30 The Battle Inside the Beast

The Battle Inside the Beast Don't do it, Bethany!" cried Claudette. She started wobbling on her talons because she was so exhausted. "Get back—NOW!" shouted Ebenezer. He tried to pull Bethany back from the beast, but she pushed him away.

“别这样，宝芬妮！”克劳德特叫道。 她开始用爪子摇晃，因为她太累了。 “马上回来！”埃比尼泽喊道。 他想把宝芬妮从野兽身边拉回来，但她把他推开了。

"Oh, ah—bother, bother. Please don't eat Bethany," said Geoffrey. He ran forward, tripping over some spilled marmalicious gobblecracks. "Eat me instead." "Nah—that's not gonna work. There's only one child the beast wants," said Bethany. She was holding her hands tight behind her back now, because she didn't want the beast to see that they were trembling. "What do you say, beast? You feeling peckish?" Everyone in the sweetshop was watching. The beast felt the eyes on its skin, and it didn't care for the pressure. It's awfully hard not to feel self-conscious when everyone's watching you eat. The beast came up with a simple solution to its stage fright. It wiggled its fingers at the hoatzin stink-box and got it to emit a gas that

“哦，啊——讨厌，讨厌。请不要吃宝芬妮，”杰弗里说。 他向前跑去，被洒在地上的烈性高脚杯绊倒了。 “吃我吧。”“不——那不行。 这只野兽只想要一个孩子，”宝芬妮说。 她把双手紧紧地放在背后，因为她不想让野兽看到她们在颤抖。 “你说什么，野兽？”你饿了吗？”糖果店里的每个人都在看。 野兽感觉到眼睛在它的皮肤上，它不在乎这种压力。 当每个人都看着你吃东西的时候，你很难不感到难为情。 这只野兽想出了一个简单的解决怯场的办法。 它在臭盒子上扭动手指让它释放出一种气体

knocked out everyone in the room except itself, Bethany, and Ebenezer. It wanted Ebenezer to watch Bethany's death, as punishment for all the do-gooding he had tricked the beast into doing. "Any last words?" asked the beast. "Yeah—four," said Bethany. She could feel her legs start to wobble. Fortunately, the beast hadn't noticed. "Get. On. With. It." Bethany scrunched her eyes shut. So did the beast. It was hard to tell who was more afraid at this moment—Bethany, of death; or the beast, of what it meant if it couldn't go through with this particular feast. The beast wrapped one of its tongues around Bethany's sneakers and turned her upside down, high in the air—just like it had done in so many of her nightmares. It flared

除了她自己、宝芬妮和埃比尼泽，所有人都晕了过去。 它想让埃比尼谢看着伯大尼的死，作为对他欺骗野兽做的所有善事的惩罚。 “还有什么遗言吗？”野兽问。 “是的，四个，”宝芬妮说。 她能感觉到她的腿开始颤抖。 幸运的是，野兽没有注意到。 ”得到的。上。与。它。”宝芬妮皱起眼睛闭上了。 野兽也一样。很难说此刻谁更害怕——宝芬妮怕死；或者是野兽，如果它不能完成这一特殊的盛宴意味着什么。 那只野兽用一只舌头缠绕着宝芬妮的运动鞋，把她倒立在空中——就像它在她的许多噩梦中所做的那样。 它爆发

its fangs and slowly started lowering her toward its mouth. "Don't do it!" begged Ebenezer. "You're better than this, beast. Anyone can change, anytime they choose!" The beast's mouth was wide enough now to lower Bethany past its rows of teeth without slicing her apart. If Bethany had opened her eyes, she would have caught sight of the beast's long and winding insides—filled with mazes of intestines, bubblingly poisonous stomach acids, and treacherous caverns of half-digested meals.

它的尖牙开始慢慢地把她放到嘴边。 “别这样！”埃比尼泽恳求道。 “你不会这样的，野兽。 任何人都可以改变，只要他们愿意！”这只野兽的嘴现在已经足够大了，可以把宝芬妮从它的牙齿旁边放下去，而不会把她撕开。 如果宝芬妮睁开眼睛，她就会看到这只野兽长长的、蜿蜒曲折的肚子——里面充满了迷宫般的肠子、冒着泡泡的有毒胃酸，还有危险的洞穴，里面是消化一半的食物。

Ebenezer was blinded by tears. He collapsed completely to the floor, letting out one guttural sob after another. The first sound he heard was the beast belching, which made him sob with renewed frenzy. Then, a second later, he heard a thump land next to him. "Eurgggggh!" said Bethany, getting to her feet. She was covered in dribble. Some of the stomach acid had bubbled up and set her sweater on fire, so she was forced to take it off. "That was the grossest thing in the world." "Oh, Bethany!" said Ebenezer. He went to pat her lovingly on the head, but then quickly backed away. The smell of the beast's insides was astonishingly bad.

埃比尼泽被泪水弄瞎了眼睛。 他完全瘫倒在地板上，发出一声又一声喉音呜咽。 他听到的第一个声音是野兽的打嗝声，这使他又一次狂怒地抽泣起来。 然后，一秒钟后，他听到砰的一声落在他旁边。 “呜——呜——呜！”宝芬妮说着站了起来。 她浑身都是运球。 一些胃酸冒了出来，把她的毛衣点着了，所以她被迫把它脱了下来。 “那是世界上最恶心的东西。” “噢，宝芬妮！”埃比尼泽说。 他走过去亲切地拍拍她的头，但很快又退后了。 那野兽内脏的气味难闻得惊人。