Don't Scream! (4 page)

I tried to concentrate on my dinner, but I didn't have much appetite.

Mom made her famous pot roast, which is Eli's favorite. But I saw him pushing the food around on his plate just like me.

Dad was talking about an old friend he met while jogging in the park that morning. Mom kept watching Eli and me. Rachel shoveled pot roast into her mouth.

“You boys aren't eating,” she said. “Is something wrong with the pot roast?”

“No. No way,” we both answered.

I took a big forkful of meat. I chewed it a long time. It was hard to swallow. I couldn't stop thinking about the girl in Eli's game-player. And it made my throat tight.

“Why do we need a flat screen TV?” I heard Mom ask.

Dad shrugged his big shoulders. “We are the last family in America not to own one,” he said.
“Don't you want to be able to watch TV in high-def?”

“No,” Mom said. “What's the big deal about high-def?”

Dad sighed. He has always wanted a high-def TV. But Mom wouldn't let him buy one.

Mom didn't care about that stuff at all. She liked to sit in the den, listen to the jazz station on the radio, and read romance novels.

“Well, I'm going to Volt City after dinner,” Dad said. “They're having a sale on flat screens.”

“Can I come?” Rachel asked. She had gravy all over her face.

“Not tonight,” Dad said. “I need to concentrate on the TVs.”

Rachel flashed her dimples at him. “Please?”

“Next time,” Dad said.

Mom turned to Eli and me. “You're still not eating. What's your problem?”

I decided to tell them the truth. I took a deep breath and started my story.

“I found a cell phone on the bus this afternoon. …”

“Did you turn it in to Charlene?” Mom asked.

“No,” I said. “There was something very strange about it.”

“Well, where is it?” Dad said. “Let me see it.”

“I smashed it,” I said.

Mom gasped. Dad dropped his fork onto the table.

Rachel laughed. “You're stupid.”

“We had to wreck it,” Eli chimed in.

“You took someone's cell phone and smashed it?” Dad said.

This was NOT going well.

My heart started to pound. Mom and Dad both flashed me hard, cold stares. I felt their eyes shooting through me, like lasers.

“Someone was talking on it,” I said. “A girl. She was totally weird. I shut down the phone, but she kept talking.”

“Who was she?” Mom asked.

“We don't know,” Eli said. “A stranger.”

“But she knew my name,” I added.

Dad rubbed his big forehead. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “A girl was talking on the phone, and she knew your name. You tried to turn the phone off, but —”

“No. I
did
turn the phone off,” I interrupted.

“Then how could she keep talking?” Dad asked.

“That's what was so freaky,” I said.

“Maybe you just
thought
you turned the phone off,” Mom said. “Maybe the
POWER
button was broken, and the phone was still on.”

“You don't understand,” I said.

“We understand that you smashed a phone that doesn't belong to you,” Dad said.

“That's stupid,” Rachel said. Big help.

“The girl melted my game-player,” Eli chimed in. “And now she's talking out of it.”

Mom's and Dad's mouths dropped open. They turned to Eli.

“Oh, I get it,” Dad said. “It's a joke. You guys are putting us on.”

Mom frowned. “Joke? How is it funny? I don't get it.”

“I don't get it, either,” Rachel said.

“Let's talk about something else,” I mumbled.

This was going nowhere. It was just going to get me in trouble.

Dad waved his fork at Eli. “Go get your game-player,” he said. “I want to see it.”

Eli pushed his chair back and started to get up.

“I'll go, too,” I said. I jumped up and followed Eli to the door.

“It shouldn't take two people to carry a game-player,” Dad said.

But we both trotted up to my room. The game-player had stopped sizzling and smoking. I carefully touched the melted plastic with one finger. “It cooled off,” I said.

Eli picked it up in one hand.

“Where are you taking me?” the girl asked.

“N-nowhere,” Eli stammered. “Just downstairs.”

“Don't mess with me,” the girl said. “I can hurt you. Remember?”

“We remember,” I told her. “We're not going to try to smash you again. My dad —”

“Put me down,” she ordered. “I need to talk to you.”

“Not now,” I said. “My dad wants to see the game-player. Talk to him. Maybe he can help you.”

“Talk to him so he knows Jack and I aren't lying,” Eli said.

He carried the game-player downstairs to the kitchen. I followed right behind.

Mom finished a glass of Diet Coke. The ice cubes rattled in her glass.

She narrowed her eyes at the blob of black plastic in Eli's hand. “It's definitely burned,” she said. “That's very bad. That could have started a fire.”

“Let me see it.” Dad took it from Eli's hand. He rolled it around. He shook it hard. Then he held it up to his ear. “Anyone in there?” he called.

Silence.

Dad shook the thing again. “Anyone in there? Speak up. Jack says you're hiding in the game-player. Are you there?”

Mom laughed. Eli and I stared hard at the player.

Come on. Talk to him
, I begged silently.
Let them know I was telling the truth
.

Dad smacked the game-player against his open palm. “Speak up,” he said. “We can't hear you.” SMACK. SMACK.

And then a deafening roar screeched from the player — a wail — higher and shriller than an ambulance siren. It didn't stop. Rising … rising …

Dad dropped the player onto the table. We all pressed our hands over our ears.

I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth from the pain shooting through my head. “It … hurts …” I choked out.

We were all screaming.

My head throbbed. It felt as if my skull was bursting apart.

The shrill siren wail cut off suddenly.

I gasped at the silence. We all stared at the melted game-player on the table.

My ears rang. I still had my hands pressed over them tightly.

Slowly, I lowered my hands to the table. Eli shook his head hard, as if trying to shake off the pain.

Mom squinted at the game-player, her mouth hanging open. She was breathing hard.

Dad was the first to speak. “That player is defective,” he said. “It's dangerous.”

He pressed his ears with his pointer fingers, trying to clear them. Then he swallowed a few times.

“It hurts. It hurts real bad,” Rachel wailed. She still had her hands over her ears.

“We could have gone deaf,” Mom said. “My ears are still whistling. That was horrible.”

Dad picked up the game-player and shook it. “Eli, you bought this at Volt City, right? Well, come with Jack and me after dinner. I'm taking this back. I'm going to show it to the manager. He has to give you a new one.”

Eli didn't reply to Dad. He was staring at me.

We both knew what caused the deafening noise. It wasn't the game-player. It was the girl.

She had shocked me from the cell phone. Now she had hurt us all from Eli's game-player. What would she do if we took the game-player to the store? Something even more horrible?

I could tell Eli and I were having the same frightening thoughts.

“I … don't think I can go to the store,” Eli told my dad. “My parents probably won't —”

“I'll call them right now,” Dad said. He jumped to his feet and headed to the kitchen phone. “I don't want you walking around with that dangerous game-player. The store needs to see it. Maybe the player needs to be recalled.”

“No. I —” Eli started to protest, but gave up. He knew my dad couldn't be stopped once he had something in his head.

Dad started to talk to Eli's mother. I dragged Eli into the hall. “Maybe this is a good thing,” I whispered.

He squinted at me from behind his glasses. “Like how?”

“Like we leave the game-player at the store, and the girl stays there with it,” I said.

He blinked. “You think?”

I shrugged. “I don't know,” I said. “But if she's trapped inside there or something, and we drive it to the store and give it to the store manager … Then it's
his
problem — right?”

“Maybe,” Eli said.

“It's worth a try,” I told him. “I mean, what's the worst that can happen?”

“She could blow up the car,” Eli said.

We had a tense ride to the Volt City store. Eli and I sat in the backseat. Eli had the melted game-player on his lap. He held it tensely between his hands. We both stared at it the whole way.

Dad didn't ask why we were so quiet. He had the radio cranked up full blast. Dad loves country music. He likes to sing along with it. Especially when I have friends in the car.

He knows how much that embarrasses me. Mainly because he's a
terrible
singer.

Eli and I didn't take our eyes off the game-player.

Maybe we'll get lucky
, I thought.
Maybe she won't shock us or burn us or blow us up.

By the time Dad pulled into the parking lot, I was dripping with sweat. My stomach felt tight as a fist.

The big blue neon
VOLT CITY
sign blinked on and off. Two yellow neon lightning bolts glowed
against the evening sky. Beneath them, a smaller sign read:
OUR LOW PRICES WILL SHOCK YOU!

The whole front of the store was glass. Inside, the store was brighter than daylight. I could see the back wall covered with flickering flat screen TVs.

A big Dalmatian was tied to a pole outside the front entrance. The dog stood alert, gazing into the store. It whimpered and looked sadly at us as we stepped past it.

The electric door slid open. We moved aside as a man in a blue work uniform came out carrying a big computer box in both hands.

Eli and I followed Dad into the store. Dad's face lit up excitedly. I could see the TV screens reflected in his eyes.

Eli gripped the wrecked game-player between his hands. So far, the girl had been silent. Was she still in there?

I couldn't relax. I knew she could do something horrible at any minute. My hand still stung from the shock she gave me that afternoon.

Dad stopped at a tall display of cell phones. He picked up a small silver phone and rolled it in his hand. Then he put it back and turned to us.

“Give me the game-player, Eli.” He stretched out his hand. “I'll take it to the manager.” He motioned to the offices at the far side of the store. “You guys look around till I get back.”

Eli handed the player to Dad. I shut my eyes.
Would the girl start shouting now? Or burn Dad's hand off or shock him?

No.

Dad turned and strode off with it. He was humming a country song from the radio.

Eli and I didn't move. We watched him until he disappeared into one of the offices.

I realized I was holding my breath the whole time. I let it out in a long whoosh.

“What do you think?” Eli asked in a near whisper.

“Maybe we're okay,” I said. “Maybe the whole weird thing is over.”

That's when the wall of TV screens all went black. The store grew darker.

I heard a few people cry out in surprise. Then the store became very quiet.

Eli and I stared at the wall of blank TVs.

“Must be a short circuit,” a store worker behind us murmured. “Maybe a circuit breaker blew.”

But then the TVs blinked back on. Dim at first, then brighter.

I gasped when I saw that the picture didn't return to normal. Instead, the screens were filled with lips. Like a close-up of a pair of lips. Bright red lips.

“Weird,” the store worker muttered.

“What's up with the lips?” a woman asked from behind a counter.

An entire wall of lips.

A store worker shouted, “Can you fix that? Travis, can you fix the TVs? What's going on?”

A few people laughed.

But I had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling.

And I was right.

The mouth started to move. The tongue licked the top lip. Then it licked the bottom lip.

A whole wall of tongues and red lips on dozens of big screens.

And then the lips moved. And a girl's voice rang out through the big store.

“Don't try to leave me here, Jack,” she said. “You can't ever leave me. You're my best friend. My best friend FOREVER.”

“Who is Jack?” a store worker demanded angrily. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“Is someone here named Jack?” another worker shouted. “Find Jack! Find him now!”

A wave of panic rolled down my body. I ducked behind a tall cardboard sign and pulled Eli after me.

The girl's voice rang out from the wall of TVs. “You can't hide from me, Jack. You can't leave me here. Give it up. Give it up, Jack.”

I peeked out from behind the sign. Store workers were gazing around.

“Why is this happening?”

“Did someone hack into our system?”

“Jack — are you here in the store?”

Eli and I pressed together, hiding behind the tall sign. My heart pounded.
Should I step out and tell them I'm Jack? Should I tell them the truth about the girl on the TV screens?

Would anyone believe me?

Of course not.

Suddenly, music blared through the store. The flickering light changed.

“The picture is back,” someone said.

“Back to normal,” another voice agreed.

“What was
that
about?” a woman demanded.

I stumbled over Eli's shoe as I moved away from the sign. I stared at the wall of TVs. The screens were all showing a music concert now. A rock band with flashing laser lights.

I let out a long sigh. The red mouth had vanished. Customers and store workers turned away from the TVs.

“Weird,” Eli muttered. He blinked his eyes several times. “Did that really happen?”

Before I could answer, my dad appeared. He handed a silver-gray box to Eli. “Here you go,” he said. “The manager gave you a new game-player.”

“Hey … thanks.” Eli took the box and studied it.

Dad had been in the manager's office. He missed the mouth on the TV screens and the girl telling me not to leave her.

“The manager couldn't believe what happened to the old one,” Dad told Eli. “He's going to call the company that made it.”

“What did you do with the old game-player?” I asked.

“Tossed it in the trash,” Dad said.

Eli and I exchanged glances.

“Good,” I muttered.

I raised my eyes to the wall of TVs. All back to normal.

The game-player was in the trash. And maybe … just maybe, the girl was in the trash with it.

A guy can hope — right?

She was scary and evil. And I suddenly felt so much happier thinking maybe I'd gotten rid of her for good.

Eli and I went to the DVD shelves and checked out the new movies. At the back, I saw Dad moving down the wall of TVs. He was talking to a saleswoman and checking the red and blue price tags.

A few minutes later, he came striding back to us. “Did you buy one?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I have to come back next week,” he said. “I was wrong. The sale doesn't start till then.”

Eli had the game-player box tucked under his arm.

“Guess you'll want to get home and try your new player,” Dad said.

Dad had no idea how eager we were to get away from that store.

Eli nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for exchanging it, Mr. Harmon.”

I started walking quickly to the exit. I kept glancing back at the wall of flat screens.

I still thought maybe the red lips would come back on all the TVs. And the girl would start calling: “Don't leave, Jack. You can't leave without me. I'm warning you. Don't leave the store.”

But no. The rock band continued to blast away on all the TVs. The white laser lights flashed.

We made it to the glass doors. I could see our car in the brightly lit parking lot.

The doors slid open. And someone grabbed my shoulder.

I spun around. “Dad? What's the problem?”

“Jack, we forgot something,” he said. He tugged me back into the store.

Eli squinted at me. “What's up?”

I shrugged.

“Why didn't you remind me?” Dad asked. “A cell phone? Remember? Mom and I want to buy you a cell phone?”

“Uh … that's okay,” I said. I could see our car through the glass door. I just wanted to be in it, driving away from this place. “I really don't need a phone,” I said.

Dad squinted hard at me. “You're joking, right? You've been asking us for a phone for months.”

“Well …”
Think fast, Jack. Think fast
.

Dad gave me a push toward the phone display. “Come on. Check them out,” he said. “Mom and I want you to have a phone. So we can always reach you.”

“But … but …”

“What if that girl comes on your new phone?” Eli whispered.

Of course I was already thinking that. But I whispered, “No way. How could she? She's gone. She's in the trash.”

Eli and I began pawing through the phones on the glass display case.

“Something simple,” Dad said. “You don't need a smartphone with Internet and all that. You just need a phone for calling and texting.”

It took a while. But we found a cool-looking phone that Dad said was okay.

It takes a long time to buy a phone. Dad had to deal with a calling contract and all that stuff.
And the sales clerk had to activate it so it would work.

Finally, we walked out of the store. I squeezed the phone tightly in my hand. It felt cool and sleek.

“Go ahead. Try it,” Dad said. “Call your mom. Tell her you got a phone of your own.”

I stopped at the car. “Okay,” I said. I dialed our home number and pressed
SEND
.

I raised the phone to my ear.

And heard the girl's voice:

“Hi, Jack. Don't be worried. I'm still here.”