Monster Read Online Free PDF

didn’t answer. She wanted to nudge him but didn’t.
    There it was again, only more of it: a twig snapping, a bush swishing. Crack! Definitely a stick on the ground breaking.
    Now she did nudge him.
    “What?”
    “There’s s-something out there.”
    Reed propped himself up on an elbow with a sigh of exasperation and listened for at least half a minute. All was silent. He turned as if to chide her, but then— Snap!
    Reed’s stomach wrenched inside him. Brother, now she’s got me worked up . But he couldn’t deny it. He heard it too: something was moving in the deep blackness beyond, somewhere down in the ravine.
    A rustling. Thump! Something heavy and wooden tipped over.
    It’s wildlife , he told himself. “It’s wildlife,” he whispered. “You know, deer, elk, something like that.”
    “A b-b-bear?”
    “Well, it could be the bear. Animals do a lot of foraging at night. There’s nothing weird about it.”
    She insisted, “W-w-what if it’s the b-bear?”
    “He’s after food, remember? If he goes anywhere, it’ll be to the cabin to clean up whatever’s left. He doesn’t even know we’re up here.”
    There was a breathless moment of silence.
    “Oh, shoot,” Reed whispered.
    “What?”
    “I forgot to hang up the sandwich containers. We still have them here.”
    “M-m-maybe he won’t s-smell anything.”
    “Air moves downhill at night. We’re upwind.”
    But then it was quiet, and stayed quiet.
    Reed spoke first. “Guess it’s over.” He lay back down.
    Beck sat up for another moment, then eased back and pulled the sleeping bag up to her chin. She lay on her back, then one side, then the other side.
    Finally, she whispered, “Arrre y-you asleep?”
    “No,” he answered out loud.
    “How you doing?”
    “I’m okay.”
    “M-me too.”
    “You sound nervous.”
    “I’m not.” Silence. “Well, aren’t y-you?”
    “Nope. Not me.”
    “You’re not asleep.”
    He sighed and rustled around. “You woke me up.”
    He was getting to her again. “I’m r-reeeally not afraid. I can handle this just as w-well as you can.”
    Well, he wasn’t afraid, no way. “Beck, you know what? The only creatures out here afraid of the dark are us. All the other animals are out there stomping around in the dark like it’s nothing, and here we are, scared to death—”
    “Oh, w-we’re scared to death?”
    “I’m talking in group talk here. We’re a team, we’re—”
    “Oh, w-we’re a team? Well just-just tell me this: Which t-team has the advantage here? I mean, just who is on whose turf?”
    “The animals don’t mind. They’re just doing what animals do—”
    More noise. Something moving.
    “I th-th-think it’s near the c-cabin,” Beck whispered.
    “The cabin’s that way.”
    “W-what way?”
    “That way.”
    “I can’t see where you’re pointing.”
    “Well, just sit tight and—”
    The sound was nothing like they had ever heard before, and it wasn’t quiet. It was so clear, so loud, that even though Reed knew it was somewhere down in the ravine, it seemed as if it was right there next to them .
    It was like a woman wailing in grief and anguish, weeping over the corpse of a loved one, her cry rising, wavering, holding, then falling off into a hissing sob, then . . . gone. Silence.
    Snap! Crunch . Whatever it was, it was coming up the ravine.
    The woman wept again, her voice quaking, the note rising to a nerve-rending peak and then trailing off.
    Beck saw nothing with her eyes, but her imagination was providing the most horrible images of dismembered witches, transparent banshees, rotting corpses walking about seeking revenge—
    Oh, stop it! she scolded herself.
    Reed fumbled for his flashlight.
    “D-d-don’t-don’t turn that on! She’ll see where we are!”
    Reed’s voice was shaking. “Nothing’s gonna sneak up on me—I mean, I just, I just wanna get a fix on it.”
    Then came a quieter whimper, as if through clenched teeth.
    Reed found the button. Suddenly,