Read Online On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming - Free Book Online Page B

turn cold. The second monster was wearing cowboy boots just like in that picture on the envelope. No, these weren’t baby Insta-Pets anymore. Not cute cartoons in a comic book. These were fully formed man-and-pet-eating monsters.
    We raced into Toni’s bedroom. Heaving and panting, we shoved her Pink Princess vanity table across the door, then headed for the window.
    It wouldn’t budge.
    “Come on,” I groaned, beating on the sill, the frame, the glass.
    We could hear the scrape and slither of the monsters in the hall.
    “Davey? What do we do?” cried Toni.
    There was no time for plans. The monsters had already reached the door and were pushing and gruntingagainst it. We could hear their teeth gnashing like saw blades and smell the sickening mixture of grape Popsicle and blood. One of the tentacles flattened and swept under the door. It slid between the vanity’s legs, groping.… It grabbed Toni’s Wetty Betty doll, seemed to examine it by touch, then released it. Its webbed hand bumped into my bare toe, and I jumped back. The movement excited the monster. It closed around Toni’s teddy bear. It squeezed. Stuffing exploded.
    “Pookie!” yelped Toni.
    A forked tail joined the tentacle in searching, grabbing, squeezing. Books and board games scattered, the
Sky King
bedside lamp bounced once and shattered, and in a sickening crunch the little man on top of Toni’s peewee bowling trophy was pounded into shards.
    The tentacle reached for her Chrissie Dream Cottage.
    “Not Chrissie!” Toni screamed. Snatching up a tennis racket, she forehanded the tentacle.
Thwack!
    The tentacle grabbed the racket and squeezed. Wood and strings flew. And now the forked tail was back. It swept across the bed, knocking a package to the floor, seizing a pillow. Feathers filled the air.
    Even in the chaos, I noticed the red box.
    “Toni!” I shouted. “What else did you order out of your magazine?”
    “Huh?” She was ducking and jumping, trying desperately to stay out of the monster’s reach.
    The vanity table began to move across the bedroom floor. Wood and plaster cracked. We had only seconds.
    “Tell me now!” I shouted, beating at the tentacle with a Happy Trails hairbrush.
    Toni clambered onto her matching Pink Princess dresser to escape the flailing tail. It followed her, pulling out drawers. Socks and underpants flew.
    “What’s in the box?” I screamed again.
    From her perch, she said, “Um … uh … let me think.”
    The door was ripped from its hinges.
    “Um … a pair of X-ray glasses, a Hypno-Coin, onion gum, a crystal ball, a Captain Gizmo atomic ray gun, and—”
    Lunging across the room, I snatched the package out from under a shredded Snuffy Town bedspread just as the door burst open. The monsters stood there, staring, smiling.…
    I clawed at the package’s wrapping. Please, God, I begged, please don’t let it be the onion gum!
    The monsters slithered across the floor, suction cups fluttering eagerly. We were trapped.
    Toni jumped off the dresser. Placing herself between the monsters and me, she began hurling anything and everything at them—her poodle skirt, her
Howdy Doody
ventriloquist dummy, even her Elvis Presley records. “Go away! Get back!”
    I pulled back the box flaps.
    It wasn’t the onion gum!
    “Get out of the way!” I shouted at Toni.
    She turned, saw what I was holding and instantlyunderstood. She rolled to the left side as I raised the Captain Gizmo Atomic Ray Gun, aimed at the first monster and pulled the trigger. The ray gun crackled, flared red and let out a loud
dat-dat-dat-dat!
    The first monster exploded in a cloud of black goop, splattering the Pink Princess wallpaper.
    I pointed the gun at the second monster.
    Dat-dat-dat-dat!
    It exploded, too—a spewing fountain of black gore, teeth and suckers.
    “We did it!” shouted Toni, hurling herself into my arms. “We did it!”
    I dropped the ray gun and, whooping, whirled her around and around.
    That’s when I felt