The Haunted Mask II (2 page)

Chuck and I took bets on who could scare Carly Beth the most and who could
make her scream. I guess it was kind of mean. But it was funny too.

And sometimes when you know that people are real easy to scare, you have no
choice. You
have
to scare them as often as you can.

Anyway, that all changed last Halloween.

Last Halloween Chuck and I had a horrible scare. Carly Beth wore the most
frightening mask I had ever seen. It wasn’t a mask. It was like a living face.

It was so ugly, so real. It glared at us with evil, living eyes. Its mouth
sneered at us with real lips. The skin glowed a sick green. And Carly Beth’s
normally soft voice burst out in a terrifying animal growl.

Chuck and I ran for our lives.

No joke. We were terrified.

We ran for blocks, screaming the whole way. It was the worst night of my
life.

Everything changed after that.

Nearly a whole year has gone by, and we haven’t tried to scare Carly Beth
once. I don’t think Carly Beth
can
be scared. Not anymore.

After last Halloween, I don’t think anything scares her.

She is totally fearless. I haven’t heard her shriek or scream once the entire
year.

So I didn’t want to try to scare her now. I needed to talk to her. About that
scary mask of hers.

But Chuck kept pressing me back against the tree trunk. “Come on, Steve,” he
whispered. “They don’t see us. We’ll duck down behind the hedges and get ahead
of them. Then when they come by, we’ll jump out and grab them.”

“I don’t really—” I started. But I could see that Chuck had his heart set on
scaring Carly Beth and Sabrina. So I let him pull me down out of sight.

A light rain had started to fall. The gusting wind blew the raindrops into my
face. I crept along the hedge, bent low, following Chuck.

We passed by the girls and kept moving. I could hear Sabrina’s laugh behind
us. I heard Carly Beth say something else. Then Sabrina laughed again.

I wondered what they were talking about. I stopped to glance through the
hedge. Carly Beth had a weird expression on her face. Her dark eyes stared
straight ahead. She was moving stiffly. She had the collar of her blue down
jacket pulled up high around her face.

I ducked down low again as the girls came closer. I turned and saw that Chuck
and I were standing on the wide front lawn of the old Carpenter mansion.

I felt a chill as I stared across the weed-choked lawn at the gloomy old
house, covered in a deep darkness. Everyone said that the house was haunted—haunted by people who had been murdered inside it a hundred years ago.

I don’t believe in ghosts. But I don’t like standing so close to the creepy
old Carpenter mansion, either.

I pulled Chuck into the empty lot next door. Rain pattered the ground. I
wiped raindrops off my eyebrows.

Carly Beth and Sabrina were only a few yards away. I could hear Sabrina
talking excitedly about something. But I couldn’t make out her words.

Chuck turned to me, an evil grin spreading across his face. “Ready?” he
whispered. “Let’s get ’em!”

We leaped to our feet. Then we both jumped out, screaming at the top of our
lungs.

Sabrina gasped in shock. Her mouth dropped to her knees. Her hands flew up in
the air.

Carly Beth stared at me.

Then her head tilted against the blue jacket collar—tilted and fell.

Her head fell off her shoulders.

It dropped to the ground and bounced onto the grass.

Sabrina lowered her eyes to the ground. She gaped at Carly Beth’s fallen head
in disbelief.

Then Sabrina’s hands began to flail the air crazily. She opened her mouth in
a scream of horror. And screamed and screamed and screamed.

I swallowed hard. My knees started to buckle.

Carly Beth’s head stared up at me from the grass. Sabrina’s shrieks rang in
my ears.

And then I heard soft laughter. Laughter from inside Carly Beth’s jacket.

I saw a clump of brown hair poke up through the raised collar. And then Carly
Beth’s laughing face shot up from under the jacket.

Sabrina stopped her wild cries and started to laugh.

“Gotcha!” Carly Beth cried. She and Sabrina fell all over each other,
laughing like lunatics.

“Oh, wow,” Chuck groaned.

My knees were still shaking. I don’t think I had taken a breath the whole
time.

I bent down and picked up Carly Beth’s head. Some kind of dummy head. A
sculpture, I guess. I rolled it around between my hands. It was amazing. It
looked just like her.

“It’s plaster of Paris,” Carly Beth explained, grabbing it away from me. “My mom made it.”

“But—it’s so real-looking!” I choked out.

She grinned. “Mom is getting pretty good. She keeps doing my head over and
over. This is one of her best.”

“It’s okay. But it didn’t fool us,” Chuck said.

“Yeah. We knew it was a fake,” I quickly agreed. But my voice cracked when I
said it. I was still kind of in shock.

Sabrina shook her head. Her black ponytail waved behind her. Sabrina is very
tall, taller than Chuck and me. Carly Beth is a shrimp. She only comes up to
Sabrina’s shoulder.

“You should have seen the looks on your faces!” Sabrina exclaimed. “I thought
your
heads were going to fall off!”

The two girls hugged each other again and had another good laugh.

“We saw you a mile away,” Carly Beth said, twirling the head in her hands.
“Luckily, I brought this head in to show off in art class today. So I pulled my
jacket over my head, and Sabrina tucked the plaster head into the collar.”

“You guys scare pretty easy,” Sabrina smirked.

“We
weren’t
scared. Really,” Chuck insisted. “We were just playing
along.”

I wanted to change the subject. The girls would talk all day and night about
how dumb Chuck and I were. If we let them. I didn’t want to let them.

The rain kept pattering down, blown by the gusting wind. I shivered. We were all getting pretty wet.

“Carly Beth, you know that mask you wore last Halloween? Where did you get
it?” I asked. I tried to sound casual. I didn’t want her to think it was any big
deal.

She hugged her plaster head against the front of her jacket. “Huh? What
mask?”

I groaned. She is such a jerk sometimes!

“Remember that really scary mask you had last Halloween? Where did you get
it?”

She and Sabrina exchanged glances. Then Carly Beth said, “I don’t remember.”

“Give me a break!” I groaned.

“No. Really—” she insisted.

“You remember,” Chuck told her. “You just don’t want to tell.”

I knew why Carly Beth didn’t want to tell. She was probably planning to get
another truly terrifying mask at the same store for this Halloween. She wanted
to be the scariest kid in town. She didn’t want me to be scary too.

I turned to Sabrina. “Do you know where she bought that mask?”

Sabrina made a zipper motion over her lips. “I’m not telling, Steve.”

“You don’t want to know,” Carly Beth declared, still hugging the head. “That
mask was
too
frightening.”

“You just want to be scarier than me,” I replied angrily. “But
I need a really scary mask this year, Carly Beth. There are
some kids I want to scare and—”

“I’m serious, Steve,” Carly Beth interrupted. “There was something totally
weird about the mask. It wasn’t just a mask. It came alive. It clamped onto my
head, and I couldn’t get it off. The mask was haunted or something.”

“Ha-ha,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“She’s telling the truth!” Sabrina cried, narrowing her dark eyes at me.

“The mask was evil,” Carly Beth continued. “It started giving me orders. It
started talking all by itself, in a horrible, harsh growl. I couldn’t control
it. And I couldn’t get it off. It was attached to my head! I—I was so scared!”

“Oh, wow,” Chuck murmured, shaking his head. “You’ve got a good imagination,
Carly Beth.”

“Good story,” I agreed. “Save it for English class.”

“But it’s the
truth!”
Carly Beth cried.

“You just don’t want me to be scary,” I grumbled. “But I need a good, scary
mask like that one. Come on,” I begged. “Tell.”

“Tell us,” Chuck insisted.

“Tell,” I repeated, trying to sound tough.

“No way,” Carly Beth replied, shaking her fake round, little head. “Let’s get
home. It’s really raining hard.”

“Not till you tell!” I cried. I stepped in front of her to block her path.

“Grab the head!” Chuck cried.

I grabbed the plaster head from Carly Beth’s hands.

“Give it back!” she shrieked. She swiped at it, but I swung it out of her
reach. Then I tossed it to Chuck.

He backed away. Sabrina chased after him. “Give that back to her!”

“We’ll give it back when you tell us where you bought that mask!” I told
Carly Beth.

“No way!” she cried.

Chuck tossed the head to me. Carly Beth made a wild grab for it. But I caught
it and heaved it back to Chuck.

“Give it back! Come on!” Carly Beth cried, running after Chuck. “My mom made
that. If it gets messed up, she’ll
kill
me!”

“Then tell me where you bought the mask!” I insisted.

Chuck tossed the head to me. Sabrina jumped up and batted it down. She made a
wild dive for it, but I got there first. I picked it up off the grass and heaved
it back to Chuck.

“Stop it! Give it back!”

Both girls were screaming angrily. But Chuck and I kept up our game of
keep-away.

Carly Beth made a frantic leap for the head and fell on her stomach onto the
grass. When she stood up, the front of her jacket and her jeans were soaked, and she had grass
stains on her forehead.

“Tell!” I insisted, holding the head high in the air. “Tell, and you can have
the head back!”

She growled at me.

“Okay,” I warned her. “I guess I have to drop-kick it onto that roof.”

I turned toward the house at the top of the lawn. Then I held the head in
front of me in both hands and pretended I was going to punt it onto the roof.

“Okay, okay!” Carly Beth cried. “Don’t kick it, Steve.”

I kept the head in front of me. “Where did you get the mask?”

“You know that weird little party store a couple of blocks from school?”

I nodded. I had seen the store, but I had never gone in.

“That’s where I bought it. There’s a back room. It was filled with weird,
ugly masks. That’s where I got mine.”

“All right!” I cried happily. I handed Carly Beth back her head.

“You guys are creeps,” Sabrina muttered, pulling her collar up against the
rain. She pushed me out of the way and wiped the grass stain off Carly Beth’s
forehead.

“I really didn’t want to tell you,” Carly Beth moaned. “I wasn’t making that
story up about the mask. It was so terrifying.”

“Yeah. Sure.” I rolled my eyes again.

“Please, don’t go there!” Carly Beth begged. She grabbed my arm tightly.
“Please, Steve. Please, don’t go to that party store!”

I pulled my arm away. I narrowed my eyes at her. And I laughed.

Too bad I didn’t take her seriously.

Too bad I didn’t listen to her.

It might have saved me from a night of endless horror.

“Get off me! Get off me, Marnie! I
mean
it!” I shouted.

The little redheaded pest hung onto my back, laughing and digging her pudgy
fingers into my neck. Why did she think I was some kind of thrill ride?

“Get off! This is my good sweater!” I cried. “If you wreck it—”

She laughed even harder.

It had rained all night and all morning. But the clouds had parted at
lunchtime. Now the sky was blue and clear. I had no choice. I had to hold soccer
practice for the Hogs.

Across the playground, I saw Duck Benton fighting with Andrew Foster. Andrew
picked up the soccer ball and heaved it with all his might into Duck’s stomach.

Duck’s mouth shot open. He let out a whoosh of breath, and a huge wad of
bubblegum went flying into the air.

“Get off!” I pleaded with Marnie. I tried spinning and twirling as fast as I
could, trying to throw her off my back. I knew if anything happened to this
sweater, Mom would have a fit.

You might ask why I was wearing my best, blue wool sweater to soccer
practice. Good question.

The answer is: It was Class Photo Day. And Mom wanted me to take a really
good picture to send to all my aunts and uncles. She made me wear the sweater.
And she made me shampoo my hair before school and not wear my Orlando Magic cap
over it.

So I looked like a jerk all day. And now, here was soccer practice. And I had
forgotten to bring a sweatshirt or something to replace my good sweater.

“Whoooooa!”
Marnie gave me a final kick in the side as she hopped off my
back.

I pulled down my sweater, hoping it wasn’t stretched too badly. I heard angry
shouts and glanced up to find Andrew and Duck swinging their fists at each other
and butting heads across the field.

I reached for my whistle.

And grabbed air.

Marnie had swiped it. She held it high above her head and ran, laughing, over
the grass.

“Hey, you—!” I screamed, chasing after the little thief.

I took three steps—and my sneakers slid in the mud. My feet flew out from under me. With an angry cry, I fell forward.
And landed on my stomach in deep, wet mud.

“Noooooo!” I let out a howl of dread. “Please. Nooooo!”

But when I pulled myself up, the mud came with me. My entire body was caked
in thick, wet mud. My beautiful blue sweater? It was now an ugly
brown
sweater.

With a sad groan, I sank back onto the ground. I just wanted to disappear, to
sink from sight into the big mud hole.

My faithful team, the Horrible Hogs, were laughing and hooting. They thought
it was a riot. Nice kids, huh?