“And you, Abe, you and your friends, will be the perfect offering to all those monsters watching. They hate you. I mean, they absolutely despise you.” He looked at his fingernails, picked at a piece of dirt beneath them. “Then again, you are pretty easy to hate.”
With a manic burst of energy, Doctor Blood jumped up. He landed in a pool of dark blood. His soles squeaked beneath him. He almost fell and he thought that was the funniest thing in the world.
“A little secret, Abraham. Do you want to know?”
I couldn’t reply. Couldn’t even nod my head.
“I believe you are so easy to hate that your father didn’t even like you. Yes…yes, I learned the truth. You can learn a lot about a man in the last moment’s of his life. He hated you and that bitch he married. Your mother, in case the Fang has started working on your mind already, Abraham.”
My eyes swiveled around in their sockets. Suddenly, an iciness spread through my skull. A flash freeze. Water thrown out the window on a subzero winter’s day. I could feel it spreading to my eye sockets. To my sinuses. Pretty soon, I wouldn’t be able to see, wouldn’t be able to breathe.
“Yes, anyway, I suppose I am a man with a plan,” Doctor Blood said. “I will kill you and win the hearts of every monster around. I will take the mermaid as my queen. I will spread our ways of monstrosity to the far reaches of humanity. I will disband that pitiful organization called BEAST and all its subsidiaries. My time has come. And you, my friend, your time is up.”
Doctor Blood reached out and took my hand in his own. He worked on my fingers, which were as stiff as a corpse’s, and pried the Fang away.
“So let’s get this started, yeah?” Doctor Blood raised the Fang and, with a vicious thrust downward, he stabbed the bloody floor.
A void opened. But there were no tentacle monsters spilling forth. Not this time.
The Fang was some kind of key. That was how he’d gotten here. That was how we’d leave.
“Bring him,” he said to the vamps.
Cold claws touched my shoulders, pushed me forward.
Into the void, I went, trying to scream, but only breathing sharply out of my nostrils.
24
Let’s Start a Revolution
I didn’t come out to cheers.
I came out to stunned silence.
The crowd was as thick as it had been before. They had sensed something, I think, something big. The camera feed on all of the large screens was black.
On the platform in the middle of the arena, where I would’ve held the Fang up and received my points had everything gone as planned—then again, it rarely does for me, right?—stood the Boogeyman, the worm-man, and the Saber Corporation’s representatives. Marena leaned forward in her tub of saltwater, her scaly arms hanging over the lip of the container, as she looked on at Doctor Blood with some kind of sick love.
“What is the meaning of this?” the Boogeyman demanded.
It was the first noise anyone had made since our arrival. I was still frozen. Otherwise, I would’ve screamed.
“Abe!” Zack said.
I couldn’t turn my head, couldn’t seek out the voice that had called my name.
“Abe!” he said again.
He was here, which meant Maddie was here, too. I wondered briefly how they had arrived. Doctor Blood must’ve found them. A magician’s trick.
“Yes,” Doctor Blood whispered. “I brought along the rest of the Fright Squad. Can’t take any risks. Have to kill you all. But it should be easy enough to kill the girl. She’s practically on the way to bleeding out herself.”
Maddie. No.
“You’re dead!” Zack said. “You piece of shit, I’ll kill you!”
“Order! Order!” the Boogeyman was shouting.
A ripple of confusion went through the crowd. The video feed suddenly blinked back on. All around me was the twisted grin of Doctor Blood, magnified. My stomach clenched. Seeing that grin made me want to vomit.
“What is he doing? Get him out of here!” the Boogeyman shouted to his minotaur minions. The large monsters rushed off the platform, heading in our direction like a group of pissed-off bulls.
The vamps with Doctor Blood lunged. Doctor Blood waved them down, as if to say I’ll handle this.
How he could, I didn’t know. There were five minotaurs. Each one was at least three hundred pounds heavier than Doctor Blood, who was just a tall and skinny old man. He shouldn’t have stood a chance.
But then again, they didn’t know the true power of a Wraith.
The minotaurs got about five feet away from smashing Doctor Blood into powder with their sharp horns before, with a wave of his hand, those horns were ripped straight from their heads. The sound they made as they pulled free from the beasts’ skulls reminded me of the time the mutated vamps had yanked the rookie Johnson’s head off. It was a sort of wet ripping noise.
Blood sprayed from these fresh holes in the minotaurs’ heads. Their mouths opened in silent screams. Silent, because before any of the terrible screeches that would undoubtedly escape their throats could come out, Doctor Blood waved his hand again and the minotaurs ripped in half at the waist. Their heavy bodies thumped the dirt, which the blood drank greedily.
Someone in the crowd had screamed.
The microphone the Boogeyman was holding fell from his hands, hit the stage. Feedback whined sharply throughout the arena.
Doctor Blood kept walking toward the platform. He stepped through the twisted entrails and detached horns of the minotaurs without sparing a second glance.
Cold claws bit into my flesh again. Now I was dragged through the gore in Doctor Blood’s wake, the rabid vampires flapping their wings as they pulled me.
The Boogeyman took a hesitant step backward as Doctor Blood approached the podium. The worm-man wasn’t so careful. He inched his way right off of the stage, fell hard, and slithered to safety somewhere behind. I couldn’t exactly see where because I couldn’t turn my head. The Saber Corporation stood up, but not in fear. In respect. They had smiles on their faces and love in their eyes. Marena Psydin especially.
The vamps righted me so I was facing the podium. Doctor Blood’s back was to me. The crowd’s gaping eyes stared on in stunned silence.
I tried searching out Octavius, Fizzler, Slayer, and the rest of the gaslings, but I didn’t find them. Everyone seemed to blend in. Or maybe my eyes were just going bad on me. It would’ve made sense. But I did see Zack and Maddie. Zack stood with his arms around Maddie, making sure she didn’t fall over. Her jeans were dark with blood. Her leg was shaking. Jesus, she didn’t look good. Still, I saw consciousness in her eyes. She knew what was going on—what was about to happen.
She knew I was dying. Knew we were all about to die. We had the Fang to thank for that. And Marena Psydin. And the Monster Games.
Speaking of the Fang, aside from being a key it was also the poisonous tooth of some great beast that now was spreading its poison into me. Giving more power to Doctor Blood.
The Wraith picked up the microphone. He tapped the tip of it. Thud-thud. He cleared his throat.
“I didn’t want to do that. I’m sure you are clever enough to realize that was only self-defense,” he said, then cleared his throat again. He seemed slightly nervous, which I thought was such an odd thing because he had been in total control. Despite being vastly outnumbered by all the spectating monsters, no one dared make a move, no one dared perform an act of bravery. Not after what they’d seen done to the minotaurs.
I tried flexing my muscles again. Nothing happened. Nothing worked.
I was broken.
Helpless.
“Tonight I come to you with an opportunity.” Doctor Blood paused for dramatic effect. It worked. The nervousness he possessed was gone. He was a natural showmen. “This opportunity is a great one. You may follow me, bend your knee—or your shell or worm body, whatever—as I take control of this puny earth.”
Mumbles from the crowd. Monsters looking back and forth from o
ne another. Fear in their eyes. Something I’d never seen. The epitome of fright had been frightened.
“Too long have the monsters been oppressed,” Doctor Blood continued. “Too long have we been ridiculed and mocked and looked over. Take Hollywood films for instance. Why are the monsters always the bad guy? The villain? Why are they hunted in these films? Why are they killed? Why are they hunted in the real world? Hmm? BEAST stretches far and wide, but they have been weakened. They can be easily defeated. This world is up for grabs. So, I say, with our claws, with our gnarled hands, with our fins—” he glanced sideways with a smirk on his face toward Marena, “—by the gods, let’s grab it!”
Silence.
My body was shaking. I felt the poison coursing through my veins. Nothing I could do about it.
The first monsters to rise up in the stands were a trio of giant spiders taking up nearly two whole rows of seats with their massive bodies. They lifted on their back legs, raised their front legs high. Their great pincers clacked together. Echoed in the quiet of the stadium.
“There! Smart monsters,” Doctor Blood said.
Marena sloshed in her tank of water, clapped her webbed hands. The other representatives of the Saber Corporation grinned. An ancient worm spilled out from the mummy’s mouth. The golem flung clay onto the stage as it clapped. The tall demon raised his arms. They seemed so long that they could’ve plucked the very stars from the sky.
“More, more!” Doctor Blood was saying. “Trust me. Join now. The alternative is not so sweet.”
Another pause.
More monsters stood. No. This wasn’t good. He didn’t need any more help. He was powerful enough already.
Shaggy werewolves, looking nervous, rose. One of them howled loudly. Vamps, wearing capes, spread them out across their bodies, hissed their approval. A group of worm-men in the front row clapped. The sound of the arena was nowhere near as loud as it had been earlier, but it was getting louder by the second.
“Smart! Smart!” Doctor Blood said. “The alternative, of course, is death.”
The others on the fence decided death was not something they wanted. Even those monsters that were already dead. They stood. They clapped. They looked around like scared animals.
It was easy to pick out the gaslings and Octavius in the crowd now. They weren’t standing. They were about the only ones who weren’t.
“Now,” Doctor Blood said, “to show you how committed I am to the betterment of monster society, I shall reward you with a sacrifice.”
He looked at me. If I could’ve felt anything, I imagined I’d feel fear. That was only natural, wasn’t it? Fear of death. Yet, I felt nothing.
“Yes, I shall sacrifice the Fright Squad. Public enemy number one. The trio of humans, who like many other humans, have made their living hunting our kind.”
The crowd cheered again. This time, they sounded honest. Like they really wanted us dead.
That wasn’t surprising. A lot of monsters wanted me dead. I could think of at least one who was currently in a jar in my closet back home. Now, I wondered if I’d ever talk to Xaluney again. Or any monster for that matter.
“The Fright Squad, brought forth to our precious Games by the gaslings,” Doctor Blood said.
“Boooo!” the crowd went on.
The elders looked around at the jeering monsters. Snacks and empty bottles started flying at them. Fizzler and the others covered themselves. Gizzler didn’t. He opened his mouth wide and ate whatever came close enough.
“The Fright Squad, who has tarnished the Monster Games’ great legacy,” Doctor Blood said. With a jerk, he motioned the rabid vampires to bring me into view while others broke off and grabbed Maddie and Zack.
I didn’t put up a fight. I couldn’t.
But Maddie, despite her wounded leg, and Zack certainly did.
Zack punched a vampire square in the nose after they’d disarmed him of his ax. Then he went for the weapon, only to get plucked away by a different vamp’s claws. His shirt ripped, his skin bled, but he didn’t cry out. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Maddie raised up her good leg, putting her weight on the bad leg. She managed a kick in the gut of one of the vamps, hard enough to send it stumbling backward, before she fell over in the dirt, much to the crowd’s satisfaction.
The scuffle was over. The vamps dragged them up to the platform. Zack and Maddie were dirty, bloody, sweating.
“Put them on their knees,” Doctor Blood said. “I want—”
“Enough!” a voice shouted from behind. It was so loud that it had picked up on the microphone. I couldn’t see who it had come from, but I’d heard the voice over the course of the Opening Ceremonies and the Champions’ feast to know that it was the Boogeyman. “You are not in any way qualified to call yourself a ruler.”
Slowly, Doctor Blood turned around. He was much taller than the Boogeyman, much paler. On his face, he wore that savage smile full of serrated teeth. It was a shark’s grin.
“Ah, yes, I had forgotten about you. The Monarch of the Monsters.” Doctor Blood tilted his head back and laughed.
“Enough!” the Boogeyman said. He held his staff in front of him. The orb atop it swirled with its captured souls, its power. He lifted it up, but before it could bang down, Doctor Blood pushed his hands out. An invisible force sucker punched the Boogeyman. He crumbled at its touch, fell to his knees, then skittered backward through the maze of chairs and off of the platform.
The staff crossed the gap, right into Doctor Blood’s hands. He looked down at the swirling orb. Pet it gently with his long, spindly fingers. With it held firmly in his grip, he faced the crowd again. Raised it up high above his head.
The crowd cheered on louder than ever.
“Now, where were we? Oh…yes. The sacrifice.” He looked at us savagely. “On your knees.”
Suddenly, the feeling in my legs came back. Except they weren’t in my control anymore. They were in his control.
They collapsed beneath me. And I hit the platform with bone-jolting pain. Of course, I couldn’t cry out. My mouth didn’t work.
“Bring me their weapons,” Doctor Blood said. “I think it’s quite poetic to end their lives with the very blades that had ended many a monster’s life, don’t you?”
Although, these weapons hadn’t. I guess it was meant to be a metaphor.
“Yes!” the monsters in the crowd called.
“Kill them!”
“Roll them over,” Doctor Blood said. “I want them to look at me while I slice their throats.”
The vamps kicked us savagely. We rolled over.
Maddie cried out. Zack cursed.
Clunking footsteps. Doctor Blood tap-danced over to us. The crowd ate it up. Loved it.
I was looking up now. There was Doctor Blood standing over me. He had the sword I carried in the Games.
He admired the blade with a puckered grin on his face. Ran a finger along its edge. His skin opened, but no blood spilled out.
“A fine weapon, indeed,” he said.
Then he raised it up right above the exposed flesh of my neck.
25
Duel for the Ages
I was expecting my life to flash before my eyes, but the truth was that I hadn’t lived enough of a life. I was almost twenty-one years old.
I tried thinking of my best moments, most cherished memories. Came up blank.
I wished I could close my eyes. I felt like that would’ve made it easier.
Then it came to me, the thing that always came to me in times of great stress. It was the last memory I had of my father, the time he took that deflated bouncy ball and made us matching hats out of the rubber. How we looked so cool. How we were so happy.
“Blood!” another voice shouted.
The crowd gasped.
Doctor Blood sighed and let the sword sag to his side. “Oh, what now?”
The voice, I recognized instantly. My frozen face quivered, trying to smile. No luck.
It was Octaviu
s. I’d never heard him raise his voice before. It sounded so off.
“Oh, it’s you, Octavius,” Doctor Blood said. He swung my sword around like a lazy gladiator. “Never thought I’d see you again. Didn’t think you had the balls.”
“Unfreeze Crowley,” Octavius said.
I couldn’t see him in the flesh, but all around the arena the large screens showed Octavius crossing the dirt toward the platform. He looked very old and frail, more so than I'd ever imagined. Throw on a shabby gray robe and he’d look like a homeless wizard.
“Unfreeze him?” Doctor Blood repeated.
The crowd had gone silent again. I didn’t think they were even breathing. Maybe they thought this was entertainment. Doctor Blood wasn’t well-known around the monster community. I mean, I’d would’ve never heard of him if he hadn’t killed my father. Maybe they all thought this was a part of the show. Maybe they didn’t know just how much danger they were actually in.
“Yes, unfreeze him, Blood,” Octavius replied.
He paused about twenty feet from the platform. The camera panned and showed the rabid vampires, their squirming faces, ready to pounce. Octavius didn’t pay any attention to them. To him, they were just gnats on a hot summer’s day.
“You’re fucked now,” Zack said. “Octavius is gonna kick your ass!”
“Quiet,” Doctor Blood hissed.
Was that a lack of confidence I caught in his voice? I wasn’t entirely sure, but I thought so.
On Octavius’s haggard face he wore a smile. “Unfreeze him and fight fair and square,” Octavius said. “These people deserve a fair fight, don’t they? The deserve a proper Monster Games.”
Doctor Blood didn’t answer immediately, but I saw the monsters in the crowd twist their ugly faces up into something that resembled agreement. Hushed whispers past through them, like a rippling wave in a still pond.
If I could see Doctor Blood’s face, that bastard, I was sure the snarl on it would be quivering.
But I couldn’t see him. The camera was still focused on the crowd. They were really playing up the drama here. I almost felt like I was in a movie. Then the camera focused back on Octavius. The monster-master arched an eyebrow as if waiting for Doctor Blood’s answer.
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