R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 04 (2 page)

Dad took the deck of cards from me. “You have to get over your fears, Max,” he said. “Summer camp will help you.”

“I'm not afraid,” I replied. “I just don't want to go!”

“Colin will be there to protect you,” Mom said.

“Yeah, you got that right.” Colin grinned at me. “Know what I'll protect you from? I'll protect you from gut punches. Like this!”

He punched me so hard in the stomach, I thought his hand went out my back! I doubled over, holding my aching gut, groaning like a dying seal.

Mom hurried over to me. “Colin, why did you do that to Maxie?” she asked.

Colin grinned again. “For fun?”

“Unnnnk unnnk,” I moaned.

Colin turned to Dad. “I know why Max won't come to my camp. He's afraid he might have to swim in Snake Lake. I told him how it's filled with deadly poisonous snakes.”

“That would toughen him up,” Dad said.

“No one has ever come out of Snake Lake alive,” Colin said, lowering his voice and trying to sound scary.

I shuddered. I guess he
did
sound scary.

“And get this,” Colin said to Dad. “When I told Max the story of the Headless Camper, he almost wet his pants.”

Dad and Colin both hee-hawed.

“You're a liar!” I cried.

“Stop scaring Maxie with those awful camp stories,” Mom scolded.

“It doesn't matter,” I said. “I'm not going. No way.”

We heard a horn honk out on the street.

“The bus!” Colin cried. “It's here!”

Dad and I grabbed Colin's bags. Then we all hurried downstairs to load him onto the bus. I suddenly felt very happy. A whole summer without Colin! Now,
that's
a vacation!

The bus driver came out to help with the bags. Inside the small yellow school bus, three or four other guys about Colin's age stared out at us. The bus said CAMP NAKE AKE on the side. Someone had pulled off some of the letters.

Mom hugged Colin. Dad hugged him too. Then he and Dad touched knuckles.

Colin started to climb onto the bus. Halfway up the steps, he turned to me. He pulled something out from under his Camp Snake Lake T-shirt.

It glittered in the sunlight.

The pendant!

Colin was wearing the pendant!

“Hey, Max—check out my new good-luck pendant!” he called, a big grin on his face.

“But that's
mine
!” I shouted.

“I'm tossing it to the snakes in Snake Lake! See ya!”

He disappeared into the bus, and it roared away.

A
FEW MINUTES LATER
, I sat on the edge of my bed, feeling glum. Nicky and Tara and I spent
months
searching for that pendant. And stupid Colin had it the whole time.

How could I tell my two ghost friends the bad news?

The house was silent. Mom and Dad had gone to a movie. I think they were seeing
Scream and Die 3
.

They both love totally violent movies with fighting and killing, and people thrown through plate glass windows, and guys screaming and dying hideous deaths every minute. Mom likes them even more than Dad. Go figure.

Well, I felt pretty violent myself. I wanted to
strangle
my brother.

But Colin was gone. Gone for eight long weeks. And we
had
to get that pendant.

“Nicky? Tara? Where are you?” I called, glancing around my room.

No answer.

They had disappeared when Mom burst into my room.

“Hey, guys? Are you here? I need to tell you something.”

No reply.

I climbed to my feet and started to pace back and forth. I had to calm down and stop feeling so angry. But how?

I called Aaron's house. His mother answered and said Aaron wasn't allowed to come to the phone. He was grounded because he'd played a joke on his little sister.

Aaron had told his sister he had barfed in her bed. It was only potato salad. But when she saw the yellow pile on her blanket, she freaked and puked all over the floor.

“Aaron can come to the phone in about a month,” his mom said.

I clicked off the phone and started pacing again. Then I picked up the deck of cards and shuffled it for a while. I practiced shuffling up and shuffling down. The trick is to keep the same five cards on top no matter how many times you shuffle the deck.

I'm getting pretty good at it. But shuffling cards didn't take my mind off Colin and the pendant.

“Nicky? Tara?” I called. “Where
are
you?”

The doorbell rang.

I jumped. I could hear my dog, Buster—our
huge furry wolfhound—barking his head off in the garage. Doorbells drive him crazy. I don't have a clue why.

The front door was open. I saw a man and a woman through the screen door. I blinked. Why did they look familiar?

The man was tall and thin and had wavy brown hair, thinning in front. He had serious brown eyes and a nice smile. He wore a white polo shirt over baggy khakis.

The woman had lighter hair, cut short and straight. Her eyes were blue. They kept darting from side to side. She didn't smile. Instead, she was chewing the pink lipstick off her lips.

She wore a pale pink top over a flowered skirt with lots of pleats.

The man stared at me through the screen door. “I'm sorry to bother you,” he said. “We're the Rolands. We used to live in your house. And we're searching for our two kids, Nicky and Tara.”

“H
UH
?”

I could feel my eyes popping out of my head. My knees buckled, and I staggered back against the wall.

“You—you—” I struggled to form words.

Nicky and Tara's parents! They were here! They weren't trapped inside the pendant after all.

Of course I recognized them. I had stared at Nicky and Tara's framed snapshot of their parents a hundred times.

And now they stared tensely through the screen door at me. Mrs. Roland held tightly to her husband's arm.

“They're here,” I finally managed to say. “Nicky and Tara. I mean, I
know
them. I mean, they're here!”

I could barely hear my voice over the pounding of my heart. I felt so happy and excited, I wanted to
scream
.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Mrs. Roland cried. Tears rolled down her pink cheeks. She
gripped Mr. Roland's arm harder, squeezing it tightly.

They both let out long sighs.

“C-come in,” I stammered. I pushed open the screen door so they could step inside.

They glanced around. “Everything is so … different,” Mrs. Roland said. Her voice trembled. “So many memories.”

They walked into the living room, holding on to each other. “Yes, it's all so different,” Mr. Roland agreed, shaking his head.

“I'll try to find Nicky and Tara,” I said. “They won't believe you're finally here.”

“It's taken us so long,” Mrs. Roland said. She turned her head. I guess she didn't want me to see her cry.

“They've been searching for you this whole time,” I told the Rolands. “I … I helped too. But … ”

“Are they here? Where are they?” Mr. Roland asked.

“Upstairs, I think,” I said. “Please … sit down.”

My legs were shaky as I pulled myself up to my room. “Nicky? Tara? You've
got
to appear!” I screamed. “Where are you?
Please
—where are you?”

I felt a whoosh of cold air—and Nicky and Tara popped up in front of me.

“Max? What's wrong?” Tara asked.

“Nothing is wrong!” I cried happily. “They're here. Your parents! They're downstairs!” I was jumping up and down with excitement.

Nicky and Tara flickered in and out of view. Their faces filled with shock, then joy. I could see that their excitement was making them appear, bright and solid, and then fade and disappear like fireflies at night.

Finally, Tara grabbed my arm. “You're not joking? Mom and Dad—they're really downstairs?”

I nodded.

Crying out happily, they both ran from my bedroom. I followed them down the stairs.

By the time I reached the bottom, they were hugging their parents. Everyone was crying. Everyone was talking at the same time.

All four of them had their arms wrapped around each other in a massive tight hug. They moved around and around in a circle, holding each other.

I felt my cheeks. Wet. I was crying too.

Well, how could I help it? I mean, Nicky and Tara hadn't seen their parents in so long.

And now here they were. They just walked up to the front door, and here they were.

Finally, the hug broke. All four of them took a step back, breathing hard. They wiped tears from
their cheeks. They were laughing and crying at the same time.

His arms around Nicky and Tara, Mr. Roland smiled at me. “Thank you for being their friend,” he said.

Then Tara turned to her mom and dad. “I have a million questions,” she said. And she began to ask them. “What happened to us? Why are we ghosts? Did someone kill us? Where have you been all this time?”

M
RS
. R
OLAND LAUGHED
.
“Tara, not so fast. Not so fast!”

“We'll answer all your questions,” Mr. Roland said. “It's a long story. But don't worry. We'll explain everything.” He stuck out his hand. “But quick—give us the pendant.”

“We really have to hurry,” their mom said, glancing at the front door. She turned back to them. “Which one of you is wearing it?”

“Max was wearing it the whole time,” Nicky said.

Both parents moved quickly across the room to me. “Could we have it back, Max?” Mr. Roland asked. “It's the master life pod. We need it to capture any other ghosts who might come after us.”

Mrs. Roland sighed. “We won't be safe until we have it.”

I took a step back. “I … I don't have it,” I stammered.

Mrs. Roland's mouth dropped open. Mr. Roland tensed his shoulders.

“My brother took it,” I said. “He took it to Camp Snake Lake with him.”

Both parents stared at me, horrified expressions frozen on their faces.

After a few seconds, Mr. Roland spoke in a growl.
“Phears isn't going to like this. We have to go there and get it back!”

Huh? Did he say
Phears
?

Confused, I took another step back.

Mr. and Mrs. Roland kept their gaze on me. They started to change. Their faces drooped and began to shrink. Their bodies hunched. They curled in on themselves like gloves closing up.

Hard brown shells formed over their clothing. Their heads were small and round now, with tiny black eyes and threadlike tongues lapping the air. They looked like the beetles we studied in science class. Giant growling beetles.

“Oh noooo.” A low moan escaped my throat.

They floated off the floor. Floated over me, growling and muttering.

I ducked my head and staggered to the front door. I saw Nicky and Tara, frozen in shock in the middle of the living room.

“Run!” I screamed. “It's a trick. They're not your parents!
Run!
”

But before Nicky and Tara could move, the two giant insects skittered over to them. Grabbed them with their long spindly legs.

They pulled Nicky and Tara against their hard ribbed bodies. Held them tight and started to drag them out the front door.

I staggered to the door. I tried to spin one of the insect creatures around, but my hand slid off its shell.

I grabbed for Tara. Struggling and squirming to free themselves, Nicky and Tara both reached for my outstretched hands.

But the insect creatures wrapped ropelike legs around their middles and held them tight. The giant insects bounced across the front yard like rubber balls, dragging Nicky and Tara with them.

“Let us go! Let us
go
!” Tara wailed.

My heart pounding, I darted over the grass. I could see Mrs. Benson in the window of her house next door. I knew she couldn't see the ghosts. She could only see me. She probably thought I was totally crazy as I went screaming down the lawn and leaped into the air.

I jumped onto the back of one of the enormous insects. I gripped the hard shell with both hands. It felt slick and hot. My hands nearly slipped off.

The ghostly creature had Tara wrapped in its grasp. “Help me, Max!” she screamed. “I … I can't get loose!”

With a groan, I lurched backward, trying to pull the insect onto its back.

A puff of black steam shot out from under its shell. I gasped as a putrid smell invaded my nose.

I started to choke and gag. It smelled like dayold vomit. The rank odor surrounded me, clung to my clothes, my hair. I could even taste it on my tongue.

Another strong puff of the disgusting vapor made my stomach heave.

And then the creature twisted its body hard— and sent me flying to the ground. I landed with a heavy thud—and made a grab for one of its wiry legs.

The leg slipped from my hand. Groaning, I jumped to my feet.

“Help—Max!” Nicky screamed.

Holding Nicky tightly, the creature spun around. It stretched out two tendril-like legs and grabbed my head.

The sharp pincers poked through my skin. The legs jerked hard, and I started to spin.

And spin …

I couldn't stop twirling.

The trees, the houses, the cars on the street— all spun around me as I twirled, faster and faster.

As I spun, I saw the two insect creatures skittering away with their captives, Nicky and Tara. But I was helpless. No way to save them.

My arms flew wildly in the air as I twirled and twirled.

Dizzy now.

So dizzy. The ground met the sky, and the world became a green and blue blur.

S
O DIZZY
…

So dizzy, I wanted to fall down. But I couldn't stop twirling.

Then I felt something clamp down on my shoulders. I felt a whoosh of air as I came to a sharp stop.

Something held me tight. I couldn't open my eyes. I knew I'd stopped spinning, but the world still seemed to be shooting around and around me.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. I saw blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. I saw the grass of the front yard … my driveway.

And I looked up at Mrs. Benson, who had clamped her hands onto my shoulders and was gripping me tightly. “Max? What on earth were you doing?” she demanded.