Night Monsters Read Online Free PDF Page A

wee-wee-wee all the way home, and when he caught his breath, he began to sob hysterically, so he gnawed on Bubby to keep from waking the neighborhood.
    He hurried to his back door.
    Home. Safe. At last.
    Pale moonflowers trumpeted his return. He rummaged for the rock under the bush, scared that icy claws would rake his hands.
    There’s the rock. Turn it over, find the key. There!
    Striving to steady his hands, he aimed the key at the lock. But the door was already open.
    His parents would never leave the door unlocked, let alone open.
    He climbed the back steps and pushed open the door on a dark kitchen. No light above the sink. Maybe the bulb burned out. No lights were on anywhere on the first floor. Even the little red light on the stove was dead.
    “M-Mom?”
    No answer.
    “Dad?”
    No answer.
    What’s the worst thing that could happen?
    Petie bit his quivering lip.
    He grabbled his way around the kitchen table to the back stairs. He snapped the switch but no light came on at the top of the steps.
    The electric was out! That explained it.
    He blew a sigh of relief but realized he must navigate the house in the dark.
    Where was his jumbo flashlight? The one with the big twelve-volt battery? Somewhere in his room, probably still under his bed.
    He climbed the steps slowly, one at a time, using the handrail. His other hand hugged Bubby to his chest—thank goodness for Bubby! At the top, in the narrow hall, he was sure something was shadowing him.
    Strangling Bubby, he rushed blindly toward his parents’ bedroom, screaming, “Mom! Dad! Where are you?”
    The door stood open. He could see that much in the dimness.
    “Mom, Dad? You here?”
    In the angle of streetlight that sliced through the triple windows, he saw that the rumpled bed lay empty.
    A crash sounded somewhere downstairs. Maybe in the cellar. He squeezed Bubby harder.
    What’s the worst thing that could happen?
    Was it a burglar?
    An ax murderer?
    Maybe just his parents, checking the fusebox. Of course! That’s the first thing you do when the lights go out.
    More crackling came from downstairs, followed by his father shouting something he couldn’t make out. If Dad had stubbed his toe on the stone floor in the cellar, it probably wasn’t very nice.
    Petie made his way to his room and found his jumbo flashlight among the dust bunnies underneath his bed.
    The flashlight was heavy. He thumbed the rubber switch, and the light winked on, silhouetting a tattered corner of Bubby against the closet door. The light was dim, yet if it held out, it would lead him safely downstairs to his parents.
    He followed the sickly yellow ellipse down the hall to the back stairs, struggling to keep hold of the flashlight. He used both hands, but in the kitchen Bubby slipped off his arm to the floor. For a moment he considered leaving it so he could use both hands.
    No way.
    He scooped Bubby off the linoleum and continued toward the cellar doorway.
    He descended the uneven stone steps, Bubby clasped tight in one hand, the flashlight wavering in the other. The weak spotlight careened over the lath and plaster walls. All was dark at the foot of the stairs.
    “Mom? Dad?”
    No answer.
    They hadn’t managed to replace the fuse yet. But why didn’t they answer him?
    When he reached the bottom of the steps, a plopping sound came from the other room, like Mom dumping an armload of wet towels on the floor.
    “Mom? Dad!”
    He battled to keep hold of the flashlight with only one hand and still clutch Bubby in the other.
    When he entered the far room where the fusebox was, the flashlight rim caught on the doorlatch. The flashlight clattered to the floor. The dim light winked out, but before it did, across the stone floor he glimpsed his parents’ tangled legs, a flash of blood-splashed pajamas.
    And in the corner, by the washer, something huge and black and hulking.
    As that final image dissolved into darkness, the thing in the corner rustled like savage bats fluttering through