03 - Monster Blood by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page A

started.
    Before she could say anything, the front door of the house burst open, and
Kathryn stepped out onto the stoop.
    “Hey—what are you kids doing? What’s that ?” she cried, gripping the
screen door, her eyes filling with horror.
    Picking up speed, the giant ball bounded toward the stoop.
    Kathryn tossed up her hands in fright. She stood frozen for a long moment, as
if trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Then, leaving the front door
wide open, she spun around and fled into the house.
    Plop. Plop.
    The Monster Blood hesitated at the front stoop.
    It bounced in place once, twice, three times, as if considering what to do
next.
    Evan and Andy gaped in horror from across the lawn, trying to catch their
breath.
    A wave of nausea swept over Evan as he saw the Beymer twins, still visible
deep within the quivering glob, faceless prisoners bouncing inside it.
    Then suddenly, the Monster Blood bounced high and hurtled up the stairs of
the stoop.
    “No!” Evan screamed as it squeezed through the open doorway and disappeared
into the house.
    From the middle of the yard, Andy and Evan heard Kathryn’s bloodcurdling
scream.
    “It’s got Aunt Kathryn,” Evan said weakly.

 
 
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    Evan reached the house first. He had run so fast, his lungs felt as if they
were about to burst.
    “What are you going to do?” Andy called, following close behind.
    “I don’t know,” Evan replied. He grabbed on to the screen door and propelled
himself into the house.
    “Aunt Kathryn!” Evan screamed, bursting into the living room.
    The enormous glob filled the center of the small room. The Beymer twins were
outlined in its side as it bounced and quivered, oozing over the carpet, leaving
its sticky footprints in its path.
    It took Evan a few seconds to see his aunt. The bouncing hunk of Monster
Blood had backed her against the fireplace.
    “Aunt Kathryn—run!” Evan cried.
    But even he could see that she had nowhere to run.
    “Get out of here, kids!” Kathryn cried, her voice shrill and trembling, suddenly sounding very old.
    “But, Aunt Kathryn—”
    “Get out of here—now!” the old woman insisted, her black hair wild about
her head, her eyes, those blue, penetrating eyes, staring hard at the green glob
as if willing it away.
    Evan turned to Andy, uncertain of what to do.
    Andy’s hands tugged at the sides of her hair, her eyes wide with growing fear
as the seething green glob made its way steadily closer to Evan’s aunt.
    “Get out!” Kathryn repeated shrilly. “Save your lives! I made this thing! Now
I must die for it!”
    Evan gasped.
    Had he heard correctly?
    What had his aunt just said?
    The words repeated in his mind, clear now, so clear—and so frightening.
    “I made this thing. Now I must die for it.”

 
 
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    “No!”
    Gaping in horror, as the sickening glob of Monster Blood pushed toward his
aunt, Evan felt the room tilt and begin to spin. He gripped the back of
Kathryn’s armchair as pictures flooded his mind.
    He saw the strange bone pendant Kathryn always wore around her neck.
    The mysterious books that lined the walls of his bedroom.
    Sarabeth, the black cat with the glowing yellow eyes.
    The black shawl Kathryn always wrapped around her shoulders in the evening.
    “I made this thing. Now I must die for it.”
    Evan saw it all now, and it began to come clear to him.
    Evan pictured the day he and Andy brought home the can of Monster Blood from
the toy store. Kathryn had insisted on seeing it.
    On studying it.
    On touching it.
    He remembered the way she rolled the can around in her hands, examining it so
carefully. Moving her lips silently as she read the label.
    What had she been doing? What had she been saying?
    A thought flashed into Evan’s mind.
    Had she been casting a spell on the can?
    A spell to make the Monster Blood grow? A spell to terrify Evan?
    But why? She didn’t even know Evan.
    Why did she want to frighten him? To… kill him?
    “Be