The Wicked Cat by Christopher Pike

1
    T he black cat was waiting for them on the path.
    They weren’t far outside of town when they bumped into it. Lately, because they’d been running into so much trouble in the woods and hills surrounding Spooksville, they had stayed closer to town. Actually, a lot of days they never even left the city. The whole summer they’d had adventure after adventure, and even though they’d enjoyed most of them—after they were over—they felt that each adventure was making them old before their time. Watch especially had gotten tired of risking his life, and said he had a new goal—to live long enough to get his driver’s license.
    â€œThey’ll never give you a driver’s license,” Sally Wilcox said as they walked on a path just east of the cemetery, which wasn’t a bad spot if you liked glorious views of a witch’s castle and tons of tombstones. Spooksville had a much higher death rate than birth rate. Sally brushed aside her dark bangs and continued, “You can’t see well enough to pass the eye test.”
    â€œI’ve thought of that,” Watch, who seemed to have been born without a last name, said. He always wore four watches—two on an arm, each set for a different time zone in the country. “But I plan to memorize the chart beforehand.”
    â€œThat would be cheating,” Cindy Makey, always one to be worried about what was right and proper, said. She had long blond hair and was very pretty.
    â€œThe end justifies the means,” Watch said.
    â€œBut you might still have trouble driving,” Adam Freeman reminded him gently. Adam, who usually led the group, was short, with dark hair. He worried about his height and doing the right thing. “If you can’t see the road and all.”
    â€œYeah, you might run over little kids like old Harry Hit and Run,” Sally said.
    â€œI won’t be like him,” Watch said.
    â€œWhy? What did he do?” Cindy asked.
    â€œHis name sort of explains it all, don’t you think?” Sally replied, always trying to put Cindy down.
    â€œHe was an old guy who used to drive around in a boat-size black Cadillac and tried to run kids over,” Watch said. “If you saw him coming, you had to get out of his way. He didn’t care if you were on the sidewalk or not, he’d speed up and try to hit you.”
    â€œDid he ever kill anyone?” Adam asked, horrified.
    â€œDozens,” Sally answered solemnly.
    â€œI can’t remember anyone specific,” Watch corrected. “But he sure tried his best all the time. One day his nastiness got the best of him. He ran into a telephone pole and when it fell down on him, he was electrocuted.”
    â€œThe kids in town didn’t want him buried,” Sally said. “We all signed a petition to hang him on the town Christmas tree that year. He glowed in the dark and actually looked better dead than alive.”
    Cindy shook her head. “I can’t believe you hung a corpse on a Christmas tree.”
    â€œWait till you see some of the Christmas presents people give each other in this town,” Sally said wisely. “Then you’ll see that a corpse is nothing.”
    â€œWhat happened to Harry’s Cadillac?” Adam asked.
    â€œIt seems Harry had possessed it,” Watch said. “It drove down to Hollywood and tried to get bit parts in horror films. I’ve seen it in a few movies that went straight to video. It got itself a new paint job and is now bright red.”
    â€œA car can’t be possessed,” Cindy said, annoyed.
    â€œIf kids with good grades can be possessed,” Sally said, “a car can be.”
    It was just then that they noticed the cat sitting on the path in front of them.
    What impressed Adam most about it was how shiny its black fur was. The cat looked groomed by a professional. Also, it had intense green eyes that glowed as bright as any Christmas light. As