The Key (The Magnificent 12 3)

The golem stabbed his second lobster claw right at her. She jumped nimbly aside, and the claw ripped up the ground where she had been standing.

“Hey!” she yelled.

The golem … well, the problem with the golem was that he wasn’t what he had been anymore. He was no longer Mack. He was no longer even a silly fraud trying to pass himself off as Mack.

He was the Destroyer.

The golem jumped. It was a stunning thing to see, because he leaped in a single bound from the ground onto the top of the school building.

“Grraaawwwr!” he roared.

He stabbed his lobster claw down into the roof and threw aside bits of tile and plywood as if he was tearing into nothing more substantial than a cardboard box.

Camaro did the only thing she could think of. She took off one of her steel-studded wristbands and threw it at the golem. She had good aim. It hit him in the eye.

No, it didn’t stop him. But it did distract him so that he put down the boy he had just snatched up through the roof.

His face dark with rage, the golem flew through the air and landed almost on top of Camaro. The impact knocked her down. She tried to get right back up, but the lobster claw stabbed the ground on either side of her, imprisoning her against the grass.

The golem lowered his face to within inches of hers.

He opened his mouth, baring terrible yellow teeth. He bellowed into her face, “GRRRooowwwwrRRR!” with such force it made her cheeks and lips shake.

“Hey! Stop!” Camaro yelled.

The teeth came closer.

“Stop or I will kick your butt!” Camaro raged.

The huge mouth opened. It encompassed Camaro’s entire head. In a second that head would no longer be attached to her neck.

“Oh, man,” she said. “And I really liked you.”

The golem did not bite down. Instead its red-rimmed eyes blinked.

“Groowwwr?”

“Really,” Camaro said to the inside of his mouth. “Look, maybe it’s time I told you the truth....”

Some people might say it was a little late for Camaro to be confessing anything, but you have to understand: she was not a trusting sort.

“Look, I always liked Mack and thought he was cute. But I figured out a long time ago that you’re not really Mack.”

“Grrruuh?”

“You’re sweeter than he is, for one thing. Not right now you’re not, but usually.”

The golem had now had her head inside his mouth and ready to bite for almost twenty seconds.

“I don’t know what you are, maybe an alien or whatever, but I liked you. You know, before you became a ravening monster.”

“Unnh,” the golem said.

“Hey. Do you know there’s a cell phone in here? In your mouth, I mean? Don’t move.”

He didn’t move. He stayed perfectly still, crouched over her in a killing posture. With some difficulty, Camaro managed to stick her arm into his mouth. The phone was right there, just sitting beneath his forked tongue.

“Hey, you’ve got a text,” she said. “‘Be the Destroyer’?”