The Wicked Cat (10) (Spooksville)

Product Description

A mysterious cat causes chaos in the tenth book in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Pike’s Spooksville series.

Adam and his friends are exploring the area around Spooksville when they come across a black cat. It seems friendly: it purrs when they rub its back, and licks its paws like any other cat. But then it follows them back to town, and strange things begin to happen. A tree falls down, and a house catches fire. Each time something bad happens, the cat is there—watching, with its strange green eyes. And it won’t go away.

Adam and his friends don’t know what to do. Especially when the fearsome feline begins to use its powers on them!

About the Author

Christopher Pike is a bestselling author of young adult novels. The Thirst series,
The Secret of Ka, and the Remember Me and Alosha trilogies are some of his favorite titles. He is also the author of several adult novels, including
Sati and
The Season of Passage. Pike currently lives in Santa Barbara, where it is rumored he never leaves his house. But he can be found online at Facebook.com/ChristopherPikeBooks.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Wicked Cat

1
The 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.

“They’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.”

“I’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.”

“That 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.

“The end justifies the means,” Watch said.

“But 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.”

“Yeah, you might run over little kids like old Harry Hit and Run,” Sally said.

“I won’t be like him,” Watch said.

“Why? What did he do?” Cindy asked.

“His name sort of explains it all, don’t you think?” Sally replied, always trying to put Cindy down.

“He 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.”

“Did he ever kill anyone?” Adam asked, horrified.

“Dozens,” Sally answered solemnly.

“I 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.”

“The 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.”

“Wait till you see some of the Christmas presents people give