halley said. “Go on. Fetch Koby, quickly.”
“OK, we’re going. We’ll be real quick. Don’t be scared,” Mimi said. “Come on, Alice!”
About five minutes later, the front door lock rattled again. Someone was turning a key in the lock. The door opened slowly, as if hesitating. To open or not?
“Who is it?” Halley called out.
“There’s nothing dangerous in here,” came a loud voice from behind the door. “Just open the door, you dumbheads! Halley’s in the kitchen, and the monsters are all cleaning up with their aprons on!”
“Mimi, is that you?” Halley called out. “Is Koby there?”
The door opened wide.
“Come inside, cowards, there’s nothing to be scared of,” Halley said.
Koby, Oscar, and Minnie stepped cautiously into the hall. Mimi and Alice tried to push past them, but they seemed to think that Mimi and Alice needed protection.
“Argh, let me go!” Mimi snapped, but Koby kept her tightly behind him.
“Let’s check the latch,” he said.
“Quite safe,” Halley said. “Did Mimi tell you that the flying creature’s spike is really a straw?”
“I told him!” Mimi yelled crossly from behind Koby.
“Come and see for yourselves,” Halley said. “And stop being such chickens! There’s nothing to be afraid of!”
“It really is a straw,” Koby said, his face flat against the cookie jar.
“What does it use it for? Surely not for drinking.”
“For drinking, specifically,” Halley said. “I happened to see.”
“Did it drink juice?” Alice murmured.
“Not juice,” Halley said, looking at each of them in turn. It was good to be the one with the most information, for once. Was this how Koby felt all the time?
“Well, tell us,” Oscar said, rushing her.
“You may have noticed that the monsters really didn’t like that creature,” Halley began.
“Yes?” the others asked in chorus.
“Well, I know why. You see, as soon as you had scampered off and run away—”
“We did not run away!” Mimi shouted, insulted.
“Well, where did you run to, then?” Halley asked kindly.
“Oh, whatever, just tell us,” Koby urged, frowning at Mimi.
Halley smiled smugly and went on: “So, as soon as the rest of you ran out of here like little bunny rabbits, that straw fairy attacked. It dashed straight into the dust cloud the monsters had let off, screaming horribly, and attacked the nearest monster. It happened to be Minnie’s fat-bellied monster, the angry one.”
“Oh!” Minnie exclaimed.
“What did it do to the monsters?” Koby asked.
“At first I couldn’t see properly, there was so much dust. But as soon as the monsters began to move, the dust cloud dispersed a little. Of course I thought that the spike was a sword and the flying troll was going to poke it at the monsters.”
“But it’s not a sword!” Mimi shouted, triumphant.
“Listen! The flying troll flew straight at Minnie’s monster, stabbed the straw into its arm, and started to suck its blood through the straw. Just like a big juice box! It’s not a fairy but a monster mosquito that sucks their blood. Or whatever it is that flows in the monsters’ veins.”
“That’s horrid,” said Mimi with disgust, looking at the fairy in the cookie jar. “A nasty, whining mosquito. I thought it was a fairy.”
“It might still be a fairy,” Halley said. “What do we know about fairies? Perhaps they are blood-suckers.”
“Could it attack a human?” Oscar asked, worried. “What if—”
“Halley, what happened then?” Koby inte
rrupted. “What did the monster do?”
“It was really scared. It froze on the spot and whined. Same with the other monsters: they froze like snowmen. And all the time that horrible little mosquito thing was sucking the blood out of Minnie’s monster.”
“Ick!” Mimi said disapprovingly, and wrinkled her nose.
“What happened then?” Koby asked.
“When it had drunk a bellyful, it pulled the straw out. But it must have had too much, because it couldn’t fly properly anymore. Its wings couldn’t carry it, so it drifted slowly to the floor like some autumn leaf and flopped on its back. I got the net from the balcony and caught it,” Halley continued.
“What happened to the monster?” Minnie asked, concerned. After all, it was her monster.
“Well, the same thing that happens when a mosquito sucks your blood. Nothing. See for yourself.”
The children checked out Minnie’s monster, who was scrubbing the bathroom door frame.
“Looks normal,” Mimi said.
“So it does,” Minnie confirmed.
“We should examine the sting site,” Koby said thoughtfully.
“What do we do now?” Oscar asked, worried.
“The fairy is in the jar, and the monsters are cleaning,” Halley answered. “What more should we do, do you suppose?”
“I’m going to wash my bathrobe,” Mimi said, studying her sleeves. The blue waffle cloth had disappeared under gray, fluffy dust.
Alice tittered and immediately sneezed.
“We need to go to the supermarket,” Halley said. “Koby, shall we go?”
“We?” Koby asked, surprised. The two of them had never done the shopping before. In any case, there was plenty of food in the cupboard; after all, Mom had only left the day before.
“Yes, we,” Halley said, staring at Koby in an odd way.
“What’s wrong with you?” Koby asked. “We don’t need to go shopping.”
“Yes, we do,” Halley said, then whispered to Koby very quietly: “We need to talk.”
Koby frowned.
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