Forlot - Books 7-9

Chapter Eighteen

I turned my head and did not see anything - any monster - hiding behind Cindy. "This is ridiculous! There is no mon—"

Then I saw it. Saw the huge monster. Saw the hideous and disgusting monster hunched over Cindy.

"I see it," I muttered to the group.

The creature's skin was pink and reminded me of a worm from a horror show. It had sharp claws, and a long, green tongue was hanging out of its mouth. It was showing off its sharp and nasty teeth, and green drool dripped from its tongue. It flashed us its scary, blue eyes and had skinny arms and small hands and no legs or feet.

"Should I tell you that I told you so?" Jenny said.

The monster had on a creepy grin and raised its claws, ready to grab Cindy.

Jenny ran up, her ponytail bobbing behind her. "Do not touch her!"

"Is...is the monster wearing a suit?" Jim asked, pointing at the creature.

"Yes," Billy answered. "Yes, it is."

Surprisingly, the monster was wearing a grey jacket with a blue bow-tie.

"Why is he wearing a suit?" Sue wondered.

"I do not know. I guess to be dressed for the occasion when he eats us!" Jane shouted.

The creature growled and made a grab for Cindy. It would have had her in its grasp if Jenny had not gotten in front of her.

"You beast!" Jenny called to him as she leaped off the floor and pressed the end of her gun against his stomach, tasing him in the process.

Wave after wave of electricity flowed through the monster's body as it realized what was happening. It began shaking and twitching.

Jenny was already back on the floor and watched with a smirk on her face as the evil creature was met with its demise.

"Finally! I shocked somebody!" Jenny said with satisfaction. "It was about time!" She grasped Cindy's wrist and pulled her over to us. While she was doing that, Cindy was staring intently at the monster. The monster whom she could have been eaten by.

"Gosh. I am most certainly glad that I did not get eaten! Caleb would be devastated if he woke up from his coma."

"Coma?!" Jenny let go of her and put her taser gun away. "What are you talking about?"

The electricity stopped "tickling" the creature, and the monster fell on his back and did not move.

Jim had held his breath from the moment that Jenny had shocked it. "Is the monster dead?"

I rubbed my fingers together. "Let us hope so."

"Hey, guys!" Jenny said, taking our attentions away from the bad creature. "Cindy's boyfriend is in the hospital!"

"What?!" the rest of us said in unison. Everybody knows that the two of them are a thing.

I strolled up to Cindy. "Caleb is in the hospital?"

She rubbed her arm. "Unfortunately."

"For what? Is it serious?"

I heard Jenny growling. Her growls were much scarier than the monster's!

She had a grip on her ponytail and pulled down it. "You dummy! Did you not hear her? She said that he is in a coma!"

I ignored her rants and felt sorry for Cindy. "Dang. I am sorry to hear that. We all are."

"Is that why you need our help?" Jane piped in. "You asked for our help."

"Well...it has to do something with Caleb," Cindy explained. "You see...um...Caleb—"

She was interrupted by a loud cry. A cry that sounded so ridiculous and hurt our ears that it could only mean one thing.

The monster was most definitely alive. And it was not about to skip on its delicious meal. On all seven of us.

We watched in horror as the creature raised itself off the ground and roared like a hungry lion.

"Run!" Jane suggested.

It was indeed no suggestion. We all did it!

We turned a corner and ran down a long hall. We ran and ran. Jane was at least five inches from the group and had a book out, flipping through the pages. The more that she looked at her book, the slower that she got.

I was the only one to notice. "Jane!" I stopped in my tracks and went in the opposite direction.

"Tim! Where are you going?!" Sue demanded.

"To get Jane! She is falling behind!"

As I was running, I wondered if the monster was following us...

...and unfortunately for us, it was.

It was really fast and getting closer and closer to Jane. And Jane...she was getting farther and farther away from the group...and closer to the creature.

"Jane!" I grabbed her and took her back up to where the rest of them were. I was beginning to run out of both breath and energy. I wanted to come to a halt. I needed to!

But the monster...Jane and I would become its meal for the day, and keeping that in mind made me keep going.

Jane stopped flipping through the pages and said, "Aha! Found it!"

"Found what?" I managed to say.

"What the monster whom we encountered is. It is a Wornamacini. The word comes from the English word 'worm' and is rare."

"Then I guess that we are 'lucky.'"

"Except in Forlot. It is common."

"Lucky us!"

Jane and I reached an open elevator. That was where everyone else was. They were waiting for us.

"What took you two so long?!" Jenny demanded. Sue had an arm over the elevator door so that it would not shut at a wrong time.

Jane and I scrambled in, and Sue pulled away, letting the door close. The seven of us then heard snarling sounds and banging coming from the other side.

"Hey. Did anybody happen to press a button?" Jim wondered.

Everybody shook their heads.

"Um...why not?!"

"Here!" Cindy hurried over and pressed a button. The elevator dinged and hummed.

We were safe from the monster...

...but not from the elevator.