The Beast with 1000 Eyes by Laura Dower Page B

BET
    Wednesday morning, I was heading to the Monster Squad’s usual table at the back of the cafeteria when something hit my head.
    It was a piece of pepperoni.
    A moment later, Damon sped by with his tray. That boy was armed and dangerous on pizza day.
    â€œHey, Stella,” Lindsey said to me when I came to the table. “I can’t believe you got the macaroni and cheese. It glows in the dark.”
    I stared down at my lunch tray and shrugged. “I don’t care if it’s radioactive yellow, I’m hungry,” I said defiantly.
    As I slid in beside Jesse, he turned to me. “We were just talking about the B-Monsters,” Jesse said. “Which one do you think is next?”
    Interesting timing , I thought. Maybe my dream last night really was a clue.
    â€œLast night, Dad and I watched Zattack of the Zombies , which was awesome as usual, followed by the digital, re-mastered version of They Came from Planet Q , including super-scary deleted scenes! I wonder if it’s one of them?”
    â€œThose extra scenes aren’t scary,” Damon groaned. “They’re lame-o. Those robots from Planet Q are for babies!”

    â€œMolloy,” Lindsey warned. “Don’t be rude.”
    â€œI can’t help myself,” Damon said. He scratched his head. “Now if you want really scary B-monsters, how about the Martians from Martian Mayhem ? Or that mega-beast from Tuskadon ? And don’t forget the alien plant life in Wait Until the Earth Explodes . That’s classic.”

    â€œClassic? You have got to be kidding!” Lindsey blurted. “ Explodes is the dumbest B ever made.”
    They were all getting so off topic and I actually had something relevant to add. I leaned in and whispered, “I dreamed about a B-Monster last night.”
    Everyone stared at me. I took in a big breath because I was afraid that what I was about to tell them would sound really crazy.
    â€œNo way!” Lindsey said. “Where was it from? What was its name?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. It had something like one thousand blinking eyeballs,” I said. “And it could move surprisingly fast. It made terrible squishing noises when it moved.”
    â€œWell,” Jesse said thoughtfully, “sounds a little like Señor Cyclops, but that B-Monster only has one creepy eyeball, not a thousand. And Señor moved super slow.”
    â€œHold up!” Damon said. He pulled a very crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. He keeps this running list of B-Monsters in his pocket for exactly this purpose!
    He’s like the B-Encyclopedia.

    â€œThat’s it!” I cried when he read the last name on the list. I remembered seeing the name ‘ Beast with 1000 Eyes’ on the back of one of Mom’s photographs of San San.
    â€œWhoa!” Damon said. “The B-monster is from The Beast with 1000 Eyes. But that’s impossible. The movie was never released.”
    â€œAnd if an original reel was never released, then according to the rules Leery gave us, the monster could not come back to life, right?” Lindsey observed.
    â€œNot necessarily,” I said. “An original reel could still be viewed even if it never was shown in a theater.”
    â€œSo what are you saying, Stella? Do you think you can predict the next B-Monster coming to Riddle from some dumb dream?” Damon cracked. “What are you, B-Monster psychic?”
    â€œDamon, stop being so obnoxious!” Lindsey cried.
    â€œI’m not!” Damon went on. “I’m just saying that if we were B-Monster psychics, Leery would have told us that! And he would not make us do research every time there was a new B-Monster in town. We’d just magically ‘know’ how to eliminate the monsters.”
    â€œI don’t know if we’re all psychics. But I still think dreaming about the B-Monster with the eyeballs means something