The rustling in the bushes caught Oobis's attention. He flattened everything, his ears, his whole body. He was as flat as a cat can get and that's pretty flat. A furry little pancake on the flat back of a trailer. There was a sort of ticking sound behind him, he had heard than gang's van make that noise right after it had been turned off. So this truck had been driven recently. Interesting.

...

Meanwhile, the two ghouls had untangled themselves but seemed to panic when they noticed Jo crawl under the bushes. They scrambled after Joleen. Running right past Mathias like he didn't matter anymore. Hmm, "So what's behind the bushes, you freaks?"

Mathias sounded so calm. It was plain to him now that these were just some more yahoos in costume. Same old song and dance. Heck it might even be the "rival gang" of mystery misfits - up to no good again, inventing mysteries, and expecting to take credit for solving them. Ha.

All three ghouls turned at the sound of Matty's voice.

Their jaws unhinged. Revealing a maw of razor sharp, needle teeth. They made an awful sound. A combination of nails on chalkboard and a terrible screech. The three of them screamed at Mathias and his hands flew to his ears, covering them. It did little to dampen the sound. The wretched screams forced Mathias to his knees. He dimly wondered if his ears were bleeding. When he hit the ground, they stopped screaming and advanced on, the not-so-tall now that he was cowering, Mathias.

Slowly.

With deliberate steps sinking into the gravel.

Mathias grunted and found his feet. He pushed up quickly and took in the situation. Three to one, three angry ghouls vs one skinny kid. The ghouls hesitated a moment but kept coming at him. He guessed they liked their odds. There was a pattern to their formation. They came at him in a sort of triangle. The lead ghoul, not as tired as the others, had taken point.

Matty decided to go bowling.

It was risky, it was stupid - but it was the best he could up with. He hoped he remembered how to do a somersault, gulped and ran right at them. Barreling into and through the pack of ghouls. He left them in a tangled heap. "Holy cats... it worked."

...

From the back of the trucked Oobis, muttered "I heard that."

Truthfully Oobis had heard all of it. The horrific shrieking, the scuffle. The cat had wanted desperately to streak back through the bushes and check on Matty but he knew he shouldn't. True to his instincts, intuition and past knowledge of how brave and stupid his human could be, the fight was over quickly. Matty had incapacitated the ghouls and he and Jo would be along shortly.

Then the cat had heard something else. Something that made him say, "Uh oh."

The truck started.

...