The Howler Read online

  “Help me…. Help me….” the voice rasped. “I’m buried…buried in your closet.”

  “No!” I gasped.

  Vanessa squeezed my shoulder so hard, it hurt. Ed and Justin stood frozen like statues.

  “In your closet…” the ghost repeated. “Help me—please! I’ve been buried…so long…. Let me out! Let me out!”

  I jumped to my feet.

  “Wh-what are you doing?” Vanessa demanded, her face tight with fear.

  I pointed to the closet beside the little table. “I’m going to open it. We have to see—”

  “No!” Justin and Ed screamed together. “Spencer, don’t do it!”

  Vanessa raised her hands to the sides of her face. She stared at the closet and didn’t say anything.

  “It’s—it’s in there,” Ed said in a trembling voice. “Don’t go there, Spencer. Don’t open the door.”

  “I have to,” I said. I reached for the doorknob.

  Ed and Justin had both backed to the attic door. Vanessa stood in the middle of the room, hands still pressed to her face. “Go ahead,” she whispered. “You know you’re going to do it. So go ahead. Open the door.”

  I squeezed the knob. Turned it.

  And jerked open the closet door.

  18

  “AAAAAAGGGH!”

  Shrieking at the top of his lungs, the ghost came bursting out of the closet.

  Only it wasn’t a ghost. It was my brother, Nick.

  I let out a scream. We all screamed. Ed fell back against the wall.

  And Nick started laughing. He grabbed me and spun me around. He danced gleefully around the room. He shoved away the coats and jumped up and down on the bed.

  “You bozos!” he cried. “You bozos! Couldn’t you tell it was me? Couldn’t you tell the voice was coming from the closet?”

  Vanessa sank onto the desk chair. She shook her head, her eyes lowered to the floor.

  “You bozos!” Nick cried. He pumped his fists over his head as if celebrating a great victory. “You bozos!”

  “I knew it wasn’t real,” Justin muttered. “I knew it wasn’t a ghost.”

  “Liar,” Ed said, giving him a shove. “You were shaking even more than me.”

  I wanted to scream, but I was speechless. I had never been so disappointed in my life.

  “I’m buried…buried in your closet,” Nick rasped. Then he laughed his head off some more. “I heard you guys coming up the stairs. I knew why you were here. I knew Spencer wanted to show off his new toy. So I ran to the closet. I knew you would fall for my little joke.”

  “That was mean,” Vanessa murmured, her head still down.

  “Mean—and funny!” Nick exclaimed.

  I turned to Nick. I wanted to tackle him. Bring him down to the floor. And punch him and punch him and punch him.

  “Was that you I heard last night?” I asked. “Was that you playing the same trick on me?”

  A grin spread over Nick’s face. He nodded. “Three guesses.” He crossed the room and smacked the top of the Howler. “Your machine is a fake, Spencer. Take it back to the store. Admit you were a jerk.”

  I stared at the Howler and sighed. Another worthless piece of junk.

  Nick trotted to his room, still chuckling merrily to himself. I slammed the door behind him and turned to my friends.

  They had sprawled on the floor. The closet door stood open. The dial on the Howler glowed brightly. The speaker crackled with static.

  Vanessa had a strange smile on her face. “What’s so funny?” I muttered.

  “I just had an idea,” she replied. Her grin grew wider. “An awesome idea.”

  I slumped onto the edge of the bed and let out another unhappy sigh. “What is it?”

  “Your brother’s trick was mean,” Vanessa said. “But it’s a really good trick. What if we play it on Scott?”

  “Yesss!” Justin and Ed cried out together. They slapped each other a high-five.

  I wasn’t in the mood for playing tricks. “Why should we?” I asked.

  “He played that mean trick on you with the clothing dummy,” Vanessa replied. “And then he told everyone in school how he fooled you and made you scream.”

  “And he’s been lying for months about how his house is haunted,” Ed chimed in.

  “So what if we play this trick and make Scott think his house really is haunted?” Vanessa continued. “He’ll freak. He’ll totally freak!”

  “Whoa! And once we tell everyone, he’ll never be able to brag again!” Ed exclaimed.

  They turned to me, waiting for my reaction.

  “I didn’t buy the Howler just to play tricks with it,” I said sadly.

  Vanessa put a hand on my shoulder. “But wouldn’t it cheer you up to fool Scott and scare him out of his mind?”

  I couldn’t hold back a smile. “Well…maybe a little,” I said. “Let’s do it!”

  19

  On Monday, Vanessa, Ed, and Justin met at my house after school. I had the Howler ready to go. I just wanted to talk over the plan to scare Scott.

  “Vanessa, Ed, and I will go in through Scott’s back door. We’ll make sure the door isn’t locked, so Justin can sneak in later. Then we’ll keep Scott busy in the living room or in his room, so he doesn’t see Justin come in.”

  “And where do I go?” Justin asked. “Up to the attic?”

  I nodded. “Yes, you sneak up to the attic. It’s a big L-shaped room. You’ll see a closet just before the room turns. You hide in that closet.”

  “Then we bring Scott up to the attic and set up the Howler next to the closet where Justin is hiding,” Vanessa said.

  “Cool,” Ed said, grinning. “This is totally cool.”

  I chuckled. “I’m so sick of Scott bragging about how his house is haunted. I can’t wait to see what he does when he thinks he’s hearing a real ghost!”

  “He’ll die!” Vanessa exclaimed, grinning. “He’ll just die!”

  “What’s up, guys?” Scott greeted us at his kitchen door. He had a half-eaten brownie in his hand and chocolate smeared on his chin.

  “Do you have any more of those?” Ed asked, pointing at the brownie. “I’m starving.”

  Scott shoved the rest of the brownie into his mouth. “That’s the last one,” he said, chewing hard.

  The three of us stepped into the kitchen. “How come you weren’t in school today?” Vanessa asked him.

  “I had a bad stomachache this morning,” he said.

  Probably from eating too many brownies, I thought.

  “I brought something you might be interested in,” I told Scott. I held up the Howler.

  Scott wiped his chocolaty fingers off on the legs of his jeans. He took the Howler from me and examined it. “What does it do? Didn’t you have another one of these in your room last week?”

  “This one is different,” I said. “This one works.”

  “We saw it work,” Ed said. “It’s no joke.”

  “But what does it do?” Scott asked, turning the box over in his hands.

  “It’s called the Howler,” I said. “Can we sit down somewhere? I’ll explain it to you.”

  Scott led the way to the small den on the other side of the living room. I hung back in the kitchen for just a second. I pulled the back door open just a crack so that Justin could slip in.

  Then I hurried to catch up to the others. As I made my way across the kitchen, I saw a plate on the counter stacked high with brownies.

  What a liar, I thought. He wanted to save them all for himself.

  We tossed off our coats and threw them on the den floor. Then we sat around on the green leather furniture, and I explained the Howler to Scott.

  At first, he laughed. “You’ve been watching too many cartoons.”

  “But we heard ghosts howling,” Vanessa insisted. “It was really creepy, Scott. We heard a ghost, howling and begging us for help.”

  “I heard it too,” Ed said. “It—it gave me nightmares last night.”

&n
bsp; Scott’s grin faded.

  Behind me, I heard the front stairs creak. I knew Justin was making his way up to the attic. We had to keep Scott talking a little while longer and give Justin time to get settled in the closet.

  Scott studied the little gray box. “It picks up howls? And you can hear the ghosts talk?”

  “You can talk to them too,” I said. “You just push this red button and speak into that circle.”

  “Your house is haunted, right?” Vanessa said. “That’s what you’ve been telling everyone. You’ve seen the ghosts walking around. So the Howler should work right away.”

  Scott hesitated. His mouth started to twitch nervously. “Well…I don’t know. My ghosts don’t come out in the daytime. Only at night.”

  He’s looking for an excuse, I thought. He doesn’t want us to use the Howler here. Because he doesn’t want us to prove that there are no ghosts in this house.

  “Maybe you can’t see them in the daytime,” I said. “But with the Howler, we can hear them.”

  “No. I don’t think so,” Scott insisted. “I don’t want to bother them with that thing. You know. Why get them stirred up?”

  “It won’t bother them,” I replied. “It—”

  “Besides, I have too much homework,” Scott said. “You guys should go. I really have to get started on it.”

  “But you weren’t in school today,” Vanessa said. “You don’t have the homework assignments.”

  Scott started to look desperate. His mouth was twitching, and his face was bright red. He really didn’t want us to prove what a fake he was.

  I jumped to my feet and started to carry the Howler to the stairs. “Come on. Let’s take it up to the attic and listen to these ghosts of yours.”

  Scott hurried to block my way. “Uh…that thing—it’s not really real—right? It’s a toy, like the other junk you bought?”

  “I told you, this one works,” I said. “You’ll be surprised. I think you’ll really be surprised.”

  20

  Carrying the Howler in front of me, I led the way up the stairs. Scott pulled down the door in the ceiling, and we marched up to the attic.

  The afternoon sun was lowering in the sky. Pale light washed in from the single window. Long shadows stretched across the cluttered floor.

  “Wow. Nice attic,” Ed said, glancing around. “It looks kind of haunted.”

  Scott didn’t say anything.

  I made my way across the room. “There’s a plug over by the closet,” I said. “We can plug the Howler in there.”

  Vanessa pulled a carton up beside the closet, and I set the box down on it. Then I reached behind the carton to plug the Howler in.

  I squatted down on the floor in front of it and clicked it on. Vanessa, Ed, and Scott huddled behind me.

  I glanced behind me and caught the tense expression on Scott’s face.

  I was enjoying our little joke already, even though it was just beginning. As I stared at the yellow dial, it was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing.

  Vanessa and Ed were also having trouble keeping straight faces. I could see they were really enjoying our little joke too.

  “What’s happening?” Scott asked nervously. “Is it on? What does it do now?”

  “It’s warming up,” I replied. “You just have to wait and listen carefully. If there are any ghosts nearby, and if they’re making any sounds, the Howler will pick them up.”

  “But—maybe my ghosts are silent,” Scott said. “Maybe they don’t howl. I think they probably sleep during the day.”

  “Do ghosts sleep?” Ed asked. “They’re not alive, right? So why do they have to sleep?”

  “Shhh.” I raised a finger to my lips. I leaned closer to the gray box.

  “I—I think I hear something,” Vanessa said loudly.

  That was Justin’s cue to start making ghost sounds from the closet.

  We all grew silent. Somewhere down the block, a car was honking its horn. The only other sounds were Scott’s wheezing, rapid breaths right behind me.

  A few seconds went by. We huddled there in front of the little machine, frozen, staring straight ahead, listening. And then…

  Owoooooooooooo.

  Soft. So very faint. Almost like a breath.

  Scott gasped. “Did you hear that?”

  I nodded solemnly. “The Howler is picking up something.” I raised my finger to my lips again.

  Vanessa dropped to her knees beside me. “Wow,” she muttered, pretending to be amazed. She and I exchanged glances.

  Oooooooowooooo. Another howl, louder this time.

  “The ghost seems so sad,” I whispered. I turned to Scott. “That’s why they howl. They can’t stand the pain.”

  He nodded but didn’t say anything. His eyes were bulging. His mouth kept twitching.

  “I…I don’t believe this!” Ed whispered.

  “Help us…Help us out of here….”

  The raspy, whispered words made Scott cry out. “Turn it off!” he shrieked. “I—I don’t want to disturb them!”

  “Shhhh. Listen,” I said, pointing to the speaker.

  I pressed the red button. “Where are you?” I asked. “Are you in this room with us?”

  Silence. A long, tense silence.

  “Help us…. The snow is so high….”

  Vanessa covered her mouth. I could see she was about to laugh.

  I turned and saw that Scott wasn’t laughing. He was buying it.

  He believed he was hearing a real ghost.

  I pressed the red button. “Can you hear me?” I asked. “Where are you? Who are you? Please—tell us.”

  “The snow is so high,” came the whisper. “We’ve been snowed in for days. And we’re so hungry…so hungry.”

  “But where are you?” I called into the Howler. I turned to the others. “I don’t think he can hear me.”

  “Maybe he’s very far away,” Scott said. He kept swallowing. He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and stared at the gray box.

  “Can you help us?” came the whisper. “We’ve been trapped here for so long. We’d be so happy…so grateful…. Please…”

  I pressed my face close to the Howler. “We can help you,” I said. “You have to tell us where you are.”

  “But—maybe we don’t want to help them,” Scott said softly.

  Ed laughed. “You’re chicken—aren’t you!”

  Scott didn’t reply.

  “The ghost sounds so sad,” Vanessa said. “We have to help him.”

  “Please…let us out of here. Let us out!” came the cry, so faint, so far away.

  Justin is doing an awesome job, I thought. Look at Scott. He’s shaking like a leaf. Excellent! This is excellent!

  I pressed the red button. “We will try to help you,” I shouted. “But you have to tell us where you are.”

  “In the closet,” came the reply. “Please…we’ve been in the closet for so long…. It’s so dark, so cold. And we’re very hungry. Please…”

  I jumped to my feet and turned to the closet.

  This was the big moment. Time for Scott to get the scare of his life.

  My heart was pounding. I couldn’t wait. I caught the excited expressions on Vanessa’s and Ed’s faces.

  “Wait—” Scott cried. “Spencer, where are you going?”

  “To the closet,” I said, pointing. “We have to open the closet.”

  “But—but—” Scott sputtered.

  “You’ve told us all about the ghosts in this house,” Vanessa said. “Don’t you want to see them?”

  “Don’t you want to help them?” Ed added.

  I didn’t wait for Scott to answer. I pushed him up to the closet door. “Open it,” I said.

  He tried to back away, but we had him surrounded. He was trembling. Large beads of sweat rolled down the sides of his face.

  “Open it, Scott,” Vanessa urged.

  “Just open it,” I said.

  “Okay, okay,” he muttered. He gr
abbed the door handle. He took a deep breath.

  Vanessa, Ed, and I braced ourselves. We were ready for the big moment.

  Scott hesitated…hesitated…. Then he pulled open the closet door.

  All four of us stared—stared into the shallow, dark closet.

  THERE WAS NO ONE INSIDE.

  21

  “Oh, wow.” I stared into the empty closet.

  Vanessa grabbed my arm. “Where’s Justin?” she whispered.

  Before I could answer, I heard a clumping sound on the stairs. I turned and saw Justin step up into the attic.

  “Hey, guys—sorry I’m late,” he called. “My mom beeped me, and I had to see what it was about.”

  Scott still had his hand on the closet doorknob. He turned to me, his expression puzzled. “What’s going on, Spencer?”

  Ed’s eyes were wide with fear. “I—I don’t get it,” he murmured.

  “Ohhhhh!” I let out a startled cry as a blast of freezing air shot out of the closet.

  Scott’s hand flew off the door handle, and he stumbled back. Another powerful blast sent Vanessa, Ed, and me staggering back across the attic.

  “Ohhh, the smell!” I moaned. The cold air smelled like rotting meat.

  Justin had stopped in the middle of the room. “What’s up?” he called. “Did you start without me?”

  And then his expression changed, and he started to gag as the cold, putrid air swirled around him.

  “Shut the door!” Scott shouted. “Hurry! Shut the closet door!”

  I pinched two fingers over my nose to keep the disgusting odor out. Then I lowered my head into the swirling wind and took a few steps toward the closet.

  But a high, shrill scream made me stop.

  The scream rose up from the closet like a police siren. And rose and rose—until it became a deafening screech.

  My eardrums felt about to burst. I slapped my hands over my ears. But I couldn’t keep out the horrifying, painfully shrill wail.

  Holding my head, I struggled toward the closet. But the putrid wind swirled, pushing me back…back.

  I stumbled. Fell to my knees. The wind raged over me.

  And over its howl, I heard voices. Chattering, excited whispers.