SVT #99: The Beast Must Die
Heh, so it's time for #99, The Beast Must Die. When I first read the titles for these books I remember thinking the twins were suddenly into hunting (beasts - gettit?) or something, but moving on.......
#97: Too Scared to Sleep
#98: The Beast it Watching You
One would suggest everybody reads the above recaps if they haven't previously, to remind themselves of what is going on....
As a special treat I'm gonna show both covers. Personally, I have the British, modern pooh-poohey covers, but I like the American ones so let us have a snark at both, I thought!
The Covers
Ok, cover #1. We have the twins looking into some sort of abyss, although I presume this is supposed to be the secret room. The cover is a bit, err, bright on here. I do apologise. I see they used the same cover model for the two covers. Anyway, so Jess is wearing an outfit stolen from Farmer Giles' washing line, which sounds very un-Jessica like to me, but her hair is down so I am presuming that's her. What, no purple? Liz is wearing a tent and is holding Jessica's arm. Yeah Liz, make sure your younger-sister-by-4-sodding-minutes-that-feel-like-years goes first! Yeah so Liz is wearing something I can only presume was taken from her dad's wardrobe, as it is that big, and what I think are pyjama bottoms, but in actual fact are probably jeans. Jessica is shouting, I think. Do you know, I've been staring at the picture trying to figure out what it is they're looking at, and I've just realised it's a fire. Heh. In that case this scene actually happens. Kind of. Go ghostwriters & artists!! Except, as far as I know, the twins never get stuck behind a fire in the attic. But whatevs!
Cover #2: The modern cover. Well, not much to snark at really. I must say, as a kid reading these books I thought the doll's head was a little creepy. I still do. You know in the Titanic film, where they show the wreck at the beginning, well, there's a cracked doll's head shown in that too, and this cover always reminded me of that footage. I think that was real footage as well. I think the bunny slipper is a nice touch too, as all readers of this arc will know the slipper is highly relevant (although not actually in this book, which is worth noting).
OK, moving onto the story...
The Best Beast Must DIE. Mwahahahahahahaha!!
We open with Liz & Jess stuck inside the secret bedroom. As fellow recappers will no doubt know, the secret bedroom is on the third floor, and is a disused child's room. There is a fire raging downstairs, and Jessica is frantically trying to escape, but the door won't open. There are wisps of smoke entering the room. Jessica is pounding on the door, and making her knuckles bleed. Liz is useless in this chapter, if I'm honest. She says, "maybe the fire isn't too big", to which Jess tells her if they can smell/see smoke then the fire is already too big. Yay, go Jessica; it's not often she comes out with logical reasoning. Liz then tells Jessica to stop pounding on the door, as her knuckles are bleeding. Erm, hello Lizzie, she's trying to save your sorry ass here, at least help her, instead of pontificating about fires. Ker-ist!! The twins have been yelling for help and everything but to no avail. Liz tells Jess she thinks it's hopeless, so Jess turns her attention to the bed. She holds up a doll and admires it's curly blond hair - does Elizabeth think she would look good with her hair curled? Liz snaps back that maybe there are more pressing matters at hand, so Jess turns to pulling sheets off the bed to make a rope ladder. Go Jess, again! We have a stock description of the two twins here. The sheets won't budge however, so they go back to pounding on the door and yelling for help. 'Cos they haven't already tried this and failed ~rolls eyes~.
Meanwhile, who should be a-heading toward the Riccoli house with an evil grin and rubber face mask but Steven Wakefield himself. Atop his trusty steed, the lawnmower, he is motoring his way along when.......his face mask flops onto his eyes. Buggar. He can't see, and his trusty steed ploughs him through something prickly, and into something hard, whereupon it stalls and dies altogether. Let us just have moment of mourning here. ~Silence~
Steven sniffs. And he isn't crying either. He can smell burning. Oh Noes don't tell me he broke the lawnmower. Ned will kill him. Upon removing his mask, he realises that the smoke isn't coming from the mower; it's coming from the Riccoli mansion. Oh Noes!!!! Leaving his trusty steed behind to mourn the loss of it's rotary blades, he rushes into the house to call 911. Damn those mobile phone companies for not inventing them yet!! He is hoping that the twins took the kids out for a walk or something but decides to go and see where the fire is coming from just in case. Go Steven. His awesome big-brotherness is showing through at this moment.
Upon ascending the staircase, he notes the smoke is getting thicker by the minute, and, dun der dun, it's coming from what he thinks is a bedroom. Running in, he sees a bed surrounded by fire, with a little boy asleep in the middle. Oh Noes. Steven (Go Go Steven) deftly ensures his face is covered by the rubber mask, and grabs a comforter to suffocate the flames. Umm yeah, right. If the flames were so bad they could be seen outside the house and smelled on the third floor, no way no way (mnumenah - oops, lapsing into a Vanilla Song there, sorry) would Steven be able to put them out with just a duvet! Anyway, In the world of Sweet Valley, CA, Steven manages to put the flames out, and stomps on the floor to make sure. Heh. The little boy, who is actually Andrew Riccoli (as I'm writing this before dirtywingsgirl has posted the recap for The Beast Is Watching You, I'm not sure if she'll note that Andrew has a history for playing with matches and lighting fires, so I'm going to note it just in case). The little boy, who is actually Andrew Riccoli, has a history for playing with matches and lighting fires. There, now ya know ;-)! I'd also like to note that whenever I write the word 'Beast' I end up writing 'Best' and have to go back and re-write it. Which is cool because this arc is the BEST. But, I digress. Going back along my trail to the book, Andrew is now awake and scared. Steven tries to coax him out of bed, telling him he has to carry him as the floor might still be hot. I will take it that Steven is wearing hard soled shoes 'cos I'm not sure if rubber will have melted onto the floor. But umm, OK. Andrew is scared; he wants to know why Steven looks like a monster. 'Cos he's a male. No, umm, ok, 'cos he is still wearing his supercool Halloween mask, durrr!!! Steven explains, and Andrew is all like, "wow, cool, man!". Then Steven carries Andrew out the room to safety, and wakes up the other Riccoli kids, asking if anyone has seen the twins. But of course they haven't, as they are stuck upstairs, through poking around in a place they shouldn't be.
In italics we have a page from the 'best's - see - beast's POV. She is seriously pissed because Steven put the fire out. "It was perfect, everyone in the same place at the same time, and the boy in the stupid mask had to ruin it......The boy must die, too". Scary shit! So Steven is now on the beast's hit list too. Poor Alice, all her children will be dead soon if the beast has her way. I'm sure she'd be upset, for a whole three minutes or so (one for each child, c'mon, that's more than fair surely).
Back to our secret room twins (kind of reminds me of Virginia Andrews - The Flowers In The Attic. I love that book/series). Logical Lizzie has determined the only course of action, seen as Jess had no luck yanking the sheets off the bed (apparently they are 'stuck - thirty years worth of dust, maybe). Liz's plan is to charge the door together, like some sort of packhorse duo. Jess is dubious but it's their only way of escape. So they charge, and, lo and behold, the door opens. Now, wasn't that a nice convenience for them. Somehow, the door has become unstuck. The book kind of implies that the beast's evil influence had glued the door shut, and now she has been foiled the door had opened. The twins race for the stairwell, but they can't both fit at once (what, even though they are 'graceful bodied' and will be someday size six?) and they fall. Will they live or will they die?
Now, anyone else would break their necks, but not these two. Oh no. As they judder to a halt, they see all the kids standing in the hallway. There is a monster with them that looks exactly like the girl in Jessica's dream (from the previous book). Except the kids aren't scared. But the twins decide to 'get it' anyway, so they jump on it. Rite-o. This beast the kids and twins alike are terrified of is supposedly standing harmlessly in the hallway, instead of swinging an axe cackling, "I vant blud, and I vant it NOW", and the twins charge it and beat it into submission, with the kids fearlessly watching. Logical Lizzie's superpowers have deserted her momentarily methinks!! Anyway, they get the so called monster on the floor, where it starts wriggling and moaning, "get off me you guys," in a very familiar voice. Hmm. Could it be Steven?? It could indeedy! He stands up and removes his mask. Jessica and Liz are so not amused; this isn't the first time he has tried to scare them. But, c'mon guys, he saved your lives this time. While you were being irresponsible babysitters and poking around in rooms that don't concern you in someone else's mansion (Elizabeth, I'm shocked), Steven saved your bottoms. The twins threaten to tell their parents, but Steven does point out he has just saved their sorry skins, and besides, err, where were they whilst he was being a hero? They shhh him as they don't want the kids to find out and spoil their fun know and be scared, and then the fire engine that Steven called appears. So, having just escaped a potential death situation, the twins are threatening blackmail on their older brother who just saved them, and their charges. Whatever!
The fire fighters barrel in and almost knock Jessica over. Does she think they will listen to the word of a 12 year old concerning a life threatening matter? She is a bit put out, but when they come back down and she gets introduced to Ryan Locke, the 'hunky' firefighter (ugh, the word 'hunky' always reminds me of Baywatch) their rudeness escapes her. Forget that he is about 22, and she is 12, oh no, our Jessica has a history of older guys don't let's forget. He asks if they have any idea how it started, and she, 'flipped her hair over her shoulder and said, "I have an idea, actually". Ryan looked at her intently and she smiled nervously. Having Ryan smile at her like that had made her forget her idea". Heh typical Jess. Mrs Riccoli appears and throws a mild panic attack about their being a fire engine at her house. Fair enough. The firefighters give the kids a lecture on never using matches and they leave. Mrs Riccoli gives Andrew a lecture on never using matches, and he cries and says he didn't. Yeah yeah kid, no-one believes that when you grow older, either! The twins take full credit for stopping the fire, which if you ask me would be against Liz's usual holier-than-thou morals, but they don't want Mrs Riccoli to know they were stuck in the secret room when the fire started. Steven just goes along with this, so they won't tell their parents about him trying to scare them. They should just be grateful he was there, if you ask me. But you didn't, so I'm going to carry on. As the twins and Steven are leaving (with the trusty steed that didn't die after all, just stalled, yay) Mrs Riccoli looks in some bewilderment at the hedge. There is a suspiciously Steven shaped hole, right in the middle. Uh-oh. Steven tries to blame the fire engine, but to no avail. Remember that prickly thing he went through before he hit the porch. Well, that was the former hedge. Oh, Steven!! Well, Howell & Wakefield now specialise in hedge replacement, too. Heh, if he'd have told Mrs R about his awesome fire-busting skills I bet she would have let him off.
The next morning, Elizabeth is snoozing over her breakfast. She is tired after having to babysit, the fire, and catching up on homework. Fuck me, if I'd been stuck in some secret room that mysteriously locked itself whilst the house was on fire, I can't imagine not having nightmares as well. What about smoke inhalation? Having Googled 'smoke inhalation', I've found that 'Smoke inhalation occurs when you breathe in the products of combustion during a fire, and ''Smoke injury accounts for 75% of the deaths related to fire.' I also found out that, if there is smoke from a fire in a room, the risk of having effects from smoke inhalation is very high. So it seems the twins, kids and Steven all escaped very lightly. But still, going to back to the Spanish tiled kitchen, if I was Liz and Jess I would at least be a bit freaked out about the previous night, not moaning 'cos I hadn't had much time for my homework. Of course, no-one has told the parents, as they don't want them to worry (and they are blackmailing Steven, heh). Any-ho, Jessica comes in and declares no more babysitting!!! She is sick and tired of being scared. Not to mention she hasn't seen her Unicorn friends for ages (erm, no great loss). Liz is not easily convinced, "Qu-Quitting" Elizabeth stuttered, "but -what about the kids? They really love you. You can't just leave them like that". Liz, they have parents. And lives outside of you and Jessica. Honestly, not everyone thinks you two are brilliant. This is not Jessica's children we are on about here. Meh. However, Liz, being the doormat she is, is soon won over to Jessica's way of thinking. After they can still visit the kids :-) (erm, yeah, like you would without appearing extremely odd). In fact, she is so won over that she arranges to have a sleepover at Maria's that evening. I presume Maria has actually arranged the sleepover and Liz in invited, because if not what the fuck is Liz doing arranging events at someone else's house, but I'm off on a tangent so I will resume the story. Alice comes in and agrees with Jess it's a great idea to not babysit there anymore, as they need time to do stuff with their friends. Jessica declares she hasn't been to a party, in like, a year. She's starting early. Of course, we all know Alice has been completely freaked out by them working there anyway, for reasons that are gradually coming clearer, and so of course she is more than happy they are going to quit.
We have a cut scene now from Alice's POV. She sinks down at the table, 'she'd tried to hide her relief at the news they wouldn't be going back to the Riccoli house. Her daughters didn't need to know she too had been a babysitter at that house. A long time ago.....' She remembers babysitting at the Riccoli, formerly Sullivan, mansion when she was twelve. Eva has had another nightmare, and Alice knows she has to apply 'damage control'. Like what you do after, say, an earthquake, but on a smaller scale. Or something. We hear about how Eva has a lot of nightmares, specifically concerning Halloween, which is a few weeks away. Alice is the only babysitter who can calm Eva down so well. Alice promises Eva nothing will hurt her on Halloween - 'Eva looked up, her eyes full of doubt. "Really," Alice said, "you can trust me." She reached out to hug Eva, but the little girl's hug was hesitant, as if she wasn't convinced.' Seems Alice wasn't so convincing after all.
Later that afternoon, back in the present, Jessica is watching 'Lifestyles of the Guilty and the Glamorous.' She hasn't seen it for an entire two weeks (oh noes) but the plot doesn't appear to have changed much. The party is still going on as the last time she watched, and Jessica has a crush on the star, Briggs. Briggs is with Geneva, who is Jessica's favourite character on the show, as she 'had long blond hair, like Jessica, and she was always getting the best boyfriends." Arghh someone shoot me. No wonder Jess can't spell the word thief if she likes shows where parties go on for two weeks straight. Her head must just be full of fluff. Anyway, Jessica is engrossed in the TV when the phone rings. It's Mrs Riccoli, and she's frantic. Her mother is ill and she must go to her. Will the twins babysit? She offers them triple pay (!!) but Jessica is still unsure. I wouldn't be. Triple pay, hell yeah. Even if that hell was literal. I love cash, I admit it! At any rate,she eventually agrees to a couple hours in the afternoon, but Mrs Riccoli scuppers this by telling her that her mother lives in Florida. It will be a whole weekend job. Oh Noes. Jessica breaks in and agrees on both her and Elizabeth's behalf (nice of her) that they will babysit that night, as Mrs Riccoli sounds increasingly distraught. "Mrs Riccoli, it's all right", Jessica cut in. No matter how she felt about babysitting at that house, somebody had to help Mrs Riccoli. Jessica didn't mind coming to the rescue. In fact, she kind of liked the image of herself as the type of person who would save the day. A real heroine type.' Lolz it's good to see Jessica is helping for her usual selfless reasons. Mrs Riccoli only impounds it by calling Jessica an angel, which inflates Jessica's ego a little more. "Mrs Riccoli actually called me an angel". Of course, she had a feeling Elizabeth was going to call her something else entirely when she broke the news about their staying at the Riccoli house that night. Damn right, Jess, seen as it was your idea to quit in the first place. Liz is upstairs, packing for the sleepover. She is not impressed whatsoever about Jessica agreeing to babysit, but, c'mon, if Liz had had her way they wouldn't have quit in the first place. And if they had anyway, she still would have agreed a long time before Jessica did on the phone. This is Elizabeth we're on about here, St Elizabeth of Sweet Valley for fucks sake.
The twins bike to the house. Elizabeth is ignoring Jessica point blank, as she is childish like that even though she would have done the same I'm sure. In fact, the book even states Liz knows it's childish, so why is she doing it? It's apparently Jessica's fault Elizabeth got so excited about the sleepover, and never babysitting again. Is it? Umm, ok then. Well, anyway, Jessica finds Liz hunching over her bike hilarious, and tells her she looks like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of OZ. Heh! I can't remember that film much, did she ride a bike? Liz decides to forgive Jess, and shows Jessica how to do a proper imitation. No. Comment.
At the Riccoli's, Mrs R leaves (nearly forgetting her suitcase in the process - d'oh) and the twins put the kids to bed. Todd is apparently coming over later to stay as well. Oh, the unlimited scope it gives for the perfect couple to get it on, but then I keep forgetting this is SVT, not SVH, and besides, Todd might want to save his energy for punching out the beast or something. Nate, the youngest child, is upset his mommy is gone, but Jessica cheers him up by telling him the "Terrific Terrible Terrifying Tummy Tickler' is here." Bless. I wouldn't mind having her as a babysitter. She then tells him she is also the "Terrific Tiny Toe Tickler." Heh.
After putting the rest of the kids to bed, Jess comes downstairs, trying to tell Liz about what Nate was saying when she put him to bed. He asked her to marry him, or something. Lolz. However, Lizzie is a-sleeping, much to Jessica's disgust, as they usually stay up until at least ten on Friday nights to watch a film together or something. You wait Jess, in four years time, you'll be up much later than that, what with Jungle Proms, pool parties and so on. Least they're not locked in a secret room this time, eh! Jess hopes Liz won't have the horrible nightmare she herself had that last time she fell asleep at the Riccoli's, but as Liz looks so peaceful she isn't too concerned. Oh yeah, smell any smoke, Jess? She finds a program on TV that has the same actor who plays Briggs in Lifestyles of the Guilty and the Glamorous, and gets engrossed.
We now switch to Elizabeth's dream. She is walking up the spiral staircase to the third floor, where the secret room is. She jams the door to ensure she won't be locked in again, by propping it open with an old, dusty comic book. Cos it won't annoy the beast you're disturbing MORE things in the room, will it. She can hear a wheezing noise, almost as if someone is breathing loudly in the room with her, but there is nothing unusual in the room, except a small hunched over lifelike doll by the window. Stupidly, she goes to touch it, when it moves, and 'two menacing eyes looked up at her.' Idiot Liz, idiot! Liz realises she has been tricked, and turns to flee when the carefully propped open door slams shut. 'The monster reached out with large, clawlike hands. The flesh on it's face was melting, and as it stepped closer to Elizabeth she saw the monster's eyes were glowing, as if a fire burned within. The monster's oozing arms reach out, and it wraps it's claw fingers around Elizabeth's neck. "No", she screamed, gasping for air.
Will Elizabeth live or will she die? Find out next week folks, on reality TV live............
Heh, I was just joking , I hope you haven't gone anywhere. We all know Liz lives, or there wouldn't be a SVH (although with the amount of twins lookalikes running round the country you never know, she could have been replaced). Just thought some light relief, after the knife edge drama of the last chapter, would be appreciated. Of course, I may be wrong. *shrugs*.
Soooo, where were we before the advert break. Ah yes, Elizabeth's nightmare, and her nearly being strangled. The drama! As if i could forget. Back at the Riccoli living room, Jessica is frantically waking Liz up.She says she's never heard Elizabeth scream like that in her life, and she's surprised she didn't wake the kids. Wait a minute, I thought this was supposed to be a mansion. Maybe the kids are (very) light sleepers. Anyhow, Elizabeth tells Jessica she thinks she has seen a ghost. I thought it was a monster girl like doll but erm, yep. She tells Jess it's the same monster who was in her dream. Though how she would know for definite, I'm not sure. Jess asks Liz if the monster hurt her, and then realises, as Liz is telling her about being stuck in the secret room and the monster trying to strangle her, 'on Elizabeth's skin were long red marks. Ten red marks'. Jess hyperventilates slightly, and tells Liz, who is freaked. How can she have been scratched by a monster in a dream in real life? Jessica was in the room the whole time, and she certainly didn't do them (or did she?), and you'd think she'd notice some monster-beast sneaking in and strangling Elizabeth. Logical Lizzie for once has no answers (ha)! Logical Lizzie is not happy. She can't write it off to being the cat, as she did with Juliana, as Jessica would have noticed.The twins decide to stay awake the whole night to avoid sinking back into their dreams and being strangled.
Ten minutes later, Alice phones up. Jessica doesn't tell her about the dream or the marks, as Alice has already been acting weird about them babysitting at the house. Also, Jessica thinks it all sounds ridiculous to an outsider. She's right, but I think even Alice would be concerned about Elizabeth coming home with strangle marks. Jessica tells Alice everything is be fine, and hangs up. I've just thought, what sort of parent lets their two twelve year old daughters babysit alone, especially overnight. When I was twelve no way would I have been allowed. But this is Sweet Valley I suppose, the equivalent of Buffy's Hellmouth, and maybe Alice is used to it. Except we've had proof she thinks they're still kids themselves. Umm.....
Anyway, we cut to Alice's POV, again. She thinks Jessica sounded awfully calm on the phone (shows how much you know, Alice), and, after all, why shouldn't she be. Well, Alice, if you'd get your big scaredy arse into gear and go check on your two young daughters, you might see a problem. No? Err, ok then. After all, 'there was probably nothing to worry about - not anymore. Not as there was when she used to babysit at the house. Especially back during that time, that October....'
Another scene from Alice's memories. She is again babysitting at the Riccoli, nee Sullivan, mansion. Eva has had another nightmare and Alice has been sitting with her, singing lullabies, until she fell back to sleep. At eight years old? Lullabies? Erm, OK. She is tiptoeing back down the stairs to finish her English homework when she hears a faint noise. She at first thinks it's the cat, but it isn't. It isn't Eva, either. Finally, she gathers her courage, draws back the curtains to see....her friends, Jim Wilkins, Walter Egbert and Dyan Robbins. Obviously Todd, Winston and Amy's parents. Very good continuity, as the ghostwriters actually managed to figure out Dyan would have changed her name to be Sutton when she got married. Ghostwriters, you score one point. We hear here about how Alice has liked Jim a long time. She's twelve. Is, like, six months a long time? Also, why do all Elizabeth's ancestors have to fall for Toddy type people. It takes the whole cookie jar to hear how Alice and Jim might have got it on. Meh. Originality, someone? AND we never hear about this in the Wakefield history or anything. Arghh. So anyway, they have come to keep her company, and brought ice cream. Fair enough I suppose. They talk about the Halloween party at school, and Alice won't tell them what her costume is going to be. Readers, you'll have to wait til book four to find out if we ever find out or not (I can't remember, haha). Apparently though, it'll be 'fun'. A clown suit, maybe. Or an eraser? Alice then shoos them out, as she doesn't want the Sullivans to know she's had guests over whilst babysitting. Poor Jess, she really is the black sheep of the family, since Alice was so like Elizabeth as a kid. Just as they're leaving, Jim comes back and shyly asks her, if, after the school party, they can maybe do something, just the two of them. Sixth grade love is just too, too cute! Alice is over the moon quicker than the proverbial cow, and accepts. Jim then leaves, and Alice hides the spoons in the dishwasher, hoping the Sullivan's wouldn't notice. Maybe they would just think she made four cups of tea with four different spoons. Or something. I don't know. Alice thinks it's going to be a brilliant Halloween. Foreshadowing, anyone....
Back to the present. The twins are still awake; Jessica is getting re-engrossed in the film she was watching before Liz ruined it all. Lolz. Liz can't concentrate. even though it's a film about computers. Yawn. Unfortunately, she can't really fall asleep to end the boredom either, and that's what bugging her. Eventually, Liz decides to conduct a test. She is going to purposely fall asleep, and Jessica must wake her up after five minutes. She wants to see if a place between sleep and awake exists, and if so, this is where the monster dwells. Now, according to Wikipedia,
"In mammals, the measurement of eye movement during sleep is used to divide sleep into two broad types: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Each type has a distinct set of associated physiological, neurological and psychological features.
Sleep proceeds in cycles of REM and NREM phases. In humans, this cycle is approximately 90 to 120 minutes."
I don't see anything here about weird half in-between worlds. Also, as I understand it, it takes a lot longer for your body to fall into a state where your brain is able to function without you being actively awake. So, therefore, if Elizabeth's theory is correct, she is defying all natural laws of sleep. It is Sweet Valley I suppose.
Elizabeth falls asleep, even though Jessica thinks she is nuts. I have to agree. Jessica sets five minutes by the clock on the VCR. Would you trust Jess not to get distracted? There is some movie marathon starting at nine, so Jess thinks she will watch that. If it's nine o clock already, where the hell is Todd? Jessica is gutted to find out the movie marathon is actually in French. Bummer. She channel hops until she finds a nature show about the life habits of leopards. The book states this is not normally Jessica's type of thing, she prefers drama, or romance. Well, if you find leopards mating interesting there's some sort of romance going on, isn't there? In a primal kind of way. Jessica rests her head on her arm and blinks, trying to stay awake. The sound of the crickets chirping on the TV are comforting, and the baby leopards are so cute....
Elizabeth's dream #2: Liz finds herself standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the third floor. She sees an antique mirror in the hall that she doesn't remember seeing before. Oh-er. She also notices that the flooring has changed from carpeting to highly polished wooden floors, Liz doesn't seem aware she is dreaming at this second, although she soon is....Elizabeth's feet take her unwillingly up the staircase, even though she knows she doesn't want to go up there. She thinks, "But I don't want to go back. Isn't Jessica supposed to be waking me up right about now". I could have told her not to trust Jessica with time, seen as she's the twin without the wristwatch. But anyways, when Liz gets onto the third floor she gasps in surprise. The secret bedroom is no longer secret. The door is open and plain to see, and the windows are uncovered. Also, the glass door out onto the balcony and the widow's walk is not only visible, but wide open. Are we all suitably tense yet? We all know what's coming next, don't we! Liz enters the now-not-secret room and shivers. She goes over to close the balcony door, thinking, "Jessica, where are you? Wake me up, already!" However, a voice behind her says, "I've been waiting for you."Oh noes, guess who! 'Elizabeth's spine tingled.' I've always wondered how a spine can 'tingle.' Is it like when you use waaaay too much tea tree oil and get it up your nose, but on your spine instead? Anyway, Elizabeth's tingling spine tells her something is up (no, no, this is not SVH, nobody's penis is involved, OK) and she turns round, telling herself, "OK. Here's your chance." Chance to do what? I never got that bit. You'd hardly confront the monster who's just tried to kill you, would you? Maybe she's going to do a St Elizabeth act and hand it a couple of tissues, a weepy girly video and some chocolate, and offer to talk. You never know. The monster doesn't really give her the opportunity though, as she keeps spinning round trying to find the voice it says, "over here silly." Eventually she comes face-to-face with the monster, who says, "found me", with an evil cackle. Good 'ol Sweet Valley, had to have the obligitory evil cackle in a horror book, heh! Liz leaps backwards, bumping into a bookcase and knocking some books to the floor. Which is going to impress the beast even more, I'm sure. She tells the monster to, "L-Leave me alone." Cos that's so going to work. The monster doesn't think so either, as she responds by saying, "Never," reaching out for Elizabeth's neck with strong, scary fingers. How can you have scary fingers? Jessica might think it's because she has a lack of nail varnish, but I don't think that's what Liz quite meant. Anyway, so Liz asks the monster what it wants from her, and the monster picks up an old, scarred teddy bear from the bed and brandishes it at her, saying, "You are going to pay," although it looks sad for a moment, then lunges at Liz and puts it's hands round her throat. Liz calls for Jessica, praying she will wake her up, and thrashes from the monster's grip. Running to the door, she bumps into someone else standing there. This is, of course, Jessica. The monster goes for both of them, but Liz pulls Jess into the bedroom closet. They stand in silence, "for the first time Elizabeth could remember, her twin didn't have anything to say." Heh! Liz strains to hear the monster, but it is total silence. She thinks, she hopes, the monster has given up on them (yeah, right), but then she hears a funny noise, like breathing, inside the closet. "That's impossible," she told herself. "The monster must be outside, waiting for us!" Liz shouts it can wait as long as it wants, as they aren't coming out. "Good," the monster replied, it's breath hot on Elizabeth's ear. She turned sideways, her eyes widening. The monster was inside the closet with them! But when --how? "That will make everything so much easier," it wheezed putting one hand on the front of Elizabeth's neck and starting to squeeze. The beast seems to have a real vendetta against Liz as it hasn't really gone for Jess yet. The monster drops the teddy bear (remember the bear, it's important) and wraps it's other hand around Jessica's neck. Elizabeth pushes at the monster, and Jessica starts kicking her, when........'Jessica blinked. Where was that bright light coming from?' She realises that the secret room and the closet have disappeared, and she isn't fighting the monster anymore; instead Toddy boy has finally appeared and woken them up. Better late than never, eh!
He thinks they are attacking him because he is late (though he should know his true love wouldn't do that). Hehe. However, the twins are much too concerned with what has just happened; Liz is pissed because Jess didn't wake her up as she was supposed to. Though the much more pressing matter is that they have just had the same dream and nearly died, no? Todd is bewildered, which shouldn't be too noticeably different from usual, and asks them to explain. Todd doesn't believe them; he suggests that Liz and Jess might have fought each other whilst dreaming, as Jess has a ripped sleeve. He can't, however, explain the scratch marks Liz has on her neck, as Jessica so rightly says, she was awake when they happened, and besides, her nails are really dull, "staring at her nails for a second, Jessica felt chagrined. She hadn't been in on a Unicorn manicure in a long time." Hehe, again, typical Jess. He says that, as Juliana isn't having nightmares anymore, the monster might be giving up, but, "well, d'uh," said Jessica, rolling her eyes, "she's not having them anymore because the monster's more interested in getting us." Todd looks hurt, and Jessica feels a little bad, but really. 'Todd wasn't usually such a blockhead about things."He isn't? Uh, ok then. Jess gets pissed off, and gets up to get a drink. As she does, something brown and furry falls off her lap. It's a teddy bear, which looks suspiciously old and ratty. Jessica knows instantly it's the one the monster was holding in the dream. The tag sewn onto it says, 'This bear belongs to[.....wait for it......]EVA SULLIVAN.' As in, the girl who's bedroom was the secret third floor room. Oh noes. The twins deduce that the monster is actually Eva Sullivan. So how does all this link together, and lets not forget Alice's memories, either! Avid reader, read on....
Todd is disbelieveing. He would be. If there isn't a pool or a warehouse, he doesn't understand. He thinks they are trying to play a practical joke on him (he probably wants to believe it so he can practise Todd Punch for later life). The twins have made a very sensible decision not to go to sleep at all for (ever - ha) no, the rest of the night, and are so playing Gin Rummy. Isn't that something parental units play at parties? Hmmm!! Let me just Google this....OK, so Gin Rummy is actually boring enough as described on Wikipedia to make me close the page without reading all of it. Snore, I can understand why Liz likes it. They are on their fourth game, and Liz estimates that they may have to play a hundred and four games to last the night. Oh God!!! JUST LEAVE TODD WITH THE KIDS IF HE DOESNT BELIEVE ANYWAY! Meh, morals eh!!! Todd decides to have a nap strected out on the rug, because he played basketball for three hours that afternoon, (still doesn't explain why he was so late arriving though). Todd starts snoring (MEN!) and Liz suggests they use the five minute rule to watch him, though she does snipe at Jessica by saying, "let's stick to it this time, OK." Heh, Jess is not impressed, and Liz lets it go, as usual, even though she is still annoyed and says, "I just don't want anything to happen to Todd, OK? I didn't mean to rub it in." Puppy love. Bless. Jessica come up with a theory that Eva (and isn't it a relief to write Eva instead of Best, Beast or Monster) only wants to hurt girls, as Todd is out with no problems. However, this doesn't last long, as suddenly, "his legs jerked back and forth, as if he was trying to run," and he starts screaming, "No! Stop!" They wake him pretty darn quick, and he says she's horrible. So much for Jessica's only girls theory.
Amy and Winston turn up on Saturday morning to watch the kids all day, cos they have lives where they can suddenly drop all their plans to babysit, you see!! Liz, Jess and Todd haven't slept at all, and Jess is grouchy. Winston asks her if there is any spare breakfast and she bites his head off. Hmm, she doesn't seem any different to me but OK. They tell them they haven't slept all day, and explain why (we don't hear the explanation).
Back at Casa Wakefield of the Sunny Spanish Tiled Kitchen, the twins have arrived home to sleep all day, or at least Jessica has. Heh. Mr Wakefield comments they have a very demanding job, and Elizabeth tells him he has no idea. Before Liz goes to bed, she asks Alice what she knows about Eva Sullivan. BIG mistake. We already know the Eva that Alice used to babysit must be the Eva the teddy belonged to, and therefore must be the monster in their dreams. Alice gets all edgy; she drops the knife she is using and is adamant she doesn't know anything about that, ahem, her! Me doth think the lady protesteth too much! Liz pursues the matter, as we all knew she would, and Alice basically runs out of the kitchen saying she has to go to the florist. "Why is she acting so weird? If she does know something terrible about Eva Sullivan, why won't she tell me?", wonders Elizabeth. Let me think about that one; maybe because she doesn't want to. Also, why isn't Liz rushing off to her microfiche machine at the trusty library? Shocking!
Yet another memoir from Alice's personal collection; she thinks to herself all she does it want to forget about Eva Sullivan, and the twins keep forcing the memories back. Why won't they leave her alone? Heh, serves you right for having twins, Alice. In italics, so we know this is another memory from yesteryear....Alice had just got her friends to leave when the Sullivans came back. Hoping they wouldn't notice those pesky spoons in the dishwasher, she gathers up her stuff. Mrs Sullivan asks her for a massive favour; babysit on Halloween. What kind of parent leaves their child they know is terrified of Halloween with a babysitter on that night? Harumph, now we know where Alice learnt her skills from. Alice agrees, thinking she can skip the school party and go out with Jimmy Boy after the Sullivans get home, 'cos they are only going as Mr Sullivan is new to the firm and they need to make a good impression. D'ya know, I wasn't aware Halloween was such a big deal in America but it certainly seems it. Anyway, Alice says, "Great! Then I can have two Halloween parties. One with my friends and one with Eva." Gag me.
Back to the present. Liz can't sleep and decides to go on a bike ride with Maria. She is nuts, after all, as she has to stay up all night again, remember. When she gets back, Jess is awake, and rightly calls her nuts. Jess has big plans about the kids staying at the Wakefield house, but remembers her parents are having a big dinner for Ned's clients (as if) and so that's not gonna happen. Dammit! Heh she thinks Winston will scare Eva off with some really bad jokes!
Cut to mansion la Riccoli. The kids are a-sleeping and the babysitters, all five of them (that's Liz, Jess, Toddykins, Amy and Winston - hey I've just realised none of Jessica's friends are there - strange), are downstairs, trying to think of ways to pass the night without sleeping. Elizabeth feels 'relieved' that Juliana isn't having nightmares anymore, bless. Winston and Amy for some reason believe everything the others say, even though it sounds crazy! Ahem, anyway, everyone is on edge. They discuss how weird everyone's parents are about the Riccoli house; of course you remember Dyan is Amy's mom etc as mentioned earlier. Jessica does make a pointed note about the parents' weird behaviour; she rightly points out that, "It's not like they're protecting us. I mean, if they really wanted to protect us or thought anything was wrong - wouldn't they be here instead of us?" Ha when it takes Jessica to point out bad parenting you know something's wrong.
Jessica comes up with an idea to drink coffee to prevent sleeping. Trust me, when you're really tired not even coffee works! Jessica makes the coffee, even though she doesn't know how. Bloody hell, at twelve I'd been making tea and coffee for myself and my parents for at least six years. She consults a cookbook (??) to find out how to make coffee, but to no avail. When she does eventually figure it out, she forgets to use a filter, so the grounds go into the drink and everyone agrees it's disgusting. To add insult to injury, Winston points out she's used decaf coffee, which his parents use after dinner to go to sleep. Hehe!! Nobody is impressed, but as she's the only one who's actually had an idea so far, they haven't really got a leg to stand on. And Bruce isn't there, so his permanent third leg isn't available. Shit, wrong series, sorry :-p!! Todd eventually comes up with the idea of a game board marathon. His brain cells must have been recently polished. When I was younger, I thought the whole idea of a gameboard marathon at a sleepover was well cool, and inflicted my friends with it. I had the My Little Pony game and everything :-) in fact, I still do and if I had sleepovers these days I would play it. Anyway. He lets Liz choose which game they will play, and she shuts her eyes and grabs....Candy Land. Now, I've never played this, as I'm guessing it is American, but I think it's probably the equivalent of My Little Pony, ages 2-6. Cool. Heh! Todd moans and Jess tells him he will probably win, but don't count on it. Hehe. After that they play Monopoly, and Jess gets r-e-a-l-l-y competetive. We hear about how she made Steven go bankrupt once eight times. Go Jess. Atta girl! Winston is fighting her for last place, but sudenly he falls asleep still playing. Jess ends the game (after waking him up - her priorites aren't that bad, sheesh) cos then she won't officially lose. OK, maybe they are. Amy moans her tummy feels awful after drinking the coffee (lol) and Liz agrees. Jess is fed up of being dissed over the coffee, and thinks, "If only I could come up with another idea. Then maybe everyone would get off my back about the stupid coffee." She thinks everyone would love to go to sleep, and thinks they could set an alarm clock to wake them up every ten minutes (but I thought the cut off time was five - check your facts ghostwriters). Everyone does love the idea, although surely the fact that parts of their dreams came true, such as scratches, rips and teddy bears, would prove that maybeit's just not safe to sleep at all!!!!Why doesn't Liz come up with her 'you sleep first then we will' idea? Oh dear. Amy calls Jessica 'awesome' and Todd says the idea is 'brilliant'. Jssica shrugs and sits back thinking, "Awesome. Brilliant. An angel. The compliments sure are piling up lately." Hehehehe! Go Jess.
In italics from Eva's POV: she watches as they all fall asleep. One of them (Todd, I think) snores, as if he feels at home. In her house. How dare he. If he wasn't on her hit list before, he sure is now. She is also mad at 'that blond haired girl who looked so like her mother.' Which one? I think she means Jess. Just as she goes to pull the alarm clock out of the wall, Winston gets up and goes for a drink, pulling the lead out accidentally as he goes. Fool! Bad, bad Winston!! "Very good," she thinks with a wicked smile, "Thank you. That's one more thing I don't have to tke care of." Oohhh scary shit!
Back to Jessia - she is climbing up the third floor, where the scret room is. However, she feels relaxed, as she knows the alarm clock will wake her. "So there monster," she feels like saying, but decides not to push her luck. Wise girl. Instead of going into the secret room, however, her feet take her to a ladder in the hall, that leads up to the Widows Walk. She finds herself on the roof, in pitch black cold. The door has locked itself behind her, but as she watches Amy steps through as well. Then Todd. The Winston. Uh-oh. They figure out the clock might be broken (well, not quite) but Jess figures Liz will save them, as, after all, "She's been saving me practically since the day we were born." Damn right she has Jess, and even if you come out of this alive you're not going to appreciate it, are you!
Jump to Liz: she is walking up to the third floor. As she nears the ladder, she feels compelled to scale it. On she steps to the roof, where the rest of the kids look at her in horror. Oh Noes! As they watch is horror, the trap door slams and the monster - Eva Sullvan - steps out onto the roof. "Welcome to your worse nightmare," the monster threatened in a thick, raspy voice, heading straight towards the five of them. "Welcome to your death." A shudder runs up Elizabeth's spine. This time there was no escape.....
Oh Steven....
Continuing from the previous book, Steven and Joe are running their mowing 'business'. We know that Steven had to pay for the replacement Riccoli hedge as he charged through it on the mower, so we start with Joe asking how much it cost Steven to replace it. I thought they were sharing the profits? But OK. Steven says it cost him the amount Mrs Riccoli paid him for mowing the lawn. Bother! Steven is bitter. If the firefighters had done it noone would have cared. And he was a firefighter, wasn't he. True, actually. Poor Steven. Anyways, the phone rings and it's a potential client, a Mr Taylor Morgan. Steven thinks this is a 'rich name', and he is quite right. I like the name Taylor, so if I call my kid that, will they be rich? Mr Morgan wants his 'grounds' landscaping by the weekend.Todays supposed to be, what, Thursday. No, Friday and he wants them to have finished by Sunday, so can they come over now and take a look. Steven gets some paper and rustles it in front of the mouthpiece, to sound busy. Heh, every good businessman's trick ain't it. They rush out to Larspur Way (which is a cul-de-sac incidentally, and Steven doesn'tknow what that means. He is fourteen, good grief). When they get there, the 'most beautiful girl Steven had ever seen' opens the door. Karen Morgan, Steven's new heartthrob. Yawn. Another one? He thinks her feet are attractive. Good thing to pick up on Steven for when your girlfriend in later life wants her feet tickling as you watch TV on the couch. I'm bitter, my boyfriend never does it to me anymore. Ahem, anyway. Steven introduces them as, "Howell and Wakefield Landscaping. I'm Howell -" Heh, Steven is into this girl. They look at the lawn, after Karen points out they've forgotten the mower - d'uh. They arrange to go back at 10 o clock the next morning, and Steven calls it 'a date' to which she replies, " yeah, a date with you and the lawn." Hehe, Steven is such a fool in this book, and he started out so well, fighting fires and all!
Outside, Joe figures Steven is crushing on Karen, and they make a bet as to who can get a date with her the following night. 'Cos they're so totally sure she will want to date one of them. The lawn mowing boys. Yeah, right. Whoever loses will have to babysit the Riccoli kids with the twins. 'Cos the twins will so want them there. Sigh, this is getting boring already and I can't even be bothered to insert snark where appropriate.
The next day, Steven is up and raring to go. He is wearing his new leather basketball sneakers (without socks) and his 'new, white, sleeveless 'muscle' t-shirt.' Ahem. 'The shirt showed off his tan arms. He was no weight lifter, but he had some defnintion in his biceps. If he clenched his fists, anyway. And he looked cool in his favourite long, baggy, official L.A. lakers shorts'. OK then. He also puts on his sunglasses, and admires both sides of his reflection in the mirror, hunching over like he is on the mower. Lol. "Hi there." he says, winking at the mirror. Errrrr!! I'm speechless. I think she's supposed to be impressed, but I seriously doubt it! Joe barges into Steven's room (without knocking?) and hands over a piece of paper entitled 'The Bet'. Steven signs, and off they go.
At the Morgans, things don't exactly go to Steven's plan. Like we all knew they wouldn't, really. He is stuck on the mower, whilst Joe clips the edges. Steven tries showing off his biceps etc by vrooming round (I think he's imagining the mower to be some sort of sports car). "He revved the engine and lunged forward, executing a quick turn that tipped the mower slightly to one side. Then he charged down the lawn in the otherdirection." Heh! Karen doesn't appear to be very impressed however, and as Steven's antics on the mower get stranger, as in he starts mowing in odd circles that resemble crop circles, Karen has ample opportunity to talk to Joe, who is clipping by her feet. They stop for lunch, and she serves them veggie sandwiches. Steven tries to impress her by saying he was vegetarian himself, until Joe tells her it was only for a week. I don't like Joe at all. Karen says she can smell something funny, to which Steven realises she can smell his leather trainers, which of course are worse as he has no socks on. Silly Steven! Karen makes some sort of weird speech, "It's almost like....you know, when something gets left out in the rain for too long. And afterward it gets this rotten, musky smell, like a dead animal. You know what it is? It's like...a late autumn night, and your shoes are wet, covered with leaves because you walked home in the rain, alone. And you forgot to take them off straight away because you had this poem you wanted to write, but there they are, and...." Err, who thinks the ghostwriter was feeling a little, nostalgic, maybe. Steven legs it home asap to change his trainers, hehe! On his way back, he is jogging up the drive when he sees Karen standing on the front step, waving and smiling. He thinks his luck is in, and tries to outrun a black four wheel-drive Jeep that is coming up behind him, to show what an awesome athlete he is. However, no such luck, the Jeep overtakes him and, lo and behold, it's some tall, blond college guy called Jake, who Karen instantly throws her arms round. Steven is left in clouds of exhaust smoke as they roar off. Joe pops up grinning, and asks how much babysitting pays these days. You may think they have both lost, but you'd be wrong....
Later that evening, they finish the lawn by moonlight. Mrs Morgan pays Steven by cheque. Karen gets back, and Steven, undeterred, tries to ask her out for a date next weekend. Before he can get the words out, however, Karen says he'll have to arrange more lawncare with her dad, but she'll definitely see Joe next weekend, Friday at seven. Steven is pissed. As you would be. Joe is a shit best friend. However, Steven is avenged by pulling out.....the cheque. Made out to one Steven Wakefield. Ha Ha Ha!! Joe is fucked off but Steven roars off on the mower, feeling like he has lost the battle but won the war. And he would be right. Until about now. When he gets pulled by a cop car for speeding on a mower at night without headlights. Heeeee!! He tries to wriggle out of paying but eventually has to give her a cheque, saying his name is S.T.U.P.I.D. He would be right.
OK just to recap for the next book:
#97: Too Scared to Sleep
#98: The Beast it Watching You
One would suggest everybody reads the above recaps if they haven't previously, to remind themselves of what is going on....
As a special treat I'm gonna show both covers. Personally, I have the British, modern pooh-poohey covers, but I like the American ones so let us have a snark at both, I thought!
The Covers
Ok, cover #1. We have the twins looking into some sort of abyss, although I presume this is supposed to be the secret room. The cover is a bit, err, bright on here. I do apologise. I see they used the same cover model for the two covers. Anyway, so Jess is wearing an outfit stolen from Farmer Giles' washing line, which sounds very un-Jessica like to me, but her hair is down so I am presuming that's her. What, no purple? Liz is wearing a tent and is holding Jessica's arm. Yeah Liz, make sure your younger-sister-by-4-sodding-minutes-that-feel-like-years goes first! Yeah so Liz is wearing something I can only presume was taken from her dad's wardrobe, as it is that big, and what I think are pyjama bottoms, but in actual fact are probably jeans. Jessica is shouting, I think. Do you know, I've been staring at the picture trying to figure out what it is they're looking at, and I've just realised it's a fire. Heh. In that case this scene actually happens. Kind of. Go ghostwriters & artists!! Except, as far as I know, the twins never get stuck behind a fire in the attic. But whatevs!
Cover #2: The modern cover. Well, not much to snark at really. I must say, as a kid reading these books I thought the doll's head was a little creepy. I still do. You know in the Titanic film, where they show the wreck at the beginning, well, there's a cracked doll's head shown in that too, and this cover always reminded me of that footage. I think that was real footage as well. I think the bunny slipper is a nice touch too, as all readers of this arc will know the slipper is highly relevant (although not actually in this book, which is worth noting).
OK, moving onto the story...
The Best Beast Must DIE. Mwahahahahahahaha!!
We open with Liz & Jess stuck inside the secret bedroom. As fellow recappers will no doubt know, the secret bedroom is on the third floor, and is a disused child's room. There is a fire raging downstairs, and Jessica is frantically trying to escape, but the door won't open. There are wisps of smoke entering the room. Jessica is pounding on the door, and making her knuckles bleed. Liz is useless in this chapter, if I'm honest. She says, "maybe the fire isn't too big", to which Jess tells her if they can smell/see smoke then the fire is already too big. Yay, go Jessica; it's not often she comes out with logical reasoning. Liz then tells Jessica to stop pounding on the door, as her knuckles are bleeding. Erm, hello Lizzie, she's trying to save your sorry ass here, at least help her, instead of pontificating about fires. Ker-ist!! The twins have been yelling for help and everything but to no avail. Liz tells Jess she thinks it's hopeless, so Jess turns her attention to the bed. She holds up a doll and admires it's curly blond hair - does Elizabeth think she would look good with her hair curled? Liz snaps back that maybe there are more pressing matters at hand, so Jess turns to pulling sheets off the bed to make a rope ladder. Go Jess, again! We have a stock description of the two twins here. The sheets won't budge however, so they go back to pounding on the door and yelling for help. 'Cos they haven't already tried this and failed ~rolls eyes~.
Meanwhile, who should be a-heading toward the Riccoli house with an evil grin and rubber face mask but Steven Wakefield himself. Atop his trusty steed, the lawnmower, he is motoring his way along when.......his face mask flops onto his eyes. Buggar. He can't see, and his trusty steed ploughs him through something prickly, and into something hard, whereupon it stalls and dies altogether. Let us just have moment of mourning here. ~Silence~
Steven sniffs. And he isn't crying either. He can smell burning. Oh Noes don't tell me he broke the lawnmower. Ned will kill him. Upon removing his mask, he realises that the smoke isn't coming from the mower; it's coming from the Riccoli mansion. Oh Noes!!!! Leaving his trusty steed behind to mourn the loss of it's rotary blades, he rushes into the house to call 911. Damn those mobile phone companies for not inventing them yet!! He is hoping that the twins took the kids out for a walk or something but decides to go and see where the fire is coming from just in case. Go Steven. His awesome big-brotherness is showing through at this moment.
Upon ascending the staircase, he notes the smoke is getting thicker by the minute, and, dun der dun, it's coming from what he thinks is a bedroom. Running in, he sees a bed surrounded by fire, with a little boy asleep in the middle. Oh Noes. Steven (Go Go Steven) deftly ensures his face is covered by the rubber mask, and grabs a comforter to suffocate the flames. Umm yeah, right. If the flames were so bad they could be seen outside the house and smelled on the third floor, no way no way (mnumenah - oops, lapsing into a Vanilla Song there, sorry) would Steven be able to put them out with just a duvet! Anyway, In the world of Sweet Valley, CA, Steven manages to put the flames out, and stomps on the floor to make sure. Heh. The little boy, who is actually Andrew Riccoli (as I'm writing this before dirtywingsgirl has posted the recap for The Beast Is Watching You, I'm not sure if she'll note that Andrew has a history for playing with matches and lighting fires, so I'm going to note it just in case). The little boy, who is actually Andrew Riccoli, has a history for playing with matches and lighting fires. There, now ya know ;-)! I'd also like to note that whenever I write the word 'Beast' I end up writing 'Best' and have to go back and re-write it. Which is cool because this arc is the BEST. But, I digress. Going back along my trail to the book, Andrew is now awake and scared. Steven tries to coax him out of bed, telling him he has to carry him as the floor might still be hot. I will take it that Steven is wearing hard soled shoes 'cos I'm not sure if rubber will have melted onto the floor. But umm, OK. Andrew is scared; he wants to know why Steven looks like a monster. 'Cos he's a male. No, umm, ok, 'cos he is still wearing his supercool Halloween mask, durrr!!! Steven explains, and Andrew is all like, "wow, cool, man!". Then Steven carries Andrew out the room to safety, and wakes up the other Riccoli kids, asking if anyone has seen the twins. But of course they haven't, as they are stuck upstairs, through poking around in a place they shouldn't be.
In italics we have a page from the 'best's - see - beast's POV. She is seriously pissed because Steven put the fire out. "It was perfect, everyone in the same place at the same time, and the boy in the stupid mask had to ruin it......The boy must die, too". Scary shit! So Steven is now on the beast's hit list too. Poor Alice, all her children will be dead soon if the beast has her way. I'm sure she'd be upset, for a whole three minutes or so (one for each child, c'mon, that's more than fair surely).
Back to our secret room twins (kind of reminds me of Virginia Andrews - The Flowers In The Attic. I love that book/series). Logical Lizzie has determined the only course of action, seen as Jess had no luck yanking the sheets off the bed (apparently they are 'stuck - thirty years worth of dust, maybe). Liz's plan is to charge the door together, like some sort of packhorse duo. Jess is dubious but it's their only way of escape. So they charge, and, lo and behold, the door opens. Now, wasn't that a nice convenience for them. Somehow, the door has become unstuck. The book kind of implies that the beast's evil influence had glued the door shut, and now she has been foiled the door had opened. The twins race for the stairwell, but they can't both fit at once (what, even though they are 'graceful bodied' and will be someday size six?) and they fall. Will they live or will they die?
Now, anyone else would break their necks, but not these two. Oh no. As they judder to a halt, they see all the kids standing in the hallway. There is a monster with them that looks exactly like the girl in Jessica's dream (from the previous book). Except the kids aren't scared. But the twins decide to 'get it' anyway, so they jump on it. Rite-o. This beast the kids and twins alike are terrified of is supposedly standing harmlessly in the hallway, instead of swinging an axe cackling, "I vant blud, and I vant it NOW", and the twins charge it and beat it into submission, with the kids fearlessly watching. Logical Lizzie's superpowers have deserted her momentarily methinks!! Anyway, they get the so called monster on the floor, where it starts wriggling and moaning, "get off me you guys," in a very familiar voice. Hmm. Could it be Steven?? It could indeedy! He stands up and removes his mask. Jessica and Liz are so not amused; this isn't the first time he has tried to scare them. But, c'mon guys, he saved your lives this time. While you were being irresponsible babysitters and poking around in rooms that don't concern you in someone else's mansion (Elizabeth, I'm shocked), Steven saved your bottoms. The twins threaten to tell their parents, but Steven does point out he has just saved their sorry skins, and besides, err, where were they whilst he was being a hero? They shhh him as they don't want the kids to find out and spoil their fun know and be scared, and then the fire engine that Steven called appears. So, having just escaped a potential death situation, the twins are threatening blackmail on their older brother who just saved them, and their charges. Whatever!
The fire fighters barrel in and almost knock Jessica over. Does she think they will listen to the word of a 12 year old concerning a life threatening matter? She is a bit put out, but when they come back down and she gets introduced to Ryan Locke, the 'hunky' firefighter (ugh, the word 'hunky' always reminds me of Baywatch) their rudeness escapes her. Forget that he is about 22, and she is 12, oh no, our Jessica has a history of older guys don't let's forget. He asks if they have any idea how it started, and she, 'flipped her hair over her shoulder and said, "I have an idea, actually". Ryan looked at her intently and she smiled nervously. Having Ryan smile at her like that had made her forget her idea". Heh typical Jess. Mrs Riccoli appears and throws a mild panic attack about their being a fire engine at her house. Fair enough. The firefighters give the kids a lecture on never using matches and they leave. Mrs Riccoli gives Andrew a lecture on never using matches, and he cries and says he didn't. Yeah yeah kid, no-one believes that when you grow older, either! The twins take full credit for stopping the fire, which if you ask me would be against Liz's usual holier-than-thou morals, but they don't want Mrs Riccoli to know they were stuck in the secret room when the fire started. Steven just goes along with this, so they won't tell their parents about him trying to scare them. They should just be grateful he was there, if you ask me. But you didn't, so I'm going to carry on. As the twins and Steven are leaving (with the trusty steed that didn't die after all, just stalled, yay) Mrs Riccoli looks in some bewilderment at the hedge. There is a suspiciously Steven shaped hole, right in the middle. Uh-oh. Steven tries to blame the fire engine, but to no avail. Remember that prickly thing he went through before he hit the porch. Well, that was the former hedge. Oh, Steven!! Well, Howell & Wakefield now specialise in hedge replacement, too. Heh, if he'd have told Mrs R about his awesome fire-busting skills I bet she would have let him off.
The next morning, Elizabeth is snoozing over her breakfast. She is tired after having to babysit, the fire, and catching up on homework. Fuck me, if I'd been stuck in some secret room that mysteriously locked itself whilst the house was on fire, I can't imagine not having nightmares as well. What about smoke inhalation? Having Googled 'smoke inhalation', I've found that 'Smoke inhalation occurs when you breathe in the products of combustion during a fire, and ''Smoke injury accounts for 75% of the deaths related to fire.' I also found out that, if there is smoke from a fire in a room, the risk of having effects from smoke inhalation is very high. So it seems the twins, kids and Steven all escaped very lightly. But still, going to back to the Spanish tiled kitchen, if I was Liz and Jess I would at least be a bit freaked out about the previous night, not moaning 'cos I hadn't had much time for my homework. Of course, no-one has told the parents, as they don't want them to worry (and they are blackmailing Steven, heh). Any-ho, Jessica comes in and declares no more babysitting!!! She is sick and tired of being scared. Not to mention she hasn't seen her Unicorn friends for ages (erm, no great loss). Liz is not easily convinced, "Qu-Quitting" Elizabeth stuttered, "but -what about the kids? They really love you. You can't just leave them like that". Liz, they have parents. And lives outside of you and Jessica. Honestly, not everyone thinks you two are brilliant. This is not Jessica's children we are on about here. Meh. However, Liz, being the doormat she is, is soon won over to Jessica's way of thinking. After they can still visit the kids :-) (erm, yeah, like you would without appearing extremely odd). In fact, she is so won over that she arranges to have a sleepover at Maria's that evening. I presume Maria has actually arranged the sleepover and Liz in invited, because if not what the fuck is Liz doing arranging events at someone else's house, but I'm off on a tangent so I will resume the story. Alice comes in and agrees with Jess it's a great idea to not babysit there anymore, as they need time to do stuff with their friends. Jessica declares she hasn't been to a party, in like, a year. She's starting early. Of course, we all know Alice has been completely freaked out by them working there anyway, for reasons that are gradually coming clearer, and so of course she is more than happy they are going to quit.
We have a cut scene now from Alice's POV. She sinks down at the table, 'she'd tried to hide her relief at the news they wouldn't be going back to the Riccoli house. Her daughters didn't need to know she too had been a babysitter at that house. A long time ago.....' She remembers babysitting at the Riccoli, formerly Sullivan, mansion when she was twelve. Eva has had another nightmare, and Alice knows she has to apply 'damage control'. Like what you do after, say, an earthquake, but on a smaller scale. Or something. We hear about how Eva has a lot of nightmares, specifically concerning Halloween, which is a few weeks away. Alice is the only babysitter who can calm Eva down so well. Alice promises Eva nothing will hurt her on Halloween - 'Eva looked up, her eyes full of doubt. "Really," Alice said, "you can trust me." She reached out to hug Eva, but the little girl's hug was hesitant, as if she wasn't convinced.' Seems Alice wasn't so convincing after all.
Later that afternoon, back in the present, Jessica is watching 'Lifestyles of the Guilty and the Glamorous.' She hasn't seen it for an entire two weeks (oh noes) but the plot doesn't appear to have changed much. The party is still going on as the last time she watched, and Jessica has a crush on the star, Briggs. Briggs is with Geneva, who is Jessica's favourite character on the show, as she 'had long blond hair, like Jessica, and she was always getting the best boyfriends." Arghh someone shoot me. No wonder Jess can't spell the word thief if she likes shows where parties go on for two weeks straight. Her head must just be full of fluff. Anyway, Jessica is engrossed in the TV when the phone rings. It's Mrs Riccoli, and she's frantic. Her mother is ill and she must go to her. Will the twins babysit? She offers them triple pay (!!) but Jessica is still unsure. I wouldn't be. Triple pay, hell yeah. Even if that hell was literal. I love cash, I admit it! At any rate,she eventually agrees to a couple hours in the afternoon, but Mrs Riccoli scuppers this by telling her that her mother lives in Florida. It will be a whole weekend job. Oh Noes. Jessica breaks in and agrees on both her and Elizabeth's behalf (nice of her) that they will babysit that night, as Mrs Riccoli sounds increasingly distraught. "Mrs Riccoli, it's all right", Jessica cut in. No matter how she felt about babysitting at that house, somebody had to help Mrs Riccoli. Jessica didn't mind coming to the rescue. In fact, she kind of liked the image of herself as the type of person who would save the day. A real heroine type.' Lolz it's good to see Jessica is helping for her usual selfless reasons. Mrs Riccoli only impounds it by calling Jessica an angel, which inflates Jessica's ego a little more. "Mrs Riccoli actually called me an angel". Of course, she had a feeling Elizabeth was going to call her something else entirely when she broke the news about their staying at the Riccoli house that night. Damn right, Jess, seen as it was your idea to quit in the first place. Liz is upstairs, packing for the sleepover. She is not impressed whatsoever about Jessica agreeing to babysit, but, c'mon, if Liz had had her way they wouldn't have quit in the first place. And if they had anyway, she still would have agreed a long time before Jessica did on the phone. This is Elizabeth we're on about here, St Elizabeth of Sweet Valley for fucks sake.
The twins bike to the house. Elizabeth is ignoring Jessica point blank, as she is childish like that even though she would have done the same I'm sure. In fact, the book even states Liz knows it's childish, so why is she doing it? It's apparently Jessica's fault Elizabeth got so excited about the sleepover, and never babysitting again. Is it? Umm, ok then. Well, anyway, Jessica finds Liz hunching over her bike hilarious, and tells her she looks like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of OZ. Heh! I can't remember that film much, did she ride a bike? Liz decides to forgive Jess, and shows Jessica how to do a proper imitation. No. Comment.
At the Riccoli's, Mrs R leaves (nearly forgetting her suitcase in the process - d'oh) and the twins put the kids to bed. Todd is apparently coming over later to stay as well. Oh, the unlimited scope it gives for the perfect couple to get it on, but then I keep forgetting this is SVT, not SVH, and besides, Todd might want to save his energy for punching out the beast or something. Nate, the youngest child, is upset his mommy is gone, but Jessica cheers him up by telling him the "Terrific Terrible Terrifying Tummy Tickler' is here." Bless. I wouldn't mind having her as a babysitter. She then tells him she is also the "Terrific Tiny Toe Tickler." Heh.
After putting the rest of the kids to bed, Jess comes downstairs, trying to tell Liz about what Nate was saying when she put him to bed. He asked her to marry him, or something. Lolz. However, Lizzie is a-sleeping, much to Jessica's disgust, as they usually stay up until at least ten on Friday nights to watch a film together or something. You wait Jess, in four years time, you'll be up much later than that, what with Jungle Proms, pool parties and so on. Least they're not locked in a secret room this time, eh! Jess hopes Liz won't have the horrible nightmare she herself had that last time she fell asleep at the Riccoli's, but as Liz looks so peaceful she isn't too concerned. Oh yeah, smell any smoke, Jess? She finds a program on TV that has the same actor who plays Briggs in Lifestyles of the Guilty and the Glamorous, and gets engrossed.
We now switch to Elizabeth's dream. She is walking up the spiral staircase to the third floor, where the secret room is. She jams the door to ensure she won't be locked in again, by propping it open with an old, dusty comic book. Cos it won't annoy the beast you're disturbing MORE things in the room, will it. She can hear a wheezing noise, almost as if someone is breathing loudly in the room with her, but there is nothing unusual in the room, except a small hunched over lifelike doll by the window. Stupidly, she goes to touch it, when it moves, and 'two menacing eyes looked up at her.' Idiot Liz, idiot! Liz realises she has been tricked, and turns to flee when the carefully propped open door slams shut. 'The monster reached out with large, clawlike hands. The flesh on it's face was melting, and as it stepped closer to Elizabeth she saw the monster's eyes were glowing, as if a fire burned within. The monster's oozing arms reach out, and it wraps it's claw fingers around Elizabeth's neck. "No", she screamed, gasping for air.
Will Elizabeth live or will she die? Find out next week folks, on reality TV live............
Heh, I was just joking , I hope you haven't gone anywhere. We all know Liz lives, or there wouldn't be a SVH (although with the amount of twins lookalikes running round the country you never know, she could have been replaced). Just thought some light relief, after the knife edge drama of the last chapter, would be appreciated. Of course, I may be wrong. *shrugs*.
Soooo, where were we before the advert break. Ah yes, Elizabeth's nightmare, and her nearly being strangled. The drama! As if i could forget. Back at the Riccoli living room, Jessica is frantically waking Liz up.She says she's never heard Elizabeth scream like that in her life, and she's surprised she didn't wake the kids. Wait a minute, I thought this was supposed to be a mansion. Maybe the kids are (very) light sleepers. Anyhow, Elizabeth tells Jessica she thinks she has seen a ghost. I thought it was a monster girl like doll but erm, yep. She tells Jess it's the same monster who was in her dream. Though how she would know for definite, I'm not sure. Jess asks Liz if the monster hurt her, and then realises, as Liz is telling her about being stuck in the secret room and the monster trying to strangle her, 'on Elizabeth's skin were long red marks. Ten red marks'. Jess hyperventilates slightly, and tells Liz, who is freaked. How can she have been scratched by a monster in a dream in real life? Jessica was in the room the whole time, and she certainly didn't do them (or did she?), and you'd think she'd notice some monster-beast sneaking in and strangling Elizabeth. Logical Lizzie for once has no answers (ha)! Logical Lizzie is not happy. She can't write it off to being the cat, as she did with Juliana, as Jessica would have noticed.The twins decide to stay awake the whole night to avoid sinking back into their dreams and being strangled.
Ten minutes later, Alice phones up. Jessica doesn't tell her about the dream or the marks, as Alice has already been acting weird about them babysitting at the house. Also, Jessica thinks it all sounds ridiculous to an outsider. She's right, but I think even Alice would be concerned about Elizabeth coming home with strangle marks. Jessica tells Alice everything is be fine, and hangs up. I've just thought, what sort of parent lets their two twelve year old daughters babysit alone, especially overnight. When I was twelve no way would I have been allowed. But this is Sweet Valley I suppose, the equivalent of Buffy's Hellmouth, and maybe Alice is used to it. Except we've had proof she thinks they're still kids themselves. Umm.....
Anyway, we cut to Alice's POV, again. She thinks Jessica sounded awfully calm on the phone (shows how much you know, Alice), and, after all, why shouldn't she be. Well, Alice, if you'd get your big scaredy arse into gear and go check on your two young daughters, you might see a problem. No? Err, ok then. After all, 'there was probably nothing to worry about - not anymore. Not as there was when she used to babysit at the house. Especially back during that time, that October....'
Another scene from Alice's memories. She is again babysitting at the Riccoli, nee Sullivan, mansion. Eva has had another nightmare and Alice has been sitting with her, singing lullabies, until she fell back to sleep. At eight years old? Lullabies? Erm, OK. She is tiptoeing back down the stairs to finish her English homework when she hears a faint noise. She at first thinks it's the cat, but it isn't. It isn't Eva, either. Finally, she gathers her courage, draws back the curtains to see....her friends, Jim Wilkins, Walter Egbert and Dyan Robbins. Obviously Todd, Winston and Amy's parents. Very good continuity, as the ghostwriters actually managed to figure out Dyan would have changed her name to be Sutton when she got married. Ghostwriters, you score one point. We hear here about how Alice has liked Jim a long time. She's twelve. Is, like, six months a long time? Also, why do all Elizabeth's ancestors have to fall for Toddy type people. It takes the whole cookie jar to hear how Alice and Jim might have got it on. Meh. Originality, someone? AND we never hear about this in the Wakefield history or anything. Arghh. So anyway, they have come to keep her company, and brought ice cream. Fair enough I suppose. They talk about the Halloween party at school, and Alice won't tell them what her costume is going to be. Readers, you'll have to wait til book four to find out if we ever find out or not (I can't remember, haha). Apparently though, it'll be 'fun'. A clown suit, maybe. Or an eraser? Alice then shoos them out, as she doesn't want the Sullivans to know she's had guests over whilst babysitting. Poor Jess, she really is the black sheep of the family, since Alice was so like Elizabeth as a kid. Just as they're leaving, Jim comes back and shyly asks her, if, after the school party, they can maybe do something, just the two of them. Sixth grade love is just too, too cute! Alice is over the moon quicker than the proverbial cow, and accepts. Jim then leaves, and Alice hides the spoons in the dishwasher, hoping the Sullivan's wouldn't notice. Maybe they would just think she made four cups of tea with four different spoons. Or something. I don't know. Alice thinks it's going to be a brilliant Halloween. Foreshadowing, anyone....
Back to the present. The twins are still awake; Jessica is getting re-engrossed in the film she was watching before Liz ruined it all. Lolz. Liz can't concentrate. even though it's a film about computers. Yawn. Unfortunately, she can't really fall asleep to end the boredom either, and that's what bugging her. Eventually, Liz decides to conduct a test. She is going to purposely fall asleep, and Jessica must wake her up after five minutes. She wants to see if a place between sleep and awake exists, and if so, this is where the monster dwells. Now, according to Wikipedia,
"In mammals, the measurement of eye movement during sleep is used to divide sleep into two broad types: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Each type has a distinct set of associated physiological, neurological and psychological features.
Sleep proceeds in cycles of REM and NREM phases. In humans, this cycle is approximately 90 to 120 minutes."
I don't see anything here about weird half in-between worlds. Also, as I understand it, it takes a lot longer for your body to fall into a state where your brain is able to function without you being actively awake. So, therefore, if Elizabeth's theory is correct, she is defying all natural laws of sleep. It is Sweet Valley I suppose.
Elizabeth falls asleep, even though Jessica thinks she is nuts. I have to agree. Jessica sets five minutes by the clock on the VCR. Would you trust Jess not to get distracted? There is some movie marathon starting at nine, so Jess thinks she will watch that. If it's nine o clock already, where the hell is Todd? Jessica is gutted to find out the movie marathon is actually in French. Bummer. She channel hops until she finds a nature show about the life habits of leopards. The book states this is not normally Jessica's type of thing, she prefers drama, or romance. Well, if you find leopards mating interesting there's some sort of romance going on, isn't there? In a primal kind of way. Jessica rests her head on her arm and blinks, trying to stay awake. The sound of the crickets chirping on the TV are comforting, and the baby leopards are so cute....
Elizabeth's dream #2: Liz finds herself standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the third floor. She sees an antique mirror in the hall that she doesn't remember seeing before. Oh-er. She also notices that the flooring has changed from carpeting to highly polished wooden floors, Liz doesn't seem aware she is dreaming at this second, although she soon is....Elizabeth's feet take her unwillingly up the staircase, even though she knows she doesn't want to go up there. She thinks, "But I don't want to go back. Isn't Jessica supposed to be waking me up right about now". I could have told her not to trust Jessica with time, seen as she's the twin without the wristwatch. But anyways, when Liz gets onto the third floor she gasps in surprise. The secret bedroom is no longer secret. The door is open and plain to see, and the windows are uncovered. Also, the glass door out onto the balcony and the widow's walk is not only visible, but wide open. Are we all suitably tense yet? We all know what's coming next, don't we! Liz enters the now-not-secret room and shivers. She goes over to close the balcony door, thinking, "Jessica, where are you? Wake me up, already!" However, a voice behind her says, "I've been waiting for you."Oh noes, guess who! 'Elizabeth's spine tingled.' I've always wondered how a spine can 'tingle.' Is it like when you use waaaay too much tea tree oil and get it up your nose, but on your spine instead? Anyway, Elizabeth's tingling spine tells her something is up (no, no, this is not SVH, nobody's penis is involved, OK) and she turns round, telling herself, "OK. Here's your chance." Chance to do what? I never got that bit. You'd hardly confront the monster who's just tried to kill you, would you? Maybe she's going to do a St Elizabeth act and hand it a couple of tissues, a weepy girly video and some chocolate, and offer to talk. You never know. The monster doesn't really give her the opportunity though, as she keeps spinning round trying to find the voice it says, "over here silly." Eventually she comes face-to-face with the monster, who says, "found me", with an evil cackle. Good 'ol Sweet Valley, had to have the obligitory evil cackle in a horror book, heh! Liz leaps backwards, bumping into a bookcase and knocking some books to the floor. Which is going to impress the beast even more, I'm sure. She tells the monster to, "L-Leave me alone." Cos that's so going to work. The monster doesn't think so either, as she responds by saying, "Never," reaching out for Elizabeth's neck with strong, scary fingers. How can you have scary fingers? Jessica might think it's because she has a lack of nail varnish, but I don't think that's what Liz quite meant. Anyway, so Liz asks the monster what it wants from her, and the monster picks up an old, scarred teddy bear from the bed and brandishes it at her, saying, "You are going to pay," although it looks sad for a moment, then lunges at Liz and puts it's hands round her throat. Liz calls for Jessica, praying she will wake her up, and thrashes from the monster's grip. Running to the door, she bumps into someone else standing there. This is, of course, Jessica. The monster goes for both of them, but Liz pulls Jess into the bedroom closet. They stand in silence, "for the first time Elizabeth could remember, her twin didn't have anything to say." Heh! Liz strains to hear the monster, but it is total silence. She thinks, she hopes, the monster has given up on them (yeah, right), but then she hears a funny noise, like breathing, inside the closet. "That's impossible," she told herself. "The monster must be outside, waiting for us!" Liz shouts it can wait as long as it wants, as they aren't coming out. "Good," the monster replied, it's breath hot on Elizabeth's ear. She turned sideways, her eyes widening. The monster was inside the closet with them! But when --how? "That will make everything so much easier," it wheezed putting one hand on the front of Elizabeth's neck and starting to squeeze. The beast seems to have a real vendetta against Liz as it hasn't really gone for Jess yet. The monster drops the teddy bear (remember the bear, it's important) and wraps it's other hand around Jessica's neck. Elizabeth pushes at the monster, and Jessica starts kicking her, when........'Jessica blinked. Where was that bright light coming from?' She realises that the secret room and the closet have disappeared, and she isn't fighting the monster anymore; instead Toddy boy has finally appeared and woken them up. Better late than never, eh!
He thinks they are attacking him because he is late (though he should know his true love wouldn't do that). Hehe. However, the twins are much too concerned with what has just happened; Liz is pissed because Jess didn't wake her up as she was supposed to. Though the much more pressing matter is that they have just had the same dream and nearly died, no? Todd is bewildered, which shouldn't be too noticeably different from usual, and asks them to explain. Todd doesn't believe them; he suggests that Liz and Jess might have fought each other whilst dreaming, as Jess has a ripped sleeve. He can't, however, explain the scratch marks Liz has on her neck, as Jessica so rightly says, she was awake when they happened, and besides, her nails are really dull, "staring at her nails for a second, Jessica felt chagrined. She hadn't been in on a Unicorn manicure in a long time." Hehe, again, typical Jess. He says that, as Juliana isn't having nightmares anymore, the monster might be giving up, but, "well, d'uh," said Jessica, rolling her eyes, "she's not having them anymore because the monster's more interested in getting us." Todd looks hurt, and Jessica feels a little bad, but really. 'Todd wasn't usually such a blockhead about things."He isn't? Uh, ok then. Jess gets pissed off, and gets up to get a drink. As she does, something brown and furry falls off her lap. It's a teddy bear, which looks suspiciously old and ratty. Jessica knows instantly it's the one the monster was holding in the dream. The tag sewn onto it says, 'This bear belongs to[.....wait for it......]EVA SULLIVAN.' As in, the girl who's bedroom was the secret third floor room. Oh noes. The twins deduce that the monster is actually Eva Sullivan. So how does all this link together, and lets not forget Alice's memories, either! Avid reader, read on....
Todd is disbelieveing. He would be. If there isn't a pool or a warehouse, he doesn't understand. He thinks they are trying to play a practical joke on him (he probably wants to believe it so he can practise Todd Punch for later life). The twins have made a very sensible decision not to go to sleep at all for (ever - ha) no, the rest of the night, and are so playing Gin Rummy. Isn't that something parental units play at parties? Hmmm!! Let me just Google this....OK, so Gin Rummy is actually boring enough as described on Wikipedia to make me close the page without reading all of it. Snore, I can understand why Liz likes it. They are on their fourth game, and Liz estimates that they may have to play a hundred and four games to last the night. Oh God!!! JUST LEAVE TODD WITH THE KIDS IF HE DOESNT BELIEVE ANYWAY! Meh, morals eh!!! Todd decides to have a nap strected out on the rug, because he played basketball for three hours that afternoon, (still doesn't explain why he was so late arriving though). Todd starts snoring (MEN!) and Liz suggests they use the five minute rule to watch him, though she does snipe at Jessica by saying, "let's stick to it this time, OK." Heh, Jess is not impressed, and Liz lets it go, as usual, even though she is still annoyed and says, "I just don't want anything to happen to Todd, OK? I didn't mean to rub it in." Puppy love. Bless. Jessica come up with a theory that Eva (and isn't it a relief to write Eva instead of Best, Beast or Monster) only wants to hurt girls, as Todd is out with no problems. However, this doesn't last long, as suddenly, "his legs jerked back and forth, as if he was trying to run," and he starts screaming, "No! Stop!" They wake him pretty darn quick, and he says she's horrible. So much for Jessica's only girls theory.
Amy and Winston turn up on Saturday morning to watch the kids all day, cos they have lives where they can suddenly drop all their plans to babysit, you see!! Liz, Jess and Todd haven't slept at all, and Jess is grouchy. Winston asks her if there is any spare breakfast and she bites his head off. Hmm, she doesn't seem any different to me but OK. They tell them they haven't slept all day, and explain why (we don't hear the explanation).
Back at Casa Wakefield of the Sunny Spanish Tiled Kitchen, the twins have arrived home to sleep all day, or at least Jessica has. Heh. Mr Wakefield comments they have a very demanding job, and Elizabeth tells him he has no idea. Before Liz goes to bed, she asks Alice what she knows about Eva Sullivan. BIG mistake. We already know the Eva that Alice used to babysit must be the Eva the teddy belonged to, and therefore must be the monster in their dreams. Alice gets all edgy; she drops the knife she is using and is adamant she doesn't know anything about that, ahem, her! Me doth think the lady protesteth too much! Liz pursues the matter, as we all knew she would, and Alice basically runs out of the kitchen saying she has to go to the florist. "Why is she acting so weird? If she does know something terrible about Eva Sullivan, why won't she tell me?", wonders Elizabeth. Let me think about that one; maybe because she doesn't want to. Also, why isn't Liz rushing off to her microfiche machine at the trusty library? Shocking!
Yet another memoir from Alice's personal collection; she thinks to herself all she does it want to forget about Eva Sullivan, and the twins keep forcing the memories back. Why won't they leave her alone? Heh, serves you right for having twins, Alice. In italics, so we know this is another memory from yesteryear....Alice had just got her friends to leave when the Sullivans came back. Hoping they wouldn't notice those pesky spoons in the dishwasher, she gathers up her stuff. Mrs Sullivan asks her for a massive favour; babysit on Halloween. What kind of parent leaves their child they know is terrified of Halloween with a babysitter on that night? Harumph, now we know where Alice learnt her skills from. Alice agrees, thinking she can skip the school party and go out with Jimmy Boy after the Sullivans get home, 'cos they are only going as Mr Sullivan is new to the firm and they need to make a good impression. D'ya know, I wasn't aware Halloween was such a big deal in America but it certainly seems it. Anyway, Alice says, "Great! Then I can have two Halloween parties. One with my friends and one with Eva." Gag me.
Back to the present. Liz can't sleep and decides to go on a bike ride with Maria. She is nuts, after all, as she has to stay up all night again, remember. When she gets back, Jess is awake, and rightly calls her nuts. Jess has big plans about the kids staying at the Wakefield house, but remembers her parents are having a big dinner for Ned's clients (as if) and so that's not gonna happen. Dammit! Heh she thinks Winston will scare Eva off with some really bad jokes!
Cut to mansion la Riccoli. The kids are a-sleeping and the babysitters, all five of them (that's Liz, Jess, Toddykins, Amy and Winston - hey I've just realised none of Jessica's friends are there - strange), are downstairs, trying to think of ways to pass the night without sleeping. Elizabeth feels 'relieved' that Juliana isn't having nightmares anymore, bless. Winston and Amy for some reason believe everything the others say, even though it sounds crazy! Ahem, anyway, everyone is on edge. They discuss how weird everyone's parents are about the Riccoli house; of course you remember Dyan is Amy's mom etc as mentioned earlier. Jessica does make a pointed note about the parents' weird behaviour; she rightly points out that, "It's not like they're protecting us. I mean, if they really wanted to protect us or thought anything was wrong - wouldn't they be here instead of us?" Ha when it takes Jessica to point out bad parenting you know something's wrong.
Jessica comes up with an idea to drink coffee to prevent sleeping. Trust me, when you're really tired not even coffee works! Jessica makes the coffee, even though she doesn't know how. Bloody hell, at twelve I'd been making tea and coffee for myself and my parents for at least six years. She consults a cookbook (??) to find out how to make coffee, but to no avail. When she does eventually figure it out, she forgets to use a filter, so the grounds go into the drink and everyone agrees it's disgusting. To add insult to injury, Winston points out she's used decaf coffee, which his parents use after dinner to go to sleep. Hehe!! Nobody is impressed, but as she's the only one who's actually had an idea so far, they haven't really got a leg to stand on. And Bruce isn't there, so his permanent third leg isn't available. Shit, wrong series, sorry :-p!! Todd eventually comes up with the idea of a game board marathon. His brain cells must have been recently polished. When I was younger, I thought the whole idea of a gameboard marathon at a sleepover was well cool, and inflicted my friends with it. I had the My Little Pony game and everything :-) in fact, I still do and if I had sleepovers these days I would play it. Anyway. He lets Liz choose which game they will play, and she shuts her eyes and grabs....Candy Land. Now, I've never played this, as I'm guessing it is American, but I think it's probably the equivalent of My Little Pony, ages 2-6. Cool. Heh! Todd moans and Jess tells him he will probably win, but don't count on it. Hehe. After that they play Monopoly, and Jess gets r-e-a-l-l-y competetive. We hear about how she made Steven go bankrupt once eight times. Go Jess. Atta girl! Winston is fighting her for last place, but sudenly he falls asleep still playing. Jess ends the game (after waking him up - her priorites aren't that bad, sheesh) cos then she won't officially lose. OK, maybe they are. Amy moans her tummy feels awful after drinking the coffee (lol) and Liz agrees. Jess is fed up of being dissed over the coffee, and thinks, "If only I could come up with another idea. Then maybe everyone would get off my back about the stupid coffee." She thinks everyone would love to go to sleep, and thinks they could set an alarm clock to wake them up every ten minutes (but I thought the cut off time was five - check your facts ghostwriters). Everyone does love the idea, although surely the fact that parts of their dreams came true, such as scratches, rips and teddy bears, would prove that maybeit's just not safe to sleep at all!!!!Why doesn't Liz come up with her 'you sleep first then we will' idea? Oh dear. Amy calls Jessica 'awesome' and Todd says the idea is 'brilliant'. Jssica shrugs and sits back thinking, "Awesome. Brilliant. An angel. The compliments sure are piling up lately." Hehehehe! Go Jess.
In italics from Eva's POV: she watches as they all fall asleep. One of them (Todd, I think) snores, as if he feels at home. In her house. How dare he. If he wasn't on her hit list before, he sure is now. She is also mad at 'that blond haired girl who looked so like her mother.' Which one? I think she means Jess. Just as she goes to pull the alarm clock out of the wall, Winston gets up and goes for a drink, pulling the lead out accidentally as he goes. Fool! Bad, bad Winston!! "Very good," she thinks with a wicked smile, "Thank you. That's one more thing I don't have to tke care of." Oohhh scary shit!
Back to Jessia - she is climbing up the third floor, where the scret room is. However, she feels relaxed, as she knows the alarm clock will wake her. "So there monster," she feels like saying, but decides not to push her luck. Wise girl. Instead of going into the secret room, however, her feet take her to a ladder in the hall, that leads up to the Widows Walk. She finds herself on the roof, in pitch black cold. The door has locked itself behind her, but as she watches Amy steps through as well. Then Todd. The Winston. Uh-oh. They figure out the clock might be broken (well, not quite) but Jess figures Liz will save them, as, after all, "She's been saving me practically since the day we were born." Damn right she has Jess, and even if you come out of this alive you're not going to appreciate it, are you!
Jump to Liz: she is walking up to the third floor. As she nears the ladder, she feels compelled to scale it. On she steps to the roof, where the rest of the kids look at her in horror. Oh Noes! As they watch is horror, the trap door slams and the monster - Eva Sullvan - steps out onto the roof. "Welcome to your worse nightmare," the monster threatened in a thick, raspy voice, heading straight towards the five of them. "Welcome to your death." A shudder runs up Elizabeth's spine. This time there was no escape.....
Oh Steven....
Continuing from the previous book, Steven and Joe are running their mowing 'business'. We know that Steven had to pay for the replacement Riccoli hedge as he charged through it on the mower, so we start with Joe asking how much it cost Steven to replace it. I thought they were sharing the profits? But OK. Steven says it cost him the amount Mrs Riccoli paid him for mowing the lawn. Bother! Steven is bitter. If the firefighters had done it noone would have cared. And he was a firefighter, wasn't he. True, actually. Poor Steven. Anyways, the phone rings and it's a potential client, a Mr Taylor Morgan. Steven thinks this is a 'rich name', and he is quite right. I like the name Taylor, so if I call my kid that, will they be rich? Mr Morgan wants his 'grounds' landscaping by the weekend.Todays supposed to be, what, Thursday. No, Friday and he wants them to have finished by Sunday, so can they come over now and take a look. Steven gets some paper and rustles it in front of the mouthpiece, to sound busy. Heh, every good businessman's trick ain't it. They rush out to Larspur Way (which is a cul-de-sac incidentally, and Steven doesn'tknow what that means. He is fourteen, good grief). When they get there, the 'most beautiful girl Steven had ever seen' opens the door. Karen Morgan, Steven's new heartthrob. Yawn. Another one? He thinks her feet are attractive. Good thing to pick up on Steven for when your girlfriend in later life wants her feet tickling as you watch TV on the couch. I'm bitter, my boyfriend never does it to me anymore. Ahem, anyway. Steven introduces them as, "Howell and Wakefield Landscaping. I'm Howell -" Heh, Steven is into this girl. They look at the lawn, after Karen points out they've forgotten the mower - d'uh. They arrange to go back at 10 o clock the next morning, and Steven calls it 'a date' to which she replies, " yeah, a date with you and the lawn." Hehe, Steven is such a fool in this book, and he started out so well, fighting fires and all!
Outside, Joe figures Steven is crushing on Karen, and they make a bet as to who can get a date with her the following night. 'Cos they're so totally sure she will want to date one of them. The lawn mowing boys. Yeah, right. Whoever loses will have to babysit the Riccoli kids with the twins. 'Cos the twins will so want them there. Sigh, this is getting boring already and I can't even be bothered to insert snark where appropriate.
The next day, Steven is up and raring to go. He is wearing his new leather basketball sneakers (without socks) and his 'new, white, sleeveless 'muscle' t-shirt.' Ahem. 'The shirt showed off his tan arms. He was no weight lifter, but he had some defnintion in his biceps. If he clenched his fists, anyway. And he looked cool in his favourite long, baggy, official L.A. lakers shorts'. OK then. He also puts on his sunglasses, and admires both sides of his reflection in the mirror, hunching over like he is on the mower. Lol. "Hi there." he says, winking at the mirror. Errrrr!! I'm speechless. I think she's supposed to be impressed, but I seriously doubt it! Joe barges into Steven's room (without knocking?) and hands over a piece of paper entitled 'The Bet'. Steven signs, and off they go.
At the Morgans, things don't exactly go to Steven's plan. Like we all knew they wouldn't, really. He is stuck on the mower, whilst Joe clips the edges. Steven tries showing off his biceps etc by vrooming round (I think he's imagining the mower to be some sort of sports car). "He revved the engine and lunged forward, executing a quick turn that tipped the mower slightly to one side. Then he charged down the lawn in the otherdirection." Heh! Karen doesn't appear to be very impressed however, and as Steven's antics on the mower get stranger, as in he starts mowing in odd circles that resemble crop circles, Karen has ample opportunity to talk to Joe, who is clipping by her feet. They stop for lunch, and she serves them veggie sandwiches. Steven tries to impress her by saying he was vegetarian himself, until Joe tells her it was only for a week. I don't like Joe at all. Karen says she can smell something funny, to which Steven realises she can smell his leather trainers, which of course are worse as he has no socks on. Silly Steven! Karen makes some sort of weird speech, "It's almost like....you know, when something gets left out in the rain for too long. And afterward it gets this rotten, musky smell, like a dead animal. You know what it is? It's like...a late autumn night, and your shoes are wet, covered with leaves because you walked home in the rain, alone. And you forgot to take them off straight away because you had this poem you wanted to write, but there they are, and...." Err, who thinks the ghostwriter was feeling a little, nostalgic, maybe. Steven legs it home asap to change his trainers, hehe! On his way back, he is jogging up the drive when he sees Karen standing on the front step, waving and smiling. He thinks his luck is in, and tries to outrun a black four wheel-drive Jeep that is coming up behind him, to show what an awesome athlete he is. However, no such luck, the Jeep overtakes him and, lo and behold, it's some tall, blond college guy called Jake, who Karen instantly throws her arms round. Steven is left in clouds of exhaust smoke as they roar off. Joe pops up grinning, and asks how much babysitting pays these days. You may think they have both lost, but you'd be wrong....
Later that evening, they finish the lawn by moonlight. Mrs Morgan pays Steven by cheque. Karen gets back, and Steven, undeterred, tries to ask her out for a date next weekend. Before he can get the words out, however, Karen says he'll have to arrange more lawncare with her dad, but she'll definitely see Joe next weekend, Friday at seven. Steven is pissed. As you would be. Joe is a shit best friend. However, Steven is avenged by pulling out.....the cheque. Made out to one Steven Wakefield. Ha Ha Ha!! Joe is fucked off but Steven roars off on the mower, feeling like he has lost the battle but won the war. And he would be right. Until about now. When he gets pulled by a cop car for speeding on a mower at night without headlights. Heeeee!! He tries to wriggle out of paying but eventually has to give her a cheque, saying his name is S.T.U.P.I.D. He would be right.
OK just to recap for the next book:
- The monster is Eva Sullivan
- The babysitters are stuck in their worse nightmare, and the alarm clock is out
- Mrs Riccoli is away
- The kids are asleep
- Alice used to babysit Eva, and is going to babysit on the upcoming Halloween (in the yesteryear).
- Will Alice go mad and clean the house to bits?
- Will Steven ever get a life?
- Will Eva succumb to St Elizabeth's charms.