by Laura Dower
“RIVE RIT RACK!”
“Nooooo! It’s here!” I cried. Then I whipped around in a karate pose. “The Eyeball Beast must be in the stacks!”
I heard something move nearby, dodging around the shelves of books. “Monster Squad, where are you?” I yelled out. “Is anyone there?”
“Yes! We’re here!” Jesse cried.
Flash! Flash!
Lindsey clicked her camera. The flashes helped us to see better, even for just a little bit.
Flash! Flash!
“Lindsey? Where’s the stairwell?”
I spotted an orange EXIT sign at the side of the room. At last we found a way out! Slowly, I moved along a row of bookshelves. I heard something weird way back in the stacks. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so I was able to make out a silhouette.
“Run!” I yelled, and pushed the others in front of me. “Move it now before the beast turns us into statues!”
CHAPTER 11
RIVER OF TEARS
We ran, but the beast caught up.
I nearly fainted when I saw that B-Monster in the icky, oozy flesh.
For starters, it was way more massive than I expected. It was at least eight feet tall! The thousand eyes were incredible! They spun around in different directions like they had minds of their own, blinking out of synch, like stoplights. It made the worst noises ever. What was that? And then, as we stood there, stunned by the beast’s very presence, it began to blink faster and faster and faster.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
I threw my arms up and dashed quickly around the monster. The others followed me, screaming. We burst through the door at the top of the library stairs.
“Don’t stop! You can’t let it blink at you!” I yelled.
“Stella, where are we going?” Jesse asked.
All at once, I heard a fffffffffffffft noise behind us. Of course I thought it was the Eyeball Beast again—hissing now and ready to eat us. But then I realized it was coming from San San. Or at least a can in San San’s hand. She sprayed something into the monster’s eyes!
“GOTCHA, YA UGLY EYEBALL BEAST!” San San cried.
“RY RANT RY RYEBALL RACK,” said the beast.
“What’s he saying?” asked San San. “I don’t understand!”
Whatever she sprayed slowed down the monster—but only for a moment. It gave us enough time to run through a set of doors onto the library’s main floor. The moment we got up there, we noticed something strange.
People in the library were not moving. Not an inch. Everyone was under some spell.
Even Ms. Shenanigans.
She stood by an upstairs display case. She had her hand on another book that I guessed she picked up for us.
The Amazing Encyclopedia of Superstitions
I tried to pry the book from her fingers. But she was like stone, trapped in some powerful trance. Somehow I got the book away from her and shoved it inside my bag.
Then I noticed something else.
I had weird black marks on my skin. We all did! The marks looked like eyeballs! Like tattoos of Horus’s symbol. During the chase, the Eyeball Beast branded us with its stare.
Just like Leery said it might.
“Whoa,” Damon said.
It was then that I realized how heavy my legs felt. And the rest of my body, too. This was not good news. The beast was doing all the bad stuff Leery warned us about. Sure, the tattoos would fade. But if we didn’t get away from this creature soon, that eye on its tongue would come out and then the beast might blink us all to death!
“RUN!” I howled. “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! FOR ALL OF OUR LIVES! DON’T LET THE MONSTER OPEN ITS MOUTH!”
We sped past the marble entryway in the library and through the wooden doors.
We zigzagged down the enormous set of stairs outside the library.
We began to race across the library lawn as fast as we could go.
The beast kept chasing us. It screamed, “RI RANT RY RYEBALL!”
And, just then, it hit me! “It’s saying ‘Give me back my eyeball!’ That’s all it is. It wants its eyeball back.”
“Good call, Stella!” Lindsey said.
“DON’T STOP! KEEP RUNNING!” I cried to the other members of the squad. “It’s fast but we can outrun it!”
The beast was gaining on us, though.
And it was about to catch up with San San.
“Go on without me,” San San huffed. “I can’t outrun the beast!”
She ducked behind a bush and we kept running. I hated leaving San San behind, but we had no choice. Luckily, the monster’s eyes were trained on me. It still didn’t realize that it was chasing after two versions of the woman from the movie.
“RIVE RE RACK RY RYEBALL!” the beast cried again, louder than before.
“Run faster!” I cried to the others.
At some point, somehow, we got way ahead of the beast. It was fast, but we were faster. We didn’t have a thousand eyeballs to lug around.
We stopped for a second, and Lindsey turned around and aimed her zoom lens back to see what it would do next.
“Oh no!” Lindsey cried as she looked into the camera.
“Oh no what?” Damon yelled.
“The beast!” Lindsey said. “It looks upset! I think it’s—oh no . . .”
“No!” I yelled. “Please tell me it’s not—”
“Crying!” Lindsey said. “Tears are rolling out of every single eyeball!”
I remembered the flood scene from the movie.
But before I could even count to ten, a tidal wave of monster tears whooshed our way. The surge came fast—too fast. There was no way to outrun this river. We held our breath as we got swept into the river current. It was a very good thing this beast’s tears weren’t poisonous . . .
What a ride! We bobbed along like corks, rushing with the water past some Riddle landmarks like the Drive-O-Rama parking lot and the old turbine windmills on Route 5. We tried to keep our heads above the tears, but it was hard work. I was grateful for all those extra swimming lessons last summer.
“Talk about drowning in your sorrows!” Lindsey cried out.
“Drowning would be kind of bad, wouldn’t it?” Jesse said as his head went underwater.
“You think?” I gasped and gulped down a mouthful of the river. “Bleeeeech!” I cried.
“Yuck.” Damon’s head popped up. “This stuff tastes like dirt.”
We each got swept under at least once, but somehow the river managed to pull us safely along the surface for the most part. I was scared we might hit rocks or barriers, but we didn’t hit anything hard. I wondered if the good luck meant the eyeball amulet in my pocket was still working some kind of magic.
The river of tears began to narrow as it flowed down a hilly road. And then, without warning, it dumped us onto an abandoned lot. We flung our bodies onto dry land and wheezed. There was no sign of the B-Monster anywhere.
“That was the closest call the Monster Squad ever had!” Jesse cried.
Lindsey checked and her camera still worked. She snapped a photo of Damon and me on the ground.
“Are we really okay?” I asked, pinching myself.
Damon was too freaked out to say much of anything. Jesse was trying to figure out if the beast was still following us.
I stood up slowly and shook myself out. Thank goodness San San had ducked away before the river. She never would have made it!
“Look! The tattoos are fading!” Lindsey said, pointing to our arms.
Jesse pointed at my jeans. “Hey, Stella, the amulet faded, too. What’s wrong with it?”
I looked down. The bright yellow shine from inside my pocket was gone. The amulet wasn’t sending a signal anymore.
We all glanced at each other, the same thoughts on our mind. No glow meant something important. Had the water done something to the B-Force? Or had the B-Monster disappeared again?
Where had the Eyeball Beast gone?
CHAPTER 12
TR
ANCE-LVANIA
Although we made it safely to shore, we had failed our Monster Squad mission.
The beast was still at-large.
We had to get back into downtown Riddle and find a way to outsmart the beast—before it was too late.
Some time had passed, so we figured the beast’s powerful trance would have worn off Ms. Shenanigans and everyone else in town by now. But we were so wrong.
The postman was sitting in his mail truck without moving.
A father and his daughter stood in front of a walkway even though the light had switched to green.
Someone’s dachshund was frozen in mid-bark. Its mouth was wide open, but no sound came out.
People who had gathered on the town square lawn near the library looked like popsicles, frozen stiff in the middle of some picnic.
An Eyeball Beast trance had been expertly cast on all the residents of Riddle.
“This place has turned into Trance-lvania!” Lindsey said.
I wanted to cry my own river of tears. Poor Riddle. Poor San San.
And then, out of nowhere, San San showed up. She’d been safe behind that bush!
“Monster Squad!” San San cried out. She threw her arms around me. “I thought you kids would be washed away—but then I realized you couldn’t be washed away! You’re the Monster Squad. While the beast was chasing you, I slipped into the drugstore to get some protective gear. I left a ten dollar bill on the counter since the cashier was frozen in his tracks.”
San San pulled out a bag filled with mirrored sunglasses.
“I may be a feeble old woman, but I do know the Eyeball Beast. These mirrored glasses will help cover our eyes if we glance at it by mistake,” San San said. “That’s what we planned for the movie, anyway.” We looked like Monster Squad Goes Hollywood in our mirrored glasses, not that it made a difference what we looked like since no one here could see us.
We looked up and down Main Street, searching for more signs of the beast. The only thing we found were more people and animals in trances.
“Wait!” San San said. “In the movie, Leery wanted to send the monster up Nerve Mountain!”
“You think that’s where it’s headed now?” I asked. Having San San here was so great! She knew more about the beast than anyone!
“Go and see,” San San said. “I’ll wait here by the library.”
I started to walk away with the others, but then I stopped. The amulet in my pocket had begun to glow as brightly as fire—and it got just as hot.
“Oh no!” I said, turning around. “San San!”
But I was too late.
Towering behind my aunt was the Eyeball Beast! His eyeballs were dangling all over the place, blinking faster than I’d ever seen them blink before. The beast’s eyeball arms reached down and scooped San San high up into the air.
“We have to help her!” I screamed, assuming one of my karate poses. “What are we going to do?”
The kick! Brick’s kick! I gathered all my strength and leaped high into the air. But before I could make contact, the beast took off with San San.
“Don’t worry!” San San wailed. “Follow us! Follow us!”
“Where?” I cried.
“NERVE MOUNTAIN!” Jesse, Lindsey, and Damon yelled at the same time.
We took off after the monster. But our legs couldn’t move so fast. The monster moved like lightning up the side of the mountain. We could hardly keep up.
“I don’t see it anywhere!” I cried.
“Wait! Use the amulet!” Jesse cried.
I yanked it out of my pocket. It was hot again—almost too hot to touch.
“I bet we can use it to follow him,” Jesse said.
And then something dawned on me. All we really needed was to offer the amulet in exchange for San San!
“RIVE RE RACK RY RYEBALL!”
“Dirt!” Damon cried. He bent over on the mountain and rubbed his fingers in mud. When he poked his head up again, there was a dark smudge of black on his forehead. “It’s like another eye—an evil eye—to make the monster go away! I read about it in one of the books I found this morning.”
But before I had a chance to say anything, Lindsey took the words right out of my mouth. “We don’t need dirt. We have the amulet! Let’s just give it back to the beast and he’ll give us San San!”
“That sounds too easy,” Damon said.
We kept moving up the mountain. There were so many things to think of and do at once. I kept my eyes on the amulet’s glow. We couldn’t afford to lose the B-Monster again.
As we rose up over a bluff, I saw something I didn’t expect to see so quickly. The Eyeball Beast had stopped! He was perched on a rock, eyes twitching. And on a rock next to the beast was San San!
Here was our chance!
CHAPTER 13
SNAP, KICK, THRUST
“HERE IS YOUR EYEBALL!” I screamed.
The beast turned around, eyeballs twitching at us. He wasn’t backing off.
“Say it again!” Lindsey cried.
“TAKE YOUR EYEBALL BACK!” I cried.
It still wasn’t working. The beast didn’t know what to make of us. Maybe he thought we were trying to trick him?
Then I spotted an empty cup on the ground and remembered something I had read at the library.
Defeat the power of the eye with a vessel of spit.
Collect human spit in a cup; then throw it on the eye. The spit will destroy the curse—and the eye.
“Over here!” I commanded everyone to hide behind a rock so we could all spit in the cup.
“We need a lot of spit if we’re going to get a thousand evil eyes,” Lindsey said.
“Excellent! I love spit!” Damon said. He made a gross noise and then spit.
“Damon! Gross!” Lindsey said. But she spit, too.
Jesse spit a lot. “Quick thinking, Stella,” he said, wiping his mouth and spitting again.
I passed the cup around and we spit until I felt certain we had enough to defeat the B-Monster. Carefully, I carried the cup up the mountain with us.
“Keep walking!” I yelled. The amulet was warming up again. “It’s glowing!”
“Where did San San go?” Lindsey asked.
We scanned the immediate area for signs of struggle.
“WHOA!” Damon yelled. “Over there! She’s on that other rock!”
My aunt was sprawled across a giant boulder. But why wasn’t she moving? Was she sleeping? Oh no! Was she dead?
“San San!” I cried. I left the spit cup and raced over with the amulet. I wasn’t going to let anyone mess with this ninja—or a member of this ninja’s family. I needed the amulet’s luck right now.
Before I could get to the boulder, something knocked me sideways. I went flying.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
It was the Eyeball Beast!
He plowed into me and knocked me off my feet. The amulet flew out of my hands and disappeared in the underbrush. How would I get San San back without it—I was finished!
“STELLA!” the other Monster Squadders cried.
“Nobody messes with my aunt!” I screamed at the beast. “LEAVE US ALONE!”
The Eyeball Beast glanced at San San like it was going to grab her again. Then it looked at me like it might grab me! Then it looked back at San San!
“Rwo Ran Rans?” it asked.
“Kiiiiiya!” I yelped, striking a bolder pose. “I’m going to knock your eyeballs off one by one!”
The monster blinked.
I remembered San San’s words to me: “Be brave.”
I remembered Brick’s fancy footwork.
And just like that, a fight was on.
“Take that!” I kicked up one leg and sliced at the air. Then, from behind the beast, Damon, Jesse, and Lindsey gathered with large sticks in their hands. I needed to distract the beast a little bit more as they approached. Then they took the long sticks and began poking some of the beast’s one thousand eyes.
The monster sque
aled and flinched as the sticks went into eyeball after eyeball after eyeball. The beast’s eyes all oozed this funny-smelling splurt. Everythingabout this B-Monster was gross—with a side of gross.
“Ewwwwwww!” Damon cried, stepping back after a few pokes. “What is this monster made of? It reeks!”
They continued poking at the other eyeballs like they were playing Whac-A-Mole. Eyeball juice sprayed all over. The monster stumbled around blindly; moaning. Its blinks were more random now.
I moved in closer and cut the air with my arms, just like karate class.
Chop. Chop. CHOP!
“Stella, over there!”
I shot a look back at Damon. He indicated a small mound at the side from where we stood. Just past the mound was the mountain edge. It must have been a thousand foot drop.
“Time for a realcliffhanger, eh?” Lindsey shouted out.
All at once, all the things I’d learned for the test to get my black belt, came rushing into my head. I saw Brick again, leaping into the air.
No more messing around.
Time to be a kicking machine.
WHAM! BLAM! KAZZAM!
My legs whizzed through the air like whirlybirds. I was fleet-footed and the monster didn’t see me coming. He was slower now that a bunch of his eyeballs had been poked. I was able to trick him into going in the direction of the cliff’s edge. Jesse and Damon were right there, poking even more of the beast’s eyes.
He stood up tall, all eight feet of him and stretched his eyeball arms way up into the air. That monster still had fight in him—but so did I! Then I realized what he was really doing. He threw his head back and opened his jaw wide.
“Don’t look, Stella!” Lindsey cried. “He’s going to use the eye on his tongue!”
Damon and Jesse screamed. “Look away!”
But I didn’t look away.
I looked right at that Eyeball Beast’s crazy face, until he poked his tongue out and the most powerful eye on the planet looked right back at me.
It was a lot larger than the other eyes. The white part was bloodshot and it pulsed like a vein.