Night In Werewolf Woods Read online

  Go to PAGE 40.

  There is a secret room on the other side of the wall. In the room you can’t hear the troll’s controlling whistle anymore. You feel your incredible strength returning.

  You flex your muscles just to test them out. You wait until it seems safe, then you decide to push the bookshelf back.

  Using one shoulder, you give the wall a shove.

  It doesn’t move. You push and shove with all your might. Nothing. Too bad. It looks as if the revolving bookcase locked behind you. Well, you do have these super-duper muscles — you could break down the wall. Or you could go down that stone staircase that you’ve just spied in the corner of this secret room. Hmmmmm … interesting choice.

  Break the wall? Crash through to PAGE 128.

  Take the stairs to who-knows-where? Go to PAGE 69.

  “This way,” you answer. “Toward the two red lights.” You lead the way through a wall of thorny bushes. “There should be a path to the beach around here somewhere,” you say.

  “Youch!” Todd cries. “These stupid thorns are scratching me all up.”

  “Better watch out you don’t bleed too much,” you joke. “You don’t want those werewolves to catch the scent of fresh blood!”

  Todd’s knees tremble as the two of you push through the overgrown vines and shrubs.

  “Are you sure this is the path?” Todd asks. “It’s so dark out here. I can’t see a thing!”

  Before you can answer, you hear HOW-OW-OW-OWL! This time the terrifying noise is very, very close.

  “Oh, no!” Todd whines.

  What was that sound? You try not to panic — for Todd’s sake. You flip on the flashlight switch. Darkness still surrounds you. You hit the flashlight on your hand. Once, twice. Still no light.

  “Stupid batteries,” you mumble. But even without light, you notice the ground under your feet changing from dry to slippery and very slimy. Where are you?

  Go to PAGE 4.

  You have no power over your own actions. The choice has been made for you. You are going to search the cabins of WoodsWorld. The troll orders you to start your search with the cabin that is farthest away. You follow the path to a small log cabin deep in the woods. There is a sign hanging on a post in front of the cabin. It reads DOCTOR W. WOLFF.

  Before you can sneak up to the door, it opens.

  Go to PAGE 44.

  The three of you stare down the dark tunnel. The darkness goes on forever. The decision is made instantly. “The stairs!” you all say at once.

  You lead the way up the stairs. Todd is right behind you, and Lauren is behind him. You are careful, trying not to slip on the steep stairs. You look straight ahead and move very slowly. Before you get to the last step, you turn to make sure Todd and Lauren are still behind you.

  It’s so dark. You can’t see anything.

  “Lauren?” you call out. “Todd? Are you guys there?”

  If they are behind you, turn to PAGE 118.

  If they are not behind you, go to PAGE 82.

  “Sharky was wrong when he said no one is safe here,” you tell Todd. “I know what we have to do. There is one way to keep ourselves safe. The werewolf moon has no power over us as long as we stay out of its light!”

  “You mean the light of the full moon is what started turning me into a werewolf?” Todd asks curiously.

  “Exactly,” you reply. “And if we stay out of the moonlight we’ll be safe from werewolves. Do you get it?”

  A low growl answers.

  “Todd? Was that you?” you whisper.

  Hurry! Turn to PAGE 22, before it is too late!

  The super-strength trio run up the stairs and burst through the bookshelf wall of the library. You expect to come face to face with the enemy. But instead of one whistling troll, the three of you are greeted by hundreds of them.

  “They’ve taken over the community center!” Lauren says. She uses her hands to talk in sign language.

  “We’re safe as long as our ears are plugged,” you sign back.

  The lead troll goes wild! “What’s this?” he cries. “They’re talking without talking! I can’t hear them! And they can’t hear us! Louder, you stupid tribe of trolls! Louder!”

  He runs wildly through the crowd of trolls, shouting at them.

  “Stand your ground!” you sign to the others. “He’s going crazy because he can’t control us.”

  Now many of the trolls are covering their ears to block out the deafening sounds of their own whistling.

  “Louder! Louder! Louder, you fools!” the most wart-covered troll of all shouts.

  Hold your ears on PAGE 108.

  “You caught me!” Todd exclaims, grabbing your hand.

  “We caught each other!” you sputter. Your hands grasp Todd’s hands over the center of the hole. “Oh, no! We’re f-a-a-a-a-a-a-l-l-i-n-g!”

  “I can’t look!” Todd shrieks.

  “Oh, brother,” you think, as you feel your arms and legs become all tangled up with Todd’s. “Just my luck. Of all the people in the world I could have fallen into a bottomless pit with, it has to be Todd Morris!”

  Down, down, down you fall.

  Spinning and tumbling head over heels over head over heels with no end in sight.

  Todd sticks to you like syrup to pancakes. And now that you think of it — he’s probably getting that syrupy slug juice all over you, too! You’re not sure which is worse — having Todd glued to you or being slimed by slugs.

  You have plenty of time to think about it, since you’ll be free-falling for quite a while!

  Fall over to PAGE 38.

  “Come on, Todd,” you say. You reach over and hold on to his arm. “We’re going in the cave. We’re not going to let those Murphy brothers scare us, are we?”

  “We aren’t?” gulps Todd. “I mean, no! We aren’t!”

  A thin beam of moonlight shines into the mouth of the cave. You can see that the floor is pure slime.

  You take one step forward. Your feet fly up into the air. You land flat on your back and bring Todd down with you.

  Then you and Todd start sliding faster and faster.

  “WHOA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!” Your two voices blend into one. You squeeze your eyes shut. You feel as if you are sliding down the world’s steepest water slide.

  Down, down you go. Faster. Faster. You and Todd zoom down a slime-slicked tunnel in total darkness.

  Just when you think your body can’t take one more second of this wild ride, it ends with a grand-slam BAM! You smash into a wet cave wall.

  If you open your eyes now, go to PAGE 85.

  If you can’t bear to look, keep your eyes closed and try to turn to PAGE 7.

  Todd and Lauren are not behind you!

  You turn around and start to go back down the stairs to see what happened to them. BLAM! Something soft hits you in the face. It feels like a large pillow. You can’t breathe. You scream as loud as you can.

  “What’s all the screaming in here?” you hear your dad ask.

  You pull the big pillow off your face. You see your dad gazing down at you.

  “Time to get up,” he says. “Come on. Todd’s waiting for you to go to the kids-only campfire. You must have dozed off for a few minutes while you were unpacking.”

  “Kids-only campfire?” you ask in a daze. “Haven’t we already done that?”

  “Every year, the same old same old,” your dad mutters. “Just like always. Nothing unexpected ever happens at WoodsWorld. You can always count on that.”

  “Whatever you say, Dad.” You smile. “Whatever you say.”

  You learned a long time ago that saying “whatever you say, Dad” is the perfect reply when you want to bring a conversation with your dad to

  THE END.

  The scene in the snack bar room is straight out of one of those late-night science fiction movies. All the guests of WoodsWorld, including Lauren and Todd, are sitting at tables eating heaping bowls of SUPER-STRENGTH O’s. As they eat, they stare straight ahead. Before you
enter the room, you put on the headphones. You hope they’ll protect you from the troll’s whistle. No one even notices you. Well, no one except the troll.

  The wicked little man is standing on a high stool behind the snack bar. His blubbery lips slobber drool down his wart-covered chin as he dishes out the food to a line of guests. Between spoonfuls, he takes time out to whistle the piercing whistle. This keeps his slaves totally in his control. They are weak until he decides he needs their super-strength powers to carry out his orders.

  You get on the food line. You plan to knock the troll off the stool when you reach the front of the line. The guests move in a trance toward their helping of O’s. The troll puckers up his lips and is about to whistle again. Will the headphones keep you safe?

  Go to PAGE 115.

  Well, of course you’re too nice to throw anyone to the wolves — even the Murphys. But while you give the idea a moment of serious thought, something very strange happens.

  Instead of clawing and biting and tearing at the bodies of the three Murphy bullies, the wolves hug them. They even kiss them! They pat them on the back and give big, fanged smiles to all three brothers!

  The werewolves are treating the Murphys like family!

  “Look at that!” you say to Todd. “The Murphys are so mean because it runs in the family — the werewolf family!

  “That explains why the Murphys smell just like a pack of dirty, hairy, scary werewolves,” you continue with a laugh. “A simple case of Wolfatosis!”

  Todd laughs at your jokes, but there’s nothing funny about having the werewolves’ hot breath blowing right in your face. You’d better start running, or for you and Todd it’s sure to be

  THE END.

  You and Todd hit the cave wall with a giant THUD.

  You both open your eyes at the same time and see the same eerie sight.

  Eyes! Hundreds, no thousands, of bright yellow eyes. Eyes on the ceiling, on the walls, on the floor.

  “Bats!” Todd exclaims. He sounds more amazed than scared. “They won’t hurt us. I studied all about them for a science report.”

  You’re not so sure Todd’s right. Two bats fly right by your face. Their yellow eyes whiz past you like shooting stars. The flapping of their webbed wings creates a breeze that sends chills down your spine.

  You whip your head around to move out of the bats’ flight path. As you duck down, you feel bat wings brush across your face. Their tiny claws catch in your hair. Then they fly away, yanking out small clumps of your hair as they go.

  The bats surround you. You turn to find Todd. It’s hard to see through the thousands of flapping black wings. Where is he?

  Go to PAGE 42.

  With a heave and a ho, the band of trolls hurls the whistling leader far into Deep Woods Lake. The cold lake water slowly sucks him down. With a giant BLURRRP, the lake swallows the troll forever.

  The crowd of trolls lining the shore of the lake cheers. They seem a little less gruesome now that their wicked leader is gone. You glance over at Todd and Lauren and notice that their muscles are gone, too. So are yours.

  The three of you have your normal shapes back. You all take out your ear plugs. Together you throw your fists up in the air and shout, “We have the power!”

  And from down at the south end of the beach you hear the Murphy brothers shouting, “Way to go, Nerdo!” They are holding out Todd’s red tin box.

  “Here’s your box back, Nerdo,” Sharky calls. “You deserve it.”

  Todd just smiles that goofy-looking smile and says, “I think they like me better now, don’t you?”

  You don’t know how the Murphys feel. But in your opinion, Todd “Nerdo” Morris is one cool dude. And you’re going to hate having this vacation come to

  THE END.

  “Sorry, Sharky,” you say.

  “You have to help us,” Sharky calls out, when he spots you and Todd. “We didn’t mean any harm.”

  Now the werewolves see you. You have to think fast.

  “Tell me where the box is, and I’ll save all of you,” you shout above the growls and snarls.

  “The werewolves have it!” Buck Murphy cries out. “That’s why we came in here!”

  “Yeah, we were trying to get it back for your friend, or whatever he is,” Jess explains.

  You watch in horror as the werewolves lick their chops. Rows of sharpened fangs glisten in the glow of the werewolves’ red eyes. They are ready for the Murphy feast.

  “Please,” Sharky begs. “Help us. Please!”

  Go to PAGE 27.

  You and Todd agree you’ve had enough of the werewolves. “Let’s keep going down,” you say.

  “Yes,” Todd agrees. “This pterodactyl has figured out how to stay alive for centuries. Maybe it will know how to keep us alive for the rest of the night!”

  “Good thinking,” you reply. Then to the pterodactyl, you order, “Down please!”

  With a giant flapping of his bony wings, the prehistoric creature points its head downwards. You and Todd hold on to the loose flaps of skin on its neck.

  Down, down, down the pterodactyl flies.

  Without warning, the downward flight takes a turn to the left. You shine the flashlight straight ahead and spot a ledge.

  Todd sees it, too. “Look!” he shouts, pointing to the ledge. “We’re going to land over there!”

  Go to PAGE 98.

  “What is it, Lauren?” you and Todd exclaim. You both reach her at the same time.

  “I went the wrong way! I saw the troll! So I turned down another tunnel and ended up on the other side of the Cave of Rose Crystals,” Lauren explains. “I walked through the cave, and here I am back at this tunnel!”

  “What!?” Todd shouts in his nerdy way. “We all discovered the greatest treasure in the world together. Are you saying you went in the treasure cave without us?”

  Lauren can’t stop laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” you ask.

  “The Cave of the Rose Crystals,” Lauren says. “It isn’t the greatest treasure in the world. It is a storeroom for the souvenirs of WoodsWorld! These aren’t rose crystals — they’re plastic!”

  “You mean it’s not a treasure?” Todd asks.

  “Not unless you like pink plastic heart necklaces that say ‘My heart belongs to WoodsWorld.’ ” Lauren giggles.

  “All our hearts do belong to WoodsWorld. It’s where we always go every summer,” you say. “That’s why we have to save it from the troll!” You look into the dark tunnel and wonder what to do.

  Turn to PAGE 77.

  You are floating directly above the paper lanterns now. For the first time, you see that each lantern has a face!

  In fact, each lantern has a face of someone you have known in the past. Hanging on the line of lanterns are all the people who used to come to WoodsWorld. For reasons you never understood before, they just stopped coming in the summers!

  But now you know the truth. They didn’t stop coming to WoodsWorld. They never left!

  Slowly you drift up and over to an empty space on the string of colored paper lanterns. You hear a soft click. Suddenly you can’t move.

  “Hey!” you try to say to someone, anyone. But you’re a paper-lantern person now. You can’t talk anymore. And neither can any of the other lantern people.

  Hope you like WoodsWorld a lot. You’ll be hanging around here for a long, long time. In fact your stay here may never, ever come to an

  END.

  “Oomphh!” the werewolf puffs as you pounce on it.

  “Sorry,” you say. “I have to help the Murphys.” You use all your strength to pull the werewolf off the Murphys. You can’t do it alone. “Help me, Todd!” you plead.

  Todd looks at the Murphys and at you. Then he stares at the werewolf who was his friend, if only for a few minutes. Todd knows what he has to do. He jumps on the werewolf with you. Together you knock it to the ground.

  “The Murphys do deserve to cry,” Todd says as he struggles with the beast. “But th
ey don’t deserve to be a three-course meal for a werewolf.”

  “Grrrrrrr … GRRRRRRRRRR …” roars the werewolf. It twists back and forth with new strength. You and Todd have freed the Murphys. Now the werewolf runs free, too. He runs into the darkness with an ear-piercing HOW-OW-OW-OW-OWL. Even though you and Todd tried your hardest, the werewolf has escaped.

  You’re exhausted. You, Todd, Lauren, and the Murphys fall on the ground. The last thing you remember is staring up at the dark sky. A full moon stares back.

  Go to PAGE 34.

  You ate the O’s out of your left pocket. And the left pocket was the right pocket!

  “I feel like Superman!” Todd cries. His arm muscles stretch his T-shirt sleeves to the breaking point.

  “How about Superperson,” Lauren corrects Todd. “We all have equal super-strength now.”

  The three of you raise clenched fists in the air and shout, “We have the power!”

  But Todd can’t just leave it at that. He’s got to go on and on with the corny stuff. “We are the super-strong trio! We promise to fight for truth, power, and justice for all —”

  A soft “tweeeeeeet” interrupts Todd’s declaration.

  “It’s the troll!” Lauren cries. “He’s going to take away our power again!”

  “Not if we can help it, he won’t,” you reply. You begin tearing off pieces of your shirt sleeves and stuffing them into your ears. “If we can’t hear him, he can’t hurt us,” you remind the others.

  Lauren and Todd plug up their ears, too — and not a minute too soon. The troll’s piercing whistle is shaking the whole staircase, but the three of you don’t hear a thing.