Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (ebook reader with built in dictionary .txt) 📕

Daniel hurried after Tom, grabbing his arm before he could launch out into the sky to find them a vehicle. “Bad idea.”

But Tom smirked back at him. “I know exactly whose vehicle we can take that will not cause us any trouble at all.” He shook Daniel off and sprang away, going near invisible before he could be grabbed again.

“Oh crap.” Rick sat down on a near stone wall. “He’s so blasted impulsive.”

They nodded. This was Tom to the fullest.

“He’s going to have the cops after us,” James moaned, grabbing his hair.

Andy clenched his forehead, closing his eyes. All of the Seven cringed with nasty anticipation for what may come in Tom’s wake.

“Why don’t we just see what he brings?” the monk frankly said.

Every one of them standing in that open cold park near the water spigot stared at him.

“Because we are talking about Tom Brown here,” Eddie snapped with a head shake at the monk.

“His nickname at school was Trouble,” Chen chimed in, agreeing while rising to his feet. He was done washing.

“Let’s just see what he brings,” Rick moaned, his eyes shut in grief. “He does work for the CIA after all. Maybe he’ll steal one of their cars.”

They looked to him. Most of them were tugging on coats again, adjusting their sword belts. Their swords were still mostly invisible to the natural eye.

Daniel perked up. “That’s a good point.”

The monk grinned. He pointed at Rick. “You’ve got that sort of devious mind too.”

Shooting him a dirty look, Rick decided it was wise to remain silent.

Tom did arrive with what looked like a tour bus. He parked it on the curb and fetched them to examine the machine.

“Please tell me you did not take this from a reputable company,” Rick hissed to him when he hopped down the steps to the curb.

Grinning, Tom touched his nose. “I knew you’d see it my way. It’s a Company car.”

Moaning, Rick wondered if the CIA would send him the bill if it got damaged.

They all piled in.

The monk at the wheel, they took backroads and followed the Company’s GPS. Though the monk was selected to be the driver, Chen insisted the man not drive as crazy as he had that first night from the wolf village.

“I was evading demons,” the monk innocently explained as he gently maneuvered the roads with mostly one hand. But Chen, Rick, and Daniel severely doubted it. Tom smirked with enjoyment, not arguing either way. He had reveled in that ride, after all.

And all went well—until the sky overhead seemed to go from gray clouds to black. The clouds seemed to be moving at an unusually quick pace towards them.

“What is that?” Eddie peered out the window at it.

Semour shook his head while Daniel and James squinted at the darkness.

“Oh crap.” Andy then shouted up to the monk. “Shut your window!”

“What is it?” Chen and Tom shouted out.

The monk obeyed, going pale as the glass rolled up. He gripped the steering wheel hard like a sailor waiting for a gale.

“Oh no…” Rick lost facial color, pulling away from the glass, looking around to make sure all windows were shut. Some had been cracked open for a bit of air circulation, despite the cold. The van had smelled when Tom had picked it up.

“What is it?!” Daniel shrieked.

“Ever see The Birds?” Andy and Rick said together. They exchanged looks. “The movie.”

Daniel shook his head.

Eddie looked sick, nodding.

Immediately hundreds of black birds with red eyes attacked the vehicle. Up close their beaks seemed to be made of iron.

“These are not Chinese!” Chen shouted.

The birds attacked the glass, pecking at it to get in. It was a good thing they were made of bullet proof glass for CIA purposes.

Daniel nodded. “Holy cow, they’re Greek.”

“Greek?” Semour gripped the chair ahead of them while the monk steered though, windshield wipers barely making work of them to see the road.

And then the road beneath them seemed to vanish.

Each of them lifted out of their seats as the van took an unexpected dive off a bridge they didn’t even know they were on. With a heavy boom and a bird-filled crash, they struck water. Immediately the windshield was clear of black fowl, but they were now staring into a sweeping river abyss full of fish. Water was already leaking in.

Chen shot them all a look. “How well can any of you swim?”

Tom shrugged, not concerned for himself, though looking to Rick who stared at the huge fish that just passed by.

“Decent.” “Fair.” “Average.” “I’m real good.”

“Hypothermia, though,” Daniel added. His eyes raked over the door they would have to open. “It is the middle of winter.”

“We can make a fire,” Semour snapped, perhaps glad he was not wearing his usual armor. “We just need to get to shore.”

They all nodded.

“Ok,” Chen said. “I’ll open the door and you all get out.”

“What about you?” Andy asked, eyes widening. “There is no year of the fish.”

Smirking, Chen said, “Yeah. But Chinese dragons are water gods.”

Daniel paled.

“Fair enough,” James said. He grabbed Daniel’s arm. “We go out first.”

Rick looked to Chen, nodding. “You got this?”

Chen grinned hard. “I got this.”

He opened the door.

Water rushed in. The moment it stopped, the van sinking faster, James pushed Daniel out and they both swam up together—closely followed by Eddie, Rick who was pushed out by Andy and Tom, and Semour who reached for the monk.

But the monk wasn’t there. Not even a sign of him except for maybe an orange hair floating in the water. Chen pushed Semour out then elongated into a sea-blue dragon.

Most of them reached the surface.

Something grabbed Tom’s legs, dragging him back under. A similar thing grabbed Andy’s ankles, jerking him down before he could take a breath. Rick got one breath before he too was pulled under. Chen saw them while carrying Semour up in his enormous dragon teeth. Chen-the-dragon tossed Semour toward the shore.

“Chen you stupid…!” Semour swam the rest of the way, sopping and cursing the entire swim until he was on dry ground. He turned around to scream at him. Daniel and James were nearly there. But then their heads also were quickly yanked under. “What? No!”

He would have dived in again if it were not for the demon who ran at him on the shore. Instinctively ripping out his sword, Semour lopped off two arms then sliced through the demon’s torso.

Underwater, Rick kicked at invisible hands. He could feel the hands but he could not dislodge them. Tom and Andy were fighting the same ghostly hands, but only Tom was having any success—and that was only when he too became immaterial and ghostlike, terrifying the spirits that were dragging them down.

But Rick was losing air. He was going to die. Andy looked like he was already at his limit, until—

An enormous blue dragon snatched Rick and Andy in its teeth. With a gentle grab, it soared back up to the surface and spat them out toward the shore. Their bodies slapped against the water, barely missing rocks. Tom hopped to his feet, spurting out liquid then grabbing them both, pulling him and Andy to shore until they could get on their feet. His ears were waterlogged. Rick coughed up for breath. In the sloshy echo along the shore he heard Andy say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Andy immediately heaved himself to his feet and drew his sword. He ran toward the trees, raising his weapon.

Panting, Tom seized hold of Rick and said, “Let’s hang back while I catch my breath.”

Rick looked to where Andy had rushed to. In the tree line were dozens of demons—perhaps more—attacking Semour and then Andy who whacked into the first one he could reach.

The enormous blue dragon whipped out of the water again, this time with Daniel and James in his teeth. Daniel was screaming. The dragon landed with a thunderous boom on the edge of the river, setting both men down. James staggered onto his feet, dragging panic-stricken Daniel away. Immediately the dragon contorted down into a fiery red equivalent of the same beast, then plowed into the demon battle.

“Oh! You gotta be kidding me!” James said upon seeing it.

“Why a dragon!” Daniel moaned.

Whipping on to his friend, drawing his sword James said, “Swift, you gotta get over your fear of them.” He then ran headlong into the battle.

Daniel glowered after him. “Very funny!” Yet he mustered up his strength and drew his weapon as well. He ran into the fray.

Tom and Rick held back. Then Tom looked to the river. “How far do you think that car will be dragged down river?”

Rick turned and looked also. “Our stuff…”

Nodding, Tom sat on the wet rocks, shivering.

Then Rick eyed him. “You didn’t steal that van, did you? You actually borrowed it.”

Tom shrugged.

“I’ll pay for it,” Rick said.

“No.” Tom waved it away, the echoes of the battle continuing further into the woods. “I told them it was for a special secret mission. They knew lending it to me had its risks.”

Rick peered down the river again. He closed one eye. “Could we salvage it?”

Chuckling, Tom said while eying the battle, “It depends on how large of a dragon Chen can become.”

How large indeed. When the Seven came back with Chen still as a red dragon that was the question they all asked him. Chen agreed they had to fetch their stuff. Tom begged that he grabbed the van as well, if he could.

So Chen swelled up into an enormous white dragon with scales the color and texture of abalone shells. He dived deep into the river. And after several minutes, he came out carrying the entire van, setting the drenched thing on the shore.

“It is a good thing I studied to be a mechanic,” Tom murmured as he cracked open the hood to the engine while everyone else pulled out their things from the sloshing van and assessed the damage to their property.

While Chen got dressed and rested, they emptied and aired out every bag, hanging what they could on the nearby tree branches.

“How’s your laptop,” Semour asked Rick.

Rick sighed, handing the waterlogged thing over along with his cell phone. “Ruined.”

Semour glanced to Tom. “Can you get us a huge sack of rice?”

Tom blinked at him for a second then shrugged. “Dry or cooked?”

“Dry, please.” Semour smirked at him.

Nodding with a bow, Tom talked to the air. Within minutes a huge industrial sized sack arrived from nowhere, dropping onto Daniel’s saturated suitcase.

“Ow!” Daniel shouted, getting up.

“Thanks!” Semour said to Tom, then with help heaved the sack over to where he was working. He set his own waterproof case aside, and called for all cell phones and computer machinery. After taking out all the batteries, he then stuffed them all into the sack, burying them. “I don’t know how effective this will be for your computer,” Semour said. “But I can get most of the water out and this rice will take care of residual moisture. It works for cell phones.”

Rick nodded, leaving him to it. He glanced at Semour’s case. “You came prepared.”

Smirking in an old-man way, Semour nodded. “You should invest in one. You can never be too careful.”

“Do you think dumping rice in my engine would work?” Tom murmured, his eyes on the sloshing soaked thing.

Semour laughed, shaking his head.

“What I wouldn’t give for Selena to be here right now,” Tom grumbled. “She could fix this all in jiffy.”

They could feel he missed more than that from Selena. Clearly Tom was still grieving their breakup.

Rick rose. He walked over as said, “I’ll help you fix the van. What do you need?”

Eying him over, Tom said, “Can you handle getting dirty wolf boy?”

Rolling up his sleeves, Rick grinned. “Are you kidding me?”