Visitors by R. L. Stine Page B

cages and peeked under the sheet. There he was. The biggest of the egg-shaped aliens, pulsing with energy.
    Keeping the other aliens alive.
    I knew what I had to do.
    But I stopped in panic. The leader was more powerful than the others. A lot more powerful.
    I remembered how the alien had fought inside my body. How I’d felt as if I were going to die.
    What if the leader fought even harder? What if hebeat me—and survived inside me?
    It’s a risk I’ll have to take, I realized. I’m The One. The One to defeat these aliens.
    I opened the door to the leader’s cage.
    “Ben, get away from there!” Rikki scolded. She tried to pull me away from the cages. “What are you doing?”
    I reached into the leader’s cage and snatched him out. Rikki and Summer rushed at me.
    “Put him down!” Rikki ordered. “Put him down!”
    They tried to grab me, but I dodged away from them.
    I opened my mouth as wide as I could.
    “Ben, no!” Rikki screamed.
    I froze. I gazed at the big hairy creature. Thick blue mucus dripped from its body onto my hands, my arms.
    Could I do it? Could I swallow the disgusting thing?

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    Yes. I stuffed the leader into my mouth. With a huge push I shoved him down my throat.
    Gagging, choking, my mouth tingling with fur, I swallowed him.
    I felt the alien body sink heavily into my stomach.
    He felt different from the other alien. Bigger and stronger.
    He wriggled and squirmed inside me. He’s fighting me, I realized. He must sense that I’m not human.
    Rikki and Summer grabbed me by the arms and shook me. “What are you doing? Why did you do that? Are you crazy?”
    “I— ugh !” I grunted. The leader was fighting mehard, raging in fury. I doubled over, crying out in pain.
    Rikki and Summer held on to me tightly. They glared at me angrily.
    Slowly, their expressions changed. Their faces went blank.
    Their hands slipped off me. I saw their knees buckle.
    With loud groans, they both collapsed to the floor.
    In the gym, I saw the other kids fall, too. They dropped to the floor, twitching, rolling, bouncing.
    “People! Everyone!” one of the teachers shouted. “Stop fooling around! What’s the matter with you?”
    But the kids’ bodies jerked on the floor as they screamed in pain.
    Inside me, I felt the leader fighting. He seemed to be bouncing off the sides of my stomach.
    I screamed in agony as I felt his teeth digging into my insides. Was he trying to chew his way out of me?
    I dropped to my knees on the gym floor, clutching my stomach.
    “Ben!” a teacher cried, bending over me. “What is it?”
    I shook my head. I couldn’t speak. The pain was too intense.
    “Somebody call an ambulance!” the teacher shouted. “Hurry!”
    Through the pain, I began to hear the leader’s voice inside my head.
    “ You can’t beat me ,” he said. “ I am all-powerful. I will sap the strength out of you .”
    “ You can’t kill me. I’m going to kill you first .”
    Another stab of pain shot through my body. I could hear the other kids around me screaming, as if from a distance, as if in a dream.
    They were all fading, fading away. I could feel myself fading, too. I couldn’t stand the pain much longer.
    I can’t let him win, I thought. I struggled to hold on, to fight him. But I could feel him growing stronger, angrier. His rage made him powerful.
    I struggled to my feet.
    But I was too weak to stand.
    And the pain…the pain…
    I dropped back to the floor.
    I’ve lost, I realized.
    I’ve let everyone down. I’ve lost….

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    “You don’t know?” I wailed. “You’re still aliens?”
    Summer broke into a grin. “We’re teasing you, Ben. We wouldn’t forget the gross thing you did with that pea.”
    “It still makes me sick to my stomach,” Jeff said.
    “I’m sorry about all the things the aliens made us do to you,” Summer said. “Really sorry. But you saved us! You saved us all! I don’t know how to thank you.”
    “How did you do it?” Jeff asked. “What happened when you