The Slime That Would Not Die (6 page)

Damon Molloy was hanging around the school playground with his crew,
literally
. I watched him climb all the way to the top of the jungle gym, pound his chest like a gorilla, and hang off the top bar by his knees.

On his T-shirt today was just one word: .

What a show-off
, I thought.

Lindsey was hanging out at the main school building with her friends, including Desiree Payton, who is quite possibly the snooty-snootiest girl at Riddle Elementary School. Unlike Stella or me or even Damon, Lindsey seems to have an endless supply of friends. I wondered if they would still like her when they spotted her hanging out with all of us. Ha! They'd probably give her some kind of disintegrating death stare just like Dr. Zoltan in
Zattack of the Zombies.
That's what the snoots do best: blow you off.

I just hoped Lindsey kept her lips locked. Our big B-Monster secret could not get out to Desiree or anyone else at school! A little information in the wrong hands could jeopardize the entire operation.

Finally, Lindsey left her friends and came over to the bus stop where we were waiting. As we boarded the bus, the sky started to cloud over. It looked like it was going to be a rainy night.

The bus chugged up the road, past the Glog Glen Diner, across Gravesend Ridge, and all the way up to the very top of Nerve Mountain. Still no rain.

At the top, a barbed wire fence appeared along the side of the road, covered with kooky signs like and
B-WARE OF
I guessed that Oswald Leery had put up those signs a very long time ago, back when he used to give tours of his castle.

As the bus pulled up to a stop near the top I saw a sign that read:
LEERY CASTLE.
“You know this old place is closed,” the driver said, leaning on the DOOR lever for the bus. “Has been shut up for years.”

I smirked. “We know. We wanted to see it anyway.”

“Suit yourself,” the driver said. He shut the door and motored away.

“I wish I had a camera,” I said, eyeing the sign again.

“I do!” Lindsey cried. She took out her camera and got us into position.

Damon, Stella, and I posed next to the Leery Castle sign. Then we posed near the castle gates. Rising high over our heads were two enormous Crabzilla gates with strong, supersized iron claws. The gates looked even scarier against the backdrop of a stormy sky.

Lindsey snapped a few more photos.

“When I started watching Oswald Leery movies at my parents' drive-in theater, I never imagined something as crazy as
this
,” Damon said, looking around.

“Hold on! Your parents run the Desert Drive-O-Rama?” I asked. “And you've never been up here before?”

Damon shook his head. “Dad said I couldn't come up until I was ten.”

“That was last year,” Stella said. “Maybe you didn't come up because you were
afraid
!”

“No!” Damon said. “I just didn't feel like it.”

All at once, the intercom sizzled. We heard a scratchy voice.

“Hello there! I've been expecting you!” Walter said. “Press the code to come through the gates. It's
Slimo.
”

We looked at each other.

“Slimo?” Damon looked worried.

The wind whipped around us and I got goose bumps all over. Then I saw the keypad with letters.

Damon punched the letters. The moment he hit the
O
in
Slimo
, we heard something crunch inside one of the Crabzilla legs. The two Crabzilla gates began to shift and twist. Their enormous claws opened and then closed slowly, like nutcrackers.

We hurried inside the gates quickly, afraid the claws might clamp down and turn us into crab cakes.

“There's the front door!” Lindsey cried. I saw it, too. It was up ahead, past the mess of brambles and plaster garden sculptures. Models of all the best B-Monsters could be found on this pathway, molded in plastic with chipped but brightly colored paint jobs: Bog Beast, Smog Thing, Space Leech, and others
.

“Watch out for booby traps,” Damon warned.

“Why would there be booby traps here?” I asked.

Damon shrugged. “You never know. There are always booby traps in the movies.”

Lindsey and Stella found an oversize stepping stone in the shape of Rodiak's foot.

She started snapping photos again: a shot of the Rodiak footprint; a close-up of Damon, Stella, and me under some creepy-looking vines; a shot of another great big sign that read: ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. A thunderbolt cracked over our heads. The rain was coming closer. What were we going to do if it poured?

“Hey! Look at the door!” Lindsey cried.

We all looked. It was
open
.

It hadn't been open a minute ago.

“Hello?” I called out, walking inside cautiously.

“Hello? Walter? Professor Leery?” Damon called out after me. He and the girls followed me in. The door slammed shut behind us. We all jumped.

“Mr. Leery?” I yelled.

There was no answer.

Spread out before us was a sweeping, swerving staircase covered in deep purple plush carpet. The only sounds I heard were the bubbling of a fish tank somewhere and the tick-tock of an enormous grandfather clock. It was dark and the ceilings were lost in shadows.

The wide foyer was tiled in checkered marble, but it didn't look as elegant as you would think. It was a real mess. There were too many shelves and tables covered with stuff like teddy bears with fangs and pillows with strange maps. There was a row of funny hats and masks and rubber boots. Framed bats with wings had been displayed in neat cases along the bottom of the stairs. A large black stuffed crow was perched on the banister. It wore a jeweled collar.

“Hello?” Stella called out. No one answered.

Butterflies sprang up in my stomach. I was beginning to think that coming here had been a bad idea.

“We should go,” Damon whispered. “Like,
now
.”

“What happened to ‘tuff'?” Stella teased, pointing to his T-shirt. “I thought you'd be the first one to stick around and beat up a few monsters!”

Before Damon could answer, the black crow that had been sitting on the banister opened its beak! It stretched out its wide black wings and lifted up off the stairs.

Lindsey looked panicked. “It's not stuffed!” she cried.

Stella struck a karate pose and chopped at the air. “Keep back, bird!” she said.

Damon hit the floor.

I didn't know what to do. The crow flapped its wings and flew toward us. I grabbed a folded-up newspaper that was lying on a table and swatted at the air.

“Jesse! Look out!” Lindsey cried.

The crow was perched high on a bookshelf, but it was staring right at me.

The crow flapped up again and flew in a quick circle over my head. Then it flew up into the shadows.

“What's it doing now?” Damon asked. He was lying flat on the floor with his arms over his head.

“Forget the crow,” Stella joked. “Meet the chicken.”

I reached out to help Damon up when suddenly Stella knocked us both back down again.

“Watch out!” Stella yelled as she fell on top of us. “Incoming!”

I looked up just in time to see the crow take a nosedive straight for my head!

CHAPTER 9

“Duck!” Stella cried to me. “DUUUUUCK!”

I darted to the side to avoid a head-on collision.

“Hey, it's a crow, not a duck,” Lindsey cracked to

Stella and me.

“NO MORE BIRD JOKES!” I cried.

Stella wasn't laughing but Lindsey still was. Sometimes I think Lindsey has a permanent case of the giggles.

Why was the crow so determined to chase after
me
?
I wondered.

“Watch out, Jesse! He must like you!” Lindsey cried out.

A whistle came from afar. Walter Block appeared.

“Over here, Poe,” Walter called to the bird. “Stay.”

And just like that, the crow perched on Walter's shoulder.

“That was way too close,” I said to Walter. I collapsed onto one of the velvet sofas in the room.

“Can I get up now?” Damon said, peeking out.

“Yes,” Walter said. “Meet Poe, the mascot of Leery Castle.”

“Poe? Like Edgar Allan Poe?” Stella asked.

“Indeed.” Walter nodded. “Follow us,” he continued, moving with the crow into the adjoining room.