The Cabinet of Souls Read online

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  INTRODUCTION BY R.L. STINE

  HALLOWEEN … LAST YEAR

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  EPILOGUE

  PHOTO INSERT

  COPYRIGHT

  MONSTERS ARE REAL.

  You may think they exist only in imagination and in your darkest dreams. But then how do you explain the howls in the woods behind your house late at night? Or the bloodred eyes peering through your bedroom window just as you’re about to fall asleep?

  Can you explain the strange paw prints in your garden? The shifting shadows behind you as you walk to school? The low growls you hear when you open the door to the basement?

  Yes, monsters are real. And if you pretend they don’t exist, you may pay a terrifying price.

  Take Beth, for example.

  She and her friend Kellen and their high school friends are excited when the traveling Hall of Horrors sets up in their little town of Danville. They can’t wait to be scared by the ghouls and zombies and ugly creatures that inhabit the hall. The owner, Dr. Hysteria, is quite a showman.

  Or maybe he isn’t. Maybe the show isn’t all in fun. Maybe Beth shouldn’t explore the back halls of Dr. Hysteria’s theater. Maybe she shouldn’t open the strange cabinet she finds in a hidden room.

  Beth and her friends should believe in monsters. They shouldn’t think that scares are always in fun.

  Beth is about to find out that she doesn’t live in Danville. Beth lives in … Monsterville.

  “TRICK OR TREAT! TRICK OR TREAT!”

  Little kids’ voices called from front porches along the streets of Federson Township. Ghosts and superheroes ran from house to house alongside bunnies and monsters.

  Nobody noticed the real monster walking down the street.

  The girl was about fifteen, with curly blonde hair. She wore a maroon hoodie with FEDERSON HIGH SCHOOL printed across the front. She was alone.

  She stopped by a jack-o’-lantern near the sidewalk. It wore a grin.

  She frowned.

  Raising her foot, she smashed the pumpkin. Once, twice, and again until it was nothing but orange pulp.

  The girl pulled her hood up over her head. When she looked up, wondering if anyone had seen her obliterate the smiling pumpkin, her eyes had changed. They were as green as a cat’s, and slitted.

  She wasn’t a cat.

  And she wasn’t a girl anymore, either.

  She raced between two houses and into the woods behind them. She stumbled, fell, and then kept running. Sometimes on two feet, sometimes on four. Her body wasn’t her own anymore. It belonged to someone else.

  To something else.

  When the change was complete, her cry of horror echoed through the night.

  She wasn’t a cat.

  She wasn’t a girl.

  She was a monster with pointed ears and a gremlin’s face.

  With a cry, she vanished into the night, trying to escape what she had become. But she feared there was no escape.

  Not ever.

  ONE YEAR LATER …

  Kellen Huston strolled along Danville’s main street. There were little white lights strung between the red and orange and yellow leaves in the trees.

  It was Danville’s harvest festival, and everyone in town had gone all out. Little kids were dressed in costumes of all sorts. A bumblebee and a cowgirl and a spaceman ran from shop to shop, looking up at the gruesome masks hung on racks waiting for older kids who might dare to put them on.

  The street had been transformed into a parade of booths. Food and crafts were for sale everywhere Kellen looked. The gazebo in the town square was decorated with pumpkins waiting to be lit as soon as the sun set. Mayor Smith had been the one and only judge for the pumpkin-carving contest. Unsurprisingly, the winning pumpkin looked more caring than scaring. Mayor Smith wasn’t what you’d call a risk taker.

  Kellen could understand that. He’d never been one to take a risk, either. He was the safe guy. The guy next door. The one who wasn’t ugly, but wasn’t really handsome, either.

  Not like Beth Hooper. She was beautiful. Her hair was blonde. Her eyes twinkled whenever he made her laugh.

  He was just Kellen. Good-old, safe Kellen … who was too scared to tell her how he really felt about her.

  Tonight, that was all going to change … he hoped.

  “Hey, Kellen!”

  He looked over his shoulder. It was Luke Brody, his best friend. Luke had a goofy sense of humor. Most of the time Kellen thought he was pretty funny, but not tonight. Tonight he wanted to see Beth. Where was she? She’d said she’d be here.

  “I got gummy bears and churros,” called Luke as he hurried to catch up with Kellen. He’d stuck four or five gummy bears into the churro he held.

  Luke was always hungry and always up for adventure—at least when it came to food. “Combo bite.”

  Kellen grimaced. “That’s gross.”

  “What’s so gross about it?” Luke asked, around a mouthful of churro. A gummy bear dribbled from his lower lip as he spoke.

  Kellen grinned. That was Luke for you.

  Kellen’s phone chirped. He pulled it out of his jacket and looked at the screen.

  Where are you guys?

  A text from Beth. Okay!

  “Who are you texting?” Luke asked, elbowing Kellen as he craned his neck to look at the screen.

  “Dude … ,” Kellen said, tilting his phone away.

  “What?”

  “Geez …” He walked away, texting his answer back to Beth. He wasn’t going to lose his nerve this time.

  Not again.

  Beth leaned against the sink in the ladies’ room and waited for a reply to her text. She didn’t have anything else to do while she waited for Nicole to finish putting on her makeup. Not that Nicole needed much. She was pretty, with long, black hair and a wide smile.

  Nicole worried about how she looked all the time. Sure, Beth liked to look good, but she wasn’t obsessed like Nicole. She liked to dress comfortably and casually, and she didn’t mess much with her blonde hair.

  Her phone buzzed. It was Kellen.

  At the candy apple stand.

  “Hurry up, Nicole. They’re waiting for us.” She typed a quick answer.

  Be there in two minutes.

  Nicole gave her one of those looks. The kind that said Nicole knew so much more than Beth did about the world—especially when it came to how boys think. “C’mon, Beth. You know it’s always better to make boys wait.”

  Beth rolled her eyes at Nicole. But it wasn’t worth arguing over, so she sent another text.

  Make that five minutes.

  Beth was psyched for the festival. She hoped something exciting would happen soon. Something more exciting than watching Nicole put on mascara … again. After all, it was only a few days until Halloween. Beth wanted something creepy. A good old-fashioned scarefest.

 
Beth sighed. What were the chances of that happening in Danville?

  KELLEN AND LUKE STOOD IN FRONT of the harvest festival’s dunk tank. Luke held three balls. He bounced one in his right hand, preparing to let it fly.

  Kellen edged back a step and looked around for Beth. Then he reminded himself that he’d better keep his eye on the ball … and Luke. Even when Luke aimed, the ball could land pretty much anywhere.

  Kellen had two candy apples held carefully in his hands. The first apple was decorated with orange candy and looked like a pumpkin. The other was a classic—complete with sugary, sticky red covering. He hoped Beth would say yes to one … and to a date with him.

  No chickening out tonight.

  He heard a cackle. A green-faced witch—Ms. Sarkosian, their history teacher—was perched on a stool above the tank. If anyone hit the target bull’s-eye to her left, that seat would collapse, dropping her into the water.

  “C’mon, spaghetti arm,” Ms. Sarkosian taunted. “Throw it.”

  Luke threw the ball. It went high, hitting the tarp behind the target.

  “I curse your lousy aim,” Ms. Sarkosian called in her witchiest voice.

  Kellen ignored her. He had more important matters on his mind.

  “Hey, listen …” He looked Luke in the eye. “When Beth gets here, maybe you can sort of not hang around for a little bit.”

  “What do you mean, ‘not hang around’? ” Luke asked.

  The witch called, “Throw the ball, bozo.”

  Luke threw again. And missed again.

  As Ms. Sarkosian cackled, Kellen gave Luke a get a clue look. “Dude …”

  “Are you kidding me?” Luke’s smile disappeared. For once, he was as serious as a stomachache.

  “What?”

  “You’ve been planning on making your move ever since Beth moved in next door. That was, like, ten years ago, right? But you chicken out every time.”

  Kellen frowned. “Maybe this time I won’t chicken out.”

  Luke gave him a look that said yeah, right. Then he looked back at the witch as she shouted, “Throw it before it hatches!”

  This time, Luke hit the target squarely. The stool dropped Ms. Sarkosian straight into the tank. She came up sputtering, her hat floating next to her. Her green face makeup dripped down her cheeks.

  She jammed her hat back on her head. “Bet you can’t do that again!” She shook a finger at him as she spit out a mouthful of water.

  “Sorry, Ms. Sarkosian,” Luke called.

  That was the moment Beth and Nicole emerged from the crowd. “Hey, guys,” Beth said, with the smile that made Kellen’s day.

  Luke grinned at Nicole, who looked gorgeous … as always. “Wassup?”

  But Nicole only had eyes for Kellen. “Hi, Kellen.”

  “Hi …” He looked at Beth and held out the orange candy apple. “I thought you might like this.”

  Beth took it with a laugh. “Oh, that’s so incredibly sweet of you. Thank you.”

  Nicole’s smile faded. “Is that one for me?” she asked.

  Kellen glanced at the other candy apple in his hand, the one he’d planned to eat while he and Beth talked. He didn’t want to hurt Nicole’s feelings.

  “Well … sure.” He held it out to her.

  Nicole didn’t take it. “I don’t eat sweets.”

  Now it was Kellen’s turn to be embarrassed. “Okay …”

  “I’ll take it,” Luke said, never one to let free food go to waste.

  “Fine. Here.” Kellen handed the candy apple to Luke as Nicole wandered off to look at some of the Halloween costumes for sale.

  Luke started to take a big bite. He stopped when Kellen motioned for him to go away.

  Luke finally got it. “I shall go and find the candy-apple eating area.”

  That left Kellen right where he wanted to be: with Beth. Just the two of them.

  All he had to do now was open his mouth and ask her to go out with him. Easy, right?

  He’d never been so nervous in his life.

  Beth wasn’t paying attention. She was laughing at Luke. He was such a goofy guy. She nibbled at the orange candy apple and looked back at Kellen. He was acting weird tonight. She was used to weird with Luke, but Kellen was usually a guy she could depend on.

  “I was … I was thinking, for Halloween,” Kellen said, “we could get a bunch of scary movies and do a marathon.”

  “That could be fun,” she replied. “I’ll start an event page. We could make it a party.”

  Kellen hesitated, his face going blank for a moment. That wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind.

  Then his smile returned. “Yeah … yeah …”

  Beth laughed.

  “What?” he asked.

  “This just reminded me. Do you remember when we were trick-or-treating—I think we were, like, seven—anyway, you were sitting on the curb and you were crying because this big kid stole your little pumpkin full of Halloween candy.”

  Kellen shook his head. “No, no, no. I was—”

  “You were crying!” She laughed.

  “I don’t think I was crying.”

  Luke heard Kellen’s voice raised in protest. He glanced back at him and Beth, and then ambled over to Nicole, who’d found a seat on a bench nearby. All by herself. She looked miserable.

  Luke sat beside her. “Sure you don’t want some?” he asked, holding out the candy apple.

  “No.” She said it with a half smile, but her eyes were sad.

  He had to do something. Something to make her laugh again. It was what he was good at.

  “It doesn’t bite,” he said, offering her the apple again.

  She didn’t take it. She was too busy looking at Beth and Kellen.

  “Look,” Beth ordered Kellen, showing him a picture on her phone. The screen showed a much younger Kellen sobbing and wiping tears off his cheek.

  “Great,” he said. “You’ve got a picture of me crying on your phone.”

  She giggled. “Yeah. My mom just scanned a bunch of old photos. Tons.”

  “I’m glad my humiliation has been preserved for the digital age.”

  She smiled and patted his arms. “Blackmail for days.”

  “Oh, gosh. I know. I know.”

  She looped her arm through his. Together, they started toward the town square.

  Just then, a terrified shout tore through the night. “Get it off! Get it off me!”

  “LUKE!” KELLEN SAID. “HE’S OVER there. What has he done to himself now?”

  Beth and Kellen pushed through a crowd in front of a hot dog stand.

  The shouts didn’t stop. “Get it off!”

  As they rounded the street corner, they saw what Luke was shouting about. Somehow he had stuck the candy apple to his hair and the side of his face. He was acting as if a black widow spider had crawled up his cheek.

  Nicole looked like she wanted to disappear. “Help me!” she mouthed.

  Beth shook her head and sighed. “I’d better go save Nicole.”

  “Yeah,” Kellen agreed. “I’ll rescue Luke.”

  They were interrupted by a voice coming from a loudspeaker in the middle of the square.

  “Attention, everyone! Right this way, please.”

  That was all the invitation Nicole needed. She stood up, grabbed Beth’s arm, and started to follow the crowd toward the gazebo in the center of the square.

  “Right this way,” the deep voice repeated.

  As the four teenagers drew closer, they spotted Mayor Smith standing in the gazebo. As always, he was holding a handful of index cards. He never spoke in public without his cards.

  The sheriff and a redheaded woman stood next to him. As the crowd approached, Mayor Smith tapped the microphone. Feedback squealed, and everyone covered their ears.

  “Good evening, guys and ghouls.” The mayor paused to chuckle at his own lame joke. No one else laughed, so he explained, “ ’Cause it sounds like girls. Okay, moving on,” he continued, turning to his next index
card. “I want to officially welcome everyone to our annual Harvest—” He flipped from one card to the next. “—and Halloween Festival here in Old Town.”

  Everyone applauded.

  “Now,” Mayor Smith said, “I’m going to hand the mic over to—” He flipped to another card. “—Nora Fishbean …”

  The redhead grabbed the mic. “Nora Fishbine.”

  “Fishbine,” the mayor said. “Of Nora’s Dance and Ballet Academy.” He switched to a cheesy vampire voice. “Who will be the spooky mistress of the very spooky Halloween dance contest!” He grinned. “Dracula, get it?”

  “Thank you, Mr. Mayor,” Nora Fishbine said.

  “Count Dracula,” added the mayor.

  Nora shot him an annoyed look. “Yes, that was clear.” Her smile returned. “May I invite all the contestants to make their way to the dance floor?” Nora stepped back, and the mayor gestured to the right.

  A tent had been set up over a wooden floor. Paper pumpkins hung from the top, and jack-o’-lanterns sat on top of hay bales at each corner. A DJ stood by with his equipment, and a table waited for the judges—the mayor and Sheriff Wilson.

  Beth looked at Kellen. “Should we?”

  Kellen squirmed a little. Dancing wasn’t his strong suit. In fact, he preferred to stand back and leave the dancing to others.

  “Um …” he said.

  “Oh, c’mon!” Beth bounced up and down. “Don’t be so shy!”

  As they walked off, Luke grinned at Nicole. “It’s about time everyone got to see my dance moves.” He grabbed her arm. “C’mon. C’mon.”

  About a dozen couples—all of them around fifteen or sixteen—stepped onto the floor. Everyone else gathered around to watch.

  Ms. Fishbine stepped to another microphone as the sheriff and mayor took their seats. “All right, everyone,” she said. “In keeping with the Halloween spirit, I’ll call out different themes, and the dancers will make up their own dances. There’s no right or wrong. Just be creative.”

  In the front row, Beth smiled at Kellen. “Sounds like fun,” she said.

  His face said he didn’t think so, but she patted his arm and pulled him out to the dance floor.

  “Everybody ready?” The DJ played a quick riff, and the crowd cheered.

  “Let’s dance,” Kellen said.

  The music started with a good beat. Beth put up her hands and began rocking to it. Everyone else started to dance to the beat, but Kellen didn’t move. The other dancers seemed to be having fun. Kellen began to bob his head.