Who Let the Ghosts Out? (8 page)

“Whoa. Time out,” I said, doing a football timeout signal. “No way I'm going in that tunnel. I'm allergic to tunnels. My whole face breaks out. Really.”

Tara floated over to me. Without the hat covering her face, she was kinda cute. She had wavy brown hair and sparkling green eyes. I really hadn't noticed before.

“We need your help,” she said softly. “Phears will come back looking for us, you know.”

“And he'll come back for you, too, Max,” Nicky said.

I swallowed. My teeth began to hurt again, just thinking about Phears.

They turned to me. “We have to find Mom and Dad before Phears does,” Tara said.

“I … can't go in there,” I said. “I'd like to help you. Really. But you heard my mom. I have to clean up my room.”

Tara slid her arm around my shoulders in kind of a hug. “We'll clean your room for you, Maxie,” she said softly.

I never had a girl put her arm around me before. The back of my neck tingled.

What a shame that the first girl to hug me had to be dead!

“We'll clean your room, and we'll guard the tunnel opening,” Nicky said. “We'll watch out for you.”

I stared at the hole in my bedroom wall. Tara still had her arm around my shoulders. She played with the silver bullet pendant that dangled down to my chest.

“Maybe the tunnel is very short,” I said.

“Good attitude,” Tara said.

“But what do I look for?” I asked. “How do I search for something if I don't know what it is?”

Nicky shrugged. “Look for our mom and dad,” he said.

“Or any kind of clue about us or them,” Tara said. “Anything!”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, good. That makes it easy.”

I walked over to the tunnel opening and peered in again. A whiff of cold air greeted me. It smelled sour and musty.

I shivered. “I can't do this,” I said. “I'm sorry. I want to help you out. But this is too scary.”

Tara handed me a flashlight. “Hurry, Max. Phears will be back. He'll do horrible things to us.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth. Once again, I remembered the pain of the invisible dentist drills.

“Maybe it will be easy,” Nicky said. “Maybe you'll find it right away.”

“Whatever it is,” I muttered.

I took a step into the tunnel. Then another.

Darkness surrounded me right away like a heavy blanket wrapping around me. The clammy air chilled my skin.

I took another step—and heard a scraping sound behind me.

“Huh—?” I wheeled around—in time to see the tunnel opening slide shut.

I hurried back toward my room. And slapped out with both hands.

Solid wall. The opening had closed.

I was trapped on the other side.

M
Y HEART STARTED TO
race. I pounded on the wall with both fists.

“Hey—can anybody hear me in there? Nicky? Tara? Help me!”

I pressed my ear to the wall and listened. The wall felt cold and damp against my skin. I couldn't hear anyone on the other side.

I picked up the flashlight and pounded it hard against the wall. “Open up in there! Somebody— help me! I'm trapped in here!”

Silence.

I pounded some more, then waited. But I knew the wall wasn't going to slide open again.

Gripping the flashlight, I turned toward the darkness.

“I'm not brave,” I said out loud. “So what am I doing here?” My voice echoed as if I was in a huge cave.

Where
am
I? I wondered. How can there be a tunnel inside my house? Did Nicky and Tara's parents disappear into this tunnel? I wanted
to shut off my brain, but the questions wouldn't stop.

And then I heard a crackling sound, far in the distance but growing louder. I heard the whoosh of air. Flapping.

Flapping wings?

Yes. I raised the beam of light from the flash-light—and saw the flying creatures. Bats, black against the black tunnel ceiling. Thousands of tiny red eyes darted over me like insects. In seconds, the sound of the flapping wings grew to a roar.

“Nooooo—!”
I let out a horrified cry and covered my head with my arms.

I could feel bursts of wind as their wings beat against my face. Something brushed the top of my head, and I screamed again.

Covering my head, I swung away from them. A bat flew hard into the back of my neck. I felt its dry, hot body on my skin, then felt the scratch of a talon and a sharp stab of pain.

The roar of their beating wings surrounded me, so loud I couldn't think. Another bat grazed the back of my head. A bat hit my neck and slid down the back of my T-shirt.

“Ohhhhhh.” I uttered a terrified moan as I felt its crackly, dry body slide down my back. I twitched and thrashed, slapping at the back of my shirt—until the creature fell out, dropped to the tunnel floor, then flew away.

My breath came out in short gasps. The bats pounded against me. I tried to fold myself into a tight ball, but I couldn't get small enough to escape them.

Finally, I stood up straight. I swung toward them and waved the light back and forth wildly. Their silky wings caught the light. Their flight slowed.

The bats began to screech, a high whistle that made my ears ring. Frantically, I shot the light back and forth like a light saber in
Star Wars
.

To my shock, the attack stopped. The bats floated high above me now, avoiding the light. “Die! Die! Die!” I screamed, enjoying my new power. I aimed the light beam and watched the bats flee.

Silence now, except for the wheezing of my own breath. I bent over, lowered my hands to the knees of my jeans, and waited for my breathing to return to normal.

Did those bats attack me for a reason? I wondered. Were they trying to keep me away from something?

I rubbed the back of my neck. I had a few scratches back there, but nothing serious.

Aiming the circle of light on the tunnel floor, I started walking. My legs still felt shaky. Despite the cool air, sweat poured down my forehead.

I walked slowly, my sneakers shuffling along the slick, hard tunnel floor.

I kept walking, sweeping the light from side to side on the floor. Something sticky brushed my face. Cobwebs?

The thick web tightened around me like a mask. I raised my free hand and tried to tug it away. But it stuck to my hand and began to wrap itself around my wrist.

It's alive, I realized. A throbbing, breathing cobweb!

I dropped the flashlight and ripped the sticky, pulsing strings off my face with both hands. Then I tugged the tangled webbing off my arm. I heaved it to the ground and began to stomp on it.

But it stuck to my sneakers and began to creep up around my ankles.

“No—!” I let out a scream as it throbbed against my skin and began to pull me to the floor. I dropped to my knees and pounded it with the head of the flashlight.

But the cobweb stuck to the flashlight and began to spread over it, too. The webbing wrapped around my hand, then my arm. Thick strings of cobweb creeping up, reaching … reaching for my neck.

I'm being sucked into it, I realized. It's going to cover me like a cocoon. I'm going to suffocate. …

Then to my shock, it all fell away. The webbing let go, lost its stickiness.

As I gazed in amazement, it fell to the floor— and shrank until nothing was left of it.

I jumped to my feet. My skin tingled and itched. Sweat poured down my face and made my T-shirt cling to my back.

Why had the cobweb given up? Why did it draw back just when it had me in its grip?

I turned and saw the reason.

Squinting into the darkness, I saw the ghost coming for me.

My scream rang off the tunnel walls and echoed into the deep chamber.

The ghost floated in the distance, a silent, gray figure against the blackness.

Should I run?

Before I could move, the ghost roared up to me like a tiny, dark tornado. It floated in front of me with its back turned.

The frozen air swirled around me. I fell back against the tunnel wall. “Who are you?” My question came out in a trembling whisper. “What do you want?”

Floating above the floor, it didn't turn around.

Unable to stop my trembling, I stared hard at it. Stared hard …

And then it turned around—and I couldn't keep my shock inside. My mouth shot open in a scream of horror.

The ghost had
my
face!

T
HE GHOST STARED AT
me blankly, ignoring my scream of horror.

“Are you—?” I started. “Who … are you? Are you
me
?”

The ghost gazed back wide-eyed and didn't reply.

I stared at him, stared into my own face. He wore a long white T-shirt, loose-fitting, long as a dress. Beneath it he had on baggy white pants that came down over his shoes.

His eyes were deep set and sad, dark in his pale bleached face. His cheeks were hard and white as cement. His lips were colorless. He studied me as I studied him.

“Can you help me?” I asked. “Where am I? What are you doing here? Are you my ghost? Can you speak?” My questions came out high and frightened.

He floated closer. “Trade places with me,” he whispered.

“Excuse me?” I took a step back.

“Trade places with me,” he repeated. And then his face began to change. And I was no longer staring at myself. I was staring at a white-haired old man.

“Trade places with me,” he rasped.

“No—!” I cried. I took another stumbling step back.

And his face changed again—into that of a sunken-eyed young man. His nose was missing. I stared at the hole in his face. And when he opened his mouth, I saw that he had no teeth and his gums were ripped and jagged.

“Trade places with me.”

“No. Stop. I won't,” I said. Then I noticed that he had something half hidden in his hand. As I squinted at it, he held it up so that I could see it better.

“I have what you're looking for,” he croaked.

A shoe box. A cardboard shoe box. And on the side I could see words printed in black marker: N ROLAND.

Nicky Roland. A shoe box belonging to Nicky.

“Oh, wow.” I reached out for the shoe box.

The ghost lowered the box to his side. “Trade places with me.”

“No. I can't. I don't want to. I'm alive. I'm not a ghost,” I said.

“Trade places with me,” he repeated. He changed again, into a beefy-faced man with a
patch over one eye and ratty black hair flowing down to his shoulders.

He floated higher off the floor. I saw him tighten his free hand into a fist.
“Trade places with me!”
he screamed. His single dark eye flamed, then glowed bright red.

I tried to back away, but I was already pressed against the tunnel wall.

With a furious cry, he shot his fist forward.

I ducked under it. Then I reached up—and grabbed the shoe box from his other hand.

He swiped at the box. Missed.

I darted under him. Wrapping the box in my arms, I started to run. My sneakers slapped the hard floor. Protecting the box, I kept my head low and ran full speed back toward my room.

I glanced back and saw him floating in place, watching me escape. “Trade places with me!” he called.

I turned and ran. The solid black wall stood up ahead. Still no opening back to my room.

Gripping the box, I stopped running. Panting hard, I stood and stared at the wall. I had Nicky's box. But now I seemed to be stuck here. No escape from the tunnel.

With a groan, I sank to the floor. I sat down cross-legged with the box between my knees.

“Hey—!” I cried out when I felt the pull. A strong force, pulling me
into
the black wall.

I grabbed the shoe box. I tried to stand up. But the force was too powerful. I felt like a tiny tack being pulled by a powerful magnet.

Phears!

The thought of his name sent a shiver down my back.

Somehow Phears had followed me. And now he was pulling me toward him, pulling me into the wall.

The force tugged me by the feet. I struggled to stand up, but it was too powerful. I couldn't fight it.

Flat on my back, gripping the box in both hands, I slid feetfirst toward the opening. Desperate to pull free, I dug my sneakers into the floor. I twisted my body and shoved one hand onto the floor.

Gripping the floor, digging in my heels, I slowed my slide. But the force was too powerful to resist.

I heard a
thud
. Felt a crushing blow at the back of my head.

I remember the pain. I remember collapsing lifelessly to the tunnel floor. I remember the blackness sweeping over me.

That's all I remember.

I
CAME BACK TO
life slowly, blinking, my head aching. I struggled to focus my eyes.

Where was I?

The back of my head throbbed with pain. Lying flat on my back, I squinted across the room. I saw a dresser with a lamp on it, a Lara Croft poster on the wall behind it.

I sat up with a groan. I slapped the mattress with both hands. I was in my own bed, in my bedroom. Or was this some kind of trick? Had Phears pulled me into a parallel universe? (I saw an episode of
Outer Limits
that was like that.)

Leaning on my elbows, I pulled myself up higher.

“Awesome. Check out Sleeping Beauty,” a girl's voice said. Tara popped into view beside the bed.

“Our hero,” Nicky declared. He appeared on the other side of the bed.

I blinked again. “Am I really home?”

“Yeah, thanks to us,” Nicky said. “We pulled
you out of the tunnel. But it took all our strength away. After we got you in bed, we vaporized for hours.”

“Why did you fight us like that?” Tara demanded. “We were trying to save your life. We were trying to pull you to safety, and you gave us such a hard time. What was up with that?”

“I had to hit you on the head to make you stop battling us,” Nicky said.

“I…I thought you were Phears,” I said. “I'm sorry, guys.”

“No problem,” Nicky said. He held up the shoe box and grinned at me. “You the man, Max. You the man!”

I climbed out of bed, grinning. “Yes. I found that box.”

“I knew you were secretly brave,” Tara said.