The Third Horror (10 page)
Authors: R.L. Stine
Tags: #American, #Children's stories, #General, #Ghosts, #Horror & Ghost Stories, #Horror stories, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Paranormal, #Young Adult Fiction
"You tricked me!" Kody screeched at her sister. "You betrayed me!"
Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men moved nearer, circling Kody, their faces set, their eyes narrowed, cold and menacing.
"Cally—I'm your sister! Your twin! How could you?" Kody shrieked, so frightened she didn't recognize her own voice.
Cally's face remained blank and uncaring. "I wouldn't betray you," she replied softly. "You showed me the truth. Run to the stairs, Kody. Run now! I will protect you from them."
Kody gasped as Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men moved closer. Was this just a trick? Or was Cally really going to protect her, to save her?
"Run!" Cally screamed.
Kody began backing toward the stairs, her eyes on the three people.
"Hurry! Run!" Cally urged.
But Kody stopped and stared in horror as Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men began to change.
Their skin bubbled and blistered, darkening to a splotchy gray. Short, stubbly hair sprouted all over their faces and hands.
Slowly, their faces stretched. Their noses lengthened into dark, hairy snouts. Sticky white whiskers twitched over jagged yellow teeth. Snakelike red tongues flicked over the gnarled teeth. Their wet eyes shriveled behind the twitching snouts to black marbles.
Kody gaped in shock as the three figures shrank and their clothing fell away.
Out from under the clothing darted three plump gray rats.
Scuttling out from her skirt, Mrs. Nordstrom hissed at Kody and raised her rat claws menacingly.
Mr. Lurie snapped his long, pink tail behind him. A line of drool fell from Mr. Hankers's snarling mouth as he scratched the gray fur of his belly with both claws.
"No!" Kody cried in a trembling, weak voice. "No! You—you can't be—!"
She backed to the stairs, her eyes wide in terror and disbelief.
Rats. They're rats. All three of them.
Mrs. Nordstrom bared her teeth and, with a shrill hiss, leaped at Kody's ankle.
Kody cried out and kicked the plump rat hard. Her sneaker made a soft plop as it collided with the hissing rat, sending it sprawling on its back beside its two snarling companions.
"Run, Kody! Run!" Cally was screaming.
And as she backed toward the stairs, Kody saw more rats slithering out into the basemxcnt.
From behind the furnace, from behind the crates of explosives, from holes in the walls and cracks in the floor, the rats—dozens and dozens of them—crept out.
Screeching and hissing, sweeping their hairless pink tails behind them, rats blanketed the floor, a sea of gnarled teeth and glowing eyes.
Struggling to move her trembling legs, Kody grabbed the railing and pulled herself onto the first step.
"Hurry!" Cally urged, moving toward the explosives detonator. "Kody—hurry!"
The floor appeared to seethe and toss. So many gray bodies rushing forward, screeching and hissing and snapping their jaws.
"But wh-what about you?" Kody stammered.
"I'm dead!" came Cally's heartbreaking reply.
The screeching of the rats drowned out Kody's sob.
The rats suddenly swept forward, hissing and whistling. Their claws thrashed the air as they scuttled to the stairs.
"Ow!" Kody shrieked as a rat scratched its claw against her leg. A thousand eyes glared hungrily, moving toward her.
Taking one last look at her sister, she turned and forced her legs to carry her up the stairs.
Into the hallway, the screeching, the hissing, the sound of scrabbling feet following her, driving her forward, making her run.
Past the dark living room. Out the front door.
Into the darkness of the front yard.
Running across the grass. Gasping for air. The horrifying sounds of the rats lingering in her ears.
Kody was halfway to the street when the force of the explosion threw her to the ground.
"Ohhhhh." Landing hard on her knees and elbows, she let out a groan.
The ground shook. She turned back to the house in time to see the blinding white burst.
As bright as the sun.
I can't see! Kody thought.
And then the white darkened to scarlet.
A roar louder than thunder made her cover her ears.
The roof shot up, shattering as it flew, rising above the dark trees. And then a wall of flame rose over the house. A roaring tidal wave of fire.
"Noooooooo!"
Kody couldn't hear her own terrified wail over the crackling thunder of the blaze.
Squinting into the fiery red brightness, she began to see dark shapes. Rat bodies, thrashing wildly, flying helplessly in the raging flames. Hundreds of rats,
shooting skyward in the fire, sizzling, burning as they flew.
Kody felt her stomach heave, felt the disgust rise up in her. But she couldn't take her eyes away from the fiery sky, from the charred black rat bodies that flew over the roaring flames.
And then human forms twisted up in the fire. Black shadows. The dark, tortured spirits of those buried under the house. Men and women, wailing and howling, thrashing in the flames as they rose higher, higher, and disappeared into the starless black sky.
Kody cried out as a wall crashed to the ground. Red embers shot out in all directions.
Gripped with horror, she stared. Stared as the mournful howls faded into the roar of the flames. Stared as the tortured bodies twisted up into the smoke-blackened sky.
Stared as the wall of flames swallowed the house, consuming the evil, burning it all away.
On her knees on the cool, soft grass, Kody stared into the flames, letting the heat of the fire dry her tears.
"Fm sorry, Cally," she murmured softly. "Fm so sorry. Fm so sorry. . . .
"Fm sorry I didn*t get a chance to say goodbye."
"What's up with you? Don't you ever want to go out?" Rob asked.
Kody crossed the room and sat down across from him on the small, matching white leather armchair. *The police called again this morning. It's been weeks since the explosion, and they still can't figure out what happened. Everyone had a different story, and one version is stranger than the next. And they still have trouble believing that it was Cally, not me, who did all those horrible things."
Kody sighed. ''Fortunately, they're going to drop it. Of course, I'll still have to go for therapy twice a week. But I'm glad no one is pressing charges."
"Yeah," agreed Rob. "I just want to forget the whole thing."
"Me too. Anyway, I just feel like staying in. My parents are out for the night. I ordered a pizza."
Rob made a face. "Pizza again?"
"I like pizza," Kody insisted. "What can I say? I have simple tastes."
"You miist have simple tastes. You're going out with me!" Rob joked.
It was three weeks after the fire that had destroyed 99 Fear Street—and put an end to the movie production.
Back in her parents' apartment in Los Angeles, Kody remained dazed by all that had happened. But Rob had been coming over nearly every day. He had managed to get her to smile and laugh again and feel almost normal.
"I auditioned for a commercial this afternoon," he told her.
"That's great!" Kody replied enthusiastically.
"It's for another dog food. But this time I don't have to bark," Rob told her.
They both laughed.
The doorbell rang.
"That's the pizza," Kody told him, climbing to her feet. "Get the door. I'll go get some Cokes."
Kody hurried to the kitchen and pulled two cans of Coke from the refrigerator. When she returned to the living room, she was surprised to see Rob holding a large brown envelope.
"Not the pizza," he said. He removed a videocas-
sette from the envelope. A note was taped to the box. Kody pulled it off and read it: Here's a collector's item for you, Kody. It's the only film that was shot at 99 Fear Street. Talk about a big finish!
Better luck to us all!
Sam McCarthy
"Who's McCarthy?" Rob asked, leaning over her shoulder to read the note.
"You remember," Kody said softly. "He was the associate producer. You know. His hand—it was mangled in the garbage disposal."
Rob nodded, then slov/ly pulled the tape from the box. "Do you want to see it? Maybe we shouldn't. It might upset you."
Kody stared at the tape thoughtfully. "Put it on," she instructed him. "If it starts to get upsetting, we'll turn it off."
Rob crossed the room to the video player. He clicked on the TV, then pushed the cassette into the VCR. Then he sat down beside Kody on the couch to watch.
The screen was gray for a while. There was no sound.
Then the screen suddenly blazed with color. Bright flashes of red and yellow.
"It—it's the fire!" Kody exclaimed, leaning closer to the screen. "I don't believe it, Rob! Somebody
filmed the fire! They must have been shooting exterior shots for the end!"
"Look—there goes a wall!" Rob cried.
The red glare of the TV screen reflected off their faces as they leaned forward to see better.
The camera slid closer. The screen seemed to glow with bright white light.
"Oh!" Kody let out a low cry as the faded image of a girl appeared inside the light, her features too faint to recognize.
"Who is that?" Rob cried. "Was someone caught in the fire?"
Kody rested her hand on his, but didn't reply. Her entire body tensed as she leaned toward the screen.
The girl in the fire raised one hand and waved it. A long, slow, sad wave.
"I don't get it. What is that?" Rob asked impatiently.
Kody squeezed his hand. She let the tears roll down her cheeks.
"That's my sister saying goodbye."
About the Author
"Where do you get your ideas?"
That's the question that R. L. Stine is asked most often. "I don't know where my ideas come from," he says. "But I do know that I have a lot more scary stories in my mind that I can't wait to write."
So far, he has written more than fifty mysteries and thrillers for young people, all of them bestsellers.
Bob grew up in Columbus, Ohio. Today he lives in an apartment near Central Park in New York City with his wife, Jane, and fourteen-year-old son. Matt.