Keisha followed. “Me either. Did you hear what he said when he came out of the fissure? ‘Where is the little creep?’ I thought he meant the cat, but now I think he meant Max.”
Arty swallowed hard. “Mrs. Patterson was really specific about how to call Max, using the top stone of the third mound of the third ring of stones, or we might unleash the Underside’s powers.”
“Or its dangers,” Keisha said.
Arty looked at Keisha. Keisha looked at Arty. “We have to get out of here now,” they both said.
They turned to sprint up the stairs when three very scary things happened: 1) a dog howled at the top of the long stairs; 2) Mom called out in her Mom warning voice, “How dare you enter our basement!” 3) someone roared, “Where is it!?!?”
That someone was Malvin.
The dogs at the top of the stairs howled again. The animals pawed and clawed at the stairs so viciously, Arty and Keisha felt the vibrations all the way down where they crouched. Malvin said Max had sent the dogs to keep the police at bay, but it felt much more as if they were straining to get at the children, or the troll, or both. Why would Malvin mislead them?
They didn’t have time to find out. The dogs began bounding down the stairs.
“We’re trapped!” Arty said. He pulled Max’s stone out of his pocket. Keisha shook her head.
“We have to find Max. Only he can tell us what to use that for.”
“How?” Arty said.
The sound of steps and scrambling was getting closer and closer.
“Max’s tunnel to the forest,” Keisha said.
The two children flew down the stairs. They paused momentarily when they reached the bottom. Malvin had been busy. He had rebuilt the stone garden. One stone was clearly missing, like the piece in a puzzle. Malvin was bent over on all fours in a corner, digging furiously. His cat squeezed between one of his huge arms and body, digging with him. Did they think the stone was buried there? Or were they trying to dig their way to the Underside? Was that even possible?
Arty stuck his hand in his pocket and gripped the stone. Now more than ever he didn’t want to show it to Malvin. The giant troll seemed more and more as if he hadn’t come from the Underside, but somewhere else. Somewhere much, much worse.
“We need to get out of here.” Keisha grabbed her brother and pushed him past Malvin, who was so busy digging he didn’t even notice. Not even the cat noticed. The brother and sister slipped into Max’s tunnel. They grabbed the huge boulder resting just inside the passageway that Max always carefully rolled into place when he left , but neither of them could move it. They tried together when the most deafening noise erupted in the basement.
The dogs had arrived. They charged toward Malvin. He whirled around. He was a horrible sight. Grime caked his face, and tears streaked through it.
Arty looked at Keisha. Keisha looked at Arty. Malvin might not be a friend, but he might not be a foe either. And he was scared, very very scared.
“This way!” Keisah held out a hand to Malvin.
He grabbed it and jumped into the tunnel, his cat on his heels. The dogs followed, their breath so close now Arty could smell mealy worms and rotting meat. One opened its jaws and lunged.
Malvin grabbed the boulder the siblings couldn’t move. As if it were a frisbee, he chucked it at the dogs. They skittered backwards. The boulder slammed into the tunnel opening. Dust went flying. They all doubled over coughing. When they finally looked up, though, the tunnel wasn’t pitch black. Malvin had thrown the stone so hard, it slammed right through the hole, not closing it, but only partially blocking it. The dogs were already forcing their heads through the small opening.
“Run!” the troll roared.
~ Stacy with the help of some very clever Anonymous readers. Thank you!
Ingredients needed for the next scene: What do the kids learn about Malvin? Do Malvin and kids find Max? What do they discover at the end of the tunnel?
The Recipe: In the comments to THIS EPISODE, give us your best ideas to answer our questions. We’ll collect your answers Tuesday at 11 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) and will use as many as we can to write the next scene. If you'd like, sign your first name so we can give you credit for your idea.
NOTE: Come back next Thursday to see what we wrote!
P.S. If we don’t take your suggestion this time, be sure to keep playing—we need your help to cook up a good story!
P.S. If we don’t take your suggestion this time, be sure to keep playing—we need your help to cook up a good story!
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