He held the weapon high over his head, which, with his height, was like nine feet in the air. He looked like the Empire State building. Except, a lot more dangerous.
“Die!” the ‘Stein shrieked.
In this moment, I was pleased to notice that he’d been sporting a swollen lip and a purplish bruise on his disfigured face. Courtesy of me.
The Bride, her beehive hair swaying with the movement, raised her pole up like a Olympic javelin thrower.
She meant to skewer us while the male beat my face in. Just mine. He didn’t give two shits about Zack and Maddie.
Unfortunately, I liked my face despite most people not liking it. It was my face.
I rolled over on the dirt. Heard the crazy cheers from the crowd. Heard the grunt from the male ‘Stein. The jingle of the ball and chain as he reached backward for force. Then the whip of the ball as he propelled it forward.
In this moment, everything played out in slow motion. Which was unfortunate because if I was going to die I’d just want to get it over with. Don’t need to beat around the bush.
I gripped around for my sword. My fingers found it and I knew it was too late.
The mace was inches away from my face. I was inches away from death—
A roar rippled through the air. A big, hairy blur flashed over me. Reflexively, I closed my eyes, expecting the death that would inevitably come.
But it didn’t.
I opened my eyes now and there hovering above me was the she-wolf. She was holding her dagger. It had met the chain of the mace, stopping the ball from hitting me.
I don’t know if the blow would’ve killed me. It may not have, but I do know that it would’ve easily ripped most of my face off.
Now it wouldn’t.
“Let’s play fair here,” the she-wolf said.
The crowd sat in stunned silence. Everyone in the arena could hear her voice.
Quickly, I scrambled out of their shadows. Helped Maddie and Zack up from the dirt.
“Stay outta dis, dog,” the ‘Stein said.
The she-wolf didn’t like this. She growled. Bared her teeth. Teeth that were entirely terrifying.
“Frank,” the female ‘Stein said. Her voice sounded slightly worried. “Frank, let’s go. Byron needs us.”
The male ‘Stein backed away. The she-wolf didn’t put her dagger down. Their eyes were locked in place.
“Not the end of dis,” Frank the ‘Stein said. “Not the end at all.”
The crowd started booing. Jeering. On one of the big screens standing tall over the coliseum, the camera panned around twisted and ugly monster faces, their eyes alive with fire and hatred.
“I’ll get ya, human,” Frank said. “I’ll get ya when your little dog protector ain’t around.”
With that, Frank and the Bride left the arena, heading toward the path.
“Thanks,” I said to the she-wolf. I stuck out my hand. She was up on her hind legs now, almost taller than all three of us combined.
She didn’t take it. She instead looked at it with mild indignation.
“First one’s free,” she said. “I only did it ‘cause the ‘Steins are insufferable. The next one ain’t gonna be free, Abe.”
Well, I didn’t know how to feel about that. I guess…afraid? But that wasn’t new. Not since I’d arrived beneath the Rodanian Mountains.
She fell forward on all fours and raced out of the arena.
“We’re so fucked,” Zack said. The hateful crowd was at our backs. Hateful competition in front of us.
He was so right.
20
Rabid Vamps
The first task was well underway. We had just exited the arena and the portcullis slammed behind us with an earth-shaking crash.
The mountains loomed ahead. In the distance, I saw those vampires swooping over the treetops. There must’ve been fifty of them. One dove downward as we looked on, and I heard a monster scream terribly. It sounded like a banshee.
I felt my face, which had been beet red from the ‘Stein trying to kill me, drain of all color. Maddie and Zack looked equally as corpse-like.
I took a step forward.
“Well, we aren’t gonna get anything done by just standing here,” I said.
“We’ll survive, though,” Zack said.
“But the gaslings won’t and you’ll never have enough gold to buy that motorcycle you wanted or,” Maddie said, grabbing at Zack’s sunglasses, “those Ray-Bans you saw at the mall.”
Zack nodded, but I saw he had gulped at the same time.
He was scared. We all were scared.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We can do this. We can do it for Fizzler and Gizzler and the elders!”
Just then I heard the announcer’s voice over the speakers in the arena, where all those hateful monsters watched.
“The self-named Fright Squad waits around, obviously terrified. As you know, most of the humans are like this. That’s why they’re so tasty!” the worm-man said.
The crowd ate this up.
Overhead, something whirred. It caused me to jump, holding my sword high for protection. I thought it was a vampire. It wasn’t.
It was just one of the camera drones.
The drone paused, its red eye blinking, focusing on us. I looked it right in the lens and raised my middle finger.
Zack did, too.
Maddie didn’t. She just shook her head at our immaturity.
We heard another monster scream. This one sounded like a harpy, but I wasn’t sure.
And we were already jogging up the mountain path when the announcer’s voice confirmed whoever it had been.
“Shit,” Zack suddenly said.
We were in the thick of it now. Trees lined the walkway, hanging over us. That wasn’t what had caught Zack’s attention, though.
What had done that was the severed demon’s head beneath one of these trees. Black blood pooled in the path. We found the body a few feet away.
“Not cut off,” Maddie said, examining it closer. She was the only one of us who could. “Ripped off.”
“Poor bastard,” Zack said.
I shook my head, glad I still had one to shake. “C’mon, let’s go. I think I see the rest of the pact. We can still catch up.”
I pointed up ahead the winding path. There, a heavy cloud of dirt hovered. Bat wings flapped in and out of the maelstrom.
“They’re distracted,” I continued. “We can sneak past all of that. Get to the castle. Find the Fang.”
“Sounds simple,” Maddie said.
“It’s not,” I said.
“Gee, Abe, you really know how to give a pep-talk,” Zack said.
I pushed forward up the mountain. We saw a few other dead monsters. Another demon, this one skewered on the end of a broken tree branch. His eyes were wide open in pain and terror. He had died that way. A mummy hung from a tree, its old wrapping paper was its noose. Someone had strung him up like a piñata, had beaten him to dust. As we passed, it moaned. Weak.
“Looks like we missed all the fun,” Zack said.
We passed through the dirt cloud. Heard the roars of werewolves and the hissing of vamps. They were nowhere to be seen. The sounds were coming from the castle, which was about a quarter mile away.
Aside from the ‘Stein’s attack in the arena, things had been going easy.
I knew it wouldn’t last.
Sure enough, a shriek from above filled our ears. I looked up just in time to see a darker blot against the dark sky swooping down toward us.
“Aw, shit!” Zack yelled.
We dove out of the way into the cover of the trees. The vampire, the rabid vampire, didn’t care.
The beast bombed through the canopy. Leaves rustled and fell. Branches cracked.
The vampire crashed to the rocky soil. Landed crumpled and gashed.
We stood there looking at it with our weapons raised.
Nothing happened. The beast didn’t move.
“Is this it?” Zack asked. “Is t
his the rabid vampire?”
Still, nothing happened.
“That thing is nothing compared to the she-vamp we saw at Lover’s Pass,” Zack said. He made a motion forward. Maddie tried to hold him back. All that had done was slow him down. I knew what he was doing. He was making the same mistake we had done when attacked by Buddy Wolverton in Woodhaven.
Zack bent down and picked up one of the broken branches. He meant to poke the rabid vampire with it. Or so I had at least thought.
Instead, he took his ax and began peeling the bark away. Sharpening the wood into a stake.
“Can’t take any chances,” he said. Once the wood resembled a stake, for the most part, Zack said, “Who wants to do the honors?”
Neither Maddie or I stepped forward.
“The castle,” I said. “Leave the vamp. There’s about twenty other ones we have to worry about.”
“Aw, man,” Zack said. “You scared? What’s the worst that could happen?”
“No!” I said. “Don’t say that!”
“Zack,” Maddie said, incredulous, “have you learned nothing?”
A rhetorical question.
“What?” Zack said.
Behind him, sure enough, the rabid vampire rose.
It was horrible. I’d never seen such a messed-up, unholy thing. Not even the vampire I had shot out of the sky at the hospital a few months ago looked like this.
The rabid vampire’s eyes were as red as the decapitated demon we’d passed on our way up here. From its mouth, its fangs jutting both upward and downward, a sickly gray foam spilled. One ear was twisted and twitching. The veins running along its wings were the color of ichor. It came at us with gnarled claws the length of my sword.
Then it opened its mouth and the stink that came from its mouth was like the stink of a pile of dead bodies baking in a desert heat. With the opening of its mouth, it roared. Well, it was more like a screech. Something straight out of hell. It reminded me of butcher knives raking down a chalkboard, gouging it. My ears rang when the sound was over.
It lurched at us, lightning fast.
But we were faster.
Somehow.
We dove out of the way and the vampire charged into the trunk of a tree behind us. It hit it so hard the trunk cracked.
“Form up,” I said.
“What the hell does that mean?” Zack asked.
“Never mind!” I said.
It was too late to explain because the vampire charged at us again, its fangs bared and dripping venom.
I swiped at it with my sword. Clipped one of its wings. The beast hadn’t even cried out as black disease sprayed the surrounding trees. I thought it must’ve been so sick that it felt no pain, and that was the worst kind of monster to go up against.
“More!” Maddie said.
Sure enough, black wings beat against the air. Another vampire landed in a tree above us, its red eyes peering down.
"We have to run,” I said.
I hated to admit this, but it seemed we didn’t have a choice.
“They’ll catch us,” Maddie said.
“I’m with Abe,” Zack said. “We don’t stand a chance. All we got is this crappy stake I made.”
“Make more then,” Maddie said.
He looked at her like she was crazy. Then he looked at me like I was crazy.
Maybe we all were.
“We have to run,” I said. “There’s no other option. We don’t have the weapons. And I’m not getting close enough to that thing to chop off its head.”
The vampire on the ground crouched, ready to spring.
“So we run?” Maddie asked.
“Don’t say it so loud,” Zack hissed. “They’ll hear you.”
“I honestly don’t think the vampire really understands what we’re saying.” Maddie rolled her eyes at Zack.
I didn’t know if they could understand us. I just knew we had to run.
“Yeah,” I said. “On three.”
Counted.
Zack took off on two, screaming and flailing his arms. I bet the arena crowd loved that. The rabid vamp’s red eyes shot open as wide as they could and it sprang forward.
Maddie and I took off on about two and a half.
But we didn’t get very far. We got back to the path up the mountain, somehow closer to the castle than we were before. Except, waiting for us on the road, holding their medieval weaponry, were the damn ‘Steins.
Frank and his ugly bride.
21
Dinnertime
“Uh, now’s not the best time, guys,” Zack said. He tried running out of their reach, but their arms were so long, they snagged Zack up like a couple of Mr. Elastics from The Fantastic Four.
“Let him go!” Maddie screamed. She came at the Bride with her scythe raised up.
The Bride, with her free hand, gripped the pole and launched Maddie into the air. She did a front flip before landing hard on the rocky ground. The force of the hit caused her to wheeze, gasp for any air. But all the air around her was dusty. She began coughing hard. I thought she was about to die.
Zack flailed in the Bride’s arms. He was getting nowhere.
From down the mountain, we could hear the cheers from the arena crowd. A drone flew overhead, hovered over our scene.
Entertainment at its finest.
Frank punched his large palm. I stood there holding my sword. From behind, twigs snapped, leaves rustled, as the rabid vamp came for us.
“Yeah… Not the best time,” I said to the ‘Stein.
Up above, the other rabid vamp that had been eyeing us jumped from branch to branch. I saw it out of the corner of my eye.
“Always the best time to die,” Frank said.
“Aw, c’mon,” I said. “You can do better than that. But I’m serious, we’re about to…” I didn’t finish the thought. An idea had come into my head.
The ‘Stein didn’t care. He smiled, which looked positively ugly on his stitched-together face. “Don’t matter,” he said. “The Fang is a trap. The Games are a set-up. No one will win. Not you. Not me. No. You can’t win.”
“What?” I asked.
But the ‘Stein ignored me. “Crush the other ones,” he said to his bride. “I’ll deal with the smart mouth.”
Great, now I’d have to punch him in the face again. I didn’t think my fists could take it.
Closer and closer the vamp came, thunderous footsteps, broken branches, gouged tree trunks. I had to time it right. It wouldn’t be easy but I didn’t think it would be particularly hard, either. The ‘Steins were stupid by nature. When they were created by that mad scientist all those years ago, he hadn’t sought out the best brains to put in their cavernous heads.
So in my own head, I was counting the seconds until I thought the vamp would emerge.
Three…two…one…
As soon as the rush came, I dove to the side.
A black blur streaked by me. The ‘Stein was strong, but it certainly wasn’t fast.
“Frank!” the Bride shrieked.
The vampire sunk its claws into Frank’s massive chest. There was a pouring of blood that washed over the rabid creature, but the vampire loved it. Relished it.
Frank bellowed out in pain. Fell to his knees.
In all the chaos, the Bride let Zack go. He instantly rushed to Maddie’s side. She crawled on her knees. One of her nostrils was leaking blood, but otherwise she seemed okay. Or so I thought.
I ran over to them.
More vampires were diving out of the sky, their maws dripping foam, their eyes wild.
Pretty soon, Frank was covered in so much wiggling black stuff, he looked like a piece of food covered in ants.
The Bride tried her best to pry them off, and because of her brute strength she had a little luck, but before we knew it the vamps covered her, too.
The ’Steins may have been created in a lab but they had blood. And blood was all the vamps wanted.
So blood was what they got.
“Can you
move?” I asked Maddie.
She winced. Zack had his arm around her but she wiggled out and tried moving on her own accord. She limped off into the shadow of the trees. We followed her.
I figured the vamps would be a while. They had a lot of blood to snack on. A monster as big as the ‘Steins had to have gallons. At least the aftermath of the vamps’ attack made it look that way.
Maddie’s leg was bleeding pretty badly. Zack ripped one of his shirt sleeves off and tied it around the wound tight, but it didn’t staunch the flow.
“I’m good,” Maddie said. She must’ve seen the way I looked at the blood soaking through her jeans. It was turning the blue black. “I promise, I’m good.”
But when she took a step forward, her leg gave out on her and she would’ve crashed to the floor had Zack not been there to catch her.
I helped him walk her over to a couple of boulders. They created a shelter. It was dark and cool within.
We eased Maddie to the ground. She winced.
“I swear I’m okay,” she was saying. “I mean it.”
With his index finger, Zack poked the wound. Maddie cried out in pain, loud enough for Zack to stumble backward.
“What the hell?” she snapped.
“I-I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t faking.” Zack tried for a kiss.
She pushed his face away and glared at him. It was such a death-filled stare that I turned my head away from her, afraid she might somehow steal my soul with it.
I needed my soul just like I needed my face.
Once this blew over Maddie tried getting up again. This time, Zack wouldn’t let her.
“I’m fine!” she yelled.
Zack shushed her gently.
Though we were farther away from the vamps’ feast down the trail, there were still other monsters to worry about.
“I’m going,” I said.
“No,” Maddie protested. “Just give me a minute. Let me catch my breath.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Zack said. He looked positively conflicted. He turned to me, a scowl on his face, Maddie’s blood and streaks of dirt on his clothes. His sunglasses were crooked. “Maybe we should just call it,” he said. “Just wait until it all blows over.”
The Monster Games Page 15