The Monster of Creasy's Hollow (Defenders of the Rift Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

gang met up at the front entrance of the high school
as usual the next morning. Donny and Donna were there first, and were
still arguing about whatever Donny had heard the night before when
the others arrived.
    “ I know what I heard,” Donny said heatedly.
    “ You already said you didn’t know
what it was,” Donna shot back, smirking.
    “ You know what I mean!” Donny exclaimed.
“Stop using my words against me!”
    “ How can I help that you’re too stupid to
know how to say anything?” Donna replied, her smirk growing
larger by the second. She lived for times like this. Donny was an
easy target.
    “ What are you two arguing about now?” Angie
asked, eyes rolling. The twins were famous, or infamous, among the
group for their titanic arguments.
    “ Donny thinks he heard a monster last night,”
Donna said derisively, laughing until she saw Chip stiffen.
    “ What?” she demanded.
    “ What did it sound like?” he asked Donny,
concern evident on his face.
    “ I can’t describe it exactly,” Donny
admitted. “Never heard anything like it before. And I didn’t
say it was a monster, either,” he shot his sister a dirty look.
“All I said was that it. . . .”
    “ What did it sound like, Donny?” Chip
interrupted, urgency in his voice.
    “ Well, kinda like a grinding of some kind,”
Donny’s face furrowed in thought. “Like metal gears
grinding, mixed with the old steam organ at church. It made the hairs
on my neck tingle. And I think every dog in the Hollow was barking
afterward, too. Sure sounded like it anyway.”
    Angie was looking at Chip while Donny spoke, and noticed
how pale Chip grew at the description.
    “ What?” she demanded. Donna had stopped
making fun of her brother and was paying attention, and so was Alvin.
    “ I. . .I heard the same thing,” Chip told
them hesitantly. “Last night, about eight or so, I guess, when
I was taking the trash out.”
    “ Yeah, that’s about right,” Donny
nodded. “We were doing homework.”
    “ Are you two making this up?” Donna demanded
suddenly. “Did you get together to make up some kind of lame
story to sucker us in?”
    “ No,” Chip replied quietly as Donny just
shook his head. “I even told my dad about it. I don’t
know if he heard it or not, but he went outside to listen. I don’t
know what it was either, Donny, but the hair on my neck and arms
tingled when I heard it.”
    The warning bell for the beginning of the school day
rang before anyone else could speak, and the group gathered their
packs and made their way inside. As they split up to go to their
separate classes, their eyes met. By unspoken agreement, the friends
agreed not to speak of this until they had a chance to discuss it
later.
    Chip went to class wondering if their attempt to get
Waldo back had went awry somehow. Maybe he should tell his father
what he’d done? Show him the ritual they had used? He’d
probably get into trouble, but at least a grown-up would know what
had been done. His father was pretty smart, and was always messing
with those old books of his. He’d probably know if they had
caused something to go wrong, somehow.
    Donny headed to his own class now more sure than ever
that he’d heard a monster. He didn’t connect the possible
monster to their failed attempt to return Waldo to life. Just the
idea that some monster was on the loose around town was exciting.
Donny was too excited about it to be scared, in fact. Why, this could
make Creasy’s Hollow famous!
    Donna walked beside her brother, still wondering if the
two stupid boys had made all this up to get attention, or to try and
scare the rest of them. She wouldn’t put it past either of
them, and together there was probably nothing Donny and Chip wouldn’t
at least try to accomplish. Sometimes they were too clever for their
own good.
    Alvin was thinking about the two stories, but unlike
Donny, he was also thinking about their little cult experiment the
day before. He was glad he hadn’t