Was it raining?

Was it raining a big blob of saliva onto his head?

Carlton barely had time to register what was happening before someone yanked his arm. He heard Roo yell out a spell of some kind before the drool slowly dripped from his hair onto his cheek.

GROSS. DISGUSTING. NASTY. YUCK. BLEUGH. EUW. HALP.

Desperately he tried to wipe the goo away as he was also being dragged by Roo towards the stairs. He could feel the saliva slowly travel down his neck onto his back and he let out a wailing sound as he hurried up the stairs away from... Whatever it was that had drooled all over him.

Why him? WHY was it ALWAYS him?! Even when he was just sitting and talking to his professor, trouble came to find him and then DROOLED all over him!

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT wants to eat me! It wants to eat me! It wants to eat me! It wants to eat me!"

Carlton ventured a glance over his shoulder as he ran. Maybe he shouldn't have. Maybe what he saw would give him nightmares for a long time to come. Not even in his wildest imagination (which was saying a lot) could he have imagined what the creature would look like. It really was a monster. Worse than any Carlton had stumbled upon when watching horror movies he wasn't allowed to watch. He drew in a sharp breath, the image of the monster forever horribly etched into the young boy's mind. This all just lasted for a second though, as he quickly spun around and forced his legs to move. If anything could make him quicken his pace, it was the sight of the monster that was behind them.

He didn't want this anymore. His ankle hurt from the fall earlier and his legs were burning from hurrying up the many stairs of the castle. The drool had clouded his vision or was his eyes filling up with tears? A sinking feeling of hopelessness filled him as he tried to keep up with the older boys. They were just kids! They needed an adult! Carlton tried to swallow past the big lump in his throat as his breathing picked up.

Were they almost at the sixth floor yet? He didn't know how much further he could run.