Page 60 of Sweet Nightmare

“Fine.” She sighs. “We’ll go in together—”

She breaks off as a haunting scream comes from the spider beast enclosure.

Finally, she looks as worried as I feel.

“Go check on Jude,” I tell her. “I’ve got Izzy.”

She doesn’t look convinced—at least until a long, strange chittering sound follows up the scream.

“Go,” I urge. Then I pull my elbow from her grasp and dive through the open door, just as another blood-chilling scream fills the air around us.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

SQUID-ZILLA

GAMES

I pull the door closed behind me and then blink a few times as my eyes get used to the strange red light that fills the room. The last thing we need is for this thing to escape.

I vaguely remember my mother complaining about having to find special lightbulbs to accommodate this creature, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention at the time. But apparently the thing doesn’t like regular light, because not only is every bulb in the place red, but the tiny windows near the ceiling are also covered in a strange, red film that gives the whole room an eerie, crimson glow that has the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up.

Izzy doesn’t seem the least bit fazed by it, though, as she strides confidently toward the center of the large, barren room.

“Don’t you want to know where it is before you expose yourself like that?” I ask, looking around as I follow her deeper into the enclosure. My time with the chricklers has taught me that slow and steady keeps all your limbs and most of your skin attached.

She shrugs. “I don’t mind monsters. At least they’re honest about who they are and what they want.”

“Yeah, but what they want is usually some part of your body. Flesh. Bones. Blood…” I break off as I remember who I’m talking to.

But Izzy just grins, exposing her very long, very sharp fangs. “Hey, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.”

“Not really a manticore thing,” I answer as I spin around in a circle, trying to figure out where this damn monster is. It’s not like there’s so much in here for it to hide behind.

There are three large potted trees in the back corner of the enclosure with what looks like scratch marks going all the way to the tops of the trunks. Some of the branches are cracked in half and hanging off the trees, while others are just plain gone—cut or ripped off at the trunks. At least one of the trees must be an apple tree, because the ground around the pots is littered with cores that have been chewed down to the seeds.

The rest of the room is pretty blank—as long as you discount the walls, which are even more scratched up than the tree trunks. There’s just a large pallet for what I assume is sleeping, several troughs filled with water and more of the sparkly Z-shaped kibble we feed the monsters, a chained-up cabinet that I’m guessing contains more of its food, and a heavy-duty chain that runs down the center of the room.

I have about one second to register that the chain is probably attached to squidzilla—and start to follow it with my eyes—when a loud, rumbling growl fills the room.

“Where is it?” Izzy demands as we both whirl to the left, where the sound came from.

There’s nothing there…except for the huge, heavy chain. Only this part of it isn’t on the ground. Instead, it’s hanging from the ceiling.

And, it turns out, I was right. It’s most definitely attached to the monster. Who is way more terrifying than I imagined from Uncle Carter’s description of it when it first came to the menagerie. And also exceptionally pissed off, if the snarls coming from its very large, very sharp-toothed mouth are any indication.

“What the hell is that thing?” Izzy demands, and suddenly she’s got a knife in each hand—and the newest edition is even bigger and scarier looking than the first. Before I can process what’s happening, she leans forward and presses it into my hand.

“I don’t want that!” I yelp, trying to hand it back—partly because I have no idea how to use a knife to defend myself and mostly because whatever that thing plans to do to me is nowhere near as bad as what my mother will do to me if I get caught with a weapon on school grounds. The fact that Izzy’s managed to last this long with her knife collection is definitely a testament to who she is rather than Calder Academy’s normal policy regarding possession of any kind of weapon on the island.

But Izzy can’t take it—she’s already holding a third knife. And judging from the way she spins them both around, she definitely knows how to use them.

“Where do you keep getting those?” I demand as we continue to back up under the squid thing’s watchful black eyes. “I know we search for weapons when you get here.”

“Not sure this is the time for that discussion,” Izzy answers as she holds the knives up in front of her, like she’s just waiting for a chance to impale the beast.

“You know we’re here to feed and water it, right? Not kill it?” I lower my knife as I try to figure out what I’m supposed to do with the thing now that it’s got my fingerprints all over it. “I’m pretty sure the people who are paying my mother to board it here are going to be really upset if it comes back missing a…”

I trail off as I try to figure out what to call the translucent-skinned thing’s appendages.

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