***
“
So that’s why he hates you
so much. To be honest, I don’t blame him. But it’s still not a
valid reason to become a maniac,” Angelique said.
“
Yeah, I’d be angry, too.
It’s not nice to make fun of someone. But that can’t be the only
reason why he is so angry and vengeful,” Alexander said.
“
We were immature brats in
those days. We apologized to Xavier several times after it
happened. I know it was wrong to laugh at him. But it doesn’t give
Xavier the right to terrorize Thyme, place Zachary on trial, and
steal the cache of battery packs. If he’s still holding a grudge,
he should deal with it in a more civilized way. There is another
reason why he hates me, but I’ll discuss that with you later,” Dr.
Stine said.
“
Well, you told us why
Xavier hates everyone. But you never told me why I was able to use
your scepter. Are you in the mood to talk to me about it now?”
Angelique said.
Dr. Stine rolled his eyes
and sighed. “You’ll keep nagging me about it until I tell you the
truth. Your father and I are cousins. We share the same
bloodlines.” Beads of sweat blossomed on his forehead and his lips
quivered. He hoped she would believe his fib.
“
So, it’s true! George and
Kristina Harrington are my ancestors, too!” Angelique
said.
“
Yes. We’re included in the
same family tree. George and Kristina are at the top of that tree,”
Dr. Stine said. He leaned toward the fire and studied Angelique’s
body language.
She glanced away from him.
Razor cuddled next to her stomach when Angelique leaned against the
exposed roots of a nearby cypress tree. Her head dropped against a
pillow of pine needles and leaves. A few minutes after she closed
her eyes, she snored loudly.
“
I’m sleepy, too. I think
it’s time for bed,” Alexander said. He curled into a fetal position
a few feet away from the campfire. He listened to frogs croak and
crickets chirp while he thought about his parents. Moments later,
his eyes closed and he dreamed.
Dr. Stine stared at Shadow,
Razor, Angelique, and Alexander and wondered whether or not he
should’ve told them the story about Xavier. He wondered if
Angelique and Alexander felt sympathy for Xavier and viewed him
unfavorably for being so cruel to him. He stretched his legs,
yawned, and felt his eyelids grow heavy. He watched low-hanging
clouds drift above the tops of the cypress trees while he drifted
off to sleep.
***
Alexander tossed and turned
on the ground next to the campfire. His eyes bobbed behind his
eyelids while he dreamed. He moaned when he visualized an image of
his father, Timothy Blanton. His father wore a black, pinstriped
suit with matching trousers. Huge claws shredded his white,
button-down, dress shirt, allowing wide rips and tears to reveal
the raw flesh and oozing blood of deep wounds. Alexander gasped
when he looked at his father’s eyes and noticed that they were
solid red. The boy sensed it wasn’t a dream.
“
Alexander, please join us!
Join our pack!” Timothy said. Dark, red blood surged from his
esophagus and splattered on his lips when he spoke. His red eyes
flashed like embers.
Alexander opened his eyes
and bolted upright into a sitting position. He gasped when he
noticed a wolf standing on the other side of the campfire. A dead
rabbit oozed intestines as it dangled from between the wolf’s
clamped jaws. The wolf shook the rabbit violently from side to
side, causing drops of blood to splatter on Alexander’s face. The
boy glanced to his left and realized that his plastic case and the
Bible were several feet away from him. When he scooted across the
ground toward them, the wolf opened its mouth and let the rabbit
drop to the ground with a THUD. The beast’s red eyes glowed as the
animal walked slowly around the circumference of the campfire. When
Timothy Blanton emerged from the shadows and patted the wolf on the
head, Alexander screamed.
Angelique and Dr. Stine
opened their eyes, sat upright, and rose to their feet when they
noticed the man and the wolf. Razor stretched his legs, yawned, and
started to growl when he noticed the unwelcome visitors. Shadow
tugged on the rope that held him to the tree, panicked, and started
bucking. Alexander inched toward his personal belongings while he
stared at his father’s eyes and listened to the wolf
growl.
“
Get out of here, Dr.
Stine! Take the horse and leave right now! You and Angelique must
get to safety before the wolves begin to howl and…” Alexander’s
statement ended abruptly when the clouds dissipated and a full moon
glowed in the sky. Seconds later, unseen wolves exhaled a chorus of
howls.
“
Take Razor to the horse,
Angelique. Do it now,” Dr. Stine said.
“
I don’t care about
them,
Alexander. Sure, the wolves might enjoy feasting on
their
flesh.
But you’re the one I’m interested in. You’re
the one I came for,” Timothy said.
“
You’re dead, Daddy! I
watched the wolves kill you! You must be a ghost!” Alexander said.
He felt his fingers touch the smooth surface of the Bible’s cover.
He groped for the Book and panicked when his fingers only touched
brittle leaves and pine needles.
Alexander watched Dr. Stine
untie the long tether, which kept Shadow tied to the cypress tree.
His fingers searched for the Bible while Angelique straddled
Shadow’s back. As Timothy and the wolf strolled toward him,
Alexander waved at Dr. Stine, who settled into the saddle on
Shadow’s back and held the reins in his fists.
“
We’re not leaving without
you, Alexander! Come with us now!” Dr. Stine said.
“
No! I told you it’s best
to run when the wolves howl and I meant it! I don’t want to see you
suffer the way my father did! Please go! I’ll catch up with you
later!” the boy said.
Timothy acted as if Dr.
Stine and Angelique didn’t exist. He extended his left hand and
reached for his son. “I didn’t die, Alexander. I became a member of
the coven. It was like being
reborn
. Now it’s your turn to
graduate to a higher level of existence!”
Alexander screamed when his
father dropped to his hands and knees. A strong burst of moonlight
penetrated gaps in the cypress trees’ branches and illuminated
Timothy’s face. His clothes split and ripped while his arms and
legs stretched and grew. His nose and mouth transformed into a
long, hairy muzzle. His ears extended upward and became pointed and
furry. His hands transformed into paws and his fingernails
sharpened into claws. Huge, muscular legs caused his pinstriped
trousers to burst at the seams, allowing a bushy, silver tail to
extend from his tailbone. Timothy Blanton stood upright and exhaled
an eardrum-shattering screech that caused birds to take flight from
nearby trees.
He plodded toward his son
while several wolves surrounded the campfire and howled.
“
Alexander, please come
with us! Run to the horse! We can still escape!” Dr. Stine said. He
motioned for Alexander with his left hand. Angelique wept and Razor
barked.
“
The wolves will kill you!
They’ll rip you to pieces! Please go!” Alexander said.
Alexander touched the Bible
and wrapped his fingers around it. He exhaled a sigh of relief when
Dr. Stine dug his feet into Shadow’s ribcage and the horse galloped
deep into the swamp. The boy opened the Bible while his father and
the wolves surrounded him. Timothy lunged forward, eager to sink
his teeth into his son’s arm. The other wolves rocked on their
haunches and pounced. Alexander flipped through frail pages,
located a verse about forgiveness, and read the Bible while he
groveled against a tree’s trunk.
***
Shadow galloped through the
swamp as Dr. Stine’s feet kicked his ribcage. The wizard held the
reins in his hands and ducked beneath the branches of cypress trees
as the horse picked up speed. When the animal stopped running and
reared up, Dr. Stine and Angelique noticed that they were
surrounded by three alligators. The smallest beast, which Dr. Stine
estimated was twelve feet long, opened its mouth wide, revealing
rows of razor-sharp teeth. The other two alligators stalked the
horse from the left and right, eager to use teamwork to bring the
steed down. Shadow’s eyes widened and he whinnied.
“
They’re going to kill
Shadow! What’re we going to do?” Angelique said.
A compartment opened on
Razor’s chest. The dog growled and lined up his upper torso with
the alligator on the left. A huge net, made of steel mesh, shot out
of Razor’s chest and opened in midair. Angelique applauded and Dr.
Stine laughed when the steel net landed on top of the alligator and
pinned the creature to the ground. Dr. Stine dug his heels into
Shadow’s ribcage and guided the horse toward the trapped alligator.
After Shadow leaped over the steel net, the alligator thrashed and
tried to escape in vain.
“
Good boy, Razor! You saved
us again!” Angelique said. She kissed him on his nose.
Dr. Stine gasped, Angelique
screamed, and Razor whimpered when heavy footsteps caused the
ground to shake. They watched a huge, metallic robot penetrate a
cluster of cypress trees. One of the robot’s stainless steel hands
whirled outward in a wide arc, which ripped three trees out of the
ground and caused their roots to whirl in the air. Then they
splashed into a flooded section of the swamp. Anacondas and boa
constrictors slithered toward fallen trees and large boulders as
the robot’s feet left enormous craters in the fertile soil. Dr.
Stine and Angelique glanced at the robot’s head and noticed that it
had only one eye, just like an Eye-Bot. The robot’s metallic jaws
clanked open, revealing two rolling conveyor belts of gnashing,
alloy teeth. A large compartment opened in the robot’s chest. It
reached inside and retrieved a horseshoe-shaped object.
The robot spoke in a
monotone, computerized voice: “My target has been identified and
isolated. My master needs the target’s components to reconstruct
his wife. My records indicate that the components were stolen by
one Dr. Laurent Stine without permission.”
“
Is he talking about
me
? Was I saved as a result of a crime?” Angelique
said.
“
I can explain this,
Angelique. There’s no reason to get upset,” Dr. Stine
said.
The robot’s voice
intervened: “My master demands that I take the target to his
factory as soon as possible!”
Dr. Stine grabbed Razor and
held him close to his chest when the dog suddenly lifted into the
air and floated toward the robot. The robot aimed the
horseshoe-shaped object directly at Angelique. She screamed and
tried to grab onto solid objects as she flew through the air. Dr.
Stine wept and Razor whimpered when Angelique slammed into the
magnetic device with a loud BANG! Then the robot spun on his feet
and charged through the swamp at supersonic speed. Gradually, the
booming sounds of his footsteps faded. After a few minutes, they
could no longer hear Angelique’s cries for help.
“
This is my fault. I’m to
blame for this. I should’ve acquired the android components in an
honest way,” Dr. Stine said.
“
What’s your fault?” a
boy’s voice asked. Alexander emerged from the gloom of the swamp.
He held his Bible in his right hand and his plastic case in his
left one.
“
I thought you were going
to die. How did you escape?” Dr. Stine asked.
“
I caused the wolves to
fall asleep. Then I ran as fast as I could,” the boy
said.
Dr. Stine grimaced when he
noticed blood on the left sleeve of the boy’s shirt. The boy walked
toward Shadow, slung his left leg over the horse’s back, and
climbed behind Dr. Stine. Dr. Stine handed Razor to Alexander. The
boy held the dog close to his chest.
“
Why are you bleeding? Did
one of the wolves bite you?” Dr. Stine asked.
“
I don’t think so. I
remember reading the Bible and watching them sleep,” he
said.
Dr. Stine kicked Shadow’s
ribcage. He guided the horse toward the trail of crushed trees and
crater-sized footsteps. Alexander glanced down at his bloody shirt
and pulled the sleeve back with his hand. He cringed when he
noticed the bite marks. The wounds were already red and swollen. A
high fever caused him to break out in chills. He hoped and prayed
that he wouldn’t succumb to the same fate as his father.
Angelique grunted and tried
to heave herself away from the magnetic, horseshoe-shaped object
while the giant robot charged through the northwestern section of
the swamp. Whenever she pushed herself away from the magnetic
object, it yanked her back within a split second. She succumbed and
exhaled a sigh of disgust when she realized it wouldn’t accomplish
anything to struggle. She watched cypress trees, hanging moss, and
murky marshes flash by while she listened to frogs croak and
alligators splash into the water.
“
If I’d known that Dr.
Stine was a
thief
, I never would’ve agreed to the surgical
procedures he conducted. I feel dirty and violated,” she
said.
“
Professor Beauregard will
correct the problem. Unfortunately, you will cease to exist when he
reconstructs Desiree, his mangled wife,” the robot’s voice
said.