“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Mr Watson, turning to his son. “Why lie about something as big as this?”
“I didn’t think you’d…” Luke’s words trailed off.
“What?” snapped his dad. “Be able to cope?”
“Something like that,” Luke admitted.
“You wouldn’t believe the things your mum and I have had to cope with since you became who you are!” cried Mr Watson. “It wasn’t easy, but we always did it — together. Only this time, you kept us apart.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Mr Watson looked back at the werewolf.
“We should take her home.”
“Sneer won’t let us move her,” said Luke.
“He will by the time I’ve finished with him!” declared Mr Watson, setting off in the direction of the landlord.
Luke grabbed his dad’s arm to stop him. “Let me do it,” he said. Mr Watson turned to look at him. “I was the one who caused her transformation, and I was the one who hid it from you. Give me a chance to fix things.”
“And if you can’t…?”
“We’ll rope off the corner of the square and you can fight it out with Sir Otto yourself,” smiled Luke.
Mr Watson looked intently into his son’s eyes. “Bring your mum home,” he said.
Luke nodded. “I will, Dad. I promise.”
With a final sad glance at the werewolf, Mr Watson walked away. Resus and Cleo came over to their friend.
“Are you OK?” asked Cleo.
“I will be once we get my mum out of all this,” sighed Luke. “Come on.”
Resus and Cleo followed him towards the gates to Sneer Hall. Thankfully, the crowds blocked Sir Otto’s view, and the landlord was unable to see the trio slip inside and dash across the lawn.
“I hope Sneer hasn’t got his hellhounds patrolling the grounds,” said Cleo as they made their way from the cover of a tree to a nearby clump of bushes.
“I doubt it,” said Resus. “He doesn’t want another hungry monster on the loose! Sorry,” he added, catching Luke’s expression.
When they reached the house, they pressed themselves up against one of its huge walls and slid round to the door they knew led to the massive kitchen inside.
“This is nail-biting stuff!” joked Resus, pulling off one of his fake vampire talons and slipping it into the lock. The false nails were as strong as steel and Resus had used them many times before to gain entry to locked buildings. He twisted the nail, and … snap!
“What’s wrong?” asked Luke.
“It broke,” groaned Resus.
“Broke?” said Luke. “I thought those things were invincible!”
“Not against titanium locks,” replied Resus, crouching to examine the door. “It looks like Sneer’s upgraded his security.”
“What do we do now?” asked Cleo.
“We could try another door,” suggested Resus.
Luke shook his head. “If he’s changed one lock, he’ll have changed them all.”
“There’s a window open up there,” said Cleo, pointing to the top floor.
“We’ll never get up there without a ladder,” sighed Luke.
“Then we need to think of something else,” said Resus. “Any ideas?”
“I’m a vampire!” announced a voice.
Chapter Twelve
The Raid
“Kian!” hissed Resus, pulling the small vampire flat against the wall beside him. “What are you doing here?”
“Your mum told me you went to see my grandad last night,” beamed the boy. “Did he say when I can meet him?”
“He, er … wasn’t in,” said Resus. “But we’re going to look for him again later.”
“Is he in there?” asked Kian, pointing at the mansion.
“No, he’s not in there,” replied Cleo. “And you shouldn’t be here either — you could get into trouble!”
Kian didn’t falter. “Why?”
“Because we’re … we’re…” Cleo shrugged. “Luke?”
“Because we can’t let anyone know we’re here,” Luke explained.
“Why?”
“Because some people wouldn’t be happy if they knew what we were doing.”
“Why?”
Luke bit back an impatient retort. “Because… Because it’s a secret!”
“Like a secret mission?” asked Kian.
“That’s it,” agreed Resus. “We’re on a top-secret mission.”
“Can I come too?” asked Kian excitedly. “I’m really good at keeping secrets. I’m a vampire!”
The trio exchanged worried looks. “He can’t come inside Sneer Hall with us,” whispered Luke. “Anything could happen!”
“Well, we can’t send him back by himself,” Cleo pointed out. “Someone might spot him and want to know what he’s doing here.”
“To be honest, I can’t see us getting inside at all,” said Resus. “If all the locks are titanium, my nails won’t work on any of them.”
“I could change into a bat and fly up to that open window, go inside, come downstairs and open the door for you,” suggested Kian. “You can get in that way.”
Luke, Resus and Cleo stared at the boy in silence for a few seconds.
“You’ve got yourself a mission!” exclaimed Luke. “But be careful in there.”
“I’m always careful,” grinned Kian. “I’m a vampire!”
The boy spun round swiftly and changed into a bat amid a cloud of black smoke. Flapping its wings, the bat rose into the air and slipped through the open window.
“OK,” said Luke. “Let’s get to the door so we’re ready for him.”
“Which one?” asked Cleo.
“What?”
“Which door is Kian going to open?”
Luke felt his cheeks redden. “I, er … I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” demanded Resus.
“I didn’t tell him which door to open,” admitted Luke. “But you didn’t either!” he added defensively.
“He could be anywhere in there by now,” cried Resus. “That place is huge.”
“I’m sure he won’t get lost,” said Cleo.
“Of course he’ll get lost!” exclaimed Resus. “He’s just a little kid, and Sneer Hall is like a maze. In fact, I’ll be surprised if we ever—”
Click! The door closest to the trio swung open and Kian appeared, grinning out at them.
“Can we start the secret mission now?” he whispered.
Luke, Resus, Cleo and Kian crept up the nearest staircase and into Sir Otto Sneer’s first floor study. Apart from the small group of trespassers, the mansion appeared to be deserted — and thankfully the landlord’s hellhounds were nowhere to be seen.
“If Sneer’s keeping the money anywhere, it’ll be in his safe,” said Luke.
“What safe?” asked Cleo, looking around the room. Aside from dozens of well-stocked bookshelves, the only furniture was a desk, a leather chair and a slightly moth-eaten sofa.
Luke shrugged. “My guess is, he’ll have one hidden behind a painting, or in a secret compartment in one of the bookshelves,” he said.
“Meaning it will take for ever to find,” sighed Cleo.
“Not necessarily,” said Resus. “Safes are, invariably, made from metal — so all we need is something that’s attracted to the stuff.”
“Goblins!” exclaimed Cleo. “They’re like magpies when it comes to shiny things. They’d be able to find a metal safe within minutes.”
“Probably,” agreed Resus. He patted his pockets. “But I appear to be all out of goblins at the moment… I do, however, have this!” He pulled a metal detector from the folds of his cloak and switched it on.
Kian gasped in excitement. “Does your cape do that too?” he squeaked. “I’ve got all sorts in here!” He began to pull an assortment of items from his own cloak. “I’ve got a stapler, a radio, a cookery book, a rubber chicken…”
While Kian was busy emptying out his cape, R
esus slipped on a pair of headphones and began to run the metal detector along the rows of books. Luke and Cleo, meanwhile, checked behind the many paintings that hung on the study walls.
“…a newspaper, a bottle-opener, a spinning wheel, a rose bush…”
“Nothing behind there,” said Luke when he and Cleo had finished. “Maybe it’s sunk into the floor somewhere.” Dropping to their knees, the pair began to run their fingers over the thick carpet.
“…a hatstand, a pair of shears, a trifle, a baby’s rattle…”
Beep, beep! Resus pulled a handful of books off one of the shelves to reveal a small, silver door behind. “Got it!”
Luke and Cleo hurried over, and even Kian stopped taking an inventory of his belongings to peer at the safe, buried deep in the wall.
Luke pulled at the wheel-like handle. “It’s locked,” he said.
“You don’t say,” observed Resus sarcastically.
“But it’s got one of those combination things,” continued Luke.
“Except we don’t have the combination,” said Cleo.
“I read a book once where some bank robbers used a doctor’s stethoscope to listen for the clicks as they turned the wheel,” Luke told them. He looked at Resus and Kian. “Either of you got a stethoscope in your capes?”
Resus had a quick rummage around inside his. “No, sorry,” he said.
“I’ve got a toy cow,” said Kian. “Does that help? I’ve also got a stepladder, a grapefruit, a boomerang, a teapot…”
“It’s OK,” Luke assured him quickly. “I’ll just have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
He closed his eyes and pictured his mum’s werewolf locked in the cage in the square, a crowd of normals leering and taking photographs. Photographs that would bring even more gawping tourists to Scream Street…
Anger bubbled inside Luke’s mind and he pictured it as a black liquid, spreading out across his face. Within seconds, his ears began to stretch out and rise to the top of his head.
Kian giggled. “You look like a gnome!”
The partial transformation now complete, Luke pressed his ears against the cold metal door of the safe and began slowly to turn the wheel. Each tiny click was amplified a hundred times to his werewolf senses, and he was easily able to hear the difference between the noise of the wheel turning and the almost silent sound of the safe’s bolts sliding open.
“Twelve to the right,” Luke said to himself. “Eighteen to the left. Nine to the right. Twenty-two to the left, and…” With a soft hiss, the vacuum seal around the edge of the door released as the safe unlocked.
“Amazing!” said Cleo. “If you ever decide to join Sneer instead of battling him, there’s a career as a safe-cracker waiting for you!”
“I’d rather be a cook for Doug, Turf and Berry,” grinned Luke. He reached out to open the safe door. Resus stopped him.
“I don’t like this,” he said. “No matter what we call it, it’s still stealing.”
Luke sighed as his ears returned to normal. “It’s not stealing if we don’t keep it for ourselves,” he insisted. “All Sneer has to do is hand my mum over, then he can have his dirty money right back.”
“I don’t know…”
“Look,” said Luke, finally opening the door. “You don’t have to be involved in this at all. I was the one who came up with this idea, I was the one who broke into the safe, and I’ll be the one to take the money…”
“What money?” asked Kian.
The trio stared. The little vampire was right: the safe was completely empty.
“If there’s nothing in there to steal,” said Resus, “why do I still feel like we’re a bunch of thieves?”
“Because you are a bunch of thieves!” roared the voice of Sir Otto behind them.
Chapter Thirteen
The Poem
“Well, I’ve finally caught you stealing from me,” growled Sneer. “I’ll see that G.H.O.U.L. sends you to the Underlands for this.”
“We haven’t stolen anything!” exclaimed Luke. “The safe was already empty when we opened it.”
“Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t,” said the landlord. “But I know which story I’ll be passing on to Zeal Chillchase…”
“Are you my grandad?” interrupted Kian.
“What?” barked Sir Otto.
“I’m looking for my grandad,” explained Kian, unfazed by Sir Otto’s glare. “He’s a vampire. Are you him?”
“Get this little brat away from me!” bellowed Sneer. “How dare he accuse me of being a freak like the rest of you?”
Resus hurried over to Kian and quickly ushered him away. “He’s not your grandad,” he explained. “He’s a very nasty man.”
“I’m the nasty one, am I?” laughed Sneer. “May I point out that I’m not the one who’s just been caught breaking into a locked safe?”
“We were only trying to help Luke’s mum,” protested Cleo. “You’re the one who locked her up!”
“And all for a worthy cause,” smirked Sir Otto. “Me! She is, after all, my biggest attraction.” He shook his leather money bag to illustrate his point.
“Until she transforms back, that is,” said Resus. “After that, who’s going to pay to see a woman locked in a cage?”
“Normals will pay,” declared Sneer, dropping the bag onto his desk. “Normals that will anger her night and day with their insults and their camera flashes. If they happen to see her transform in person, I’ll charge them extra for the privilege. Who knows, I might even make them pay to watch feeding time…”
“You can’t do that!” cried Cleo.
“Just watch me.”
Luke clenched his fists, but Resus shook his head. “He’s not worth it,” he said.
“Oh, but I am worth it,” countered Sir Otto. “For when the normals tire of the werewolf, I’ll put your parents in the cage, boy! A few days without their precious blood supply, and those pathetic vampires will be biting anything I throw at them.”
“I’ll kill you!” roared Resus, racing for the landlord. Sir Otto knocked the vampire aside with a swipe of his hand, sending him crashing into the pile of objects Kian had produced from his cape. The items fell on top of Sir Otto’s money bag and, one after the other, disappeared inside it.
“It works just like a vampire’s cape!” exclaimed Kian.
“You idiots!” shouted Sneer as he snatched up the bag and peered inside. “You’ve pushed all the money down to the bottom!” He stormed towards the door. “I’ll be back once I’ve contacted Chillchase.”
And in a flash, the landlord had slammed the door behind him and turned the key, locking the children inside his study.
“Is that man angry with me?” asked Kian.
“He’s angry with everyone,” said Cleo kindly. “Don’t let him worry you.”
“But how will we find my grandad if we’re locked in here?”
“We’ll find a way,” Resus reassured him. “I don’t quite know how, but we will.”
“At least we now know where Sneer’s been keeping his money,” said Luke, slumping into the armchair. “It’s all inside that leather bag.”
“It was just like my vampire’s cape,” Kian said again.
“It’s probably got the same sort of spell on it,” said Resus. “Typical Sneer — he doesn’t trust anyone, so he carries his cash with him everywhere he goes.”
“The only chance I had of making him release my mum, and I can’t get anywhere near it,” sighed Luke.
There was a timid tap on the door.
“Who’s there?” asked Cleo.
“Dixon,” came the reply. “Uncle Otto says I have to come up here and stand guard, and that while I’m at it I should tell you some of my horrible poetry.”
“Wonderful,” Resus groaned.
Dixon cleared his throat and began, very quietly, to recite his latest composition so that it could just be heard through the door:
“My uncle says my poems stink,
It makes me very
sad.
And so I’m going to do something
That’s bound to make him mad.
If you want to make him cross,
To tear out all his hair,
Take a look at what you find
Right beneath his…”
“That’s the worst so far,” muttered Luke.
“It doesn’t even rhyme,” agreed Resus.
Cleo hurried over to the door. “Dixon,” she called, pressing her face to the wood. “Say that last verse again!”
“No, don’t,” moaned Resus. “Isn’t it bad enough to be trapped in here, without having to endure this torture from the rotten rhymer?”
“Shh!” hissed Cleo. “Dixon, please tell it to me again.”
“Why do you want…?” began Luke.
Cleo glared at him. “Because it’s a clue, dummy. Now — get over here and listen!”
Luke dashed to the door. “OK, Dixon,” he called. “Tell us your poem again — one more time, please…”
“Just remember that you worked it out for yourselves,” whined Dixon. “I didn’t tell you anything!”
“We won’t say a word,” promised Resus.
Dixon whispered the entire rhyme a second time:
“My uncle says my poems stink,
It makes me very sad.
And so I’m going to do something
That’s bound to make him mad.
If you want to make him cross,
To tear out all his hair,
Take a look at what you find
Right beneath his…”
Luke stepped back from the door and looked around the room. “Right beneath his … bear?” He shrugged. “Has Sir Otto got a bearskin in here?”
“Not that I can see,” answered Resus. “What about pair?”
“Pair of what?” asked Cleo.
“I dunno.”
Luke paced about, listing words at random. “Flare … mare … dare … lair … chair…” His eyes lit up. “Chair!” He dropped to his knees and slid Sir Otto’s chair away from his desk to examine the carpet beneath. “Nothing,” he sighed.
“Try looking under the carpet,” suggested Resus.
Gripping the edge of the carpet at the wall, Luke and Cleo rolled it back as far as Sir Otto’s chair to reveal a small hatch in the floorboards.
Invasion of the Normals Page 7
