Zachary Pill, Of Monsters and Magic

By Tim Greaton

Zachary Pill isn’t human and is angry that no one bothered to tell him that. After his father disappears and his uncle abandons him to live with a bizarre family friend, he learns that not one but two supernatural creatures are desperate to capture him...and that doesn’t include the vicious bats, flying snakes or the terrifying yellow-eyed creature that hangs by its talons outside his bedroom window. From the moment he touches his first magic wand, Zachary Pill is destined to follow in his mysterious family’s footsteps. It’s unfortunate that most of them are dead.

First book in the Zachary Pill series. Ages 8 and up. 252 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Focus House Publishing
• Release date: Feb 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452411637

Tim Greaton

I live in Maine with my beautiful wife and three amazing children. We share 7-acres with 1 dog, 2 cats, and a population of ducks that varies with the weather. I'm a full-time corporate writer and novelist. My fiction, non-fiction and advertising work has appeared in forums all around the globe. A few months back, my novel "The Santa Shop ̈ was republished to Kindle and Nook. My pre-release novel "From My Cold Young Fingers ̈ (soon to be final-released as "Ripped From My Cold Young Fingers ̈) is also available on Kindle. "Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, ̈ "Heroes With Fangs ̈ and my horror novel "Ancestor ̈ will also be available on Kindle in the next few months. My brother's publishing company refers to me as "Maine's Other Author TM ̈ but I prefer just Tim :-).

Book preview

ZACHARY PILL

Of Monsters and Magic

Written by

Maine’s Other Author™

Tim Greaton

ALSO BY TIM GREATON

From Focus House Publishing

Pheesching Sector

(A sci-fi story)

Now Available

The Santa Shop

(Book 1 in the Santa Conspiracy Series)

Now Available

The Santa Shop’s Hollywood Ending

Now Available

Red Gloves

(Book 2 in the Santa Conspiracy Series)

2012

Under-Heaven

Now Available

Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End

Trilogy

Now Available

Bones in the Tree

(A novella)

Now Available

For the Deposit & Two Other Stories

Now Available

Dustin Jeckle & Mr. Hydel

(A Dark Story)

Now Available

The Shaft & Two Other Stories

Now Available

The Halloween Caper

(A supernatural story)

Now Available

Heroes With Fangs

2012

Contact Tim at

[e-mail]

Read Tim’s Blog at

timgreaton.blogspot.com

Zachary Pill

Of Monsters and Magic

(Book 1 in The Zachary Pill series)

TIM GREATON

This is a work of fiction. The names and the characters are fictional. Any resemblance to living or dead individuals or to actual places or events is purely coincidental.

ZACHARY PILL, OF MONSTERS AND MAGIC

Copyright 2012 by Tim Greaton.

The Zachary Pill (series) Copyright 2011 by Tim Greaton

Published by Focus House Publishing

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, including digital or audio sampling, internet display or download, or any other form of digital or physical display or transfer, excepting only brief excerpts for use in a literary review, without expressed written permission from the author. Original species, realms, and mechanisms of magic are all under the exclusive ownership of the author.

Maine’s Other Author™ is a trademark of Focus House Publishing.

Published by Focus House Publishing.

Cover design by Wizards Prism Art & Media.

Zachary Pill

Of Monsters and Magic

(Book 1 in The Zachary Pill series)

TIM GREATON

Focus House Publishing

Wilton, Maine

DEDICATION

To Joan my beautiful wife and to my three amazing children, who were all so patient during my thousands of writing hours, I can barely find words to express my love and thanks.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my sister Tiffany, who read so many versions of this story her head must still be spinning—Without your continued help, I’m not sure I could finish another work.

To Marilyn Nulman—I will always appreciate your storytelling expertise and friendship.

To the Saco Middle School of Saco, Maine and its Literary Specialist Patricia Martin-Evans—Thanks for introducing me to the four students who became my central focus group.

And to those four (now much-older) students, Tyler Cadorette, Maggie Evans, Abby Farrington, and Andrew Lemoine—Thank you so much for your feedback which has made this a dramatically better story. I would not be surprised to find a novelist or four emerge from within your very talented ranks.

CONTENTS

Prologue

1) A Coward and a Freak

2) A Bad Decision

3) No Way Out

4) Broken Bones and Panic

5) Hospital Fears

6) X-rays and Second Thoughts

7) Dr. Gefarg

8) A Really Bad Meal

9) Dark Plans

10) Danger in the Wind

11) All Alone

12) The End of all Things

13) Abandoned

14) An Unwelcome Guest

15) Neighbor Falls, Pills Die

16) History and Secrets

17) One Bully, One Ally

18) Casket and Snakes

19) Hospitals and Blood

Zachary Pill

Of Monsters and Magic

Prologue

Zach, hurry! came his father’s voice, barely audible over the harsh sounds all around them. Surprisingly strong for a small man, his father dragged him by the good arm through the doorway.

Get into the bathroom!

Zachary ducked as a bat with blood red eyes hurtled past his head. It made a sickening splatter as it struck someplace in the bedroom behind him.

Enough! Zachary’s father shouted in a voice so loud it made Zachary’s ears hurt. Another bat bounced off the hallway wall and hurtled toward them, but his father chanted something and a bolt of blue light burst out of the wand and struck it in mid-flight.

Though he was temporarily blinded from the flash, Zachary heard the bat fall in a wet thump on the hallway floor not far from him. The air was filled with the sickly smell of charred flesh. He felt his father’s hands thrust him into the bathroom and he heard the door pulled shut.

Lock it! his father ordered.

Ashamed to be leaving his father alone with the bats but having no choice, Zachary groped along the door and forced his trembling fingers to turn the lock. Then, he backed away until his cast struck the towel rack on the back wall. Pain vibrated through his arm. He fought the need to scream, but couldn’t stop his breath, which came and went in great gasps. The windowless bathroom was pitch black. In an attempt to hear over the sound of his own sobs, Zachary clamped his good hand over his mouth.

Krage, I’m done with this! his father bellowed.

Simultaneously, a flash framed the bathroom door with blinding blue light. Then everything went black again. Something heavy thumped against the door. Zachary feared for the worst.

Dad? he whispered. Then more loudly, Dad?

There was another explosion of glass, maybe from his father’s bedroom. The crashing and banging sounds grew louder and reverberated from all over the apartment. Suddenly, another flash of blue light left spots swimming in Zachary’s eyes. Something about the following darkness was different this time, though. It was the silence. No crashing, no wind, nothing. Zachary could hear his own heart beating in his ears.

1) A Coward and a Freak

Wishing that magic really did exist, Zachary Pill kept smashing the Billy Timkin voodoo doll he had made from a white hand towel until its blue toothpaste eyes and mouth were smudged beyond recognition. When the bar of soap fell out of the Billy doll’s head, he glanced up at the mirror to see his bruised cheek and swollen lip.

I never did anything to him, he muttered.

He made a fist and debated whether to put the doll back together again and give it another good couple of whacks.

Why can’t I be more like Uncle Ned?

He pulled up his tee-shirt sleeve up and made a muscle, but the pathetic little rise at the top of his arm depressed him. He sighed and let his arms drop back to his sides. No way would his uncle let someone get away with what Billy had done to him. Anyone that touched Uncle Ned would have been the one with bruises―or worse.

Disgusted, Zachary ran a wet comb through his offensive hair and managed to push a few stray cowlicks back where they belonged. He smacked the comb against his skull. Why did his hair have to be such a weird color!

Snot hair! he muttered.

What hair? a voice asked from the open bathroom doorway.

Zachary’s face turned red. He wished his father hadn’t heard that.

That’s what Billy Timkin called me yesterday, just before he started hitting me.

Maybe you heard it wrong.

No, he definitely said ‘snot hair.’ Zachary already regretted telling his father.

Then what happened?

I told him to shut up, so he punched me. He left out the part about trying to punch Billy back―twice. Half the students in the cafeteria had laughed when he missed both times. By today, the whole school would be talking about it.

His father squeezed his shoulder and gently moved his chin closer to the light for a better look at his bruises.

I don’t understand why the school won’t do something about that kid.

The principal might have done something if she’d been called, but his father wasn’t the type to argue, even to defend his own son. Besides, none of the kids who witnessed the fight had admitted to seeing anything, so it was his word against Billy’s, again.

You could have walked away, his father suggested.

Everyone at school already thinks I’m a freak. I’d rather get beat up than be a coward. Zachary didn’t bother to add that Stephanie Travis had been there. It figured that the first time he really stood up to Billy, he got beat up in front of the girl he liked.

So, getting hit was better than getting away? his father asked.

Uncle Ned wouldn’t have run, Zachary countered.

His father fell silent. Small and rail thin, he wasn’t built for fighting. Zachary had never seen him stand up to anyone, not even the old woman with the poodle in the apartment across the hall. Zachary loved his father but hated the thought that he was growing up to be just like him. Like father, like son, they were both cowards.

You can stay home if you want, his father offered.

Zachary shook his head. I have finals.

There’s still a week of school to make them up, Zach.

No, I’ll be okay.

The truth was that for the last two weeks Zachary had been trying to crank up enough courage to ask Stephanie to the end-of-year dance. Of course, he had been trying to ask her out all year, and so far had only managed to say ‘hi’ once in the hallway. But her smile that day had been worth it. He took one more glance at his black and blue cheek in the mirror. Maybe she’d have sympathy for his injuries.

A guy can hope.

I should call the school, his father said as left their fourteenth floor apartment and entered the elevator, and make them stop that kid from picking on you. His left eyelid was twitching, not a good sign. Next his face would turn pale.

It’s okay, Dad, really. School gets out next week.

As long as you’re sure, his father breathed. His eyelid had already returned to normal. This was the same man who had been known to throw sour milk away rather than confront someone at the store. One time they had gone without cable TV for several weeks because he hadn’t dared to complain. It wasn’t until someone in the adjoining apartment had a similar problem that it got fixed.

A new salon opened just a couple of blocks away, his father offered.

We already tried, Zachary said.

But we haven’t tried the new salon.

Zachary shrugged and hoped his father would forget about it. The only thing more embarrassing than having green hair was having a bunch of hairdressers say how weird it was that it couldn’t be dyed.

When they stepped off the elevator, Zachary hurried out the front lobby doors and jogged to the bus stop at the corner. He got there as the last of the herd was getting on the bus and followed a tall girl with curly black hair down the narrow aisle. There were only a few quiet snickers as he made his way to the back and settled into a seat beside a much younger boy who examined his bruised face for only a second before darting his eyes back out the window.

Zachary watched the passing storefronts and tried to imagine how he was going to ask Stephanie Travis out, but every plan he came up with seemed lamer than the one before. His mother would have known what to say. He touched his lip. She might also have used makeup to cover up his embarrassing injuries. He pictured her sitting beside him, long green hair cascading in soft curls around her delicate face, slender arm draped comfortingly around his shoulders. He forced the fantasy away knowing she could get caught in his head like video game music. Ten minutes later, when the bus pulled into the school circle, he still hadn’t formed a single idea of how to ask Stephanie to the dance. To make matters worse, Billy Timkin was standing outside the bus, ready to give him a morning beating.

2) A Bad Decision

Billy smirked and his friends made a couple of rude remarks about his bruises, but miraculously they let him walk unmolested up the stairs.

Meet any good fists lately? he heard one of them say just before he walked into the school. But he ignored the comment and, just then, saw Stephanie Travis walking toward her homeroom class.

I can do this, he told himself as he hurried to catch up, but the closer he got the heavier his shoes became. His stomach felt like he’d eaten a live goldfish and his body trembled with fear. He opened his mouth to call out.

Steph…, he croaked, but somehow the rest of her name got stuck in his throat.

What’s wrong with me?

It didn’t matter, though, because she never looked back before disappearing into her homeroom. Like a robot with a rundown battery, Zachary came to a stop in the middle of the hallway. Several students bumped him as they moved past.

Coward! Coward! Coward!

How could he have screwed up such a perfect chance? He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t ask girls out on dates. What could he do? But he already knew the answer to that: he could grow up to be just like his father and avoid confrontation at all costs. He could cross the street or hide behind doors rather than face a single argument or disagreement. Zachary was fated to become just like his dad, and the thought of Stephanie going to the dance with someone else because of it made him furious.

Feeling like a total failure, Zachary turned and trudged back towards the Team C hallway. A number of kids in his first two classes laughed and made fun of his bruises from the botched fight the day before, but he hardly noticed because couldn’t get the image of Stephanie Travis disappearing into her homeroom out of his mind.

She was right there, he muttered to himself on the way out of third period gym. The last to leave, he had been pulled aside by Coach Winton who was worried that he might have gotten his injuries during dodge ball the day before. When Zachary assured the heavyset man that his bruises had nothing to do with gym class, the coach had dismissed him with no more sympathy than an exterminator might have given a wounded mouse. At least his job was safe.

Now Stephanie will probably go to the dance with that track kid who keeps passing her notes in English class. Why couldn’t I talk to her?

Who needs a ball, he heard someone say as he reached the first landing in the stairwell.

Zachary stopped. At the top of the stairs, four familiar boys were surrounding a shorter, plump kid he didn’t recognize—a sixth-grader probably. Laughing, the older boys kept pushing the kid back and forth like an oversized hockey puck.

Zachary felt his stomach cramp. He was so sick of the scared feeling that he wanted to scream! Everything in his life was crappy because of fear. He might already have had a date with Stephanie if he hadn’t been too scared to ask. He might also have won that fight with Billy if he hadn’t been too scared to learn how to fight and stand up for himself in the last few years.

What was he so scared about? What could possibly be worse than his current life? Maybe it was time he took a lesson from his Uncle Ned who had probably never taken grief from anyone in his whole life. Maybe it was time for someone else in the Pill family to stand up for himself!

Because they were still busy pushing the helpless younger boy back and forth, none of the bullies had yet noticed Zachary. He forced his stomach to unclench, took a deep breath and climbed a couple of stairs. Hoping he sounded braver than he felt, Zachary spoke up.

Leave him a-alone.

The largest of the boys glanced down, and for the briefest second Zachary thought he saw fear in the dark-haired boy’s eyes, but then his wide face split into a grin.

Look, guys, Billy Timkin, said. It’s our buddy…, snot hair.

The taller blond boy to Billy’s right was Jason Kelly, and though he didn’t look nearly as rugged as Billy, he had a similar reputation as a bully. Zachary didn’t know the names of the other two skinny boys, but he had seen them skulking around with Billy at various times.

All four boys glared down at him.

The sixth grader gave Zachary a thankful glance and raced away. It was a big school, and he didn’t slow down until long after his footsteps could no longer be heard. At least he would be safe.

Too bad I can’t say the same.

Billy and his three friends moved to form a vicious, sneering wall at the top of the stairs, making Zachary realize—too late—that he probably should have gone to the top of the stairs before interfering. As it was, he was trapped.

I need to get to math class, he said.

You weren’t in a hurry a minute ago, Billy pointed out.

By that time, Zachary’s stomach had cramped into such a tight ball that he was glad he hadn’t eaten much for breakfast. His heart yammered like a scooter engine and he could feel tiny beats of pain in his bruised cheek and lip. He wanted to run, needed to run, but a brave little voice in his head kept telling him to hold his ground. As he stared at the small army above him, he began to hate that little voice.

"I need