Series 2000- Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls Page 3
“Ghouls?” Buddy sneered. “Hey, Frank, he really believes that stuff.”
“Of course he does,” Frank replied, grinning at me. “That’s because
Spencer is a ghoul!”
“Let us go!” I insisted.
But Frank grabbed me by the shoulders. The flashlight fell from my hand.
It clattered against a tombstone, hit the ground, and went out.
“Spencer doesn’t want to leave,” Frank insisted.
“Because he’s a ghoul,” Buddy added. “He’s a graveyard ghoul.”
“Spencer is a ghoul,” the other two guys repeated.
“Get lost!” I yelled, hoping I sounded brave. I jerked free of Frank’s
grasp. I grabbed Audra’s hand, ready to run.
“Come on, Spencer. You know you don’t want to leave,” Frank insisted.
“You want to stay here, right? With the other ghouls?”
“Leave him alone,” Audra demanded.
33 “Hey - we’re just kidding around here,” Frank told her. He grabbed me
and pinned me against a tree.
“What’s the big idea?” I cried, starting to sweat despite the cold.
Then I saw that one of the other guys had a rope - and my legs began to
shake.
“What are you going to do?” Audra screamed. “Leave him alone. This isn’t
funny! Come on, Spencer. Let’s get out of here.”
Frank pulled me away from the tree and shoved me up against a tall
gravestone. I could feel the cold stone through my jacket.
I swung my arm to hit Frank.
But Buddy and another boy grabbed me. They pinned my arms behind me.
I kicked my legs. I tried to yank free, but Frank’s friends held on
tightly.
“You’re going too far!” Audra shrieked. “This isn’t a joke, Frank! You
can’t do this to him!”
Frank laughed.
Audra turned to me. “Don’t worry, Spencer. I’m going for help.” She spun
away from us and vanished through the cemetery gate.
“Let me go!” I yelled, twisting and turning, fighting to free myself.
“Graveyard ghoul. Graveyard ghoul.” The boys chanted as they wound the
rope around me, tying me tightly to the gravestone.
34 “Let me go.” I kicked out as hard as I could. But that made them pull
the rope even tighter.
“Bye, ghoooooul!” Frank howled. Then they all raced out of the graveyard
and down Highgrave Hill.
This can’t be happening! I thought, struggling to free myself.
Tied to a gravestone in Highgrave Cemetery in the middle of the night!
“Wait! Please!” I called to them.
“Don’t leave me up here!” My heart pounded in my chest. I felt the
gravestone on my back, so cold, so cold …
“Please - come back!”
35 Frank, come back! Hey - guys!” I screamed.
I could hear them laughing as they ran down the hill.
“Help me! Hey - guys! Don’t leave me here!” I pleaded.
I tugged at the ropes, screaming for help.
A fluttering sound above my head made me freeze.
I felt a rush of cold air against my face. Another flutter, and
something flickered against my cheek.
Bats!
Dozens of cluttering bats. My shouts had scared them - and sent them
flying from the trees.
I tried to duck as they darted low over my head. I saw flaring red eyes
and felt another rush of cold wind against my face.
36 Back and forth they swooped, chittering, whistling, their wings
fluttering so close.
“Please - ” I choked out. “Please - “
Another low swoop. Another flash of tiny red eyes.
And then they vanished into the treetops.
Silence now.
Except for the rapid thudding of my heart.
“Spencer, stay calm,” I said out loud. “You’re not going to be out here
all night. Someone will rescue you. Audra went to get help. She will
bring someone. They will be up here really soon.”
The bitter wind of Highgrave Hill picked up. It whipped the dead,
brittle leaves on the ground. It blew dirt up into my face.
The old trees creaked and groaned.
A long, low moan from nearby made my heart skip a beat.
“Where is Audra?” I asked out loud. “What’s taking her so long?”
I peered out over the dark tombstones, searching frantically for her.
Where is she? Did she decide to leave me out here? She wouldn’t do that.
Would she?
I pushed forward, trying to loosen the rope. It was wound around me
tightly, from my shoulders to just below my knees. It pressed my hands
tight against my sides.
37 I heaved my chest forward as hard as I could. But the rope wouldn’t
give at all.
I twisted and turned my shoulders, trying to loosen it. But it remained
taut.
With all my strength, I pushed my hands out. But the rope cut through
the skin on my knuckles.
“What’s the use?” I fell back against the cold gravestone with a bitter
sigh.
I stared out at the old tombstones bathed in the light of the full moon.
“Huh?”
Did a gravestone just shift? Did it tilt to one side?
No. It looked as if it moved. But it didn’t, I reassured myself. It’s
just an illusion, caused by the shimmering light of the moon.
But I blinked hard and stared at it - just to make sure. The tombstone
beside it appeared to tilt now!
I heard another long moan, closer this time.
The trees creaked. The wind shook their scraggly, bare limbs.
Another tombstone shifted. With a low creak, it seemed to lean back.
Another eerie moan, so close … so close behind me.
“No!” My head began to pound.
I have to get out of here!
I twisted and turned and pushed against the rope.
39 “Somebody - help me! Get me out of here!”
I gasped as a green mist rose up from the creaking, tilting graves.
Slowly at first. Then faster. Thicker. Billowing up with a sour, sick
smell.
The stench grew stronger as the mist swirled around me. I started to
choke. I cried out as it settled on my face, stinging my skin, burning
my eyes.
Break free, Spencer, I ordered myself. No matter what it takes!
But before I could start tugging, a hoarse voice echoed through the
sickening mist: “I … need … your … body.”
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Who’s there?” I gasped. “Who is it? Frank? Frank - is that you?”
“I … need … your … body. “
The voice was a croak, more like a cough on the wind. The words so faint
but so chilling.
“Frank?” I cried. “Untie me! Frank? Buddy?”
“I … need … your … body.”
“Frank?”
The icy green mist rose up around me. I began to feel so strange. So
weak …
What is happening to me?
I tried to push against the ropes, but I couldn’t raise my arms …
couldn’t tighten my muscles.
My knees buckled.
I struggled to hold my head up. I felt so weak … so weak.
40 “Somebody - help,” I choked out, my voice only a whisper now.
“Your body … give me your body!”
“No -” I gasped.
But I suddenly felt dizzy. So we
ak and dizzy.
I felt something press down on my head. Something cold and hard. Like a
heavy hand pushing down on my hair.
Pushing … pushing into my head.
I tried to protest. Tried to cry out.
But my mouth wouldn’t open.
And I felt so weak
The heavy pressure made my forehead throb. My brain felt about to explode!
I … I can’t think! I realized. I can’t think of words. I can’t think
of anything.
It hurts. It hurts so much!
The hard, cold feeling moved down to my chest, down through my arms, my
legs.
Squeezing me. Squeezing so tight against my chest now, I could barely
breathe.
Can’t breathe …
Can’t think …
And then I heard a sharp RIP.
Like Velcro tearing.
Like a shirt tearing.
Like skin ripping apart.
And I felt myself floating. Floating up, up. Floating free.
42 Up in the air now. High in the thick green mist.
Through the mist, I struggled to focus. I squinted hard - and saw myself!
Floating in the mist, I stared down at my own body, still tied to the
tombstone.
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I tried to cry out. I tried to shout, to call to my body down below.
But I couldn’t make a sound.
How can I be in two places? How can I be up here and down there? I
wondered, terrified.
As I floated in the mist, I tried to raise my hands in front of my face.
No hands!
I swirled in the wind trying to glimpse my legs, my feet.
No. Not there!
I’m invisible, I realized to my horror.
I’m me. I’m only my mind! I’m me - floating above my own body.
And then, more horror. I watched helplessly as, down below, my body
wiggled its fingers. It
43 stretched out its legs. Then swung its head - my head! - from side to
side.
Then it blinked.
And smiled.
A smile made with my lips - but not my smile. My nostrils flared. And my
lips moved in a way that I could never move them. They turned down in
the corners, curved into a cold, cruel sneer.
Watching in disbelief from the mist above, I tried to scream. But I
couldn’t make a sound.
Down below, my head turned. It raised its eyes to me, as if it could see
me. “Good-bye, Spencer,” it said in almost my voice. A little raspy, a
little hoarse - but almost my voice.
Huh? Goodbye?
I watched my eyes flash in the moonlight. The sneer on my face deepened.
“You disturbed my rest. Your body is mine now. I’ve been waiting so long.”
“Huh? You rose up from the grave?” I cried. A silent cry. No sound. No
sound at all. But I could think. Despite my panic, I could still think.
“Are you a ghoul?” I demanded. “Are you really a graveyard ghoul?”
“Not anymore. Now I am YOU.”
He answered me. I was silent, but he heard me. He can hear my thoughts.
“You can’t have my body!” I screamed. I tried to float lower. I tried to
float back to myself.
45 But I couldn’t move. The heavy mist seemed to hold me in place.
“Do you hear me? You can’t have my body!”
“But I DO have it!” the ghoul answered in my voice.
“No!” I wailed. “No!”
And then through the icy mist, I heard another voice in the distance.
“He’s over there!”
Audra’s voice!
“That’s where they tied him up!” Her words drifted up Highgrave Hill. I
could see her racing up the steep slope. And who was that running behind
her? My parents and hers.
“Where - where is he?” I heard my mother cry.
And then I saw Audra point to the tall gravestone where my body was tied.
“Spencer! Spencer!” Mom rushed up to my body. “Are you okay?”
I watched in horror as my head nodded yes.
“Don’t worry.” Dad started to work at the rope. “We’ll have you out of
here in no time.”
Floating in the mist above, I saw the ghoul’s lips - my lips - spread
into a grin. A triumphant grin. His eyes - my eyes - grew wide with joy.
The bitter Highgrave Hill wind picked up, pushing me forward, until I
floated low over all of them.
“DON’T!” I screamed down at them. “Don’t untie him! He’s not me! Please
don’t untie him!”
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He’s not me!” Don’t untie him!”
But they couldn’t hear me. They couldn’t read my thoughts.
What’s going on? I panicked. What has happened to me?
I can see them. I can hear them. Why can’t they see or hear me? I
wondered as I drifted above them.
Somehow, my mind and my body have separated, I realized. “And I don’t
have a body anymore,” I moaned.
I floated inches above them now. I could have reached out and touched
them. But I had no skin to touch them with. No fingers or hands. No body.
No voice …
But I can see and I can hear, I told myself. And
46 I can still feel, I realized, as the icy wind picked up and made me
shiver.
I haven’t lost everything, I tried to convince myself. There’s still hope.
I watched as Dad tugged at the ropes tied around my body.
My body stepped free.
Everyone gathered around it. All talking at once, so excited, so worried
and upset.
Mom hugged the ghoul in my body. Dad squeezed his shoulder.
My body rubbed its wrists where the rope cut through. Stretched its
arms. Bent its knees.
My knees.
“Spencer, are you okay?” Audra asked it.
My eyes stared into hers. “I’m - I’m okay,” my body croaked. “Just a
little hoarse. From screaming, I guess.”
“It’s a lucky thing Audra was up here with you,” Audra’s mother declared.
“Let’s hurry home,” my mother said. “I want to call Frank Foreman’s
parents. That boy is in a lot of trouble.”
“I don’t know why he tied me up,” my body said. “Guess he was just
showing off.” He smiled that smile. The smile that wasn’t really mine.
Invisible, I stared down at them helplessly, choked with panic. What am
I going to do? I asked myself. I can’t let them leave here with him.
Think, Spencer!
47 I gazed around the cemetery - and spotted my flashlight on the ground.
I know! I’ll pick it up. I’ll wave it in front of them. That will get
their attention!
Yes!
Riding on the wind, I floated down … down.
And reached out for the flashlight.
Grab it. Grab it, Spencer, I ordered myself.
Hurry!
But, no.
No. No …
I couldn’t pick it up.
I felt myself reaching … felt as if I had a hand.
Felt as if it passed right through the flashlight.
I’m air, I realized sadly. I’m nothing but air.
“Let’s go home.” I saw Dad wrap his arm around my body’s shoulders.
“It’s been a long night.”
I watched my body lean into Dad, then begin to walk away.
“STOP!” I wailed. “STOP!”
To my shock, my body stopped. “I almost forgot
something,” it said. Then
it bent down and picked up Jason’s backpack. “Can’t forget this!”
“It’s cold up here.” Audra shivered. “Let’s go!”
“Wait!” I begged as they walked away. “Listen! He’s a ghoul! He’s not me!”
The ghoul glanced over his shoulder. He stared into the night air - at me.
48 He can see me, I knew. He has the power to see me floating helplessly
here.
A gleeful smile spread over his face.
Audra glanced back too. Her eyes swept over me, then over the
gravestones. Then she turned away and led the ghoul in my body down the
hill.
“What am I going to do?” I wailed. “I have to warn them. I have to let
them know he’s not me. I have to get my body back!”
But how?
I’ll follow them. That’s how. And I’ll find a way to get their attention
once we get home.
It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the only one I had.
I watched them step through the open cemetery gate. I tried to follow.
But the wind picked me up and swept me back.
I tried again, struggling to move through the thick mist, the powerful
wind.
No.
I felt myself floating back … back …
Back over the double grave with its toppled tombstone. Back over the
granite crow with its terrifying warning underneath: disturb our rest
AT YOUR OWN PERIL.
And then to my horror, I felt myself being dragged down.
Down into darkness. Down into the open grave. “Nooooo!” I screamed. “I’m
not dead!”
49 But the dark earth rose up over me. So cold and hard.
“Please!” I cried out. “Don’t bury me. I’m alive! I don’t want to die!”
I gathered my strength.
I pushed as hard as I could.
But I couldn’t move. And I suddenly felt so tired.
“Stop fighting,” I thought I heard a soft whispering voice say. “Give
in,” it said. “Go to sleep - forever.”
Sleep forever, I thought. Yes.
I relaxed.
I stopped struggling. I felt my energy drain away.
Yes … sleep forever.
50 Above me, the wind roared. The trees creaked and rattled in its wake.
I heard a crack, the crack of a tree branch. It snapped - and crashed to
the ground over the grave.
The sound jolted me. Woke me.
Shocked me to life.
“NOOOOO! I will not give in!” I cried. “I don’t want to be buried down
here!”
With a burst of strength, I forced myself up … up through the dirt.