The Haunted Mask II (8 page)

Helping hands reached down to pull me to my feet.

“Are you okay? Here’s your cane.” I recognized Duck Benton’s scratchy voice.

I heard murmurs of sympathy. “Poor old guy,” someone whispered.

“Are you hurt?”

“Can we get you some help?”

No. No. No. No. No.

They weren’t terrified. The weren’t the tiniest bit afraid.

I sank onto the cane. I suddenly felt so weary. So totally exhausted I could
barely keep my head up.

Forget about scaring them, Steve, I told myself. You’ve got to get to Carly
Beth’s house before you collapse. You’ve got to find out from Carly Beth how to
get the mask off. How to get your old face—and strength—back.

Marnie was still holding on to my trembling arm. “Where are you trying to
go?” she asked, her freckled face filled with concern.

“Uh… do you know where Carly Beth Caldwell’s house is?” I asked in a weak
croak.

“It’s on the next block. Across the street. I know her brother,” I heard
Andrew Foster say.

“We’ll take you there,” Marnie offered.

She gripped my arm tighter. A mummy stepped up and took my other arm. They
began to walk me slowly, gently down the sidewalk.

I don’t believe this!
I thought bitterly. They’re supposed to be scared out of their costumes! They should be shrieking and
crying by now.

But instead, they’re
helping
me walk.

I sighed. The sad thing was, I felt so tired and weak, I couldn’t have made
it to Carly Beth’s without their help.

They led me halfway up her driveway. Then I thanked them and told them I
could make it the rest of the way.

I watched them scurry away to go trick-or-treating. “I guess Steve isn’t
going to show up,” Duck said.

“He was probably too big a wimp to go out on Halloween night!” Marnie joked.

They all laughed.

Leaning heavily on the cane, I turned toward Carly Beth’s house. The lights
were all on. But I couldn’t see anyone in the windows.

She probably isn’t back from trick-or-treating yet, I decided.

I heard chattering voices. Footsteps on the gravel drive.

I wheeled around to see Carly Beth and her friend Sabrina Mason hurrying
across the lawn, heading toward the house.

I recognized Carly Beth’s duck costume. She wore it every year. Except for
last Halloween, when she wore that terrifying mask.

Sabrina was some kind of superhero. She wore silvery tights and a long silvery cape. She had a silvery mask pulled over
her face, but I recognized her long, black hair.

“Carly Beth—!” I tried to shout. But her name came out in a choked whisper.

She and Sabrina kept chattering excitedly as they hurried across the lawn.

“Carly Beth—! Please!” I cried.

Halfway to the house, they both turned. They saw me.

Yes!

“Carly Beth—” I cried.

She pulled off her duck mask and took a few steps toward the driveway. She
squinted hard at me. “Who are you?”

“It’s me!” I cried weakly. “I—”

“Are you the man who tried to call me earlier?” she demanded coldly.

“Well… yes,” I croaked. “You see, I need—”

“Well, leave me alone!” Carly Beth screamed. “Why are you following me? Leave
me alone, or I’ll get my father!”

“But—but—but—” I sputtered helplessly.

The two girls spun away and began jogging to the house.

Leaving me standing there in the driveway.

Leaving me all alone.

Leaving me
doomed.

I let out a bitter wail. “Carly Beth—it’s me! It’s me! Steve!” I cried.
“Steve Boswell!”

Did she hear me?

Yes.

She and Sabrina had stepped onto the stone walk that led to the front porch.
In the square of yellow light from the porch, I saw them both turn around.

“It’s Steve! It’s Steve!” I repeated, my throat aching from my desperate
cries.

Slowly, cautiously, both girls made their way back to me.

“Steve?” Carly Beth stared hard at me, her mouth falling open.

“Is that a mask?” Sabrina demanded, keeping close to Carly Beth.

“Yes, it’s a mask,” I croaked.

“Yuck. It’s disgusting!” Sabrina declared. She pulled off her silver mask to
see better. “Are those spiders? Yuck!”

“I need help,” I confessed. “This mask—”

“You went to the party store!” Carly Beth cried. The duck mask fell to the
ground. She raised both hands to the sides of her face. “Oh, no! No! Steve, I
warned you!”

“Yes. That’s where I got it,” I said, pointing to my hideous face. “I didn’t
listen to you. I didn’t know.”

“Steve, I told you not to go there,” Carly Beth said, her expression still
tight with horror. Hands still pressed against her cheeks.

“Now the mask won’t come off,” I wailed. “It’s stuck to me. It’s part of me.
And it’s—it’s turning me into an old, old man. A feeble old man.”

Carly Beth shook her head sadly. She stared at my ugly face, but didn’t say a
word.

“You’ve got to help me,” I pleaded. “You’ve got to help me get this mask
off.”

Carly Beth let out a frightened sigh. “Steve—I don’t think I can.”

I grabbed her duck feathers and held on. “You’ve got to help me, Carly Beth,”
I begged. “Why won’t you help me?”

“I
want
to help you,” she explained. “But I’m not sure I can.”

“But you had a mask from the same store last Halloween,” I protested. “You
pulled the mask off. You escaped from it—right?”

“It can’t be pulled off,” Carly Beth said. “There’s no way to pull it off.”

Over her shoulder, I saw three kids in costumes at the next house. A woman
appeared in the doorway. I saw her dropping candy bars into the three
trick-or-treat bags.

Some kids are having fun tonight, I thought bitterly.

I am
not
having fun tonight.

I may never have fun again.

“Come into the house,” Carly Beth suggested. “It’s cold out here. I’ll try to
explain.”

I tried to follow them up the driveway. But my legs wobbled like rubber.
Carly Beth and Sabrina practically had to carry me into her house. They dropped
me down on the green leather couch in the living room.

On a table across the room, a carved jack-o’-lantern grinned at me. The
pumpkin had more teeth than I did!

Carly Beth dropped down on the couch arm. Sabrina sat on the edge of the
armchair beside it. She leaned over and sifted through her trick-or-treat bag.
How could she think of candy at a time like this?

I turned to Carly Beth. “How do I get the mask off?” I croaked.

Carly Beth chewed her bottom lip. She raised her eyes to me, her expression
grim. “It isn’t a mask,” she said softly.

“Excuse me?” I cried.

“It isn’t a mask,” she explained. “It’s a real face. A living face. Did you
meet the man in the black cape?”

I nodded.

“He’s some kind of weird scientist, I think. He made the faces. In his lab.”

“He—he
made
them?” I stammered.

Carly Beth nodded solemnly. “They are real, living faces. The man in the cape
tried to make them good-looking. But something went wrong. They all came out ugly. As ugly as the one you’re wearing.”

“But, Carly Beth—” I started.

She raised a hand to hush me. “The caped man calls the faces The Unloved. No
one wants them because they turned out so ugly. They are The Unloved. They’re
alive. And they attach themselves to anyone who comes near enough.”

“But how do I get it off?” I cried impatiently. I raised my hands and tugged
at my rutted, scabby cheeks. “I can’t spend the rest of my life like this. What
can I do?”

Carly Beth jumped up and began pacing back and forth in front of Sabrina and
me. Sabrina unwrapped a Milky Way bar and began chewing it, watching Carly Beth
pace.

“The same thing happened to me last Halloween,” Carly Beth said. “I had
chosen a really ugly mask. It was so scary. It attached itself to my head. And
then it turned me evil.”

“And what did you do?” I cried, leaning forward on my cane.

“I went back to the party store. I found the man in the cape. He told me
there was only one way to get rid of the mask. It could only be done with a
symbol of love.”

“Huh?” I gaped at her. I didn’t understand.

“I had to find a symbol of love,” Carly Beth continued. “At first, I didn’t
know what the man meant. I didn’t know what to do. But then I remembered something my mom had
made for me.”

“What?” I demanded eagerly. “What was it?”

“It was that head,” Sabrina chimed in, her mouth bulging with chocolate.

“My mom had sculpted a head of me,” Carly Beth said. “It looked just like me.
You’ve seen it. Mom sculpted it because she loves me. It was a symbol of love.”

Carly Beth dropped back down beside me. “I placed Mom’s sculpted head over
The Unloved face. And The Unloved disappeared. The ugly face slipped right off.”

“Great!” I cried happily. “Go get it. Hurry!”

“Huh?” Carly Beth stared at me, confused.

“Go get the sculpted head,” I begged. “I’ve got to get this thing off me!”

Carly Beth shook her head. “You don’t get it, Steve. You can’t use
my
symbol of love. It will only work for me. You have to find
your own
symbol of love.”

“But maybe it won’t work for Steve’s mask,” Sabrina interrupted. “Maybe each
mask is different.”

“Give me a break, Sabrina,” I muttered angrily. “It’s got to work! Don’t you
understand? It’s
got
to!”

“You have to find your own symbol of love,” Carly Beth repeated. “Can you
think of one, Steve?”

I stared back at her, thinking hard. I thought. And thought. Symbol of love… symbol of love… No. I couldn’t think of anything. Not a single thing.
And then an idea popped into my mind.

I leaned on the cane and tried to pull myself up from the couch. But my
feeble arms gave way, and I fell back into the cushion.

“You’ve got to help me get home,” I told Carly Beth. “I thought of a symbol
of love. It’s at my house.”

“Okay. Let’s go!” she replied.

“But what about the kids coming over here?” Sabrina asked, swallowing a chunk
of Milky Way. “What about the party?”

“You stay here and greet them,” Carly Beth told her. “If Steve really can
find a symbol of love at his house—and if it works—we’ll be right back.”

“It’ll work,” I said. “I know it will.”

But I had my fingers crossed. Which made it even harder to climb up from the
couch.

Carly Beth saw me struggling. She took both my hands and pulled me to my
feet. “Yuck! What are those things moving around in your ears?” she cried, making a disgusted
face.

“Spiders,” I said quietly.

She swallowed hard. “I sure hope you find something that works.”

“Me too,” I murmured as she guided me to the door.

Carly Beth turned back into the living room. “Don’t eat all the chocolate
while we’re gone,” she called to Sabrina.

“It’s only my second piece!” Sabrina protested with her mouth full.

We stepped into the darkness. Some kids in costumes were coming up the
driveway, all carrying bulging trick-or-treat bags. “Hey, Carly Beth—where are
you going?” a girl called.

“I’m doing a good deed!” Carly Beth replied. “See you guys later!” She turned
back to me. “I can’t believe you didn’t listen to me, Steve. You really look
disgusting.”

“I can’t even wipe the green gobs out of my nose!” I wailed.

Holding me by the shoulder, she guided me toward my house. We crossed the
street onto my block. I heard kids laughing and loud music inside the house on
the corner. A Halloween party.

As we passed the house, I stumbled over a moving shadow. Carly Beth caught me
before I fell. “What was that?” I cried.

Then I saw it scamper silently across the street. A black cat.

I laughed. What else could I do? I had to laugh.

Go ahead, cat, I thought bitterly. Go ahead and cross my path. I couldn’t
have any
worse
luck—could I?

My house came into view past a row of tall evergreen shrubs. Through the
shrubs, I could see that nearly all the downstairs lights were on.

“Are your parents home?” Carly Beth asked, helping me across the grass.

I nodded. “Yeah. They’re home.”

“Do they know about the… uh…”

“No,” I replied. “They think it’s a costume.”

As we stepped onto the front stoop, I could hear Sparky start to bark inside
the house. I pushed open the door, and the little dog let out an excited
yip
and leaped up at me.

His paws landed on my waist and pushed me back hard. I toppled against the
wall.

“Down, Sparky! Please! Get down!” I pleaded in my old man’s croak.

I knew Sparky was glad to see me. But I was too feeble for his usual
greeting.

“Down, boy! Please!”

Carly Beth finally managed to pull the dog off me so that I could stand up.
Then she held onto Sparky until I regained my balance.

“Steve—is that you?” I heard Mom call from the den. “You’re back so early!”

Mom stepped into the living room. She had changed into the gray flannel
housedress she usually relaxes in at night, and she had her blond hair in
curlers.

“Oh, hi, Carly Beth!” she cried in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting visitors. I—”

“That’s okay, Mom,” I croaked. “We’re only staying a minute. We came back to
get something.”

“Don’t you love Steve’s costume?” Mom asked Carly Beth. “Isn’t that the most
horrible mask you ever saw?”

“You mean he’s wearing a mask?” Carly Beth joked. She and Mom enjoyed a good
laugh.

Sparky sniffed my shoes.

“What did you come back here for?” Mom asked me.

“Those black-and-white cookies,” I replied eagerly. “You know. The ones you
bought me yesterday.”

Those cookies were a symbol of love.