by Peter Bently
“But where are you going?” cried Bella.
“First I’m going to see Miss Gargoyle,” said Lee. “Then I need to find Ollie and Claude …”
Chapter 6
Spooky Surprises
Lee quickly flew off while Billy and Bella hung in the darkness, watching the men.
After about ten minutes, Billy said, “Brrr! I wish Lee would hurry up. I’m getting cold. And bored!”
Just then the man called Milton took off his sunglasses and looked at his watch.
“Shh!” whispered Bella. “He’s saying something.”
“Okay. Tony’s not here,” said the man. “So we’re going to have to do it without him.”
“Right,” agreed the man called Jim. “You got all the tools for breaking in?”
“In the truck with the loot,” said the first man. “It’s parked at the back of the castle.”
“Good,” said the other man. “Let’s go.”
Billy and Bella looked at each other in alarm.
“Oh no!” said Billy. “We’ve got to stop them! But how?”
“There’s only one thing to do,” said Bella.
“You don’t mean …?” gasped Billy.
“Yup,” said Bella.
“The full vampire works.”
“What, fangs and all?” Billy asked.
“Yup. Fangs and all.”
“But—but Miss Gargoyle said we shouldn’t!” said Billy. “It’s against school rules!”
“Look,” said Bella. “This is an emergency, right? Miss Gargoyle will understand. It’s the only way!”
The two men stood up to go.
“Quick!” said Bella. “You go and flap in their faces. That should slow them down. Hurry!”
Billy didn’t need to be asked twice. The men had almost reached the dungeon steps. The man called Milton was in front. Billy flew straight at his head, giving his hair a good ruffling.
“Urgh!” cried the man, stopping so suddenly that the other man barged right into him. They both tumbled to the ground in a heap.
“Oof!” grunted the second man, picking himself up. “You dummy, Milt! What’s the matter?”
“N-nothing,” said the first man. “A bat, I think.”
The man called Jim snickered.
“Scared of a tiny bat? You’ll be seeing vampires next, hur-hur!”
“Okay!” whispered Bella, fluttering over to join Billy in the shadows. “I’ll go first.”
A few seconds later there was a POP!
The noise made both men jump. They squinted in the dark.
“Jim?” whispered the first man. “Look—over there, in the corner! What’s that?”
“I-I dunno, Milt,” shivered the other man.
Bella’s dark shape was moving silently toward them. She was quite short, but the shadows from the fire made her look much bigger.
POP!
Another shape appeared in the firelight.
“Hey!” said the man called Milton. “What’s going on? Who are you?”
“They look human,” muttered the other man. “B-but what are they wearing? Looks like some sort of cape.”
Staring their scariest stares, Billy and Bella got closer and closer and stopped. Then they slowly raised their arms, opened their capes, and grinned a pair of huge fangy grins.
“Arrrrrggghhhh! Vampires! Run!”
The men bolted up the dungeon steps. They hurtled across a courtyard, through a ruined hall, and out to the back of the castle, where their truck was waiting. Billy and Bella arrived just in time to see them suddenly screech to a halt. In front of the truck sat a very large dog.
“Hey!” said Milton. “Whose mutt is this? Here boy! Good boy!”
SNARRRRRLLLLL!
Milton hastily backed away.
“Okay, okay!” he said nervously. “N-nice doggy!”
The dog stood on its hind legs and stared at them with big yellow eyes.
It snarled again, then lifted its snout and went, “HOOOOOOOWWLLLL!”
“D-doggy?” stuttered Jim. “That ain’tno dog, Milt. That’s a … WEREWOLF! AAAARRRGGHHH!”
The two men ran for their lives, with the werewolf in hot pursuit. Billy and Bella were about to follow when a bat flew down to join them.
It was Lee. He turned back into a vampire with a POP!
“Nice work, you two!” he said. “Ollie’s going to chase them to the front gate. Come on!”
The two men didn’t stop running till they reached the gate with the sign on it about ghosts and ghouls.
“Darn it, I forgot we locked it!” cried Jim. “Quick, Milt, gimme the key before those monsters get here!”
“You’ve got the key,” cried Milton.
“I gave it to you!”
“No, Milt, I gave it to you, you numbskull!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
SNAAAARRRRLLLL! HOOOOOOOOWLLL!
The men spun round. The werewolf! And now THREE vampires!
Then, out of the shadows by the gatepost, something else appeared. It had its arms out in front and it was wrapped in bandages. And it was stomping toward them, moaning.
“Yowee! A mummy! ARRRGHHH!”
The two robbers kicked and bashed at the gate until it finally burst open and they ran out—straight into the arms of the police.
A police captain stepped forward, with Miss Gargoyle beside him.
“Well, well!” said the captain. “If it isn’t Milton Grobble and Jim Snark. We’ve been looking for you for ages. We want to ask you about a few robberies.”
“It was us! It was us,” wailed Jim. “Just save us from those horrible ghouls!”
“Please, put us in jail!” begged Milton. “The strongest one you got! Anywhere away from those monsters!”
“Monsters?” said the captain. “What monsters?”
“There!” said Milton. “Right behind us!”
“Nice try, guys,” laughed the captain. “Hi, kids.”
Puzzled, the two robbers slowly turned around. There stood five children—Lee, Bella, Billy, Ollie, and Claude.
“Well done, kids,” said the captain. “Your teacher told us where to wait. Now we just need to find Tony Kreep, the third member of the gang.”
Lee, Billy, and Bella laughed.
“He’s at the top of the Ferris wheel,” said Lee. “And all the loot is in their truck, behind the castle.”
“Excellent,” said the captain. He looked at the vampire children and Miss Gargoyle. “Hey, great costumes, by the way. Been to a costume party?”
“Something like that,” grinned Bella. This time she was careful not to show her fangs.
The police captain turned to Milton and Jim. “Monsters, huh? Scared of a bunch of kids!”
All the police officers laughed.
“B-but there were monsters!” groaned Milton. “Honest!”
“Tell that to the judge,” said the captain. “Take them away, sergeant.”
“The robbers wanted everyone else to think the castle was haunted,” said Lee as they got back on the bus. “So I thought they might as well think so, too!”
“It was great of Ollie and Claude to help out,” said Bella. “Claude was a fantastic mummy! Where did he get those bandages?”
“I borrowed them from the first aid tent,” said Lee.
“Fangtastic!” said Billy.
“Thanks,” said Lee. “You and Bella were fangtastic, too.”
“Well,” said Miss Gargoyle. “You three certainly discovered a few interesting things about that castle! I think you deserve the prizes. Don’t you agree class?”
The whole bus cheered as Miss Gargoyle handed an envelope each to Lee, Bella, and Billy. They opened them and gasped in delight.
“Wow!” said Lee. “A ticket to the circus!”
“Doctor Acula’s Vampire Spectacula!” cried Bella. “I so wanted to see his show!”
“Me, too,” said Billy. “But it’s been sold out for months!”
&
nbsp; They all chorused, “Thanks, Miss Gargoyle!” as Max started the bus and headed back to St. Orlok’s School.
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Chapter 1
Ghoul Show
The school clock was striking nine when a small bat zoomed up to the main entrance of St. Orlok’s Primary School. The bat hovered in front of the doors for a moment, then with a POP! it turned into a boy. It was Lee Price, and he was late for school. Vampire school.
Lee dashed through the doors—and almost crashed right into Mr. E. Gore, the school caretaker.
“Hey! Votchvere you’re going!” grumbled Mr Gore.
“Sorry!” called Lee, speeding down the corridor with his black cape flapping behind him.
“Late again, huh?” yelled Mr. Gore.
He shook his fist so hard that little flakes of rotten skin flew off it like green dandruff. “Pesky vampire kids! So unreliable! Ve zombies are alvays dead on time!”
Lee reached his classroom and burst in just as his teacher, Miss Gargoyle, was taking the register. All the other young vampires turned to stare at him.
“Sorry I’m late, Miss!” he gasped breathlessly, plonking himself down at a table next to his friends Billy Pratt and Bella Williams.
“Really, Lee,” sighed Miss Gargoyle. She peered at the clock. “I nearly marked you absent. Tonight of all nights!”
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Based on an original idea by Chris Harrison
Illustrations © 2010 by Chris Harrison
Copyright © 2010 by Peter Bently
Albert Whitman & Company
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Park Ridge, Illinois 60068
www.albertwhitman.com
Distributed in 2013 by Open Road Distribution
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