11 - The Haunted Mask Read online

  Chuck and Steve thought it was a riot. So did Sabrina. They always spoiled Halloween for her. They thought it was so hilarious to scare Carly Beth and make her scream.

  Well, this year I won’t be the one screaming, she thought. This year, I’ll be the one making everyone else scream.

  Sabrina’s house was at the end of the block. As Carly Beth hurried toward it, bare tree limbs shivered above her. The half-moon disappeared behind a heavy cloud, and the ground darkened.

  The head on the broom handle bounced and nearly fell off. Carly Beth slowed her pace. She glanced up at the head, shifting her grip on the broomstick.

  The eyes on the sculpted head stared straight ahead, as if watching out for trouble. In the darkness, the head looked real. The shadows moving over it as Carly Beth walked under the bare tree limbs made the eyes and mouth appear to move.

  Hearing laughter, Carly Beth turned. Across the street, a group of trick-or-treaters was invading a brightly lit front porch. In the yellow porchlight, Carly Beth saw a ghost, a Mutant Ninja Turtle, a Freddy Krueger, and a princess in a pink ballgown and a tinfoil crown. The kids were little. Two mothers watched them from the foot of the driveway.

  Carly Beth watched them get their candy. Then she walked the rest of the way to Sabrina’s house. She climbed the front stoop, stepping into a white triangle of light from the porchlight. She could hear voices inside the house, Sabrina shouting something to her mother, a TV on in the living room.

  Carly Beth adjusted her mask with her free hand. She straightened the gaping, fanged mouth. Then she checked to make sure the head was balanced on the broomstick.

  She reached to ring Sabrina’s doorbell—then stopped.

  Voices behind her.

  She turned and squinted into the darkness. Two costumed boys were approaching, shoving each other playfully on the sidewalk.

  Chuck and Steve!

  I’m just in time, Carly Beth thought happily. She leapt off the stoop and crouched behind a low evergreen shrub.

  Okay, guys, she thought eagerly, her heart pounding. Get ready for a scare.

  14

  Carly Beth peered over the top of the shrub. The two boys were halfway up the drive.

  It was too dark to get a good look at their costumes. One of them wore a long overcoat and a wide-brimmed, Indiana Jones fedora. She couldn’t really see the other one.

  Carly Beth took a deep breath and prepared to leap out at them. She gripped the broomstick tightly.

  My whole body is trembling, she realized. The mask suddenly felt hot, as if her excitement had heated it up. Her breath rattled noisily in the flat nose.

  Walking slowly, playfully blocking each other with their shoulders like football linemen, the boys made their way up the driveway. One of them said something Carly Beth couldn’t hear. The other one laughed loudly, a high-pitched giggle.

  Peering into the darkness, Carly Beth watched them until they were nearly right in front of the shrub.

  Okay—now! she declared silently.

  Raising the broomstick with its staring head on the top, she leapt out.

  The boys shrieked, startled.

  She could see their dark eyes go wide as they gaped at her mask.

  A ferocious roar escaped her throat. A deep, rumbling howl that frightened even her.

  At the terrifying sound, both boys cried out again. One of them actually dropped to his knees on the driveway.

  They both stared up at the head, bobbing on the broomstick. It seemed to glare down at them.

  Another howl escaped Carly Beth’s throat. It started low, as if coming from far away, and then pierced the air, raspy and deep, like the roar of an angry creature.

  “Noooo!” one of the boys cried.

  “Who are you?” the other cried. “Leave us alone!”

  Carly Beth heard rapid footsteps crunching over the dead leaves on the driveway. Looking up, she saw a woman in a bulky down coat running up the drive.

  “Hey—what are you doing?” the woman demanded, her voice shrill and angry. “Are you scaring my kids?”

  “Huh?” Carly Beth swallowed hard. She turned her eyes back to the two frightened boys.

  “Wait!” she cried, realizing they weren’t Chuck and Steve.

  “What are you doing?” the woman repeated breathlessly. She stepped up to the two boys and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Are you two okay?”

  “Yeah. We’re okay, Mom,” the one in the overcoat and fedora replied.

  The other boy wore white makeup and a red clown nose. “She—she jumped out at us,” he told his mother, avoiding Carly Beth’s stare. “She kind of scared us.”

  The woman turned angrily to Carly Beth and shook her finger at her accusingly. “Don’t you have anything better to do than to scare two young boys? Why don’t you pick on someone your own age?”

  Normally Carly Beth would have apologized. She would have explained to the woman that she made a mistake, that she meant to scare two different boys.

  But hidden behind the ugly mask, still hearing the strange howl that had burst so unexpectedly from her throat, she didn’t feel like apologizing.

  She felt… anger. And she wasn’t sure why.

  “Go away!” she rasped, waving the broomstick menacingly. The head—her head—stared down at the two startled boys.

  “What did you say?” their mother demanded, her voice tight with growing outrage. “What did you say?”

  “I said go away!” Carly Beth snarled in a voice so deep, so terrifying, that it frightened even her.

  The woman crossed her arms in front of the heavy, down coat. Her eyes narrowed on Carly Beth. “Who are you? What is your name?” she demanded. “Do you live around here?”

  “Mom—let’s just go,” the boy with the clown face urged, tugging at her coat sleeve.

  “Yeah. Come on,” his brother pleaded.

  “Go away. I’m WARNING you!” Carly Beth growled.

  The woman stood her ground, her arms tightly crossed, her eyes narrowed at Carly Beth. “Just because it’s Halloween doesn’t give you the right—”

  “Mom, we want to get some candy!” the clown pleaded, tugging his mother’s sleeve harder. “Come on!”

  “We’re wasting the whole night!” his brother complained.

  Carly Beth was breathing hard, her breath escaping the mask in low, noisy grunts. I sound like an animal, she thought, puzzled. What is happening to me?

  She could feel her anger growing. Her breathing rattled noisily in the tight mask. Her face felt burning hot.

  Her anger raged through her chest. Her entire body was trembling. She felt about to burst.

  I’m going to tear this woman apart! Carly Beth decided.

  15

  I’ll chew her to bits! I’ll tear her skin off her bones! Furious thoughts raged through Carly Beth’s mind.

  She tensed her muscles, crouched low, and prepared to pounce.

  But before she could make her move, the two boys pulled their mother away.

  “Let’s go, Mom.”

  “Yeah. Let’s go. She’s crazy!”

  Yeah. I’m crazy. Crazy, crazy, CRAZY. The word repeated, roaring through Carly Beth’s mind. The mask grew hotter, tighter.

  The woman gave Carly Beth one last cold stare. Then she turned and led the two boys down the driveway.

  Carly Beth stared after them, panting loudly. She had a strong urge to chase after them—to really scare them!

  But a loud cry made her stop and spin around.

  Sabrina stood on the front stoop, leaning on the storm door, her mouth open in a wide O of surprise. “Who’s there?” she cried, squinting into the darkness.

  Sabrina was dressed as Cat Woman, with a silver-and-gray catsuit beneath a silver mask. Her black hair was pulled tightly behind her head. Her dark eyes stared intently at Carly Beth.

  “Don’t you recognize me?” Carly Beth rasped, stepping closer.

  She could see the fright in Sabrina’s eyes. Sabrina gripp
ed the door handle tightly, standing half in and half out of her house.

  “Don’t you recognize me, Sabrina?” She waved the head on the broomstick, as if giving her friend a clue.

  Sabrina gasped and raised her hand to her mouth as she noticed the head on the pole. “Carly Beth—is that—is that you?” she stammered. Her eyes darted from the mask to the head, then back again.

  “Hi, Sabrina,” Carly Beth growled. “It’s me.”

  Sabrina continued to study her. “That mask!” she cried finally. “It’s excellent! Really. Excellent. It’s so scary.”

  “I like your catsuit,” Carly Beth told her, stepping closer, into the light.

  Sabrina’s eyes were raised to the top of the broomstick. “That head—it’s so real! Where did you get it?”

  “It’s my real head!” Carly Beth joked.

  Sabrina continued to stare at it. “Carly Beth, when I first saw it, I—”

  “My mom made it,” Carly Beth told her. “In her art class.”

  “I thought it was a real head,” Sabrina said. She shivered. “The eyes. The way they stare at you.”

  Carly Beth shook the broomstick, making the head nod.

  Sabrina studied Carly Beth’s mask. “Wait till Chuck and Steve see your costume.”

  I can’t wait! Carly Beth thought darkly. “Where are they?” she demanded, glancing back to the street.

  “Steve called,” Sabrina replied. “He said they’d be late. He has to take his little sister trick-or-treating before he can meet us.”

  Carly Beth sighed, disappointed.

  “We’ll start without them,” Sabrina suggested. “They can catch up to us later.”

  “Yeah. Okay,” Carly Beth replied.

  “I’ll get my coat and we can go,” Sabrina said. She took one last, lingering look at the head on the broomstick, then the storm door slammed shut with a bang as she disappeared inside to get her coat.

  The wind picked up as the two girls made their way down the block. Dead leaves swirled at their feet. The bare trees bent and shivered. Above the dark, sloping roofs, the pale half-moon slipped in and out of the clouds.

  Sabrina chattered about all the problems she’d had with her costume. The first catsuit she’d bought had a long run in one leg and had to be returned. Then Sabrina couldn’t find a cat-eyed mask that looked right.

  Carly Beth remained quiet. She couldn’t hide her disappointment that Chuck and Steve hadn’t met them as planned.

  What if they never catch up to us? she wondered. What if we don’t see them at all?

  The whole point of the night, as far as Carly Beth was concerned, was meeting the two boys and scaring the living daylights out of them.

  Sabrina had given her a shopping bag to put her candy in. As they walked, Carly Beth gripped the bag in one hand, struggling to keep the head balanced on the pole in her other hand.

  “So where did you buy your mask? Your mother didn’t make it, did she? Did you go to that new party store? Can I touch it?”

  Sabrina always talked a lot. But tonight she was going for a world’s record of nonstop chatter.

  Carly Beth obediently stopped so that her friend could touch the mask. Sabrina pressed her fingers against the cheek, then instantly jerked them back.

  “Oh! It feels like skin!”

  Carly Beth laughed, a scornful laugh she had never heard before.

  “Yuck! What’s it made of?” Sabrina demanded. “It isn’t skin—is it? It’s some kind of rubber, right?”

  “I guess,” Carly Beth muttered.

  “Then how come it’s so warm?” Sabrina asked. “Is it uncomfortable to wear? You must be sweating like a pig.”

  Feeling a surge of rage, Carly Beth dropped the bag and the broomstick.

  “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” she snarled.

  Then with an angry howl, she grabbed Sabrina’s throat with both hands and began to choke her.

  16

  Sabrina uttered a shocked cry and staggered back, pulling herself from Carly Beth’s grip. “C-Carly Beth!” she sputtered.

  What is happening to me? Carly Beth wondered, gaping in horror at her friend. Why did I do that?

  “Uh… gotcha!” Carly Beth exclaimed. She laughed. “You should have seen the look on your face, Sabrina. Did you think I was really choking you?”

  Sabrina rubbed her neck with one silver-gloved hand. She frowned at her friend. “That was a joke? You scared me to death!”

  Carly Beth laughed again. “Just keeping in character,” she said lightly, pointing to her mask. “You know. Trying to get in the right mood. Ha-ha. I like scaring people. You know. Usually I’m the one who’s trembling in fright.”

  She picked up the bag and broomstick, fixing the plaster of Paris head on the top. Then she hurried up the nearest driveway toward a well-lighted house with a HAPPY HALLOWEEN banner in the front window.

  Does Sabrina believe it was just a joke? Carly Beth asked herself as she raised her shopping bag and rang the doorbell. What on earth was I doing?

  Why did I suddenly get so angry? Why did I attack my best friend like that?

  Sabrina stepped up beside her as the front door was pulled open. Two little blonde kids, a boy and a girl, appeared in the doorway. Their mother stepped up behind them.

  “Trick or Treat!” Carly Beth and Sabrina called out in unison.

  “Ooh, that’s a scary mask!” the woman said to her two children, grinning at Carly Beth.

  “What are you supposed to be? A cat?” the little boy asked Sabrina.

  Sabrina meowed at him. “I’m Cat Woman,” she told him.

  “I don’t like the other one!” the little girl exclaimed to her mother. “It’s too scary.”

  “It’s just a funny mask,” the mother assured her daughter.

  “Too scary. It’s scaring me!” the little girl insisted.

  Carly Beth leaned into the entryway of the house, bringing her grotesque face up close to the little girl. “I’ll eat you up!” she growled nastily.

  The little girl screamed and disappeared into the house. Her brother stared wide-eyed at Carly Beth. The mother quickly dropped candy bars into the girls’ bags. “You shouldn’t have scared her,” she said softly. “She has nightmares.”

  Instead of apologizing, Carly Beth turned to the little boy. “I’ll eat you up too!” she snarled.

  “Hey—stop!” the woman protested.

  Carly Beth laughed a deep-throated laugh, jumped off the porch, and took off across the front lawn.

  “Why’d you do that?” Sabrina asked as they made their way across the street. “Why’d you scare those kids like that?”

  “The mask made me do it,” Carly Beth replied. She meant it as a joke. But the thought troubled her mind.

  At the next few houses, Carly Beth hung back and let Sabrina do the talking. At one house, a middle-aged man in a torn blue sweater pretended to be scared of Carly Beth’s mask. His wife insisted that the girls come inside so that they could show their elderly mother the great costumes.

  Carly Beth groaned loudly, but followed Sabrina into the house. The old woman gazed at them blankly from her wheelchair. Carly Beth growled at her, but it didn’t appear to make any impression.

  On their way out the door, the man in the torn sweater handed each girl a green apple. Carly Beth waited till they were down on the sidewalk. Then she turned, pulled back her arm, and heaved the apple at the man’s house with all her might.

  It made a loud thunk as it smacked against the shingled front wall near the front door.

  “I really hate getting apples on Halloween!” Carly Beth declared. “Especially green ones!”

  “Carly Beth—I’m worried about you!” Sabrina cried, eyeing her friend with concern. “You’re not acting like you at all.”

  No. I’m not a pitiful, frightened little mouse tonight, Carly Beth thought bitterly.

  “Give me that,” she ordered Sabrina, and grabbed Sabrina’s apple from her bag.

  “Hey�
�stop!” Sabrina protested.

  But Carly Beth arched her arm and tossed Sabrina’s apple at the house. It clanged noisily as it hit the aluminum gutter.

  The man in the torn sweater poked his head out the door. “Hey—what’s the big idea?”

  “Run!” Carly Beth screamed.

  The two girls took off, running at full speed down the block. They didn’t stop until the house was out of sight.

  Sabrina grabbed Carly Beth’s shoulders and held on, struggling to catch her breath. “You’re crazy!” she gasped. “You’re really crazy!”

  “It takes one to know one,” Carly Beth said playfully.

  They both laughed.

  Carly Beth searched the block, looking for Chuck and Steve. She saw a small group of costumed kids huddled together at the corner. But no sign of the two boys.

  Smaller houses, jammed closer together, lined the two sides of this block. “Let’s split up,” Carly Beth suggested, leaning against the broomstick. “We’ll get more candy that way.”

  Sabrina frowned at her friend, eyeing her suspiciously. “Carly Beth, you don’t even like candy!” she exclaimed.

  But Carly Beth was already running up the driveway to the first house, her sculpted head bobbing wildly above her on its broomstick.

  This is my night, Carly Beth thought, accepting a candy bar from the smiling woman who answered the door. My night!

  She felt a tingle of excitement she’d never felt before. And a strange feeling she couldn’t describe. A hunger…

  A few minutes later, her shopping bag starting to feel heavy, she came to the end of the block. She hesitated on the corner, trying to decide whether to do the other side of the street or go on to the next block.

  It was very dark there, she realized. The moon had once again disappeared behind dark clouds. The corner streetlight was out, probably burned out.

  Across the street, four very young trick or treaters were giggling as they approached a house with a jack-o’-lantern on the porch.

  Carly Beth sank back into the darkness. She heard voices, boys’ voices.

  Chuck and Steve?