The Beast with 1000 Eyes (8 page)

“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.

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

TRANCE-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.”