Chapter 9 - Meeting Horror
Meanwhile, back in the graveyard, Becca and the book animals were making their way through the cemetery when Mystery saw something. It as a strange-looking house with two distinctive features: a long lightning rod on the left of the roof, as well as a bell tower and the right of the roof. "Hmmmm," said the fisher, "Maybe whoever is living in that house could help us?"
"I don't know about that," replied Becca, "It looks questionable."
"I'm afraid it might be the only way out of this creepy place," said Sci Fi.
Eventually, the friends made their way to the house. Scary-looking iron gates guarded by ferocious gargoyles circled the residence. Luckily, the gates were not locked, so Becca pushed open one of the entry doors with all her might to let herself and her friends in. Fantasy read the sign on the entryway. "Dr. Victor Frankenstein," she said, "That name sounds familiar."
"Sounds familiar to me, too," said Mystery, "I can't put my finger on where I heard it last at the moment."
Becca didn't like the sound of the name "Victor Frankenstein". It reminded her of watching the movie with Boris Karloff as the infamous monster. Her fears were pushed aside, however, when she saw Sheila running toward the front door. "Sheila, come back!" Becca whispered. She picked up her kitten and stared at the door.
"Better see if anyone's home, lassie," said Adventure. Becca took a deep breath and hesitated.
"Go ahead," said Sci Fi, "Ring the bell.
Becca breathed very fast and slowly pulled the rope to ring the doorbell. When the bell rang, however, a screaming creature fell from the roof! Sheila ran out of Becca's arms in the nick of time; the creature landed straight into the girl's arms! It was a woodchuck with blue-green fur, long arms, and heterochromia; his left eye was yellow, but his right eye was purple. He also had three little blue curls of fur on top of the right side of his head. "Good catch!" commented Sci Fi, who saw Becca catching the woodchuck in her arms.
"Here, take it," said Becca.
"No, you can hold him," said Sci Fi, "He is such a sweetie!"
"I know," said Fantasy, kissing at him.
The woodchuck looked up at Becca. "Oh, I scared you and your little kitty," he said, "I'm sorry." Becca didn't like the look of the woodchuck's face; it was so misshapen that it disgusted her. "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover," said Fantasy.
"You mean this thing is another one of those books under Malaria's spell?" asked Becca.
"Yes, I think so," said Sci Fi. She saw Becca made a disgusted face and said, "Look, he's smiling at you, see?" The woodchuck smiled a big smile at Becca. The girl laughed a little bit as Sheila rubbed her leg with her head and let out a big purr.
"Alright, ladies!" said an impatient Adventure, "Enough chit-chat! Let's start navigatin' this house!"
The woodchuck gasped and jumped out of Becca's arms. "Wait!" he cried to Adventure, "Don't go in there!"
"Why not?" asked Mystery.
"It's scary inside!" said the woodchuck.
"Pfft! I'm scared of anything!" scoffed Sci Fi, "Back in my dimension, I was an alien exterminator!"
"I'm afraid," said the woodchuck, tugging on Becca's skirt.
"Of what?" asked Becca. The woodchuck made several scary faces, noises, and screams to indicate that he was afraid of the horror genre. Ironically, the group learned that his name iwas/i Horror, the guardian of the Crypts of Horror! "I know just how you feel," said Becca, "I'm scared of animals with sharp claws and teeth."
Horror began to feel sad, because most of the other books had stories with happy endings. "Horror never has happy endings," sighed the woodchuck, "They're always sad endings."
"Well I come from a world of happy endings," said Fantasy.
"I think you should come with us," said Sci Fi, "Becca, here, says she needs help with a quest."
"Yeah," said Becca, "You see, it's a long story, but somehow I ended up getting separated from my class during a field trip, and now I have to help save Libralia from Malaria's curse – until a person named Bethylasia arrives. Then, she will finish the quest!"
"Bethylasia?" gasped Horror; he started to think about whether or not he should accompany Becca and her friends on this seemingly scary and dangerous journey. "You can do it," said Sci Fi.
"Okay," said Horror. He held out his hand to Becca. "Friends?" he said. Becca just gulped and wondered if she should take Horror along; after all, she thought he was kind of adorable. Just the, a spider crawled on top of Horror's hand! He grabbed it with his other hand, and squashed it. Becca then put her hand down to Horror's as he held it. "It's a deal," she said, "You may come with us!"
The woodchuck then led the group into the house of Victor Frankenstein. Unknown to them, however, Malaria's ghost minions had snuck into the bell tower, and were now travelling under the roof! Soon, they would give their mistress a helping hand in getting rid who she thought was Bethylasia…