#7 The Demon Babysitter

First published in Dublin, Ireland, by Little Island
Original Edition © Little Island 2013

American edition © 2015 Darby Creek,
a division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

All US rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

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Main body text set in ITC Stone Serif Std., 11.5/15.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Graves, Annie.

The demon babysitter / by Annie Graves ; illustrated by Glenn McElhinney.

pages cm. — (The Nightmare Club)

Originally published: Dublin, Ireland : Little Island, 2013.

ISBN 978–1–4677–4355–6 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978–1–4677–7640–0 (eBook)

[1. Babysitters—Fiction.   2. Demonology—Fiction.   3. Horror stories.]   I. McElhinney, Glenn, illustrator.   II. Title.

PZ7.G77512Dem 2015

[Fic]—dc23

2014015393

Manufactured in the United States of America
1 – SB – 12/31/14
ISBN 978-1-4677-7640-0 (pdf)
ISBN 978-1-4677-7875-6 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-4677-7876-3 (mobi)

To all survivors of evil babysitters

A
nnie Graves is twelve years old, and she has no intention of ever growing up. She is, conveniently, an orphan, and lives at an undisclosed address in the Glasnevin area of Dublin, Ireland, with her pet toad, Much Misunderstood, and a small black kitten, Hugh Shalby Nameless.

You needn't think she goes to school—pah!—or has anything as dull as brothers and sisters or hobbies, but let's just say she keeps a large black cauldron on the stove.

This is not her first book. She has written eight so far, none of which is her first.

Publisher's note: we did try to take a picture of Annie, but her face just kept fading away. We have sent our camera for investigation but suspect the worst.

I don't know what's with this acknowledgment thing that my publishers keep banging on about. It's not like I had any help with this story or anything.
OK, OK,
so maybe Alice Stevens did mutter something to me one day at a bus stop about how she knew this girl who'd had this babysitter who ...

But that was
ALL
. Cross my heart and hope to live.

L
isten, kids, this is kinda scary because, let's face it, we all get babysat sometimes (except me, of course—I don't do grown-ups), so the thought of a demon babysitter is a little ... shall we say, unsettling.

But I didn't make up the story. It was Becky, and she's such a nice girl. Always tells the truth.

Mostly
tells the truth, anyway.

“Have you ever had a really awful babysitter?” Becky asked when the lights were turned off and we only had Joshua's flickering flashlight to see by. “One who bossed and bullied you?”

Nobody answered her.

Nobody said a word.

“Well, I have,” Becky went on in her nice-girl voice. Funny how scary a nice-girl voice can be sometimes. “Her name was Dervla.”

“Doesn't sound like a scary story to me,” I said.

Becky just blinked at me.

“Except ‘Dervla' sounds a bit ... devilish, don't you think?” she said after a moment. “Would you like to hear about her?”

We all swallowed silently and nodded.

And this is the story Becky told ...

Dervla was my next-door neighbor.

She had frizzy red hair, which she tied back with a yellow ribbon.

She also had big freckles and squinty eyes.

None of the kids on our road liked her.

She was always telling us what to do and what not to do.

Her voice was high and squeaky: “Don't do this, don't do that, I'm telling ... ”

And she did.

You didn't get away with anything if Dervla was around.