Ghoul Trip (4 page)

Finally, car number eight came back down again. The man couldn't understand it. Those children had gone up, so they
must
have come down. But where were they? All he could see were three little bats fluttering high above his head.

There was a long line of people waiting to get on the Ferris wheel. The man thought hard.

“I'll just take one last look in car number eight,” he muttered. “Maybe those pesky kids are hiding under the seat.” He crawled into the car on his hands and knees for a closer look. And then three things happened very quickly.

First, the three little bats turned—
POP! POP! POP!
—into three giggling vampires.

Next, Lee quickly locked the door of the car with a
SLAM!
Then, Billy pressed the green button that said START.

“Hey!” yelled the man. “What's going on? Let me out!”

But the three vampires just smiled and waved.

“Have a nice trip,” called Lee, as car number eight swung into the air. The man was shouting some
very
rude words, but they grew fainter and fainter as he rose higher and higher.

When car number eight reached the top of the Ferris wheel, Bella pressed the red STOP button.

“Good,” said Lee. “That'll serve him right for cheating people. We'll let him out in half an hour!”

As they left the Ferris wheel, Lee hung a sign on the entrance. It said CLOSED FOR REPAIRS.

“Sorry,” Lee said to the waiting Fangless people. “Come back later!”

Chapter 4

Mirror Malarkey

The three vampires wandered around the fair. They bought cotton candy and ice cream, rode on the roller coaster, and guessed the weight of a large pig. They also bumped into Lee's werewolf friend Ollie Talbot and his big brother Claude. Ollie and Claude went to Chaney Street Elementary School.

“How come there's no school tonight?” asked Lee.

“It's a blue moon,” said Ollie. “We get a night's holiday.”

Ollie and Claude were both in human form so as not to terrify Fangless folk. Apart from their hairy hands they looked just like normal children.

“We're going for a raw burger,” said Ollie. “Coming?”

“No thanks,” said Lee. “We just had ice cream. We're heading for the hall of mirrors.”

“Okay,” said Ollie. “Been on the ghost train yet?”

“No,” said Lee. “Maybe we'll see you there. Fangless ghost trains are always good for a laugh. They're so unscary!”

Lee, Bella, and Billy had great fun in the hall of mirrors —until Bella stood next to a Fangless boy who was laughing at his weird reflection in a wobbly mirror.

“Tee-hee!” she chuckled along with him. “You look like a zombie in that mirror!”

The boy stared at Bella, then at the mirror, then at Bella again. He stopped laughing and his mouth fell open.

“What's wrong?” she asked. Then she realized. She had forgotten to turn her reflection on!

“Oh,” she said. “Silly me! Hang on.”

With a
ZZZIP!
Bella's very wide, wobbly reflection suddenly appeared in the mirror. The boy gaped even more.

“H-h-how d-d-d-id you d-d.d-d-o that?” he stammered.

“Oh, it's easy,” said Bella. “We learn it at vampire school.” She smiled sweetly, showing him her long fangs.

“AAAAAARGGGGH!” screamed the boy. “Mom! Dad! HEEEEEELP!” And he shot out of the hall of mirrors faster than you can say
Transylvania
.

“What's up with him?” asked Lee.

“I'm not sure,” said Bella. “I think it was something I said. Maybe we'd better go.”

“Yes,” said Billy, looking at his watch. “We've only got another hour and we haven't been on the ghost train yet.”

“Yikes!” said Lee. “
And
we've got Miss Gargoyle's worksheet to fill in.”

“Yes,” said Bella. “We'd better do that first.”

The three vampires walked to the ruined castle. But when they got there they found the gates chained shut and a big sign that said: