Nighty-Nightmare by James Howe Read Free Book Online Page A

only be by force, and they will hate me for being their jailer. No, Erda, they must be free—free to live and die. Free to leave me, as one day so shall you.’ He turned with a heavy heart and went into the library, where he spent the night reading.
    â€œNow it was his good fortune—and the ill fortune of Hans and Fritz—that one of the books he found on the dusty shelves that night was his cousin’s diary. As he turned its pages, Diabolicus made the amazing discovery that he was not alone, after all! There were others like him. He was one of a breed of creatures known as vampires. Andvampires, he learned, had ways of creating others of their kind. 1 don’t need a laboratory,’ Diabolicus said, laying the book on the table beside him. He licked his lips and ran his tongue over the two pointed teeth that hung like daggers inside his mouth. ‘Everything I need is right here. It has been here all the time!’ Slowly, he rose from his chair and climbed the staircase to the boys’ bedroom.”
    There were sounds of twigs snapping and leaves crackling in the woods around me. I felt sure that Diabolicus was coming closer. Closer. I looked across at Howie and Dawg. Their eyes told me they felt as I did. Chester, seeing his effect on us, smiled contentedly.
    â€œBy morning,” he said, “the boys were his.”
    â€œBut how?” Howie asked. “What do you mean?”
    â€œAnd what does this have to do with the rabbit?” said Dawg. “What’d ya say his name was? Binoculars?”
    â€œBunnicula,” Chester said. “Oh, I’m coming to that, don’t worry. Diabolicus had succeeded inturning Fritz and Hans, and then Erda too, into vampires like himself. He now had a wife, of sorts. And sons. And pets. His happiness, like his family, was complete.
    â€œFritz and Hans thought of Diabolicus and Erda as their father and mother. Their real parents were soon forgotten.
    â€œBella and Boris, being rabbits, increased their master’s happiness by adding to the family. For some reason, they had an unusually small litter—a litter, in fact, of one. Noboby knew what to call this new member of the family. Bella and Boris seemed almost embarrassed to have produced such a runty thing as their sole offspring. And Diabolicus wondered just what sort of race he had created if this was the best they could manage. He did not know that Bella and Boris had already bred others of their kind throughout Europe; nor, that no sooner had they added to their numbers, than those very numbers had been cut down.
    â€œYou see, when Fritz and Hans disappeared from Kasha-Varnishkes, it was believed that they had perished in the fire that had destroyed TheHouse of Dr.E.A.D. But the boys’ parents would not give up hope that they had survived. 1 will live to see my sons again,’ their mother had proclaimed. And so her husband, together with several other men from the village, set out on the trail of Diabolicus and the black carriage.
    â€œThey followed them across Hungary and Austria, through Switzerland and France, and wherever they encountered the race of rabbits Bella and Boris had left behind, they destroyed them. By the time the men arrived on England’s shores, there were no vampire rabbits left... none, that is, but Bella, Boris and the little one without a name.
    â€œOne night, shortly before dawn, Diabolicus was reading a bedtime story to Hans and Fritz. Hans held the tiny rabbit in his lap, stroking its head as he listened to his new father’s voice. Suddenly, they heard Erda’s footsteps racing madly up the stairs. ‘Hurry,’ she cried out breathlessly. ‘Hurry, master! They’re coming!’
    â€œ ‘Get hold of yourself, woman,’ said Diabolicus. ‘Who’s coming?’
    â€œThe peasants from Kasha-Varnishkes. They’re carrying torches. They’re crying, “The monster must be destroyed!”