Ghoulies Abroad, Julie Steimle [libby ebook reader .TXT] 📗

make it up to Tom later with a room in a deluxe hotel with a Jacuzzi.

“What can I say?” Tom shrugged his shoulders then went about finding something sturdy to hang his hammock from.

Their local friend set out the food, once more expressing his gratitude for their assistance. And yet, something seemed different about him. It was him, but he did not seem as focused or as eager as before. Two others had come in after him also. One looked like the woman who had been in the kitchen, but… something was off about her. Her eyes were rapidly taking in the room and all of them. Eager. And the other woman was a young lady, extremely pretty. She was flirting with Chen who looked confused and was pulling back to keep her from getting too close.

The monk rose from where he was sitting. Somehow his staff was back in his hand standing heavily in his fist as if for battle.

“Step back,” Andy said, drawing his sword and pushing Rick behind him. He pointed it at the young woman.

She screamed, ducking behind Chen, holding on to him.

Eddie and Semour drew their swords. James and Daniel hopped to their feet.

“Wei shenme…?” The local man stared at them in horror.

“Zhizhu,” the monk said.

“Spider?” Chen blenched. He tried to jerk from the young woman’s hold, but the woman clung onto him as if with hooks.

Rick stared, realizing this was the first time he had ever seen Chen keep his shape when hugged. But Chen refused to be hugged for long. He shrank into a snake and slithered out of his clothes.

The local man screamed, hopping up. He backed away from Chen.

Tom grabbed the snake, wrapping it around his arm with a leap backward.

The woman dropped Chen’s empty clothes, hissing after Tom.

“Both of them?” Rick shouted, looking to his friends.

They nodded.

“The man is human, but those women are not,” Andy said.

“Easily handled.” Semour drew his crossbow.

Immediately the women shot out spider webs, ensnaring his bow. It ripped it from Semour’s fingers. They went after their swords next. Sticky on the blades, the webs were nearly impossible to cut, but the Seven held on to those with all their strength.

“Wait!” Daniel shouted out with a loud epiphany. “Spiders webs can’t handle fire!”

All of them grasped their red crystals. Sticking out their burning hands, their eyes focused on the webs around them. Bursting into red and yellow flowers of light, the entire room illuminated along the threads like thick strings of Christmas lights.

“This is an ancient temple!” the monk yelped, looking up at where the flames were licking the wood. “You can’t just—”

The flames gusted, whipping together over the spider webs toward the two women, engulfing them. Almost immediately the fire went out

Daniel shared a sharp look with his comrades, tromped straight forward, and lopped the sooty spider-woman’s head off. James swiftly removed the other one’s head.

The local man screamed, clutching his face in horror.

Faster than their eyes could track, Tom jumped over, grabbing the man to keep him from running. Chen-the-snake slipped off his arm and hissed when he regained human form, “Deng yi xia.”

Both women’s bodies crinkled and crackled and wrinkled down into the shapes of two large hairy (headless) spiders.

“Tamen bu shi nu ren. Tamen shi youguai.” Chen then glanced down his bare body. Embarrassed, he hastily shrank into a monkey, scrambling back to his now ashy clothes. His clothes weren’t burnt, but spider web ash was all over them. Chen-the-monkey shook them off with an irritated huff, but he dressed again.

Rick heaved a sigh, shaking his head.

In the still silence of the battle aftermath, the old man whispered, “Nimen shi shei?” his eyes whipping to the others in panic.

Shrugging, Rick nudged the monk to talk for them.

The monk shot Rick a terse glance, heaved a sigh and nodded. “Ok, I’ll try to explain who you are.”

“Just tell him about the Seven,” Rick said.

Yet the monk glanced at Chen who was back in pants and now confident to be human again. “I will give him what he needs to know.”

He then immediately spoke with the freaked-out local. Rick tried to pick up what he was saying, but the monk spoke rapid Mandarin, and most of the words were not in his level of vocabulary. However the horrified look on the local man’s face transformed to solemn understanding. He nodded very slowly, but still appeared terrified. It was a different quality of terrified though. It was the kind of look people held knowing they were standing close to someone who could easily kill them but would most likely leave them alone because they were too insignificant. Chen shot the monk a dirty look halfway through it.

“You didn’t have to tell him that!” Chen snapped, rising with his shoes in hand.

“He needed to know what you were,” the monk said.

“No, he didn’t!” Chen retorted, flustering. “It makes my life much harder.”

. “There is no easy ride to enlightenment,” the monk replied. “Only a difficult life is worth living.”

Chen rolled his eyes. “Baloney. You never pick an unnecessary fight. And you don’t put a target on your own head.”

“You were born with a target on your head,” the monk retorted wanly.

“What’s did he tell the man?” Rick asked, going to Chen.

Chen snarled, “About my heritage. He says I am the last of the Bai Nian warriors—like I need that. Everybody who had seen my name has freaked out over it. I’m changing my family name to Wang.”

Tom broke into a laugh.

“Shut up!” Chen pointed at him. “Your mom changed her name to Brown for the same reason.”

His face darkening, Tom bit back with tense looks to Rick, “Not for the same reason. She just didn’t want to go by the name of her scumbag father anymore.”

Rick paled. All that time he hadn’t known. But it did make sense. Tom Brown was the biggest schmoe name in existence aside from John Doe. He wondered what Tom’s mother’s real family name was.

“She didn’t want to be tracked!” Chen snapped.

Tom grumbled, folding his arms. Of course. She had run away from home. And Tom had said the year he had spent with his grandparents had been the worst of his life. Rick never felt it was his place to ask why.

“Fine,” Rick said, nodding. “We’ll find a way to get your name changed on passports and stuff so people won’t give you a second look.”

“I’ll just get things stamped for him,” Tom said with a roll of his eyes. “He can sneak around with me.”

Chen frowned. Yet he nodded.

“Ok.” Rick then turned to face the monk and the man. Both were watching the argument with bemused interest. The monk had been translating. Rick shot the monk a hard glance. The monk seemed to like trouble… like Tom—and yet, he wasn’t exactly a person but some kind of doppelganger figure or something.  But that meant his personality had to be the same as his source. Rick peered at him and said, “Can I ask you who you really are? And why you are helping us?”

“No,” said the monk. And he smiled.

Andy moaned, tossing up his hands. He sheathed his sword then grabbed something to sweep off the ash from the spider web fire.

Rick approached the monk sharply, almost ignoring the local man. “I hope you realize you are yanking around some pretty dangerous folk.”

“What?” the monk smirked at him. “Yourself not included?”

Snorting, Rick said, “I am the least of your concerns.”

Grinning, the monk shook his head. “No. You are not. Unlike all your other friends, you are ubiquitous.”

Rick raised his eyebrows. “Did you swallow a dictionary or something? First nihilistic and now ubiquitous?”

With a chuckle, the monk shook his head more. “No. But I have been around for a long time. And I know a survivor when I see one.”

Sighing, Rick then looked to the local man. He said, “Tell him he should not go home tonight. It won’t be safe. I get the feeling demons are out looking for us—and he will be a target.”

The monk translated, though he looked genuinely distressed sharing this information.

“Wei shenme?” the local man asked, his eyes begging the monk.

Replying to the man’s inquiry, Rick said, “Yinwei… wo bu yao ni si le.”

He then walked back over to Chen to whisper that it was ok for him to become a dog now since the man knew his secret.

“Do a lot of people die around you?” the monk asked.

Several heads turned when he said that. Andy stiffened.

Rick said, “All the time.” He took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, then loosened the waistband to his pants, shook out his hair and transformed into a wolf. Dropping on his front paws, Rick-the-wolf huffed. He settled on his pants and coat for a bed, ignoring everyone else.

“Oookay…” Daniel murmured. “Howie is in a bad mood….”

Chen shot him a dirty look and went all dog. Rottweiler at first, then one big shaggy dog, for the fur. He curled up next to Rick and closed his eyes for sleep.

Tom flipped up and walked on the ceiling, tying up his hammock. He shot the monk a scathing look before plopping into his high, swinging bed.

Andy walked over to the monk and whispered, “I don’t know who you are or why that other guy summoned us here. But if you can send him a message, tell him to stop messing with my friend—or I am going to kick the crap out of him when I meet him.”

The monk pulled back.

So did the local man.

 

Everyone woke with the sun the next morning, unscathed. But they were all a little sooty.

“Where can a guy get a bath around here?” Tom said loudly.

“Good question,” Chen muttered, gazing at his dirty arms once he dressed again.

The local man uneasily watched them, but he also got the message from the monk and hurriedly led them to a place in the complex where there was running water and privacy. Rick handed to him some money when the man explained he needed to get home.

“Wo bu yao,” the man said, shaking his head and gazing on Rick with very different eyes. He wasn’t exactly afraid, but the weight of the company and the events of the night before was enough to convince him it was best to part ways soon. Yet Rick shoved the yuan into his pocket anyway.

“Wo gei ni. Feichang ganxie ni de bangzhu.” Rick shook his hand fervently.

Breathless, the man stared at him. But he soon ducked out and was gone.

“Making friends and then losing friends,” Semour muttered. “What a job…”

“It’s smart that he goes, and quickly,” Eddie said. “We don’t want him to get hurt.” He then turned to Rick. “Do you have any work in Xinghua that we need to do? Or can we continue on this trek?”

Rick said to the monk, “Does your boss know of anything we need to get done here?”

“My boss…” The monk snorted, shaking his head. “No. You did it. Those ghosts were the problem. We can continue on.”

“We?” Andy eyed him. “Are you intending to travel with us, then?”

Nodding, the monk smiled. “I do. Things will only get worse from here on. The demons are aware of your presence and you need extra help.”

It would have offended them in any other circumstance, but the Seven regarded them monk carefully. It was the truth, and they could not deny it.

“So… we go to Yancheng next,” Rick said.

“By train?” Chen looked worried.

“Let’s rent a bus,” Rick murmured. “Or a van.”

“We can’t just borrow a car?” James asked. “I keep getting the feeling that every time we take public transport, we run into demons.”

“Only because they are looking for us,” Rick said.

Tom looked thoughtful. “If borrow means steal—”

“No, Tom!” Rick whipped back, knowing he would try. “I can only be in this country if I don’t do anything illegal.”

Tom gazed wanly at him. “And I am in this country illegally. What of it? I will get us a car.”

“Oh… this is going to cause us trouble,” James groaned as