Let Evil Beware! by Claude Lalumiere Page A

sighed, and said: “Yeah, I do. I work here. Listen—Lucas will be back soon.” Aydee would be glad to shoo this strange little boy onto Lucas. He should have warned her about him! What else should she know but hadn’t been told?
    Billy looked around. “He must be walking the dogs, right?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Well, maybe you can help me in the meantime.” He rummaged through his knapsack and pulled out some sheets of paper.
    “Do you know if you have anything on this critter? I think it’s a Low Bunny,” he pointed at a drawing of a rabbit with giant fangs and yellow scales, “but I’m not sure.” He pressed on, oblivious to her anxiety. “What about these?” He indicated a roundish construct made up of smaller, multicoloured spheres. “These, I’m pretty sure, are the Bouncing Balls of Boomworld. Or what about these?” He showed her a picture of naked men and women with rainbow skin. “I have no idea where they come from. Do you?”
    Aydee was saved from the barrage of questions by the arrival of Lucas’s dogs. They swarmed over Billy, greeting him enthusiastically.
    Billy was playfully wrestling with some of the dogs when Lucas spotted him.
    “Billy! How you doing? Haven’t seen you around for a few weeks.”
    “Yeah . . . I just couldn’t get away. Family stuff, blah, blah, blah.”
    Lucas nodded knowingly. “Mmm . . . school must be over by now, right?”
    “Yeah, I’m free! But I got lots of work to do today.”
    “Busy dreams last night?”
    “You bet! Take a look at these.” He handed over his drawings to Lucas.
    “You don’t usually dream about Yamesh-Lot,” Lucas said with concern, inspecting the pictures.
    Aydee’s blood grew cold at the mention of the dark god’s name. Sometimes, she thought it was crazy to stay here, where she was confronted with these kinds of dangers. But then she remembered that when she had almost fallen prey to Yamesh-Lot she had never heard of him or of Lost Pages.
    She strained her neck to get a glimpse of Billy’s drawing. But there was no detail; only a black mass inside a thick white border.
    Billy dismissed Lucas’s anxieties. “Don’t worry. That border? That means he’s still contained. It’s all under control.”
    Lucas nodded approvingly at the boy’s words, but Aydee wasn’t convinced. Just who and what was this strange little boy? How could he be a match for the lord of nightmares?
    Lucas continued to leaf through Billy’s stack; he stopped and gasped, and his eyes grew wide. “Are those the Purple Zombie Rats of the Spectroverse?”
    “Yeah, looks like they’re back.”
    Addressing his assistant, Lucas said, “Aydee, can you look after the shop alone for a while? I’m gonna be busy in the back with Billy, okay?”
    Billy attached the two big pouches Lucas had given him to his bicycle rack. All kinds of sticks and things protruded every which way.
    He jumped on his bicycle and waved goodbye to Lucas and Aydee.
    Watching the eight-year-old boy ride away, Aydee yelled: “What. Was. That!”
    “That, my dear, was Billy, the monster hunter.”
    “Don’t be coy, Lucas! Tell me.”
    “What can I say? He keeps his monster-hunting equipment here so his parents won’t find it, and I help him out with research so he’s well prepared when he comes up against the monsters he hunts. What’s to tell?”
    “Fine. Be that way.”
    Billy’s mother tucked him in. “You know, you really should try to be more careful when you’re out playing, my little darling.” She gently brushed her lips over the bruise on his forehead.
    “But, Mom, two Weredevils from Planet D’tk jumped me from behind while I was performing a rite to banish the Purple Zombie Rats of the Spectroverse. I managed to suck them into the vortex I conjured for the Zombie Rats, but not before they got in a couple of good smacks.”
    She sighed in exasperation, but the sigh turned into a chuckle. She beamed an amused smile at her son.
    “Yes, Mom. I’ll be