Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations txt) 📖

during the fallout.

 

Rick stared at the message. He shot a look to Chen who was nodding, already backing out from their parking space.

“How are they going to meet us there?” Rick murmured as they pulled into traffic.

Chen snorted. “Knowing that Tom is with them, you dare ask that?”

Chuckling, Rick nodded to himself. Of course. They would probably steal a car. And Andy would not like it. Rick always figured it was guilt that made Andy so strict—as his friend had once stolen a car from the SRA who at the time were pretending to be FBI. Andy didn’t want to repeat it.

As they drove away from the building, behind them a black sedan burst from the basement parking ramp. Large chunks of orange-and-black striped barricade plastic flew into the street as the car peeled into the traffic and maneuvered through it. That car zoomed past—the monk clearly at the wheel.

“Chen—” Rick murmured, as he stared after it, their own huali pulling to the side to get out of the way before a car could hit them. Panting, Chen clutched his steering wheel. “The monk…. Do you have a guess who he is?”

Perplexed by the question itself, Chen shook his head. “No clue. But do you?”

Rick nodded slowly. “Yeah… But don’t wanna say yet.”

Casting him a sidelong look, Chen asked just as slowly, “And why not?”

Closing his eyes, mentally thinking on it, Rick replied out loud, “I don’t want to jinx it.”

“Jinx?” Chen remained confused. His face contorted with a number of questions he was not voicing.

Nodding, Rick said, “Of course. Words have power—especially in the magical realm. And we need that monk’s help.”

They made their way slowly to the public monument where they had planned to meet, but there was no sign of the Seven or the monk. So, with no other option but to wait, they parked went back to their card game.

The Seven showed up a half hour later on foot, clearly having ditched the car somewhere else. Tom strolled behind them contentedly, though the monk followed at the rear, his head shaking with his eyes critically fixed on Daniel.

“Ok, what happened?” Rick asked, reading their postures.

Tom thumbed toward Daniel with his lips pressed together to smother a smirk of pure enjoyment. “You know your pyromaniac friend. He decided that the mob boss was not going to be bothered by a bunch of punk kids from the US, so he set the building on fire.”

“Arson,” the monk murmured grimly, not approving at all.

“Nobody caught our faces in a recording or anything,” Eddie rationalized out loud, a faint trace of guilt on his face.

“You set their building on fire,” the monk said more clearly. He sounded more annoyed than angry though.

“We pulled the fire alarm,” James added, shrugging. He didn’t look guilty at all though. He was just matter-of-fact about it.

Daniel merely looked to the sky.

The monk frowned, perhaps with disappointment this time. “But arson? With a magical fire that would not douse easily?”

“It will only burn what we want it to burn,” Andy added, pushing the huali door open wider to climb in. His cheeks were a little pink and his eyes almost steely—the same way they looked when he and Rick had been kids and were caught for the pranks they pulled on their town’s Ladies Aide Society members. “We need to move on. I suggest we head to the train station and go to Lianyungang as quickly as possible.”

“Agreed,” the Seven said together, getting into their seats.

Chen looked to the monk who was still annoyed and muttering while getting into the van, “Cowboys” under his breath.

“Not really,” Chen whispered near to him. He thumbed to Daniel. “They once fought sorcerers and dragons without any magic at all. They are knights.”

Staring at Chen, the monk blinked in thought. Slowly, he leaned back his head, nodding as he regarded the Seven a little more carefully. And in that, Rick perceived that Chen’s opinion was highly valued by the monk. He wondered on that, thinking about what he had guessed about their local elvish guide.

They all settled into the huali with the monk at the wheel. They headed directly to the train station. When they arrived, nearly all were breathless and headachy from the rocking of the vehicle.

“Why do you drive so crazy?” Daniel snapped, staggering out of the van. He got out of the way of the others who exited with an almost keystone-cop stumble toward the curb, equally unsteady on their feet.

“Why do you set things on fire?” the monk muttered as he furiously strode to the train station ticket office without looking back. He was back in his monk attire, appearing ready to beg for alms. The others followed him. Louder, he said, “Because it is urgent we get to Lianyungang. I now know for certain Hun Shi Mowang is there where all those demons are congregating.”

“…And you want to get rid of him fast?” Daniel asked, keeping up while the others had to rush to match their pace. He ignored the remark about the fire.

Rick listened in as the monk grumbled, “Because it is my homeland, and it has been desecrated—again.”

A Bit of Lianyungang

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Sixteen

 

 

“Are we talking about toxic dumping here, or worse?” Eddie asked as they stepped into the train station.

The monk led the way through the crowded ticket area, asking for all of their passports so he could buy all their train tickets. The Seven reluctantly handed them over, listening as the monk responded to Eddie. “Worse.” The monk maintained an intense eye on Eddie as he said this. “Though I would not cancel out toxic dumping quite yet.”

It took a bit of time in line for the monk to get their tickets, but it hardly came with a hassle as it had before. No flags for Chen or Tom… yet. Once he brought them to the group which had waited on the fringe of the crowd, distributing them, he whispered to Chen and Tom both that perhaps it was best they board the train the same way they had when traveling to Nanjing.

Chen frowned at the suggestion of sneaking in, especially when he had his ticket in hand, but he agreed—along with Tom—that it probably was for the best.

They got onto the train without a hitch.

Each found their seats, which were scattered between two cars, and Chen and Tom smoothly joined them. The monk silently stood near the end of one car as if he had not purchased a seat at all but had gotten a standing ticket.

“I don’t quite get that,” Andy whispered to Rick when they settled in their seats for the trip, stowing their bags in the overhead compartment. “Standing seats? There are all sorts of open seats around us.”

Nodding, Rick whispered back, “The seat might be sold for farther along the trip. Besides, I think he is standing to look the part as a monk. And I think he is keeping watch.”

“We are all keeping watch,” Andy muttered. “But unless demons derail this train, there was no way they can stop us from coming to Lianyungang.”

Rick cringed. It wasn’t wise to say there was no way someone could do something. That remark reeked with a sense of bad luck, even though he wasn’t a believer in that sort of luck.

However, Andy was mostly right. As they rode, many of those in the Seven napped. Rick kept an eye, an ear, and a nose out for demons, and so did the monk. But because they had left so abruptly from Yancheng and had caused so much chaos in their wake, even the demons were fighting to catch up. Rick detected no abnormal smells, and Tom hardly twitched when he napped with his sunglasses over his eyes and his feet itchingly propped on the footrest as if he’d rather set them on the back of the head of the person in front of him (who happened to be Semour). When they pulled into the station, all of their stomachs were rumbling.

Each of them kept their eyes out for a demon ambush. But what they saw once they stepped out from the station was an inordinate amount of Monkey King tourist junk.

“Woah!” James halted, pointing directly to a large poster advertising the most recent Monkey King movie. Sun Wu Kong looked impressively dangerous.

The monk smirked at it.

Eddie said with an assessing gaze at the fantastic imagery, “Looks like they take this thing seriously here.” He then glancing around to the others as they continued on, eyes still peeled for demons. “I wonder. Do you think he is just a fictional character or actually based off a real elf?”

“For the last time,” Chen moaned while tromping past a small vendor selling pinwheels, small hair clips of springy monkeys meant to be worn on the top of their heads, a plethora of Zodiac animal tee shirts (that current year predominant) and plush Monkey King dolls, “He is not an elf! He is the stone monkey who studied Taoism and Buddhism and became a Buddha.”

The monk uneasily scratched the back of his neck, his eyes flickering to Rick who met his gaze with an apprehensive cringe.

“What is it?” Andy said, recognizing that look on Rick too well.

Hunching his shoulders, Rick said to the monk as they continued on out from the train station and into the city, “Do you want to tell them? Or me?”

Eyes whipped to the monk with whom Rick was exchanging looks.

“What?” Everyone in the group stared at Rick—except for Tom of course, who already knew what was going on and had clearly figured out who the monk was a while ago.

In fact, Tom raised his hand like a kid in school and said, “Pick me! Pick me!”

They looked to him, Chen annoyed.

Chen peeked once at the monk, looked to Tom, then Rick. And as the understanding of what Rick was thinking finally dawned on him considering the current conversation, he paled. He stared more at the monk.

The monk reached out his hand to Chen.

Chen hesitantly wrapped his fingers around the monk’s hand. A shudder instantly ran though him. Chen quickly let go and staggered back, breathless.

They all looked to Chen now—Rick with suspicious confirmation, Tom with his usual smirk, and the Seven with intense curiosity—as Chen now knew, actually knew, the monk’s identity and past. His face contorted with a combination of emotions. Shock. Fear. Yearning. Grief. Excitement. Anger. Joy. And lastly a twinge in his brow, as he seemed to be getting a headache from the sheer amount of Past the monk actually had. Through pale lips, Chen muttered, “How can this be?”

“Which part?” Rick asked, really wanting to know.

Chen looked to him. “You knew. You knew who he was. You knew for a while.”

Rick shrugged, as he didn’t exactly know but he was feeling relieved he was right. “I figured it out, considering…”

“Considering what?” Andy tersely asked, one eye on the monk now. His other hand rested on his sword hilt.

“Who is he?” Semour asked, in a similar posture.

But Daniel broke into a laugh. He nodded to himself then started shaking his head, massaging his forehead. “He is the Monkey King.”

They all stared at the monk. He looked a little sheepish. Then they turned their eyes to Daniel again.

“This is his home,” Daniel