03 - Monster Blood Read Online Free Page B

lunchbox?” Evan asked.
    “Don’t change the subject,” she snapped. “I’ll pay you five dollars for it.”
She reached for the can of Monster Blood.
    “No way,” Evan replied. He laughed. “You really like to get your way, don’t
you!”
    “I’m an only child,” she said. “What can I tell you? I’m spoiled.”
    “Me, too,” Evan said.
    “I have an idea,” Andy said, pulling her bike off the storefront wall. “Let’s
share it.”
    “Share it?” Evan said, shaking his head. “For sure. I’ll share it the way you
shared your bike.”
    “You want to ride the bike home? Here.” She shoved it at him.
    “No way,” he said, pushing it back toward her. “I wouldn’t ride your stupid
bike now. It’s a girl’s bike, anyway.”
    “It is not,” she insisted. “How is it a girl’s bike?”
    Evan ignored the question and, pulling at Trigger’s leash to keep the old dog
moving, started walking back toward his aunt’s.
    “How is it a girl’s bike?” Andy repeated, walking the bike beside him.
    “Tell you what,” Evan said. “Let’s go back to my aunt’s house and open up the
can. I’ll let you mess with it for a while.”
    “Gee, swell,” Andy said sarcastically. “You’re a great guy, Evan.”
    “I know,” he said, grinning.
    Kathryn was seated in the big armchair in the living room when Evan and Andy
arrived. Who is she talking to? he wondered, hearing her voice. She seemed to be
arguing excitedly with someone.
    Leading Andy into the room, Evan saw that it was just Sarabeth, the black
cat. As Evan entered, the cat turned and haughtily walked out of the room.
    Kathryn stared at Evan and Andy, a look of surprise on her face. “This is
Andy,” Evan said, gesturing to his new friend.
    “What have you got there?” Kathryn asked, ignoring Andy and reaching a large
hand out for the blue can of Monster Blood.
    Evan reluctantly handed it to her. Frowning, she rolled it around in her
hand, stopping to read the label, moving her lips as she read. She held the can
for the longest time, seeming to study it carefully, then finally handed it back
to Evan.
    As Evan took it back and started to his room with Andy, he heard Kathryn say
something to him in a low whisper. He couldn’t quite hear what she had said. It
sounded like, “Be careful.” But he wasn’t sure.
    He turned to see Sarabeth staring at him from the doorway, her yellow eyes
glowing in the dim light.
    “My aunt is completely deaf,” Evan explained to Andy as they climbed the
stairs.
    “Does that mean you can play your stereo as loud as you want?” Andy asked.
    “I don’t think Aunt Kathryn has a stereo,” Evan said.
    “That’s too bad,” Andy said, walking around Evan’s room, pulling back the
window curtains and looking down on Trigger, huddled unhappily in his pen.
    “Is she really your great-aunt?” Andy asked. “She doesn’t look very old.”
    “It’s the black hair,” Evan replied, setting the can of Monster Blood on the
desk in the center of the room. “It makes her look young.”
    “Hey—look at all these old books on magic stuff!” Andy exclaimed. “I wonder
why your aunt has all these.”
    She pulled one of the heavy, old volumes from the shelf and blew away a layer
of dust from the top. “Maybe your aunt plans to come up here and cast a spell on
you while you’re sleeping, and turn you into a newt.”
    “Maybe,” Evan replied, grinning. “What is a newt, anyway?”
    Andy shrugged. “Some kind of lizard, I think.” She flipped through the
yellowed pages of the old book. “I thought you said there was nothing to do
here,” she told Evan. “You could read all these cool books.”
    “Thrills and chills,” Evan said sarcastically.
    Replacing the book on the shelf, Andy came over to the desk and stood next to
Evan, her eyes on the can of Monster Blood. “Open it up. It’s so old. It’s
probably all disgusting and rotten.”
    “I hope so,” Evan said. He picked up the can and