ack in New Holland’s town square, everyone was blissfully unaware of the diabolical plot that several of their children were hatching. They were also blissfully unaware of the huge thunderstorm brewing overhead. Instead, they were watching as Elsa Van Helsing took the stage.

Nervously, she looked out over the crowd. Her uncle had talked her into, or rather forced her into, singing a Dutch anthem—in Dutch. He told her it was her duty as that year’s Little Dutch Girl, but secretly she thought he just enjoyed torturing her every chance he could get. Taking a deep breath, she began to sing. The sooner she got through the song, the sooner she could get off the stage, go home, change back into normal clothes, and maybe find Victor and ask about Sparky.

As Elsa sang, Toshiaki and the others put their plan into action. They had gone their separate ways after leaving Victor’s house, but they all had the same goal—bring an animal back to life.

So Toshiaki had gone to the pet cemetery and dug up Shelley, his pet turtle. Then he had carefully wrapped his “package,” loaded it into a wagon, and headed home. He had set up some equipment behind the gardening shed in his backyard. As soon as he got home, he unwrapped the package and attached a kite to the animal’s leg. But this was no usual kite string. Toshiaki had made it using extension cords. As he flew the kite higher and higher into the sky, he had to keep connecting new cords. But finally, the kite was high enough to be close to the growing storm clouds. Toshiaki leaned back and waited.

Nassor had also gone to the cemetery. He headed up the hill toward a gothic mausoleum. Approaching it with reverence for his pet lying at rest inside, he spoke: “Ah. The tomb of Colossus. Soon you shall be awakened and we shall be reunited once again.” Carefully, Nassor entered the tomb and clamped two clips attached to four Mylar balloons. He exited and waited to meet his beloved pet once again.

In the science room at the school, E was doing his own version of the experiment. He had found a dead rat in the garbage behind the school and pulled it out. It was definitely the victim of a run-in with a car, as evidenced by the track marks through its middle, but E figured it would work anyway. Placing the rat on the table, E grabbed the electrodes Mr. Rzykruski had used when he had made the frog’s leg jump. Then he attached them to the rat. He didn’t have a lightning rod but the electrodes should hopefully do the trick. He would have to wait and see.

Bob used his parent’s pool to conduct his experiment. He had recycled his original science-fair project—the sea creatures. Ripping open the container, he dumped them all into the pool. Then he wrapped a wire around the long, metal pool skimmer. This would be his lightning rod. And the water would be the conductor. Bob wasn’t much of a scientist, so now all he could do was wait and see if it would work.

Weird Girl, in typical Weird Girl fashion, had found the creepiest animal—a bat. Actually Mr. Whiskers had found it for her, but it didn’t matter. A dead animal was a dead animal, right? So she pinned the bat to the corkboard in her room and used a butterfly wall hanging and a coat hanger to create a lightning rod. Sitting back, she and her cat looked out the window and waited for lightning to strike.

As Elsa continued to sing and Toshiaki and the others waited for their projects to come to life, Victor frantically continued looking for Sparky. The thunderstorm that had been brewing all evening was coming to a head, and he didn’t want Sparky to get caught out in the rain. But he had looked everywhere. How could it be so hard to find one dog?

There was only one place left to look—the cemetery. As fingers of lightning cracked across the sky, Victor pushed open the gate and walked inside. Sweeping his flashlight back and forth, he cast long, scary shadows over the various gravestones. He aimed it at Sparky’s grave, his heart pounding. Maybe he would be there, waiting for him. But the grave looked the same as it did before.

Walking over, he looked down at the grave and tried to think of something to say. Something that would make all of this better. That would make things go back to the way they used to be. But there was nothing he could say. Sighing, he turned, the beam of his flashlight sweeping across one of the larger tombstones…and a tail. Wait? A tail? Could it be? Victor aimed the flashlight right at the tombstone.

“Sparky!” he called out hopefully.

From around the edge of the tombstone, two big eyes peered out. Spotting Victor, Sparky let out a joyous bark and raced over. He jumped up, knocking Victor down. But Victor didn’t care. He sat up, hugging his dog close to him.

“I thought I lost you,” he said as Sparky wiggled and wagged his tail. “I don’t ever want to lose you, okay? Promise you’ll never go running off.” Sparky gave him a lick.

For a moment, the boy and his dog just sat there, happy to have found each other. But then Victor noticed the two open graves and the shovels left next to them. That was a bit odd? Had someone else been there? Were they still there? And if they were, what on Earth were they doing?

The storm was getting stronger and stronger by the minute. In their various spots around town, Toshiaki, Nassor, Bob, E, and Weird Girl waited for the final part of their plan to take place. They didn’t have to wait long.

As Toshiaki watched in amazed horror, his kite got swallowed up by the dark clouds. The extension cord kite “string” jerked and tugged. Then, as he stood there, the hair on his head began to rise. Toshiaki squatted down and covered his head, trying to make the hairs go down. But it didn’t work. All he ended up doing was knocking over a bottle of Miracle-Gro which spilled on top of his pet. And then, just when Toshiaki thought things couldn’t get worse, a bolt of lightning surged down from the sky, striking the cords and flowing right into the animal lying in the wheelbarrow…

Over at his house, Bob watched the pool and waited for something to happen. A lightning bolt crackled but hit the neighbor’s backyard. Another bolt hit in the front yard. And then, finally, a bolt came tearing down, slamming right into the metal pool skimmer Bob had set up. The lightning traveled down the skimmer and then it crackled across the surface of the pool. When it was all over, a thin mist clung to the water’s surface.…

In the cemetery Nassor’s balloons were struck by lightning, causing them to burst. A surge of electricity traveled down the iron rod and right into the open grave. Nassor waited patiently outside the mausoleum. Had it worked?

At the school, lightning struck the building and surged through the power line and into the electrodes attached to E’s rat. E jumped back, his heart racing. When the surge ended, he moved closer to take a look. The rat looked the same…although it was looking a little less flat around the middle…

In her bedroom, Weird Girl was ready for her experiment to begin. She had pinned the bat to the corkboard, and the metal hangers were twisted into a rod. Now all she needed was the lightning. But when she turned to double-check on her bat, it was gone! Panicked, she looked around her room and saw Mr. Whiskers holding the bat in his mouth. Before she could get the bat away from Mr. Whiskers, lightning flashed down, striking the wire hangers. The girl ducked out of the way as it surged above her, heading for the hangers.

When the surge was over, she looked up. Mr. Whiskers looked okay. His fur was smoking a little and he appeared a little dazed, but otherwise he seemed fine. And then, as Weird Girl watched in horror, two giant bat wings unfurled from the cat’s back. She gasped. Hearing the sound, Mr. Whiskers looked up and hissed, revealing two giant fangs. Then, with a flap of his wings, the newly created Vampire Cat flew out of the window into the stormy night. The girl gulped. What had she created? And more importantly, what had all the others created?