The Children of Fear Read online

  Their black eyes were cold. Hard.

  They knew no fear.

  They knew death and how to bring it quickly with one deadly strike. One swift motion.

  Luke shuddered.

  He gazed all over the cellar and saw that they barred him from reaching the stairs. The door.

  Luke looked around, fighting down the panic. He could see only one small window. The storm window.

  A window too small for his large frame.

  With trembling hands he lowered the candle, holding it out before him.

  Would it keep the snakes away?

  The candle stood no higher than his index finger and just about as thick. How long would it burn?

  Not long enough for him to escape. Luke felt cold dread churn in his stomach.

  “Corey, you can’t do this. How will you survive?” Luke asked.

  “All the animals are my friends. They will help me,” Corey told him with confidence.

  “Don’t,” Luke pleaded quietly as he looked at his brother. “I’m your only brother,” he reminded him. “Didn’t I always do my best to protect you and take care of you since Mama and Pa died?”

  Corey’s green eyes glittered. “You promised we’d never be separated. You broke your promise, Luke. You sent Leah away.”

  “Corey, please—” Luke begged.

  Corey turned and slowly climbed the basement stairs.

  Luke heard his slow steps. Then the door slamming shut.

  And the echo of the lock as Corey twisted it into place.

  Chapter

  25

  The Dark Cellar

  Luke turned toward the low, hissing sounds.

  He threw the nail toward the dark corner and heard it rattle against the stone floor.

  The hissing grew louder. Fiercer.

  He glanced down at the candle. The low flame floated on a pool of melted wax.

  His heartbeat quickened at the sight. It wouldn’t be long now. He touched his fingers to the blood smeared on the wall. His blood. The blood that told his story.

  I’ve told my story. If only I had told it sooner. If only I had realized it was Corey … and not Leah …

  The light flickered.

  Sputtered.

  The flame died.

  Darkness swallowed the room.

  Luke pressed his back against the wall.

  Soon I will be as dead as Mr. Green and the others.

  He held his breath.

  Listening.

  Listening hard.

  He heard the hissing.

  Then the rattles.

  He heard the dull scraping sound of scales slithering across the stone floor.

  Then he heard nothing but his own screams.

  Chapter

  26

  Luke screamed again.

  He pressed his back against the cold stone wall.

  The cellar was dark. So dark.

  He didn’t know how close the snakes were. He didn’t know when they would dig their fangs into him.

  Luke felt something slide over his left boot—and wrap itself around his ankle.

  A shudder rushed through his body. He wanted to kick the snake away.

  No, he told himself. You must stay still. If you move, it will strike. And you will die.

  “I don’t want to die!” he screamed. “I don’t want to die!”

  His words echoed between the stone walls, but they could not change his fate.

  Another snake coiled itself around his leg. Wrapping itself tightly around his right knee.

  He held himself absolutely still, waiting.

  Waiting for the deadly fangs to sink into his thigh.

  Will this be the one? he wondered. Will this be the one that kills me?

  Luke heard the sound of scales scraping over his trousers as another rattlesnake slithered up his leg and circled his waist. He could feel its rattles tapping against his back.

  Or will it be this one?

  The rattles echoed through the room, growing louder. Louder.

  Bang! The cellar door burst open.

  In the dim light, Luke saw Leah standing in the shadowed doorway.

  “Leah! Help me!” Luke cried.

  She held her hands out in front of her, palms up. “Don’t move, Luke. Don’t move.”

  Another snake slithered up Luke’s body. Then another and another.

  Leah walked down the stairs and carefully stepped over snakes until she stood in the center of the room. She stretched her arms toward the ceiling and began to sway.

  “Come to me,” she said in a singsong voice. “Come to me, serpents.”

  “Nooo!”

  Luke’s gaze jerked to the top of the stairs. Corey stood there, his green eyes blazing.

  “No, you are my friends,” Corey screamed at the snakes. “Kill him! Kill him!” He rushed down the stairs. “Kill him now!”

  The serpent wrapped around Luke’s waist slowly lifted its head. Luke stared into its black, lifeless eyes. He watched its nostrils flare.

  “No,” Leah crooned. “You are not creatures of evil. You are creatures of nature. Do not allow yourselves to be used this way, my brothers and sisters.”

  “Kill him, kill him, kill him!” Corey chanted. His cheeks were flushed a deep red. His breath came in ragged pants.

  The rattlesnake’s forked black tongue rapidly darted in and out of its mouth.

  Then it opened its mouth wide to reveal pointed white fangs. Glistening with venom.

  Luke swallowed hard.

  “Don’t move,” Leah whispered as she moved closer to Luke.

  The rattlesnake struck.

  Leah grabbed it by the head just as its fangs skimmed Luke’s throat.

  Luke’s stomach turned over. He started to shake. He felt as though ice water ran through his veins instead of blood.

  Leah slowly turned the snake toward her. Their eyes locked. “No, my brother,” she whispered. “This is not what you are meant to do.”

  Slowly, the snake closed its jaws.

  Leah placed the snake on her shoulder, and it glided around her neck. “Thank you,” she said.

  “No!” Corey shrieked. “They are my friends! Mine! They have to do what I say!”

  “No, Corey. It is not right to use these creatures for evil,” Leah said calmly. She extended her hand toward the snake wrapped around Luke’s thigh.

  It crept up her arm, and Luke released the breath he had been holding.

  Leah walked away from him. As she did, the other snakes slithered off Luke’s body. They began to climb over her, coiling themselves around her.

  “I hate you!” Corey screamed. “I hate you both!”

  He raced up the stairs and rushed out of the house.

  Trembling, Luke sank to the floor and stared at his sister as the snakes slithered over her.

  “It was Corey all along,” Luke said breathlessly. “He killed everyone.”

  “I know,” Leah said. “I realized the truth when you lost control of the horses. Until then, I didn’t know that Corey had inherited the power from Father.”

  Luke rubbed his hands over his face. “How did you escape?” he asked suddenly. “What happened?”

  “I didn’t escape. I convinced the doctor that I had a gift with animals—nothing more. He released me.”

  “What are we going to do about Corey?” Luke asked.

  “We can’t do anything but wait for him to return.”

  Luke decided that he and Leah would stay at the Green farm, would live in the bright yellow house with the white curtains.

  Always watching.

  Always waiting for Corey to return.

  Knowing that when he did return, the fear would return with him.

  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 nearly five dozen 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 son, Matt.

  Books by R.L. Stine

  The Fear Street Saga

  THE BETRAYAL

  THE SECRET

  THE BURNING

  FEAR STREET SAGA COLLECTOR’S EDITION

  Fear Street Sagas

  A NEW FEAR

  HOUSE OF WHISPERS

  FORBIDDEN SECRETS

  THE SIGN OF FEAR

  THE HIDDEN EVIL

  DAUGHTERS OF SILENCE

  CHILDREN OF FEAR

  Available from ARCHWAY Paperbacks

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  An ARCHWAY PAPERBACK Original

  An Archway Paperback published by

  POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1997 by Parachute Press, Inc.

  CHILDREN OF FEAR WRITTEN BY BRANDON ALEXANDER

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN: 0-671-00294-5

  ISBN13: 978-1-4424-7374-4 (eBook)

  First Archway Paperback printing June 1997

  FEAR STREET is a registered trademark of Parachute Press, Inc.

  AN ARCHWAY PAPERBACK and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Cover art by Lisa Falkenstern