Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl and the Dungeon of Despair (9780989878531) Read Online Free Page B

bottle-green color darkened with delight.
    Mr. Fuddlebee offered Key the cup. “You’ll probably want something a little stronger later,” he said, “such as strawberry blood nectar with perhaps some Snuckle Truffles on the side. But I’ve always found a good cup of tea quite refreshing, especially one sweetened with maple syrup.”
    Key thought the tea had a delicious scent. She felt very thirsty, but, as she missed her mom and dad very much, she did not have much of an appetite.
    “I want to go home,” she told Mr. Fuddlebee in a piteous tone.
    The elderly ghost sighed thoughtfully. Then he told Key all he could about what had happened to her parents. “I do not know much,” he admitted, “but what I do know I will share.” He told her how they had fought bravely against the two zombies. He told her how they had tried to fight against Margrave Snick. He told her how they had sacrificed themselves to save Key.
    This was all so confusing. The only thing Key could recall was that Margrave Snick had bitten her neck. She had no idea that her mom and dad had done so much.
    But then a startling question came into Key’s mind. “How did they save me if I was turned into a vampire?”
    Mr. Fuddlebee gave a long melancholy sigh. “There are worse fates, my dear,” he said.
    “Like what?”
    “Well,” Mr. Fuddlebee said sadly, “like being half a witch and half a werewolf. Such an unfortunate occurrence did indeed happen to my dear friend Winifred. She’s never been the same since. With hind paws like hers, how on earth will she ever rollerblade again?”
    Once Key had a few sips of Mr. Fuddlebee’s chai tea with maple syrup, she began to feel warm inside. A red glow came into her cheeks. And now, with a little more hope in her voice, she turned to the elderly ghost and asked, “How did my mom and dad sacrifice themselves for me?”
    Mr. Fuddlebee was not entirely sure how to answer her. After taking a minute or two to consider this, he spoke to her in a reassuring tone. “Do not fret, my dear. SPOOK has launched a thorough investigation into the matter. We’ll get to the bottom of this oddly odious kerfuffle.”
    Key wrinkled her nose in confusion. “What’s SPOOK?”
    Mr. Fuddlebee proudly straightened his bowtie and sat up a little higher. He spelled it out for her: “S-P-O-O-K stands for Subcommittee Preventing Oddly Odious Kerfuffles .”
    “What’s a kerfuffle?” Key inquired.
    Mr. Fuddlebee opened his mouth to speak, but he paused with a look of confusion on his ghostly face. After pondering her question for a moment or two, he could only shrug and confess, “You know, my dear, I’m not entirely sure. But if it’s anything like what I’ve seen in the field, then it’s definitely odd and most definitely odious.”
    “What does odious mean?” Key asked.
    Mr. Fuddlebee thought about this too, but in the end all he could say was, “If my work is mysterious to you, just imagine how mysterious it must be to me also.”
    Key did not think this made much sense. “But nothing has made much sense today,” she remarked sorrowfully to herself.
    Key looked out the window and noticed that the carriage was heading straight for a large mountain. She grew worried when it seemed they were going to collide into it. But at the last possible moment, the carriage drove straight into a tunnel that took them far underground, deep down into the mountain’s unfathomable depths.
    Mr. Fuddlebee leaned close to Key and spoke in a hushed tone, as if fearful someone might hear him. “This is Morrow Mountain, my dear. The Dwarves of Morrow live in the mountain’s upper crust while the Necropolis is in the lowest realms. The Dwarves are excellent fellows. I hope you get a chance to meet them. Their pumpkin rum is to die for – again.”
    The tunnel had been carved into the mountain’s rock. It wound around and around so much that the journey under the mountain seemed to take an eternity. The chai tea kept Key awake