Series 2000- Are You Terrified Yet? Page 4

What did they do? What did they do? Did they pluck out my eyes? No. Did they bite my little legs? No.

  “They just stared at me,” I said. “I’ll never forget their evil stares, their glowing red eyes.” I sighed. “It seemed like hours. The mice stood there in a line, staring, staring, staring. I’ve been afraid of basements ever since.”

  Now Amy knows the truth about me, I thought, peering down into the dark basement. Now she knows I’m really a quivering coward.

  “That’s the bravest thing I ever heard!” Amy declared.

  “Excuse me?” I cried.

  “Telling me that story,” Amy replied. “Telling that awful story was so brave! It must have been so hard for you.”

  “Well … you know—”

  A loud buzz interrupted me. The doorbell. The front doorbell.

  Saved by the bell, I thought.

  Wrong.

  “I know who that is,” Amy said. She turned and ran back up the stairs.

  I eagerly followed her. “Who is it?”

  “Travis and Brad and the others,” Amy replied, striding to the front door.

  “Huh?”

  Amy turned back to me. “I forgot to tell you. They said they were coming over tonight to challenge you again.”

  “Oh, wow,” I murmured, feeling a chill tighten the back of my neck. Then I quickly added, “Why don’t they just give up? No way they can scare me.”

  “I know,” Amy agreed. “This is easy money!”

  “Uh … did they tell you what the challenge is?” I asked, trying to sound as if I didn’t really care.

  She nodded. “They said they’re bringing a really big, poisonous snake. And they want you to kiss it on the mouth. No problem—right?”

  My mouth dropped open.

  Kiss a snake? Kiss a poisonous snake?

  I swallowed hard and started to admit to Amy that there was no way I would ever touch a snake, let alone kiss one.

  But before I could get a word out, I heard desperate cries and moans from outside.

  And then Brad’s frightened voice from the other side of the door: “Help us! Please—help!”

  Amy and I exchanged troubled glances. Then she grabbed the door and yanked it open.

  Brad burst into the room, his eyes wide with horror. “Help us!” he cried. “Hurry!”

  I saw David with Gus and Frankie behind him. And then I saw Travis.

  Travis had both hands pressed over his eyes, as if blindfolding himself. Bright-red blood poured down his face.

  “Are your parents home? We’ve got to get help!” David wailed.

  “No! What happened?” Amy gasped.

  “We—we had a big snake,” Brad stammered, breathing hard. “It got away. Travis—he chased after it. He was running and … and he tripped and fell.”

  “Travis poked his eye out!” David cried.

  “Ohhhhh.” Travis uttered a low groan.

  Slowly, he lowered his right hand. Opened it.

  And I gaped at the big, watery eyeball in his blood-smeared palm.

  “Help me,” Travis groaned. “Ohhhh, it hurts. It hurts so much!”

  “Call a doctor!” David cried. “Call an ambulance!”

  “Help … ohhh … help …,” Travis moaned.

  I felt my stomach lurch. I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep my dinner from coming up.

  Amy let out a sick cry.

  I stared at the wet, veiny eyeball. I couldn’t stop staring at it.

  “It hurts …,” Travis moaned again. “Please … do something.”

  I stared at the eyeball for another second.

  And then I rushed forward. Plucked the eyeball from Travis’s hand.

  And popped it into my mouth.

  Amy shrieked in horror.

  Brad let out a startled cry. David and the others gasped.

  I turned to Travis and rolled the eyeball slowly from side to side in my mouth.

  Travis started to laugh. He lowered his other hand from over his eyes.

  I poked the eyeball through my lips.

  Everyone was laughing now.

  I spit the eyeball into my hand and tossed it to Travis. “Very real-looking,” I said. “I saw these plastic eyes in the same card store you did. A Halloween display—right?”

  “Right.” Brad sighed.

  Travis turned to Amy. “Got any paper towels? I have to wipe this fake blood off. It’s dripping all over.”

  Amy ran to the kitchen and returned with a wad of paper towels. “Craig wasn’t scared for a second,” she told Travis. “Was that your second challenge? You’ll have to do a lot better than that.”

  She stuck out her hand. “You owe us sixty bucks, guys. Pay up.”

  Travis tossed the plastic eyeball to her. It hit her on the shoulder and bounced to the floor.

  “That wasn’t our dare,” Brad insisted. “It was just a joke. We just wanted to see Can-Can-Can-Craig lose his dinner.”

  “Well, he didn’t—did he!” Amy sneered.

  I shuddered. If I hadn’t seen those eyeballs in the store window yesterday, my dinner would have been all over Amy’s living room carpet.

  How lucky could I get?

  David picked up the eyeball and tossed it to Gus, who tossed it to Frankie. They started a game of eyeball catch across the living room.

  Travis mopped the red liquid off his face. He balled up the paper towels and tossed them at me. “Think fast!”

  David heaved the eyeball. It bounced off a lamp. The lamp shook but didn’t fall.

  “Cut it out, guys!” Amy ordered. “My parents will be home any minute.” She turned to Travis. “You never even had a snake—did you!”

  He shook his head. “No. Snakes aren’t scary enough. Not for the superhero here.” He patted my shoulder. “Can-Can-Captain Can-Can-Can-Craig,” he said.

  “You guys are total losers,” Amy told them, shaking her head. “You’re not clever enough to scare Craig. No way you can win the bet.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Brad shot back. “You might as well pay us the sixty dollars now, Amy.”

  “That’s right,” Travis agreed. “Craig will never do what we have planned for him next.”

  “Huh? What’s that?” I asked weakly.

  A sly grin spread over Travis’s freckled face. “You know my dad owns a funeral parlor,” he said quietly.

  “So?” Amy snapped.

  Travis’s grin grew wider. “So … use your imagination.”

  At lunch hour on Monday afternoon, Amy and I walked out of class. We turned the corner —and heard loud, angry voices. Then the crash of a locker door.

  I stopped when I saw Brad across the hall. “Grant—get your paws off me!” he shrieked.

  His older brother had Brad by the front of the shirt. Grant lifted Brad off the floor and slammed his back into the tile wall.

  “Get out of my face!” Brad shrieked furiously.

  Grant laughed. “Make me!”

  He lowered his shoulder and bumped Brad hard in the chest, sending him sprawling against the wall again. Then he jerked Brad away from the wall, yanked open the locker, and started to stuff Brad inside.

  “He can’t do that to Brad,” Amy said angrily. She gave me a push. “Go teach Grant a lesson.”

  “Excuse me?” I took a step back.

  “Go stand up to Grant,” Amy insisted. “You’re the only one who can do it. Brad is terrified of his brother. But you’re not afraid of anything. Go ahead!”

  I gulped. “But … but … it wouldn’t be right.”

  Amy narrowed her dark eyes at me.

  “Brad has to fight his own battles,” I said. “Besides, it’s a family thing.”

  “Oh, go ahead,” Amy replied. She gave me another shove, into the center of the hall. “You know you’re not afraid of Grant. Give Brad a break. Look what Grant is doing to him!”

  Once again, Grant had shoved his brother into the locker. He held him inside with a fist on his chest. “Say please,” Grant ordered.

  “Oka
y. Please,” Brad whimpered.

  “Say pretty please,” Grant insisted.

  “Pretty please,” Brad repeated. “Ow! You’re hurting me!”

  Laughing, very pleased with himself, Grant shoved his fist harder into Brad’s stomach. Then he spun from the locker and strode away, heading toward Amy and me.

  “Go ahead—get him!” Amy urged. She shoved me again.

  “No. Really—” I tried to back away.

  But I stumbled into Grant.

  “Hey!” He cried out as he tripped over my shoe.

  His hands shot out as he fell forward, fell on his face.

  “Whoa!” I stumbled over his outstretched arm— fell—and landed on his back.

  “Yaaay! Way to go! Way to go, Craig!” Amy cheered.

  I glanced up to see a crowd of kids laughing and cheering.

  “Get off me!” Grant growled. His face was bright red. I think he was totally embarrassed.

  He tossed me off and climbed to his feet.

  “Way to go, Craig!” Amy cheered.

  Kids clapped and hooted.

  “What’s up?” I heard a girl ask.

  “Craig punched out Grant!” a boy replied.

  “Craig wasted Brad’s big brother.”

  “He wrecked him!”

  Grant snarled at me again and stomped off furiously, swinging his fists at his sides.

  I sat stunned on the floor. Two hands reached down to help pull me up. Brad’s hands.

  He studied me. “You okay?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”

  “I don’t believe you did that!” Brad exclaimed. “I never saw anyone stand up to Grant. Wow. You really are brave!”

  “No, listen—” I started.

  “That was awesome!” Brad declared. “Awesome!” He slapped me a high five.

  “But it was an accident,” I told him. “I didn’t mean to trip him. Amy pushed me and—”

  “You don’t have to be modest,” Brad said. “I saw the whole thing, Craig. You handled him. You handled him!”

  Amy slapped me on the back, so hard I nearly choked. “You handled him! Wow. You mangled him! That’s the bravest thing I ever

  saw!”

  So I felt pretty good about myself for the rest of the afternoon.

  I mean, I knew the whole thing had been an accident. A lucky accident.

  But everyone else in school believed that I took down Brad’s big bully of a brother. Everyone believed I was the bravest thing on two legs.

  Maybe I am kind of brave, I told myself.

  I was sitting in class, not hearing a word anyone said. Thinking about all that had happened to me since I moved to Middle Valley.

  Maybe it isn’t what a person thinks or feels that makes him brave, I thought. Maybe it’s what he does.

  If I do brave things—even if I don’t feel brave—maybe that makes me brave.

  See? I almost had myself convinced that I wasn’t Can-Can-Can-Craig any longer. I almost had myself convinced that I was a new, brave me.

  I was almost convinced—until I walked out of class after the last bell and heard Travis and Brad talking in the doorway to a supply closet.

  Hearing them say my name, I pressed against the wall so they couldn’t see me. And I listened.

  “You’re not going ahead with it—are you, Travis?” Brad asked.

  “Of course I am,” Travis snickered. “We’ll make Can-Can-Can-Craig shake like a leaf.”

  “But that’s going too far!” Brad protested. “That’s too horrible. You’re not really going to try it—are you?”

  Travis’s reply sent a shiver down my back. He grunted. “Watch me.”

  A few nights later, Amy and I were hunched over my dining room table doing homework. Amy was working on math problems, moving her lips as she added and subtracted.

  I was writing an essay about Aaron Burr. Well, actually, I was copying some of it from an encyclopedia.

  When the doorbell buzzed, I broke the point of my pencil.

  I knew who it was. I could tell by the buzz. It was Travis and Brad, coming to test me, to terrify me.

  Take it easy, Craig, I told myself. You’re shaking already, and you don’t even know what they planned for you.

  Pretend you’re brave, I instructed myself. If you pretend you’re brave, you’ll .be brave.

  Big words. Who was I kidding?

  Amy followed me to the front door. I pulled it open. Brad stepped in, wearing a blue down jacket and a wool ski hat. “It’s pretty cold out there,” he explained.

  He tugged off the hat and glanced around nervously. “I’m sorry about this, Craig,” he murmured, avoiding my eyes. “Really.”

  “Oh, sure.” Amy rolled her eyes. “You’re just trying to frighten him, Brad. But it isn’t going to work.”

  “No. I mean it,” Brad insisted. “I think Travis went too far this time. I tried to argue with him, but he wouldn’t listen. He really wants to win this bet.”

  Those words sent chills down my back. I could feel my knees start to buckle. I grabbed the back of the couch for support.

  Maybe I should concede, I thought. Give up now. Before things get out of control.

  “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry in advance,” Brad said solemnly, eyes on the floor.

  I gulped.

  “The only ones who will be sorry are you and Travis and your buddies,” Amy insisted. “Because after tonight is over, you’ll owe us sixty bucks.”

  “We’ll see,” Brad murmured. He motioned to the door. “Get your coats and follow me.”

  We stepped out into a cold, windy October night. Dead leaves swirled in wild circles over the lawns. The nearly bare trees creaked and groaned.

  I felt a few cold drops of rain on my forehead. So I zipped my black down parka and pulled the hood up over my head.

  We turned the corner, waited for a nearly empty city bus to rumble past, then made our way toward town.

  I knew where we were going. Travis had already hinted about it. I remembered the gleeful smirk on his freckled face when he mentioned it.

  Sure enough, we crept up behind the low hedge at the back of the parking lot. A yellow spotlight lit up the wooden sign in front of the long, dark-shingled building. The sign read: SHADY REST.

  The funeral parlor that Travis’s dad owned.

  I shivered.

  were there dead bodies in there? Actual corpses?

  Of course there are, Craig. I answered my own dumb question. It’s a funeral parlor—right?

  I shoved my hands deep into my coat pockets. I hoped Amy couldn’t see me shivering.

  “Hey—here’s the superhero!” David greeted me with a slap on the back. Gus and Frankie nodded solemnly.

  “Where’s Travis?” Amy demanded.

  A gust of wind made the long hedge wriggle, like a snake. The wind blew the hood back onto my shoulders. I felt another cold raindrop on my forehead.

  “Travis got caught,” Brad replied.

  “Huh? Caught?” I cried.

  Brad nodded. “His parents caught him sneaking out.”

  “He’s going to miss all the fun,” David smirked.

  Some fun, I thought bitterly.

  “But, don’t worry, Craig,” David continued. “We’ll give Travis a full report about how you ran away screaming.”

  “You’re the ones who will scream,” Amy insisted, “when you have to pay us the bet money!”

  I turned and stared at the funeral parlor. It was a plain, one-story, shingled building. But it suddenly looked to me like one of those dark, evil castles in a horror movie.

  I pictured rows of black coffins inside. And dead bodies, stretched out on metal tables. And green corpses staggering around, groaning. Blank lifeless eyes rolling around in their decaying heads. Coffin lids pushing up … bony hands poking out.

  Craig—stop! I ordered myself. Stop imagining!

  I swallowed hard and turned to Brad. “What do I have to do?” I asked.

  Brad and th
e three other boys stared at me. David started to giggle. Gus and Frankie laughed too. Cruel, cold laughter.

  Brad’s expression remained solemn. “This wasn’t my idea,” he murmured.

  “Don’t pay any attention to them,” Amy warned me. “They think they can scare you.”

  They are scaring me, I thought. They’re scaring me, and I don’t even know why yet.

  Amy turned to Brad. “Why don’t you just give up now? Craig can’t be scared by anything.”

  “We’ll see,” Brad replied. He pointed to the funeral parlor. “See that back window, Craig?”

  I peered over the hedge at the building. Totally dark. All the windows and doors dark. The only light was the spotlight beaming down on the SHADY REST sign at the front of the empty parking lot.

  “See the window I’m pointing to?” Brad repeated.

  I nodded.

  “That’s the window you’ll go in,” he said.

  “Huh? Go in?” I gasped. “Go in?”

  Brad nodded. The other boys laughed.

  “Isn’t that illegal?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low and steady, trying desperately to sound calm. “Does Travis’s dad know about this?”

  “Of course not,” Brad replied.

  David shook his head. “If Travis’s dad knew, he’d bury us all!”

  Gus and Frankie thought that was a riot. They burst out laughing and slapped David high fives.

  “Ssshhh, quiet, guys,” Brad warned. “We don’t want to get caught before Craig goes inside.”

  “Just tell him what he has to do,” Amy said impatiently. “He’ll do it. You’ll pay us the money. And then we can get out of here. It’s cold!”

  “It’s real simple,” Brad said, putting a hand on the shoulder of my coat. He pointed again to the narrow window at the back of the building.

  “Craig, you slide the window up,” Brad instructed. “You climb inside. You open up the first coffin you find. And you lie down inside it.”

  “But—but—” I gasped.

  “That’s all?” Amy cried. “That’s all he has to do? This is too easy! You guys are giving your money away!”

  “Amy, please—” I started to beg.

  “Have-how—” I stammered. “How?”

  “Can’t you think of anything challenging?” Amy cried to Brad. “Can’t you think of something a little bit scary?”

  “How will you know if I do it?” I finally choked out.