Free 13 - Piano Lessons Can Be Murder by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page B

repeated.
    “Jerry, you can’t get away!” Dr. Shreek cried, holding me down on the floor.
    Struggling to free myself, I watched Mr. Toggle run to the far wall. He
pulled open a gray metal door, revealing some kind of control panel.
    “Don’t worry!” he called to me.
    I saw him pull a switch on the control panel.
    Instantly, Dr. Shreek’s hand loosened.
    I pulled my leg free and scrambled to my feet, panting hard.
    Dr. Shreek slumped into a heap. His hands drooped lifelessly to his sides.
His eyes closed. His head sank, his chin lowering to his chest.
    He didn’t move.
    He’s some kind of robot, I saw to my amazement.
    “Are you okay, Jerry?” Mr. Toggle had hurried to my side.
    I suddenly realized my entire body was trembling. The piano music roared
inside my head. The room began to spin.
    I held my hands over my ears, trying to shut out the pounding noise. “Make
them stop! Tell them to stop!” I cried.
    Mr. Toggle jogged back to the control panel and threw another switch.
    The music stopped. The hands froze in place over their keyboards. The instructors stopped bobbing their heads.
    “Robots. All robots,” I murmured, still shaking.
    Mr. Toggle hurried back, his dark eyes studying me. “You’re okay?”
    “Dr. Shreek—he’s a robot,” I uttered in a trembling whisper. If only I
could get my knees to stop shaking!
    “Yes, he’s my best creation,” Mr. Toggle declared, smiling. He placed a hand
on Dr. Shreek’s still shoulder. “He’s really lifelike, isn’t he?”
    “They—they’re all robots,” I whispered, motioning to the
instructors, frozen beside their pianos.
    Mr. Toggle nodded. “Primitive ones,” he said, still leaning on Dr. Shreek.
“They’re not as advanced as my buddy Dr. Shreek here.”
    “You—made them all?” I asked.
    Mr. Toggle nodded, smiling. “Every one of them.”
    I couldn’t stop shaking. I was starting to feel really sick. “Thanks for
stopping him. I guess Dr. Shreek was out of control or something. I—I’ve got
to go now,” I said weakly. I started walking toward the double doors, forcing my
trembling knees to cooperate.
    “Not just yet,” Mr. Toggle said, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.
    “Huh?” I turned to face him.
    “You can’t leave just yet,” he said, his smile fading. “I need your hands,
see.”
    “What?”
    He pointed to a piano against the wall. A gray-suited instructor stood
lifelessly beside it, a smile frozen on his face. There were no hands suspended
over the keyboard.
    “That will be your piano, Jerry,” Mr. Toggle said.

 
 
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    I started backing toward the double doors one step at a time. “Wh-why?” I
stammered. “Why do you need my hands?”
    “Human hands are too hard to build, too complicated, too many parts,” Mr.
Toggle replied. He scratched his black, stubbly beard with one hand as he moved
toward me.
    “But—” I started, taking another step back.
    “I can make the hands play beautifully,” Mr. Toggle explained, his eyes
locked on mine. “I’ve designed computer programs to make them play more
beautifully than any live human can play. But I can’t build hands. The students
must supply the hands.”
    “But why ?” I demanded. “Why are you doing this?”
    “To make beautiful music, naturally,” Mr. Toggle replied, taking another step
closer. “I love beautiful music, Jerry. And music is so much more beautiful, so much more perfect, when human mistakes don’t get in the
way.”
    He took another step toward me. Then another. “You understand, don’t you?”
His dark eyes burned into mine.
    “No!” I screamed. “No, I don’t understand! You can’t have my hands!
You can’t!”
    I took another step back. My legs were still trembling.
    If I can just get through those doors, I thought, maybe I have a chance.
Maybe I can outrun him. Maybe I can get out of this crazy building.
    It was my only hope.
    Gathering my strength, ignoring the pounding of my heart, I turned.
    I darted