Monsterstreet #1 by J. H. Reynolds

Author:J. H. Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

16

Max Meets the Beast

When Max arrived at the barbed-wire fence, Jade wasn’t there.

I’m too late, he thought. She must have already gone home.

He gazed into the woods. They were dark and quiet, like something that had been asleep for a thousand years and had no need to make its presence known. He sensed they were hiding something.

Then he saw something that turned his blood cold . . .

A blue ribbon.

Caught on a branch.

Just a few feet on the other side of the barbed-wire fence.

“No,” he gasped.

Without a second thought, Max climbed through the barbed wires, grabbed Jade’s ribbon, and sprinted into the forest. He squinted, trying to see in the dark, but the canopy of trees above blocked the moonlight.

I have to find her, he thought, his guts a trembling pile of mush.

He searched for hours, looking everywhere. He passed by streams and across narrow ravines. Near caves and burrows. But there was no sign of her anywhere—no sounds, no footprints, no bouncing beam of her flashlight. And no hoodie either.

I hope the hermit—the beast—didn’t get her, he thought as he walked by a tree he had already passed a dozen times. He sensed the night was nearly over.

Just as he was about to turn around, a high-pitched yelp blared from behind a nearby bush.

“Jade!” Max whispered in fright.

The cry came again. And again. It was excruciating—like she was wounded or trying to escape!

He hurried as fast as he could toward her, hoping he could get there in time. Branches scratched his arms and legs, and cobwebs stuck to his face as he navigated through the warren of trees.

Soon, Jade’s cries turned to whimpers. Max could hear the panic in her voice. It was the sound of a creature that knew it was about to die.

But the closer he came to it, the less it sounded like Jade.

That’s—that’s an animal, he discerned.

Right then, Max heard another sound. Deep, vicious growling. It rumbled like the engine of an old truck.

Quickly, he hid behind a thicket of brush. He peeked through the mesh of limbs, and saw . . .

The beast!

Faint moonlight poured through an opening in the forest ceiling and illumined the spot where the werewolf stood. Its shoulders were as broad as a tractor. Its snout was as long as a ruler. Its ears were giant pyramids that reached up toward the treetops. And its fur—oh, that terrible, prickly fur—reminded Max more of a porcupine than a puppy. But most striking of all were its razor-sharp fangs, dripping with saliva as it used its giant paws to lift a baby deer toward its gullet!

The deer whimpered helplessly.

I can’t just let it die, Max thought, his heart chugging in his chest like a runaway train. If Jade were here, she’d do something.

He reached down and felt the ground for a rock. Once he found one with jagged edges, he stood and hurled it with all his might.

It bounced off the werewolf’s head, startling the beast.

Max picked up another rock and threw it.

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