Hyde and Shriek Read online

  It felt so wonderful to be me again. I was exhausted, but I still enjoyed the science fair. Norman took first place. No big surprise. Dawn got third, which was great. Sebastian got to give his mom back her glove right after the fair.

  And I got to be me again. As far as I was concerned, that was pretty good.

  Kids can be such monsters … literally! Especially at Washington Irving Elementary. Read on for a sneak peek at

  The Vanishing Vampire.…

  I was on my way home from a movie when the dark thing fell on me. I’d been walking quickly, hurrying to the safety of home. Lewington isn’t a dangerous place to live, but I’d just watched the late showing of Creepers from the Crypt. I couldn’t fight the urge to rush through the empty streets. Images from the film chased me as I went, threatening to leap from my mind and become real.

  Just one block back, I’d split up with my friend Norman. He’d headed left on Maple. I’d stayed on Spruce, walking past that huge oak whose roots were slowly breaking up the sidewalk by the vacant lot.

  I heard nothing. I saw very little. Later, thinking back, I remembered the eyes and the teeth. At the time, I just knew darkness was dropping toward me. And it wasn’t only in the night; the darkness filled my mind and took me away.

  The darkness inside me lifted as I woke, leaving me wondering why I wasn’t in bed. I was somewhere hard and cold. There was dirty concrete beneath my fingers. I sat up slowly, feeling the world spin. I held very still, waiting for it to stop.

  I stood. The world spun again, but with less force. I put one hand out and touched the rough bark of the tree.

  The tree. Something dark? Something falling? I couldn’t quite remember.

  I turned toward home, unsure of what had happened. I’d passed out or fainted. No. “Guys don’t faint,” I mumbled to myself.

  Behind, I heard the scraping slap of sneakers on the sidewalk. Someone was calling a name. Someone was calling me. I turned, moving cautiously, afraid that the world would follow my motion and start to spin again.

  It was Norman. He was running toward me, one finger pushing up the glasses that were always sliding down his nose. “Splat, hey, Splat, you okay?”

  They call me Splat. It’s a long, stupid story. My name’s Sebastian. Sebastian Claypool. That name is a short, stupid story. Before I was born, Mom and Dad were listening to a lot of music written by Johann Sebastian Bach. Dad thought Johann would be a strange name for a kid. So, blam, they hang Sebastian on me. Thanks, Dad.

  It could have been worse. They also liked the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

  Norman reached me and stood there, taking deep breaths like a catfish dragged onto shore. Running was not a big part of his life. The night had grown chilly, and the air turned to swirls of fog as it left Norman’s nostrils. “I looked back and you were on the ground,” he said. “Did you trip?”

  “I don’t know.” I tried to remember. “Don’t tell anyone, but I think I passed out.”

  “Wow, that’s bad. It could mean all kinds of things.” He pushed up his glasses again. “You should probably get a CAT scan. I wouldn’t rule out a brain tumor—though, of course, blood sugar is generally a factor in these cases, and the glucose level by itself isn’t always enough of an indicator to determine—”

  “Norman.” I tried to stop him. Once he got going, he was like a bus rolling down a hill. If I caught him while he was just inching along, there was hope. But after he picked up some speed and really started barreling along the Highway of Fascinating Facts, there was no way to slow him down. “Hold on. I just got a little dizzy, that’s all.”

  “What’d you eat?” he asked.

  I thought back. That part of my night was clear enough. I’d had my usual popcorn—the Tub-of-Fun size that lasts about a quarter of the way through the movie. I’d washed it down with a cherry cola. Then I’d had a pack or two of caramel chews and as many of Norman’s gummy eyes as he’d let me steal. Nothing there to make a kid lose touch with the world. I told Norman the list of snacks.

  He seemed to be in deep thought. I imagined him running some kind of chemical tests in his mind, looking for a reaction between the assorted snacks. This could take all night. I just wanted to get home. “Look, thanks for coming over, but I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. Except for the dizziness, which had almost totally faded, I felt perfectly normal. Actually, I felt pretty good. Everything was starting to look very sharp and clear. As I nodded, I noticed a slight tingling on the left side of my neck. The skin below my jaw felt numb. I rubbed the spot.

  “You probably should go to a doctor or something if it happens again.”

  “Yes, Mother,” I kidded him. Having Norman for a friend was almost like having a third parent. I noticed that the tingling in my neck was going away.

  “Okay.” He started to leave, then said, “See you tomorrow?”

  “Sure. Maybe they got some new comics at the shop. We can check that out.” The tingling was completely gone. Everything felt fine.

  “Great,” Norman said. “I’ll see you then.” He turned and walked back toward Maple.

  “Thanks,” I called after him. As he walked away, he seemed, for a moment, to stay in sharp focus. It was almost like my eyes were some kind of zoom lens. But as soon as I was aware of it, the illusion snapped away.

  I headed home. Whatever had happened was weird, really weird. I took my hand from my neck, squinting as I walked into the glare of a streetlight.

  My fingers felt like they were still sticky from the movie snacks. That was weird. I looked down at my hand. For a second, I couldn’t tell what I was seeing. The light was so bright. Then I saw it.

  There was blood on my fingers.

  Starscape Books by David Lubar

  NOVELS

  Flip

  Hidden Talents

  True Talents

  NATHAN ABERCROMBIE, ACCIDENTAL ZOMBIE SERIES

  My Rotten Life

  Dead Guy Spy

  Goop Soup

  The Big Stink

  Enter the Zombie

  STORY COLLECTIONS

  Attack of the Vampire Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

  The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

  Beware the Ninja Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

  The Curse of the Campfire Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

  In the Land of the Lawn Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

  Invasion of the Road Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

  About the Author

  David Lubar grew up in Morristown, New Jersey. His books include Hidden Talents, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; True Talents; Flip, a VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror selection; the Weenies short-story collections Attack of the Vampire Weenies, In the Land of the Lawn Weenies, Invasion of the Road Weenies, The Curse of the Campfire Weenies, The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies, and Beware the Ninja Weenies; and the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series. He lives in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. You can visit him on the Web at www.davidlubar.com.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  HYDE AND SHRIEK

  Copyright © 2012 by David Lubar

  The Vanishing Vampire excerpt copyright © 1997 by David Lubar

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by Marcos Calo

  Illustrations by Marcos Calo

  A Starscape Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Lubar, David.

  Hyde and shriek / David Lubar. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates Book.”

 
ISBN 978-0-7653-3081-9 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4299-9312-8 (e-book)

  1. Teachers—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Shapeshifting—Fiction. 4. Science fiction. I. Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850–1894. Strange case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. II. Title.

  PZ7.L96775Hyd 2013

  [Fic]—dc23

  2012024889

  e-ISBN 9781429993128

  First Edition: January 2013