“No problem,” Kermit replied sleepily. He yawned. “All safe and sound.”
Evan got undressed quickly, letting his clothes fall to the floor. He began to feel sleepy too. The battle against the blue blobs had worn him out.
He sighed.
Tomorrow will be better, he thought. I’ll be able to think more clearly in the morning. I’ll figure out a way to get rid of all the Monster Blood creatures.
He pulled the covers down a few inches and slid into the foldout bed. He settled in. Rested his head on the pillow.
Then he felt the cold, wet creature on his back.
And he started to scream.
19
The dampness spread over the back of Evan’s pajamas. The cold chilled him until his skin prickled.
He leaped up. Whirled around. Let out another cry as the lights flashed on.
He stared down at a wet washcloth on his sheet.
And heard Kermit’s high-pitched giggle.
“Kermit — you jerk!” Evan cried.
His cousin stood by the light switch, shaking with laughter.
“Kermit — do you really think this was the best time to play such a mean joke?” Evan demanded, his heart still pounding.
Kermit shrugged. “Guess not.” Then he started giggling all over again.
Evan angrily grabbed up the cold, wet washcloth and heaved it at his cousin. “Let’s get some sleep,” he growled. “We have a lot to do tomorrow. And it’s no joke.”
Evan dreamed about blue balloons. There were dozens of them in the dream, and they grew bigger and bigger.
The balloons floated above him, their long strings hanging down. Evan tried to capture the balloons by grabbing the strings.
But as he held on, the strings turned into wriggling snakes.
Evan tried to let go, but the snakes wrapped around his hands. And the huge blue balloons lifted him off the ground and carried him higher and higher — until they popped.
And he woke up.
Morning sunlight washed into the bedroom. Evan felt tired and shaky, as if he hadn’t slept at all. He glanced across the room at his cousin.
Kermit had kicked all his blankets off onto the floor. He slept at the foot of his bed, twisted like a pretzel.
He probably had bad dreams too, Evan thought.
He spotted the wet washcloth on the floor.
Good! Evan said to himself. Kermit deserves bad dreams!
But as he pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt, a heavy feeling of dread swept over Evan.
The Monster Blood creatures. They were down in the basement. Waiting.
How can we get rid of them? Evan asked himself. Should we tell Aunt Dee? Should we call the police?
He stared at himself in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot. He had dark circles around them.
He shook Kermit’s shoulders and woke him up. “Huh?” Kermit groaned. He squinted hard at Evan, as if he didn’t recognize him.
“Wake up,” Evan ordered. “We have a job to do — remember?”
Kermit blinked several times. Without his big red glasses, his eyes looked tiny.
“We have to dump those trash bags somewhere,” Evan reminded him.
“I have an idea,” Kermit replied.
They hurried to the kitchen. Aunt Dee had left a note on the refrigerator. She went early to the garden store to buy new flowers for her garden. She told the boys to make cereal for breakfast.
But Evan didn’t feel like eating. His stomach felt as if it were filled with lead.
“We’ll eat after we take care of the blobs,” he told Kermit.
Kermit nodded solemnly. He led the way to the basement stairs.
“Where did you hide the trash bags?” Evan asked as they started down the steps.
“I locked them in the little bathroom,” Kermit replied.
“Huh?” Evan let out a gasp. He grabbed Kermit and spun him around. “Isn’t there a sink in that bathroom? And a toilet? And water pipes?”
“Well… yeah,” Kermit replied. “But the creatures are in bags — remember?”
“Plastic bags!” Evan reminded him. “They probably chewed through those bags in seconds!”
Kermit’s mouth dropped open. “Do you think so?”
They stopped outside the bathroom door. Evan pressed his ear to the door, listening hard. “Uh-oh,” he murmured. “I think I hear running water.”
“Oh, wow.” Kermit shook his head. “Oh, wow. Oh, wow. I just remembered something else.”
“Something else?” Evan narrowed his eyes on his cousin. “What else did you just remember?”
Kermit swallowed. “Uh… well… I just remembered that this bathroom is where I hid the bottle that has my hair-growing formula.”
“Oh, nooooo,” Evan moaned.
“I didn’t want anyone to find it,” Kermit explained. “No one ever uses this bathroom. So I hid it in here.”
Evan pressed his ear to the bathroom door again. He reached for the knob.
“No — don’t!” Kermit cried.
“We have no choice,” Evan told him.
He pulled open the door.
20
“Oh, nooooo!” Evan screamed.
He tried to slam the door shut. But Monster Blood creatures bounced into the doorway, blocking the door.
“There are hundreds of them!” Kermit shrieked. “And — and they’re all hairy!”
As the big blobs bounced past the two boys into the basement, Evan gaped into the little bathroom in shock.
Dozens and dozens of the blobs bounced and drank and growled and chomped their pointy teeth. Their sleek blue skin was now covered in thick tufts of long black hair.
Water poured from the sink faucets. The hairy blue creatures bobbed over the sink, gulping thirstily. Others hovered over the toilet, drinking their fill.
Evan gripped the doorknob so hard, his hand ached. He stared into the room, too horrified to move.
“The walls…” he murmured in a trembling whisper. “Oh, no. The walls…”
The walls and ceiling and floor were covered with a layer of oozing blue slime. The pipe under the sink had been chewed clear through. Creatures bobbed beneath it, sucking up water. Others drank from puddles on the slime-covered floor.
“What are we going to—” Kermit started.
He didn’t finish his sentence. A deafening POP rocked the little room as two Monster Blood creatures exploded to become four. A wave of cold, wet slime washed over Evan and Kermit.
Evan staggered back as several growling creatures bounced out of the bathroom. He saw three others pushing their way out through the basement window. Two were bouncing on the stairs.
“We’ve got to stop them!” he cried as another explosion and another flying wave of slime shook the room.
“But how?” Kermit whined.
Evan didn’t have a chance to answer. A wet blue blob leaped onto his shoulder. With an angry snarl, it sank its teeth into Evan’s sweatshirt.
Evan uttered a groan of pain. “It — it’s sucking…” he stammered.
He ducked, swung around. And batted it away with a hard punch.
The creature roared furiously — and dove for Kermit.
Kermit dodged away — and fell over a hairy blue blob. “Help me—!” he cried out as he landed on his back in a thick slime puddle. “They’re totally fierce now!”
Kermit is right, Evan realized. There’s nothing cute about these creatures now. They are ferocious — and deadly.
POP! POP!
And there are more of them every second!
Evan ducked away from another attacking creature. He reached both hands out and pulled Kermit to his feet.
“They’re all getting away!” Evan declared.
“Maybe we should let them!” Kermit declared.
Evan glared at his cousin. “Do you want to be responsible for wrecking the whole town? OWWWW!” He cried out as a hairy blob bit into his ankle.
Evan kicked the creature away.