The Curse of the Creeping Coffin Read online

  BEWARE!!

  DO NOT READ THIS

  BOOK FROM

  BEGINNING TO END!

  You can’t believe it! You stare out the window at the creepy cemetery in your grandmother’s backyard. The graves are moving! You’re sure of it. Then you turn to see an even more frightening sight — your grandmother’s house is haunted by ghosts. Lots of ghosts. Evil ghosts who want you!

  Why are the creeping coffins creeping? Do you stay to find out or do you race home — even though a terrifying ghost is waiting for you there, too?

  If you stay you discover that the coffins are spelling a message in the graveyard — a message that spells out your doom. Unless you can find the ghost who is the Keeper of the Sword, steal the sword, and plunge it into the grave of the MPG! What’s an MPG? You’ll have to find out for yourself — but hurry, the ghosts are moving closer and closer….

  You’re in control of this scary adventure. You decide what will happen. And how terrifying the scares will be!

  Start on PAGE 1. Then follow the instructions at the bottom of each page. You make the choices.

  SO TAKE A DEEP BREATH. CROSS YOUR FINGERS. AND TURN TO PAGE 1 NOW TO GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS!

  Contents

  Beware!!

  Title Page

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

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  11

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  Teaser

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  “I’m bored,” you moan. “I’m so bored, I could eat flies. Just to see how they taste.”

  “Flies have germs,” your grandmother replies.

  It is a hot, sticky day in the middle of July. You plop down into a creaky old chair in your grandmother’s kitchen. Your parents dropped you off yesterday, before they left for their vacation. And already you could die of boredom.

  Your grandmother’s old dog, Sparkle, yawns loudly. He crawls under the table. Moments later, he begins to snore.

  “I know just how you feel, Sparkle,” you say. You sigh loudly.

  “Why don’t you go outside and find something to do?” your grandmother suggests. She looks up from the pie she’s baking and nods toward the backyard.

  Go out there? you think. Into her backyard? No way.

  You glance out the window. It’s probably ninety degrees in the shade, but you shiver. Your grandmother’s house is right in front of an old cemetery. Rows and rows of old, crumbling tombstones sit just beyond the edge of her backyard.

  But that’s not what scares you.

  What scares you is that the tombstones have been moving!

  Go on to PAGE 2.

  You noticed it right after you arrived yesterday.

  You saw the tombstones from your bedroom window on the second floor. You could tell some of the graves had cool carvings on them, so you decided to go outside and take a closer look.

  But when you entered the graveyard, something was different. Strange.

  Some of the graves were out of place.

  Nah, can’t be, you told yourself. Graves don’t disappear.

  But still …

  From your bedroom window, you could have sworn there were six or seven graves in the back row.

  Now there were only three!

  Nah…. You must have counted wrong. You decided to forget it and went to bed.

  But when you woke up this morning and glanced out the window, the coffins had moved again.

  Now there were ten in the back row! And the middle rows seemed more crowded. It almost looked as if some of the graves were moving forward and some of the graves were moving backward, and there was a big traffic jam in the center.

  The coffins were rearranging themselves!

  But how? And why?

  Go on to PAGE 3.

  Your grandmother taps you on the shoulder. She snaps you out of your daydream. “Go on,” she says. “Go play outside.”

  Outside? Out there? You shudder as you glance out the kitchen window again. “Oh, no,” you cry. “It’s disappeared!”

  “What’s disappeared?” your grandmother asks.

  “The grave with the angel on it!” you screech, pointing out the window. “It’s gone!”

  One headstone in particular caught your eye yesterday. It had an angel carving on it. The angel looked so realistic you practically believed she could fly away.

  Did she?

  Your grandmother peers out the kitchen window. “Don’t be a goose,” she scolds you. “That tombstone is still there.”

  You don’t answer her. You can’t. Your heart is pounding crazily and your mouth has gone dry. You bolt out the back door. You’ve got to see for yourself.

  But in the graveyard you discover that your grandmother is right. The tombstone with the angel isn’t gone.

  It just moved!

  It had been in the last row. Now it’s up front.

  I’m losing my mind, you think. Losing it completely.

  Or are you?

  Find out on PAGE 4.

  You run back into the house shouting.

  “Grandma!” you yell. “That grave with the angel on it —”

  Your grandmother interrupts you. “You d
on’t have to shout, dear. The angel?” She looks up from her pie crust. “That’s a nice one. Let me see. Who was buried there? Oh, yes. That’s Elmyra Martin’s grave.”

  Before you can explain about the moving gravestones, a voice on the far side of the room makes you jump. “The name is Elvira Martin,” the voice says sharply. “Not Elmyra. You never could get my name right!”

  Your mouth drops open. A strange woman now stands in the doorway that leads from the kitchen into the hall.

  A very strange woman. Because she isn’t a living, breathing woman. She’s a ghost!

  “Uh, Grandma … ?” you begin. But from the way your granny is humming to herself, you can tell she doesn’t hear or see this scary visitor.

  “And don’t you stare at me, you little wretch,” the ghost says, pointing at you. “Or you’ll be sorry.”

  What are you going to do? Suddenly you’re living in a haunted house!

  If you run outside, turn to PAGE 18.

  If you talk to the ghost, turn to PAGE 25.

  To your amazement, it works! The horse grows smaller.

  Hey — cool!

  You push the volume button down again. Like magic, the ghost-horse grows even smaller.

  “Wow!” you shout. You start pushing other buttons on the TV remote control. You can hardly wait to see what will happen!

  Unbelievably, when you press the CHANNEL button — the one that moves up to the next channel — the ghost-horse changes into something else! A ghostly kung-fu master!

  When you press the button again, the kung-fu ghost changes into the ghost of an Egyptian pharaoh.

  “This is amazing!” you exclaim.

  Then you press it one more time.

  Uh-oh. Big mistake.

  Turn to PAGE 129.

  You turn and run from Lark. But he’s gaining on you. And his friends have joined in the chase.

  “Let’s get those little creeps!” Lark’s friends are shouting.

  You and Robin are skidding around a corner when you hear a voice whisper in your ear. “I’ll help you — on one condition. You have to promise to do whatever I ask tomorrow.”

  It’s the ghost-boy! You can’t see him, but you heard his offer. What are you going to do?

  If you accept the ghost’s offer, turn to PAGE 52.

  If not, turn to PAGE 59.

  Yuck! Everything in the bucket spills all over your hair, head, face, shoulders, and shirt.

  Raw eggs. Warm soda. Sour milk. Bread crumbs. It’s disgusting.

  Some used tissues are mixed in there, too.

  “What did you do that for?” you yell angrily.

  “You saw the sign,” Digger replies. “No trespassers. That means you.”

  What a creep! you think. Digger is a total, certified jerk.

  In other words, he’s just what you need to deal with this ghost!

  So what are you going to do? Keep climbing — and take your chances with Digger? Or face the ghost alone?

  If you keep climbing, turn to PAGE 11.

  If you face the ghost alone, turn to PAGE 38.

  The Luckmeyer twins? What are they up to now? you wonder.

  As MacFarling drives off, you notice that the sky is growing dark. Night is falling and there’s a thin wispy ring of clouds around the moon.

  An owl hoots nearby. Then it swoops toward you! Its claws seem to be aimed right for your face!

  You duck — and feel the tip of its wing brush past your cheek. When you glance up, you notice a curtain moving in a window on the second floor of your grandmother’s house.

  There they are! That teenage ghost and his twin sister with the braids wrapped around her head — Jane and John Luckmeyer! John points down at you and laughs evilly.

  I hope he’s not the Keeper of the Sword, you think.

  Then you notice something strange up in the attic window. A light flickers on and off. On and off. Someone is up there. Is it the Keeper of the Sword?

  There’s only one way to find out. You take a deep breath and head toward the house. The haunted house.

  If you think John Luckmeyer is the Keeper of the Sword, turn to PAGE 88.

  If you think the Keeper of the Sword is hiding in the attic, turn to PAGE 102.

  When the dust settles, you are stunned by what you see. Glory, the ghost stallion, has doubled in size!

  And he was already a big horse.

  “Neat trick,” your grandmother says. “That’s quite a gadget.” She gets up and heads for the kitchen. “I’m going for a soda,” she tells you. “Want one?”

  “N-n-no th-thanks,” you stammer. You stare at Glory. The giant horse towers over you, pawing the rug.

  “What button did you push?” you shout to your grandmother.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she calls back. “I think it was the one that turns up the sound.”

  Okay, you think. Maybe if I turn the sound down …

  Your finger hovers over the volume button. You hesitate. What if pushing the button will make the horse bigger? What if more ghost-horses appear?

  Got a better idea?

  You push the volume button. Down.

  Push the button on PAGE 5.

  You don’t exactly feel like practicing the piano right now. But you decide to be nice to this old woman. You go with her, and she leads you to a fancy old grand piano.

  She sits you down and turns on a metronome.

  TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK.

  “Now play a G-major scale for me,” she says.

  For the next half hour, you take a piano lesson. With a ghost! When you’re done, Mrs. Hatfield smiles.

  “Remember how I always used to give you a treat at the end of your lesson?” she says. “Well, I have a treat for you now.”

  “What’s this?” you ask as she hands you a piece of paper.

  “It’s a map of my backyard,” she says. “You see, I buried a lot of gold out under the apple tree. And I forgot to mention it in my will. So no one knows it’s there. I want you to have it — as a reward for being so nice to me today. For letting me give you a piano lesson one more time.”

  “Uh, bu-duh … but … wow, thanks!” you mumble like an idiot.

  Then it hits you. What good will the gold do you — if you’re a ghost?

  Turn to PAGE 123.

  You climb the last steps of the ladder. You reach the tree house platform and pull yourself onto it.

  “You don’t give up, do you?” Digger says, sounding mildly impressed.

  “Never,” you say, trying to sound determined and tough.

  Digger brushes his long, greasy brown hair out of his eyes. He’s a thick, chunky kid with bad teeth and worse skin.

  “So what do you want?” Digger asks you.

  “A towel, for one thing,” you say, wiping off some of the yucky gunk he dumped on your head.

  Digger throws you a rag. You try to clean yourself up. Then you look Digger in the eyes.

  “I need your help,” you tell him. “There’s a ghost who’s following me around.”

  “A ghost?” Digger says. His face turns white and he looks around nervously. “Where?”

  “I don’t know,” you admit. “He could be back at my house. Or he could be right here.”

  “Here?” Digger cries.

  Go to PAGE 29.

  You decide to trust this guy. He’s a little weird looking, but he seems harmless. Even if he is a ghost.

  “I’m John,” the boy says. “You’ve got to get away from here. That closet is filled with horrible spirits. Quick — close the door and hide in the basement!”

  You do as he says, slamming the closet door hard. Then you run down the stairs to the kitchen. Then into the basement.

  Why down here? you wonder, as you look around at the damp, grungy old basement beneath your grandmother’s house.

  You’ve never liked this place. It’s cold. It’s dark. But even worse are the big, ugly crickets. They get in from outside through cracks in the basement walls. Then they hop all over
the basement.

  You hate them.

  “Uh, how come we have to hide down here?” you ask.

  That’s when you realize that John isn’t with you.

  “John?” you call.

  BAM! You whirl around and see the basement door slam shut. CLICK. And lock.

  That ghost has locked you in!

  Turn to PAGE 20.

  Today is Friday.

  So you think it’s your lucky day, huh? You think the caretaker is going to come and get you out of that coffin?

  Think again. Today is Friday the 13th!

  If you don’t believe it, just look at the page number!

  Sure, the caretaker comes. But he has an ear infection. He can’t hear you screaming. And by the time he comes again next week, you’re not screaming anymore.

  Sorry. Guess this wasn’t your lucky day after all!

  THE END

  Congratulations! You picked the right Sarah. Sarah McGinnis. Born in 1918. Died in 1940, at the age of twenty-two.

  You knew she was the right one — because the fencing ghost was a young beauty. So she must have died young. The other Sarah in the graveyard lived to be seventy-five years old.

  Very clever of you to figure it out!

  Suddenly, you hear her voice. It fills your ears. “I am the Keeper of the Sword,” she calls to you from her grave. “Let my foil do the work. Let go!”

  Let go? Weird, you think. But you do it.

  As soon as the foil leaves your hand, it floats in midair. Then it plunges itself deeply into the earth.

  Into Brandon Estep’s grave!

  “Aaaaahhh!” the ghost cries. His shimmering body begins to fade — and then disappears back into the earth.

  Your eyes open wide and your mouth drops open as you gaze at an amazing sight. The coffins are creeping again — back to their original positions! You did it! The curse has been defeated!

  But there’s only one problem. Brandon’s ghostly body is gone — but his iron fist is still clutching your arm!

  Turn to PAGE 86.

  “Turn off that stupid light,” Elvira screams. “I’m trying to get some sleep!”

  “Sorry!” You quickly flick off the light. But you don’t have any trouble seeing Elvira. She glows in the dark.

  “I have to ask you something,” you tell her.