Ellie pulled back the sheet. “There it is.”

Thunder cracked outside, and lightning cast shadows that flickered across the walls. Lying flat on its back, missing an arm and looking exactly like it was asleep, was Ellie’s bunyip.

It was gigantic.

It was terrifying.

It was perfect.

“Wow,” I said.

The bunyip really was wow. It was as wow as anything I’d ever seen. It frightened me half to death, and I knew it was just a bundle of rubber and electronics.

“That is amazing. Does it move?” I asked.

Ellie picked up a remote control from the workbench and pressed a switch. There was a soft electronic hum, and then the bunyip’s eyes opened slowly and glowed red. Ellie turned a dial on the remote and the bunyip sat up on the bench. It swung its head in my direction and howled so loudly I could feel the bass shaking my spine.

“One hundred and forty-three decibels,” Ellie said proudly. “Twin-mounted deep-bass equalized speakers with double woofers and a Swiss-made magnifying reverberator.”

I didn’t understand a word she said, but I knew one thing: Ellie’s bunyip was going to make all my dreams come true.

“I’ve got a plan,” I said. I didn’t mean to say anything, but seeing the bunyip made the words just come rushing out. Ivegotaplan. Blurp! Just like that.

“Plan for what?” Ellie said.

I shook my head. “Forget I said anything.”

Ellie tilted her head to one side and looked at me, her lips pursed. “Is this about getting revenge on Bradley and Belinda?”

I don’t know if Ellie was some sort of mind reader or what—for all I knew, she could be a star graduate from the Zurich Institute of Psychic Talents—but she had read my thoughts as clearly as a billboard.

“Is it that obvious?”

Ellie nodded.

“So…?”

Ellie didn’t say anything for about a hundred years.

“I’ll think about it,” she said eventually. “You’re going back to Hills Village, but I have to live here with them every day. And I’m guessing this plan might involve my bunyip, right? I put a lot of work into that thing.”

I nodded. Ellie was contemplating helping me out with my plan, and that’s all I could ask for.

It was a start.