by Peter Bently
FLASH!
flickered the lightning.
BOOM!
crashed the thunder.
Mr. Gore swung around and stared through the hole in the roof.
“Almost time! Almost time!” he whined. “The weather is perfect!”
“SIIILEEENCE,” croaked Miss Fitt, her voice trailing away. “Hurry up, fool!” she rasped.
“Not long now, oh monstrous one!” droned Gore. “When ze lightning is directly overhead, I will give you a super-duper double dose of electricity! After zat it will be no more Miss Nice Monster! Hrurgh! Hrurgh! Hrurgh!”
Mr. Gore clipped a thick wire to each bolt in Miss Fitt’s neck.
“Yikes,” said Lee. “We have to do something!”
“But what?” said Bella. “I don’t have a clue how that machine works!”
“Could you work it, Billy?”
“Er … maybe,” said Billy. “If we can get close enough without old Gore seeing us.”
FLASH!
BOOM!
“Almost time! Almost time!” wailed Mr. Gore, his eyes wild with joy. “Now for the lightning conductor!”
Mr. Gore scuttled across the attic to a shiny metal pole. There was a brass ball at the tip and a heavy stand at the bottom so it wouldn’t fall over. Grunting with effort, Gore pushed the pole toward the hole in the roof.
“Quick!” said Lee. “Now’s our chance!”
The four bats swooped down to the Monster Megacharger.
“There should be a special knob here somewhere,” said Billy, peering at the buzzing, whirring machine with all its flashing dials and buttons and glowing tubes and different colored wires. “Geez! Where is it? It’s all very confusing.”
FLASH!
BOOM!
“Any second now!” grunted Mr Gore. “Hrurgh! Hrurgh!”
The brass tip of the conductor was now sticking out of the hole into the storm. Gore was attaching a long cable to a socket in the base. The other end of the cable was plugged into the Monster Megacharger.
Miss Fitt’s eyes flicked open.
“Vampires!” she muttered—too quietly for Mr. Gore to hear, but loudly enough to startle the bats.
“Ouch!” said Boris, walloping his head on the machine.
“Now!” yelled Gore. “It is time!”
“Oh no!” cried Bella. “Look! We’re too late!”
FLA-AA-SH!
KERRR-BOOOM!
A stupendous bolt of lightning struck the conductor with a great BANG!
As the thunder exploded overhead, brilliant blue sparks flashed down the conductor, along the cable, into the Monster Megacharger, out through the wires—and into the bolts in Miss Fitt’s neck. She jerked and twitched and bounced into the air, nearly snapping her straps.
“Come on!” hissed Lee. “Time to get out of here!”
The bats darted into the rafters just as Gore swung around and lurched back toward the bench.
“It is done! It is done!” wailed Gore, switching off the Monster Megacharger. “Zose pesky vampires do not know vot is comink! Hrurgh! Hrurgh! Hrurgh!”
As old Gore cackled hysterically, the bats shot out of the attic and into the stormy sky.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” said Lee gloomily.
“And now Miss Fitt will be even more horrble,” said Bella.
“I’m going home to get out of the rain,” shivered Billy.
“Me too,” said Lee.
“And me,” said Bella. “See you both at school later—”
She suddenly hesitated.
“Hang on,” she gasped. “Where’s Boris?”
Chapter 7
After the Storm
Before lessons the next evening, Lee and Bella told everyone about their adventure in old Gore’s attic.
“What?” said Big Herb, between chomps of chocolate Screme Egg. “You mean old Gore has made Miss Fitt even worse? How can she be worse than she was yesterday? It took me so long to do my math homework, I didn’t get into my coffin till it was almost daylight.”
“We don’t know what happened to Boris,” said Bella. “I hope he didn’t have to spend the whole day hiding in the attic from old Gore and Miss Fitt!”
STOMP! STOMP!
STOMP! STOMP!
“Yikes,” said Lee. “Here she comes! Where’s Billy?”
“He’s late,” said Bella. “Miss Fitt will go ballistic!”
As the stomping got closer, Mr. Gore suddenly appeared with his tool bag and pretended to check the classroom door, which was still broken from the night before. But he kept glancing at the class and chuckling unpleasantly.
“Look at him,” whispered Lee. “He’s waiting to see the results of the Monster Megacharger.”
STOMP! STOMP!
STOMP! STOMP!
A few seconds later, Miss Fitt stood in the doorway.
“Good mornink, Miss Fitt!” smarmed Gore. “Anysink you need, Your Monstrosity, just let me know!”
Miss Fitt stomped to the front of the class. And just at that moment, Billy hurtled through the door.
The whole class gasped in horror. Poor Billy! What would Miss Fitt do?
Mr. Gore smirked and rubbed his hands together in glee. Little flakes of finger snowed down onto his boots.
“I-I’m really s-sorry I’m late, miss!” panted Billy in terror.
Miss Fitt stared at him.
“M-my watch stopped,” said Billy. “I-it got wet in the rain.”
The other children held their breath. No one dared to move.
Miss Fitt opened her mouth.
And smiled.
“Never mind, Billy,” she chuckled. “These things happen. Just run along and sit down. That’s a good boy.”
The whole class gasped again—in disbelief.
“S-sorry, miss?” said Billy, not quite daring to move.
“I do hope your watch can be mended,” Miss Fitt went on. “Perhaps Mr. Gore would be kind enough to look at it for you?”
Mr. Gore had stopped rubbing his hands together. His mouth had fallen open, and he was making a strange gurgling sound.
“Dear me, are you all right, Mr. Gore?” said Miss Fitt. “You look a little green.”
“That’s just his normal color!” whispered Lee to Bella.
“I-I’m … fine,” croaked Mr. Gore. “But you … you’re supposed to be … I thought …”
“Oh good,” interrupted Miss Fitt firmly. “I’m delighted you’re well. Now do be a dear and fix Billy’s watch. By lunchtime?”
Billy handed over his watch. He still couldn’t quite believe what was happening. Nor could anyone else.
Mr. Gore glared at Billy and stuffed the watch into his overalls.
“Good-bye, Mr. Gore!” said Miss Fitt brightly.
Old Gore shuffled out of the classroom, muttering very rude things about vampires.
Billy sat down next to Lee and Bella.
“Wow! What’s happened to Miss Fitt?” he whispered.
“No idea,” shrugged Lee. “Pretty cool though, isn’t it?”
“Mmm,” said Bella. “Let’s see what she’s like in math first.”
“Now then, class,” said Miss Fitt. “Today we shall start with … But what are you doing, my dears?”
“Getting out our math books, miss,” said several glum voices at once.
“Math?” said Miss Fitt. “Really?”
She checked the timetable.
“Good gracious!” she said. “Who on earth has been making you do so much math? Dear me. This will never do!”
Miss Fitt grabbed an eraser and rubbed out all her changes from the night before. Then she crossed out all the normal math lessons and wrote EXTRA BREAK instead.
“I find math so terribly dull,” said Miss Fitt. She took a brown paper bag out of her handbag. “Now, who would like some candy?”
At lunchtime, the first thing Lee, Bella, and Billy did was turn into bats and zoom up to the clock tower. They were relieved to find Boris safe and well.
“What happened last night?” said Lee. “Why didn’t you follow us out of the attic?”
“Well,” began Boris. “Remember when Miss Fitt woke up and said ‘Vampires’?”
“Oh yeah,” said Lee. “That was really freaky.”
“I know!” said Boris. “I got such a fright, I whacked my head on one of the knobs on the Monster Megacharger. It was behind some wires, and I hadn’t noticed it before. When I looked closer, I saw the knob was marked Horrometer.”
“Hey!” said Billy. “That’s the special knob I was looking for!”
“The Horrometer had ten settings,” Boris went on. “From one, Sweet and Nice, to ten, Scary and Nasty. The knob was set to number ten, but I had just enough time to switch it to one before the lightning struck the conductor.”
“Fantastic!” said Lee. “So Miss Fitt got a super-duper double dose of NICENESS!”
“That’s right,” said Billy. “Old Gore must have changed her setting.”
“Hang on,” wondered Lee. “That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t leave the attic when we did.”
“I got a bit tangled in the wires,” said Boris. “By the time I freed myself, old Gore was heading my way, so I hid behind the machine until he went to bed. Then I just flew back here.”
Just above their heads, the school clock struck one.
“One o’clock! Yikes, we’d better get back and eat lunch,” said Lee.
“Do you know what?” said Billy. “Miss Fitt gave us so much candy, I don’t think I can manage my raw steak sandwich.”
“Oh, just give it to Big Herb,” laughed Bella.
“Bye, Boris,” called Lee as they fluttered out of the clock tower. “And thanks for saving us from two whole weeks of math!”
The End
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Based on an original idea by Chris Harrison
Illustrations © 2010 by Chris Harrison
Copyright © 2010 by Peter Bently
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Distributed in 2013 by Open Road Distribution
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