Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror Read Online Free PDF Page A

Under any circumstances. There is a reason he is inside his jar, and if he ever got loose, it would be very unpleasant for everyone. Do we understand each other? Mr. Quimby stays in his jelly. ”
    â€œHow would we let him out?” said Falcon.
    â€œMr. Quinn,” said Mrs. Redflint, “what did I just say? Mr. Quimby stays in his jelly.”
    â€œI know, but I’m just asking. So we don’t let him out by accident.”
    â€œAh. I see. Well, you’d let him out by breaking the glass, wouldn’t you? Or unscrewing the lid. But you won’t be doing that. You’ll be careful with Mr. Quimby. You’ll keep him in his jelly, and all will be right with the world. Yes. It will. I think that’s everything. Good luck, children. I hope you find your quarters charming.”
    She turned again and waddled down the stairs. Megan and Falcon watched her go. Then Megan spoke softly, almost as if Falcon wasn’t there.
    â€œWhat am I going to do?” she said. “What am I going to do?”
    Falcon looked at Megan, then at the jar on the table.“You want to wake up this Quimby?” he said.
    â€œWhy didn’t she want me?” said Megan. “What did I do?”
    Falcon thought for a moment. “Who?” he said.
    â€œMy mom,” said Megan.
    Falcon looked at her curiously. He wasn’t sure he understood.
    â€œIt wasn’t my fault I lived,” added Megan softly. “Instead of them.”
    â€œMegan,” said Falcon. “Are you saying your mom—blames you?”
    â€œOf course she blames me,” said Megan. “Dahlia and Maeve—they were the ones she wanted. That was the last thing she said to me this morning.”
    â€œWhat, that she didn’t want you?”
    â€œShe said today would be a good day for me to disappear .”
    â€œIt’s okay,” said Falcon. He came over to her. He wanted to reach out and touch her on the shoulder, but he didn’t dare. “It’s going to be all right.”
    Megan looked at Falcon as if he was insane.
    â€œYou’re wrong,” she said, her voice trembling.
    With this she stormed across the parlor and slammed the door of her room. Then Falcon heard the sound of her crying, hard, behind her closed door. Strangely, the candles in the parlor flickered with each crescendo of hertears. He thought about going in and trying to comfort her, but he did not know how.
    Falcon felt something itching on his back, and he reached around to scratch. The more he scratched, though, the more the skin on his back ached, so he walked through the parlor and opened the door to the lavatory. He looked at himself in the mirror. For a moment he appeared to himself as a complete stranger. Who is this person, he wondered, with the two intense eyes, each one a different color?
    He took his shirt off and turned around in front of the mirror and looked over his shoulder. He was not prepared for what he saw in the reflection.
    All the skin on his back was flaking off. The skin from his neck to his waist seemed to be dying, or dead. He scratched it, and big flaking pieces of dead skin fell onto the floor. The problem was that scratching it only made him want to scratch harder. More of the skin flaked off; he felt it against his fingernails. It was hideous to look at. As he watched, the patch of dead skin seemed to be growing larger.
    Falcon stood there looking at himself in the mirror, wondering what had happened to him and what on earth he was becoming.

4
L A C HUPAKABRA AND THE J ELLYHEAD
    F rom Megan’s room came a sudden scream. Falcon pulled his shirt back on and rushed toward her door. Megan stood by her bed, a strange creature buzzing around her head. It was like a large dragonfly, the size of a squirrel, with blue, translucent wings. The thing orbited Megan as she covered her head with her hands and screamed.
    â€œHelp!” cried Megan. “It’s trying to sting