Underworlds #2: When Monsters Escape

Underworlds #2: When Monsters Escape by Tony Abbott

Book: Underworlds #2: When Monsters Escape by Tony Abbott Read Free Book Online
Authors: Tony Abbott
M Y NAME IS O WEN B ROWN, AND MY FOREHEAD FEELS like an anvil that someone keeps pounding with a red-hot hammer.
    Also my teeth hurt, my eyes sting, and my fingers ache.
    But ever since my friends and I rescued Dana Runson from the Greek Underworld three days ago, pain has been the new normal —
    “Owen, move it!”
    Dana raced toward me across the wet school parking lot. Jon Doyle and Sydney Lamberti were right on her heels.
    “Out of the way, O —” Jon yelled.
    All three of them tackled me and rolled me to the side as — whoom! — a small car plummeted down from above, smashed onto the sidewalk, and skittered past us, sparking like fireworks, even in the rain.
    Just beyond it was a giant, taller than a house, all muscles, shaggy hair … and one huge eye. He was a Cyclops, one of two Greek monsters who escaped from the Underworld into our town. He was ugly, he was huge, and he was mad.
    Crash! An uprooted flagpole slammed down on the car and bent in half. The second giant emerged from behind the school. He was just as huge, just as mad, and just as one-eyed. But he had no hair at all.
    “Run. Now!” Dana screamed, yanking me to my feet and pulling me around the side of the school, with Jon and Sydney close behind. We crouched in a puddle behind a couple of oversize trash bins, just intime to see a bike rack crumple to the ground next to the smashed car.
    “What a mess from only two giants!” Sydney said, breathing hard.
    “‘Only two giants.’ Love that,” said Jon. He pulled a crooked umbrella out of the trash. The umbrella part was gone, so all that remained were the spokes. “Maybe I can use this,” he said, jabbing the umbrella shaft into the air as if it were a sword.
    Crash! The basketball poles from the playground bounced onto the asphalt court. Then the hairy giant started stuffing all the junk into a large sack hanging over his back.
    Three days ago, Dana had been kidnapped by the Norse god Loki and trapped in the Greek Underworld. Why? We weren’t exactly sure. It might have had something to do with her parents, who were in Iceland studying Norse mythology. But who knew?
    Loki was one truly scary guy, with a face of smoke, and horns of frost, and a body that looked like a skeleton. Only he was alive — which he shouldn’tbe, as a mythological being. And he wasn’t the only one. Because when Loki stashed Dana in the Greek Underworld, we had to bargain with Hades, its frightening ruler, to let her go.
    The big red guy said that Dana could stay free — on one condition. Since Loki masterminded the escape of two Cyclopes from Hades’ domain, Hades gave us one week to capture and return them to the Underworld. Impossible? Sure it was. Except that impossible was also the new normal.
    BLAM! Another small car rolled past the trash bin and into the pile.
    “What are they doing? Recycling?” I asked.
    “Funny,” said Jon. His eyes were wide. “Or it would be, if they weren’t so big and mad.”
    “I’ll tell you what’s funny,” said Sydney, looking cautiously over the top of the bin. “How did two giants escape the Underworld through our school without busting down the walls?”
    Sydney was right. An entrance to the Underworld was behind the boiler room door in the basement of the school. How did they escape?

    “And how did they stay hidden for three days?” Dana put in.
    She had a point, too. We’d been on patrol for the last three days, scouring Pinewood Bluffs for the monsters. But we’d seen nothing — until tonight.
    “We’re not safe here,” said Jon, crouching low behind the bin. “Or anywhere, really. Owen, can you put a spell on them with the lyre? Make them fall asleep or something?”
    I pulled the lyre of Orpheus from the holster Sydney had made. According to what we’d read since we “borrowed” it from a museum, the lyre was made four thousand years ago by the musician Orpheus. It had seven strings and was shaped like a big horseshoe. Even though I had never

Similar Books

Angel With Two Faces

Nicola Upson

Selected Stories

Robert Walser

Four Archetypes

Sonu Shamdasani C. G. Jung R. F.C. Hull

Under Her Brass Corset

Brenda Williamson

The Turning

Tim Winton

Society Weddings

Sharon Kendrick, Kate Walker

Horse Trade

Bonnie Bryant

Paying The Price

Piper Mackenzie