Read Online Myles and the Monster Outside by Philippa Dowding - Free Book Online

until now, everything had seemed so unreal.
    Myles settled into his seat. His heart slowed a bit. His mom was probably right, he was just tired and weirded out. He turned his head to look out the window.…
    â€¦ and RED EYES popped up right beside his!
    The huge misty body jumped onto the hood of the car and stared straight through the windshield! A darkly smiling mouth grinned at Myles.…
    See me now, Myles? it whispered.
    BANGGG!
    A monstrous hand slammed into the windshield, then the monster flew off into the dark.
    â€œWhat on earth was that?” Myles’s mother said. She pulled the car over to the side of the road.
    â€œMOM! You saw it too! The monster!” Myles shouted. He wanted to cry, to scream, to somehow run away and hide forever. He strained his ears, but the whispery voice was gone. Then from somewhere really far away, he thought he heard a dog bark.
    â€œWhere did that huge rock come from? It broke the windshield!” his mother said. A spidery crack formed across the glass.
    â€œA rock? It wasn’t a ROCK, Mom!” Myles shouted again, almost hysterical. “It was that monster thing, the thing that’s following me!” He could tell she didn’t understand a word of what he was saying.
    She looked at him with complete concentration and said very, very gently, “Myles, it was a rock. I saw a rock hit the windshield. You’re seeing things. I know it’s really late, and it’s been a weird night, but you have to stop talking about a monster. There’s no monster, Myles. Okay?”
    In that moment, Myles had no choice. The monster existed, outside the car. Here, inside the car, his mother couldn’t see it, couldn’t hear it, like he did.
    Myles was beginning to think there were lots of things she couldn’t see, but he knew they were there. Like the fox. And Courage.
    He nodded. He looked into the back seat where Norman and Bea were somehow still sleeping, a pile of older sister and little brother and teddy bear and Spiderman sleeping bag all knotted together.
    He sighed. He was so tired. Exhausted. Maybe it didn’t matter whether people could see what he saw or not. “Okay, Mom. It was a rock.”
    It was a monster. But if you want it to be a rock, it was a rock. I know the truth….
    Myles’s mother patted his shoulder then turned her attention back to the roaring car. She pressed her foot on the pedal, but nothing happened. Victor had been making weirder and weirder sounds in the last few moments.
    The car coughed, then coughed again.
    Then … stopped. For a moment, everything was silent.
    Myles looked at his mother. His mother looked at the steering wheel.
    She gritted her teeth and said, “Victor! You CANNOT DIE NOW!” She banged her hand on the steering wheel.
    She turned the key.
    Nothing.
    She turned the key once more. Nothing. Then with a huge sigh, steam puffed up from under the hood. That had never happened before.
    Myles and his mother watched as the crack in the windshield spread out fast across the glass in a dark, flat line. It looked like a heartbeat that had stopped forever in one of those hospital shows.
    At the very moment when the patient dies.

CHAPTER 13
    PARKING LOT AT THE END OF THE WORLD

    B ea sat in the driver’s seat, steering. Myles and his mother pushed Victor slowly along the black, silent highway. The rain had stopped but an eerie wind blew across the endless fields. Their trusty old car was really dead, and Myles and his mother had no choice but to push it off the road.
    â€¦ I see you, Myles.…
    The monster’s voice carried on the wind. The hair on Myles’s neck stood up. His heart beat too fast but he shut his eyes and pushed the car. What choice did he have?
    Myles was almost numb. When his mother told him he’d have to get out and help her push the car, he moved like he was in someone else’s body.
    Sure, Mom, he heard himself saying, I’ll go out