House of a Thousand Screams Read online

  We couldn’t just lie there in the dark, waiting for whatever it was to come get us. We had to do something.

  Even if it meant risking our lives!

  13

  We needed weapons. The best we could come up with was Freddy’s baseball bat and my tennis racket. Oh, well, better than nothing. Holding them ready, we tiptoed down the hall.

  I still had the magic glasses on. So I spotted him right away. The little hairy guy from the attic. Leaning calmly against the stair railing. He looked as if he was waiting for a bus.

  I jumped forward and swatted at him.

  He vanished! Just like that!

  I spun around. “Where’d he go?” I asked softly.

  “Peeps,” I heard in my ear.

  “Ack!” I squawked. “Freddy! The poltergeist! He’s on my shoulder!”

  “Hold still!” Freddy ordered, and swung the bat.

  I barely ducked in time to save my head. “Watch it, lamebrain!” I whispered furiously. “You almost decked me.”

  “I didn’t mean to,” he argued. “I can’t see the stupid poltergeist, remember? I was just trying to help.”

  I reached up and felt my shoulder. Nothing there.

  “Well, he’s gone anyway,” I said. “That’s what matters. Now, for pete’s sake, keep quiet. The last thing we need is for Mom and Dad to wake up and catch us out here. They’d ship us to the loony bin for sure.”

  We crept down the stairs. The poltergeist kept popping in and out of sight. Each time, I took a swing at him with my racket. And missed.

  He was playing with us! The little creep!

  When we reached the downstairs hall, the poltergeist stood on a chair. Waiting for us. His little black eyes glittered at me. I pounced and thwacked the racket on the seat of the chair.

  Nothing.

  “Did you get him?” Freddy asked.

  “No,” I growled. I flipped on a light.

  “How come you keep missing?” Freddy wanted to know.

  I gave him a look. “He keeps vanishing. How do you expect me to hit something that can just blink on and off like that? I think he pops from one place to another.”

  Then I heard “Peeps” again. And felt something land on my head. Oh, yuck!

  I slowly raised my hands, trying to catch the little guy by surprise. All I caught was air.

  Frustrated, I pulled off the glasses and handed them to Freddy. “Here, you try. Maybe you can do better. And use my racket instead of that bat. That way at least you won’t kill me while you’re trying to bean him.”

  Freddy leaned the bat against the wall and gave me his glasses to hold. Then he put on the magic glasses.

  “There he goes!” he called immediately. He sped toward the den. I followed.

  When I got there, I found Freddy standing still as a statue. The light was on—his hand was still on the switch. The tennis racket hung loose in his other hand.

  All around us was that weird little sound: “Peeps. Peeps. Peeeeeeps!”

  I felt cold. “What’s going on?” I said. “Freddy, what’s wrong?”

  Silently, he handed me the glasses. I slipped them on.

  And gasped.

  The room was filled with poltergeists!

  They sat on the bookshelves, and the television. They hung from the lamps, from the ceiling fan. They danced along the curtain rods. They bounced on the sofa cushions.

  There were dozens of the little guys. Some were covered with brown hair. Some with black. Some with red. Three or four were spotted, like Dalmatians. I even saw one with black-and-white zebra stripes. And all their tubelike mouths were working overtime. “Peeps. Peeps. Peeeeps!”

  Then, all at once, every single one of them stopped peepsing. And turned to face us.

  Slowly the little things made a circle, surrounding us. My knees shook so hard I thought I was going to fall over. I reached out and grabbed the back of a chair.

  “Wh-why is it quiet all of a sudden?” Freddy stammered. Without the magic glasses, he was lost. “What’s happening?”

  “You don’t want to know,” I told him. “Just stick close to me.”

  The poltergeists’ black eyes gleamed. The circle closed tighter. And they drew nearer.

  Nearer.

  This was the end! I shut my eyes. I didn’t want to see.

  Then a new sound broke the silence. A much uglier sound than the poltergeists’ peepsing. It snarled and rumbled like nothing I’d ever heard.

  My eyes flew open. I spun around, trying to see what it was.

  Then I realized the sound came from outside the room.

  But whatever made it was moving toward the den.

  With a mad burst of peepsing, the poltergeists scattered. One leapt to an electric socket. I gasped as his body thinned, folded like paper, and squeezed through the tiny plug hole.

  Others slipped like mist through cracks in the brick chimneypiece. One flattened itself and slid under the closet door. In a flash they were gone. We were alone.

  The snarling noise grew louder. Clearly, whatever made that horrible sound had scared away all the poltergeists.

  And if it could scare a poltergeist, what kind of horrible thing could it be?

  Without realizing it, Freddy and I had backed up all the way to Mom’s plate wall. Our backs were against it when a solid thud came from the other side. I could feel it all down my back.

  Whatever was on the other side of that wall was powerful. And it was coming after us!

  A horrible bubbling growl ripped the air.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I whispered.

  Freddy didn’t answer. He simply barreled out of the room.

  “Wait for me!” I called, and tore out behind him.

  We rushed up the stairs and into Freddy’s room. I closed the door and turned the key in the lock.

  “That should do it,” I said. I moved into the room.

  Freddy stared past me. “Look!” he whispered hoarsely. He pointed at the door.

  I looked.

  The doorknob was turning. All by itself.

  14

  We both stared at the turning doorknob. I felt helpless, like a bird facing a snake.

  We were cornered. Was this the end? Were they coming for us?

  I heard Freddy whimper behind me. He sounded really scared. Not that I could blame him. My heart thudded like crazy in my chest. I felt cold sweat trickle down my back.

  And then the doorknob stopped moving.

  My breathing stopped too, for a moment. I shoved the magic glasses up on my nose and stared at the crack under the door. Were poltergeists about to start popping through?

  Or something worse than poltergeists?

  But nothing happened. Nothing at all.

  After about five minutes my muscles started to relax. Maybe we’d live until morning after all. Still, I didn’t want to take too many chances. . . .

  “I think we should keep watch,” I told Freddy. “We’ll take turns. I’ll do the first watch. I’ll wake you in an hour for the second. Deal?”

  Freddy nodded gloomily. “Deal. But I’m too scared to fall asleep anyway.”

  “Try,” I said, and patted him on the shoulder. Poor little Brainiac.

  He climbed up to his bunk and lay down on top of the covers. I slid into the bottom bunk and leaned against the wall. I wore the magic glasses. I wanted to see them if they came.

  The minutes slid by. I kept my eyes fixed on the door. My fingers clutched the baseball bat tightly. No way they were getting past me. No way. No way . . .

  * * *

  I woke up with a start at a peeping noise.

  Hey! It was morning! Sun poured in the window. A robin perched on the sill, chirping. That must have been the sound that woke me.

  I scrambled out of bed in a hurry. What if they’d come while I was sleeping? What if they’d done something horrible to Freddy?

  But Freddy snored peacefully in his bunk. Whew! We’d survived the night.

  I opened the door
and peeped out. Everything seemed normal—at least in the upstairs hall.

  Freddy made groggy waking noises. “What time is it? Is it my turn?” he murmured. Then he slid his glasses on. “Hey, it’s morning! What happened?”

  “I guess I fell asleep,” I admitted. “Sorry. But we made it through the night anyhow.”

  Freddy blinked. “But what if they come back? What are we going to do?”

  I bit my lip. “When we get home from school, let’s try sticking close to Mom and Dad. Whatever they do, we do. If we’re with them when the poltergeists come back, they’ll have to believe us.”

  “What do we do when Mom and Dad go to bed?” Freddy asked.

  “We’ll wait until they’re asleep and sneak in with them. We’ll sleep on the floor if we have to.”

  Freddy swung his legs over the edge of the bunk and jumped to the floor. “I hope it works. I hope the poltergeists do try something in front of Mom and Dad. Because I get the feeling they aren’t only trying to scare us.”

  I knew what Freddy meant. I could still see the poltergeists in my mind. Closing in on us. Their eyes gleaming. Their faces full of hate.

  Freddy was right. They didn’t just want to scare us.

  They wanted to get rid of us!

  15

  At breakfast Mom cupped my chin in her hand and frowned. “Are you feeling all right?” she asked. “You’re a bit pale.”

  I stared at my plate. “I didn’t sleep too well.”

  Mom clucked her tongue. “Did you stay up late reading those scary books again? I’ve warned you about that, Jill. No wonder you’re imagining poltergeists.”

  I didn’t say anything. What good would it do?

  I stumbled through school that day in a daze. Who knows what kind of dumb things I said in class. I couldn’t concentrate. I didn’t even notice if anyone made fun of me.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about tonight. I had a feeling tonight would be the end of it. One way or another.

  Finally the school day was over. Freddy and I walked home together.

  When we reached our house, we stood on the lawn for a minute. Staring at it.

  “It looked so cool when we got here,” Freddy said sadly.

  I nodded. It had seemed like such a great place to live.

  But not anymore. Now it looked dark, mean. The windows glared down at us in the afternoon sun. The door stood waiting. Ready to open and swallow us whole.

  I hitched my backpack up and stepped forward. “Remember our plan,” I warned Freddy. “Whatever Mom does, we stick with her. If she’s cooking, we help her cook. If she’s reading, we get a book and join her. We don’t let her out of our sight.”

  “I know,” Freddy answered. “She won’t get away from me.”

  As soon as we walked through the front door I put the magic glasses on. No poltergeists in the hall.

  “Mom?” I called. “We’re home.”

  Silence answered me.

  Freddy slid off his backpack and let it drop by the hall table. “Isn’t she here?” he asked nervously.

  “Maybe she’s upstairs, or in the basement.” I tried to sound reassuring. “Mom!” I called again, louder.

  Still no answer.

  “She probably ran to the store or something,” Freddy suggested. His voice shook a little.

  We found her note in the kitchen, beside a vase of flowers.

  Jill and Freddy,

  Dad surprised me with flowers this afternoon. It’s the anniversary of the day we met. Isn’t he sweet! We’re off to dinner and a movie. Back by eleven. There’s a lasagna in the oven. Don’t get into mischief.

  Love, Mom

  “So much for the great plan,” Freddy groaned. “Now what are we going to do? We’re all alone!”

  He looked as if he was about to cry. I licked my lips, trying to think of something to cheer him up. And to cheer me up, if you want the truth. We had a long, scary evening to get through! Somehow, we had to pass the time. And then I got an idea.

  I started rummaging through the cupboards. “We’ll have our own party!” I exclaimed. I threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. I got a tray out and piled it with cookies and M&Ms. When the microwave dinged, I poured the hot popcorn into a big bowl. I put it in the center of the tray.

  “Ta-da!” I sang, plopping the tray in front of Freddy. “I declare today official Pig-Out Day! Grab some sodas and let’s take this stuff to the den.”

  Freddy’s eyes lit up at the sight of all that junk food. Mom wouldn’t like it, but I didn’t care. This was an emergency.

  In the den I set the tray on the coffee table.

  “What are we going to do?” Freddy asked.

  “Let’s watch that video of Uncle Solly again,” I told him. “Remember how much fun it was?”

  Freddy took the tape from the closet and we slipped it into the VCR. We plopped onto the couch to watch.

  I’d forgotten I was still wearing the magic glasses. But the moment Uncle Solly started doing his tricks, I remembered. Boy, did I remember!

  My mouth fell open in shock. I slipped the glasses on and off again. Could I really be seeing what I was seeing?

  “What’s the matter with you?” Freddy asked, staring at me.

  “Th-the video,” I stuttered. “It’s different!”

  With the glasses on, everything had changed. All around Uncle Solly, perched on his table and his shoulders and at the end of his magic wand, were—

  Poltergeists!

  16

  The hairy little creatures jumped and capered across the TV screen. And their faces! They looked so different from my memories of last night. They were cheerful. Even cute!

  I handed the glasses to Freddy. His eyes grew round as he watched. He grabbed my arm.

  “That’s it! Don’t you see?” he practically yelled. “That’s how come Uncle Solly’s magic looked so real. Because it was real! It’s poltergeist magic!”

  I gasped.

  If Freddy was right, the poltergeists weren’t haunting Uncle Solly. Not at all.

  They were helping him!

  I took the glasses back and stared at the screen.

  It was true! Everywhere a fishbowl or a box hung in the air, there was a poltergeist underneath it, pointing at it.

  The poltergeists were helping Uncle Solly do his act!

  “ ‘Take care of the little people,’ ” I murmured.

  “Huh?” Freddy asked.

  “What Uncle Solly used to say. ‘Take care of the little people and you’re set for life.’ He was trying to tell us, Freddy,” I said slowly. “The poltergeists—they must be the little people he meant. Uncle Solly knew we’d move to this house someday when he was gone.”

  “You mean he wanted us to make friends with the poltergeists?” Freddy demanded.

  I nodded. My mind was working on overdrive.

  Maybe we’d been wrong about this whole thing from the beginning. Maybe the hairy little men weren’t poltergeists at all! After all, a poltergeist is a kind of ghost, right? These creatures didn’t seem like ghosts to me. Magic, yes. Spirits—no. These little guys were very much alive.

  This changed everything. If we were right about who the little people were—and if we could make friends with them—we wouldn’t have to be afraid. Mom could keep her house. We could all stay here together!

  Then I noticed a long, thin stream of mist. It leaked upward from the tiny crack between two floorboards. The stream wavered, swelled. Then it formed into the shape of a little man!

  One by one, they appeared around us. One slipped like slime from a wall plug. It slopped out in a pool on the floor. The head and then the shoulders and finally the rest of the creature emerged from the pool. This one had red hair with black speckles.

  Another shot like a laser beam from the light switch. It bounced around the room. Then it stopped suddenly. A fresh, whole creature balanced on the edge of our popcorn bowl. Its gaze was glued to the television screen.

  “Freddy,” I whispered
. “They’re here.”

  Soon there were dozens of them in the room. They perched on lamps and chairs and tables, all watching the videotape with sad expressions on their tiny faces.

  Freddy and I took turns watching them through the glasses. They paid no attention to us at all.

  Then they started making those noises again. Peeps, peeps, peeeeps. This time though, they sounded different to us.

  “I—I think they’re crying,” Freddy whispered.

  “Me too,” I agreed. “They must miss Uncle Solly.”

  “Maybe they don’t understand why he’s gone,” Freddy said.

  “Maybe.” That gave me an idea. “And maybe that’s why they’ve been so mean to us! They think we’re intruders.”

  How could we make friends with them?

  Then I got another idea.

  “Freddy,” I whispered. “Go get your magic stuff. Put on your cape and your top hat. Then bring your tricks back down here.”

  “Why?” Freddy asked. Then his eyes lit up. “Oh, I get it.”

  He slipped quietly out of the room. I heard him running up the stairs to his room. The creatures were so wrapped up in Uncle Solly’s video, they didn’t even seem to notice.

  I was alone. Surrounded by little people. The hair rose all over my arms and legs. “Hurry, Freddy,” I whispered through clenched teeth.

  Nervously I grabbed an Oreo off the tray. I wasn’t even hungry. It was more like I wanted something to do.

  I heard a curious peeps in my ear.

  My gaze slid to the side. I caught my breath. There was a tiny man on my shoulder! It was the zebra-striped one I’d noticed earlier.

  He stared curiously at my cookie. He didn’t seem threatening. I held the cookie up for him to inspect.

  The creature blinked rapidly. Then he poked his tubelike mouth into the cookie and began slurping the filling out of the center.

  He didn’t stop until all the creamy filling was gone. Then he sat back and starting peepsing happily. His little eyes gleamed. But for some reason they didn’t scare me anymore.

  My heart beat fast. We could make friends with them!

  Freddy stepped into the den, decked out in his magician’s outfit. His top hat sat at a tilt on his head.