Chad groaned. He was taking this way too seriously. There were just a few last items left to track down, and he’d be out of here. What was left? Chocolate cookies, bread, a dozen eggs, and tomato soup. Dan liked his tomato soup, for some reason. And Ebony had a thing for chocolate cookies. He’d always wondered what happened to the chocolate cookies on board Liber8tor. Now he knew.
Would never have dreamt she’d be the cookie monster…
Scanning the shelves, Chad shook his head in weary puzzlement. The food of champions. Tomato soup and chocolate cookies. How could they have stooped so low?
Grabbing half-a-dozen packs of cookies, he dumped them into the trolley. That should be enough to keep Ebony going for a while. Now for the soup.
Locating the tinned food aisle, he scanned the shelves until he located one that read Tomato Soup. There were two cans, but these were at the back. Chad reached into the narrow slot, but they were too far away. He needed a stick or something to drag them forward.
Through the gap between the two solitary cans, he saw two eyes staring back.
Yuk.
Chad swallowed.
They were not nice eyes. There was something hateful in them. They belonged to a woman with short black hair, cut in a straight fringe. She was staring at him with something like loathing. The whites of the eyes were ivory, with narrow bloodshot lines radiating from the iris. Without blinking, she was staring directly at him as if made from stone.
Even more unnerving, Chad thought he recognized them. He glanced away, pretending to examine the vegetable soup on the shelf below. How did he know those eyes? It wasn’t anyone from The Agency. Maybe it was...
Maria Cooper.
A tremor of fear ran down his spine. He had last seen those terrible eyes in the painting on the wall of the dining room. This is ridiculous. Maria Cooper had been dead for decades, and her ghost certainly wasn’t prowling Bill’s Supermarket on the main street of Targo.
So who was on the other side of the shelf?
Glancing back, Chad saw the eyes were gone. Abandoning the trolley, he started down the aisle, but before he had taken a dozen steps, something hit the floor behind him.
A packet of cookies lay in the middle of the aisle.
Okay, he thought. That sort of thing happens in haunted house movies all the time. But I’ve got superpowers. I could burn this place to the ground or turn it into an iceblock.
Still, he was afraid. This was outside of his experience. First, there’d been the face at the window—which he had not imagined—and now he was in America’s only haunted supermarket being stalked by Maria Cooper.
This isn’t right, he thought. Ghosts are supposed to hang out at houses. It’s a rule. They’re not allowed to chase you around the supermarket.
Rounding the aisle, he saw precisely what he expected in the next aisle—nothing. The woman had disappeared into thin air. But she had left something behind. A small gold object lay on the polished linoleum floor. The dread grew in the pit of Chad’s stomach as he approached it.
Gleaming under the fluorescent lights was a golden earring. Chad had seen it before. Maria Cooper was wearing it in the painting in Dan’s room. Chad swallowed. Dan was right. There was something creepy about the painting.
I don’t believe this. I must be losing my mind. There’s no such thing as ghosts. They’re as real as elves!
‘Excuse me?’
Chad almost jumped a mile in the air. He swung about to attack—and found himself face-to-face with an elderly lady. She drew back in sudden fear.
‘I’m sorry,’ Chad said, swallowing. ‘I’m a little jumpy.’
‘Is it drugs?’
‘Pardon?’
‘The drugs,’ the lady persisted. ‘I hear all the young people are taking them.’
‘No,’ Chad said. The Agency had plugged him full of drugs, giving him superpowers. Since finding that out, he’d developed an aversion to medicine. He didn’t even take headache pills. ‘Can I help you?’
‘There’s something high on the shelf. I can’t reach it.’
‘I’ll get it.’
She led him down the aisle to a supersized packet of Rice Pops cereal. ‘It’s on special,’ she confided. ‘Only eight dollars.’
‘What a bargain,’ he said.
Reaching up, he grabbed the box and started to ease it off the shelf. He almost had it when it stopped—and was jerked back.
‘Is it stuck?’ the old lady asked.
Chad broke out in a sweat. He wanted out of this place. ‘I think so,’ he said, swallowing. ‘Stuck.’ Chad gave it another tug and almost had it, but the box was yanked from his grasp. This time he saw what had dragged it away: a thin, skeletal hand with an emerald ring on one finger.
I know who owns that hand—Maria Cooper.
‘Can you reach it?’ the old lady continued, oblivious to his terror. ‘I might get two because...’
Her voice faded to silence. Chad wanted to scream but instead stepped back from the shelf. Struggling to keep his voice calm, he grabbed a smaller packet from a lower shelf and threw it into her trolley. ‘It’s jammed tight,’ he said. ‘Choose something else!’
Without another word, he hurried down the aisle, grabbed his trolley, and raced it to the checkout. Glancing over his shoulder, he expected the supermarket to look like something out of a horror film, with a dozen zombie ghosts giving chase. Instead, it resembled any other supermarket in middle America. Kenny G continued to play. Refrigerators at the back hummed contentedly. Everything looked terrifyingly normal.
Chad glanced at the boy at the checkout. ‘The girl’s gone home?’ he asked.
‘Wassat?
‘The girl who was working here.’
The boy frowned. ‘The girl? I’m the only one working today.’
Of course, you’re the only one working today! Even the checkout chick is a poltergeist!
‘There was...’ Chad swallowed hard. Pulling money from his wallet, he threw it at the boy. ‘Never mind.’
After the boy packed his groceries, Chad grabbed the bags and ran.
Chapter Twelve
Zombie Moon was probably the most fantastic computer game ever made, but only so many zombies could be killed before fatigue began to set in. Dan had been playing the game for three solid hours, and his brain was frazzled. Finally, he put it aside and decided to do something revolutionary—take a walk. The game was set up in his bedroom, and he had successfully ignored the painting over the mantelpiece the whole time.
While he and the others had not been able to take it off the wall, they were able to throw a sheet over it. It now hung there like a big, flat rectangular ghost.
Why am I so worried about a painting?
Dan didn’t believe in ghosts. They were just something invented by horror writers to scare people. And he must have imagined seeing the change in the painting. Maria Cooper had been in it the whole time. He just hadn’t noticed her.
With the gaming console off, the only sound in the house was a slight hum from the TV and a tap dripping in the upstairs bathroom.
Targo was a surprisingly short distance from the house, and it was quieter than he’d expected. It really was a backwater and didn’t look like it’d ever been the center of the universe.
A small town doesn’t seem like much when you’ve seen what we’ve seen, he thought. Foreign countries. Aliens. The future.
His eyes traced the stores lining the main street. Hardware. Supermarket. Pharmacy.
Thrilling, he thought. This might keep me entertained for all of fifteen seconds.
His eyes focused on an older stone building—the library. He arrowed towards it. While it was unlikely he could borrow any books—he didn’t have any identification—at least he could take a look around. Ebony was always giving him a hard time about his gaming.
‘Playing computer games means you’re indulging in someone else’s world,’ she said. ‘Reading puts you into a shared space with the writer.’
Whatever that meant.
The lady at the desk glanced up. Elderly, with her gray hair in a bun, round black-rimmed spectacles, and a severe face, she stared at him as if he’d interrupted her day.
‘Can I help you with anything?’ she asked, her name badge identifying her as Barbara.
‘What time do you close?’
‘Eight o’clock.’
What a cheerful woman, Dan thought as he wandered aimlessly around the shelves. This place needs updating. The only computers are for the library catalog, and the magazines look like they came out last century.
But what they didn’t have in new tech, they made up for in old tech. The library had thousands of books, the stacked shelves reaching almost to the ceiling, with ladders on wheels joined to each shelf. Dan gazed around, feeling like a kid in a candy store. There had to be something here to keep him occupied for the next few hours.
When he did read, Dan liked adventure stories, so he went over to that section and leafed through a few books. After the incident with the painting, Ebony had advised him against reading Monster Attack. Still, he couldn’t resist leafing through a novel entitled Zombie Airship. Settling into a corner, he was engrossed within minutes.
Hehehe.
Dan glanced up. What an odd laugh. Who was it? Peering through a gap in the shelves, he saw Barbara’s desk was now vacant. There was no sign of her anywhere. He had been left alone in the building. What a strange way to run a library. Barbara had abandoned the building. Sighing, he settled back into his seat and continued reading.
A dust mote floated down onto the page. Looking up, he glimpsed a black shape disappear behind the top shelf. The hair stood up on the rear of Dan’s neck as he dropped the book and scrambled to his feet. For a second—just a second—he had caught a glimpse of black clothing. But nobody could be up there. Not without making a racket and falling off. Unless it was a cat. They were incredibly agile.
Okay, he thought. It’s a cat. That’s all.
Sighing, he was about to sit down again when—
Thud.
He swung about in time to see the black shape leap from the top of one shelf to another. That’s no cat! Dan’s heart thudded as he realized the shape had borne a frightening resemblance to the kid in the painting in his room, Joe Cooper.
This is crazy, Dan thought. I’m out of here.
He raced down an aisle to the reception desk—and stopped. The exit had disappeared! It had been there a few minutes before: a timber and glass door with the opening hours written in small white painted letters. Now there was a blank wall!
Where is it? The door was here!
‘Hello?’ he called. ‘Barbara? Mrs Librarian? I need to get out of here.’
Hehehehe.
Dan felt a strange mixture of terror and fury. He had superpowers. With his power to bend and control metals, he could tear this building apart. But that was against mortal enemies. Things that lived and breathed.
Would his powers work against a ghostly child?
Something came flying through the air and slammed into his forehead. A book. He staggered back, more from utter shock than pain, as tears sprang to his eyes.
‘I don’t know what you are,’ Dan yelled, his voice high, ‘but you’re not pushing me around.’
Creeping around the shelves, he could see no sign of the ghostly kid or Barbara. Or the front door.
This can’t be real, Dan thought. This kid can’t just make a door disappear.
Thwak!
Another book slammed into the back of Dan’s head. He spun around. The shelves were made of both metal and timber. Using his powers, Dan pushed the nearest bookshelf backward.
Crash!
With an almighty crash, the shelf toppled over into the next shelf, sending books tumbling to the floor.
The black shape leaped from the top of one shelf to the next.
Barbara, who ran the library, was going to be furious, but Dan was past caring. He focused on the shelf the ghostly kid had leaped onto and toppled it. This time the effect was even more catastrophic. It slammed into the next shelf, which toppled into the one after.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Like a row of dominoes, the shelves continued to fall until a dozen of them lay in a chaotic mess on the floor. It looked like something out of the blitz.
And still, there was no sign of the kid, the librarian, or the exit.
Dan swallowed hard. This was freaky. Somehow this kid was circumventing the laws of physics. How could Dan defeat such a creature?
Whack!
Dan rubbed the back of his head. He peered across the piles of books and smashed shelving without success. Joe Cooper was nowhere to be seen. Glancing down at the book that had hit him, Dan saw it had fallen open. With shaking hands, he picked it up and read:
Another book slammed into the back of Dan’s head. He spun around. The shelves were made of both metal and timber. Using his powers, Dan pushed the nearest bookshelf backward.
Crash!
With an almighty crash, the shelf toppled over into the next shelf, sending books tumbling to the floor.
The black shape leaped from the top of one shelf to the next.
Dan’s mouth went dry. This wasn’t possible. How could he be inside the book?
‘Dannnnn...’
He looked up, his heart beating like engine pistons. Something was moving under the massive mound of books—towards him. Dan spied a metal brace that had broken off the shelving. Lifting it with his mind, he used it like a spear and slammed it into the moving mound. The shape squealed like a pig but kept moving about. Dan stabbed again and again with the makeshift weapon.
Finally, when it was motionless, Dan crept over to the shape and carefully pulled back the books until he caught sight of a bloodied hand.
‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s not possible.’
Clawing back some more books, he stared down into a face he knew all too well. His own eyes, dull and lifeless, looked back at him. An exact copy of himself lay buried under the books, crumpled pages stuffed in his mouth.
‘Good heavens!’
Dan looked up in shock. Miraculously, he was standing before one of the shelves. The library was completely intact. None of the shelves had fallen over. Every book was in its place. Barbara, the librarian, was standing before him with a look of utter horror on her face.
‘What on earth are you doing with that book?’ she demanded. ‘Get out of my library!’
Trying to speak, Dan realized he had something in his mouth. Oh no! They were pages from the book he had been reading—Zombie Airship. Half a dozen were jammed into his mouth. Another few ripped pages were in his hand. Spitting the paper out, he tried explaining to the woman, but Barbara was holding a large stapler in her hand, ready to use it as a weapon. She looked both terrified and furious. Despite all her years as a librarian, she’d obviously never come across anyone who had started eating one of the books.
As Dan stumbled from the library, the elderly librarian yelled one last thing at him.
‘And don’t come back!’
Chapter Thirteen
‘I’m telling you,’ Brodie said. ‘I could hear Chad’s voice. I didn’t imagine it!’
She and Ebony were back in the kitchen of the Cooper house. Before leaving the diner, Ebony had pushed money into the owner’s hands to pay for Brodie’s damage. He had not looked happy, telling them they were lucky he wasn’t calling the police.
‘Maybe it just sounded like Chad’s voice,’ Ebony said.
‘But I saw him!’ Brodie continued. ‘He was in the water at the bottom, splashing around.’
‘Splashing around? In the drainpipe? Are you sure it wasn’t a bug?’
‘A bug?’
‘An insect? Stuck in the drainpipe?’
Brodie looked at her as if she were mad. ‘You’re telling me I can’t tell the difference between Chad and an insect?’ she said.
‘The last time I checked,’ Ebony said, ‘Chad couldn’t fit into a drainpipe.’
/> At that moment, the front door flew open, and Chad appeared. Brodie immediately noticed that he neither looked wet or like he’d recently been reduced to the size of a cockroach.
‘Okay,’ Chad said. ‘I’ve got something weird to tell you.’
‘Were you stuck in a drainpipe at Bobby’s Diner?’ Brodie asked.
‘Er, no.’
He went on to describe his experience at the supermarket. The hairs on Ebony’s neck rose as he told them about the hand holding onto the cereal packet. Although nothing had happened to her, it sounded like Brodie and Chad had gone through similar experiences.
‘There’s something wrong here,’ Ebony said, thoughtfully. ‘Not just with this house, but in the town as well.’
‘I think we should leave,’ Brodie said.
‘Agreed,’ Chad said. ‘Let’s grab Dan and go.’
But they found a note from Dan, saying he’d gone into town. They tried contacting him on their communicators, but he didn’t answer.
‘He’s either busy, or there’s something wrong with our communicators,’ Brodie said.
‘Let’s pack our stuff,’ Ebony said. ‘We’ll be ready when he returns.’
Ebony went to her room, feeling scared and disturbed. She didn’t like unexplained events, things that didn’t stick to the laws of nature. When she had nightmares, she dreamt of ghosts, goblins, and monsters. Things that went bump in the night were always her greatest fear.
It only took her a moment to pack her bag. She wondered if Ferdy was all right. Tapping her communicator watch, she got only static.
That’s a worry, she thought. At this range, the signal should be excellent.
Picking up her bag, she started towards the door, but one of her feet caught. What—? Glancing down, she saw it had sunk an inch into the floorboards.
That’s not possible, she thought.
‘Hey!’ she yelled. ‘Help!’
Now her other foot was stuck, and she was sinking into the floor! Ebony screamed. She tried turning the floorboards to air, but nothing happened.
My powers aren’t working. That’s impossible!
Her powers never failed. It was more difficult turning something that was a multitude of elements into a single element. However, she could still do it with enough focus. She concentrated again on the floorboards as she continued to sink.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 69
