The Cabinet of Souls Read online

  This was going to be fun.

  Beth headed for her next class. Everything felt off today … and not just because it was Halloween. Nice guy Luke was acting like a bully and her best friend wouldn’t even talk to her.

  She spotted Nicole sitting in their usual spot. She was painting her fingernails black. Beth had never seen her wear that color. She looked at Nicole and realized that she was dressed completely in black. The only color on her was the red rings under her eyes.

  Beth put her books on her desk and sat down. When she looked at Nicole, her friend fixed her with a glare so cold it could have frozen a pool of lava. Beth tried to think of something to say, but couldn’t.

  Their teacher, Ms. Sarkosian, came into the room. She loved Halloween and was dressed in elf ears in honor of the day. She clapped her hands as she circled toward the front of the room.

  “Hello, everyone,” she said cheerfully. “Has everyone made their Halloween plans?” She touched her fake ears. “Today we’re going to work on our history packets. So please get them out and work quietly at your desks.”

  Papers rustled around the room as the students took out their work.

  “Has anyone seen Luke?” Ms. Sarkosian asked. “Is he in school?”

  “I saw him when I was in the hallway earlier,” Beth answered.

  “How about Kellen?”

  Beth looked at the desk on her other side. Where was Kellen? He hadn’t looked sick last night. And he never skipped school.

  Ms. Sarkosian frowned and made a mark on her seating chart before picking up some papers from her desk.

  Beth glanced at Nicole. Her friend looked as if she was in a haze.

  Suddenly Nicole leaned forward and hissed! A forked tongue shot out of her mouth!

  Beth couldn’t believe her eyes. Was Nicole really there at the next desk?

  Nobody else had noticed. They all were doing their history packets.

  Nicole stood up. When she spoke, her voice was raspy, “Ms. Sarkosian, may I use the hall pass?”

  The teacher raised her eyes briefly, and then replied, “Go ahead.”

  Again Beth looked around the room, but everyone was focused on their work. Was she the only one who heard the ominous hiss in Nicole’s words?

  Nicole smirked as she walked to Ms. Sarkosian’s desk and picked up the hall pass, a round piece of cardboard with a key attached. She strode past Beth toward the door. Before she went out, she sneered at Beth.

  “Ms. Sarkosian,” asked Beth, fearing what might happen to her friend if she was left alone, “May I go, too?”

  “No,” the teacher replied. “One at a time.”

  Beth stared at the door. Nicole wasn’t herself. Something was terribly wrong with her. She shouldn’t be by herself, but Beth couldn’t go after her. Even if she tried to explain to Ms. Sarkosian, would the teacher believe her? Ms. Sarkosian hadn’t seemed to notice anything different about Nicole.

  Someone had to do something. Beth didn’t know what she was going to do—but one thing was clear: Her friends were in danger. And it was up to her to help them.

  DURING THE DAY, THE TOWN SQUARE was quiet. Even the wind was barely blowing, though it sent a few pieces of paper twisting between the harvest festival’s booths.

  Crazy laughter shattered the silence. Grinning fiercely in his new clown face, Luke sprinted into the middle of the street and began doing cartwheels. He kicked up his feet. He laughed. He did flips. Everything was funny, and it was all thanks to him. He wanted to shout for everyone to laugh, but there was nobody to listen.

  Luke did a flip over a bale of hay. When he landed back on his feet, he saw Dr. Hysteria in front of him. He had reached the Hall of Horrors.

  “Ho-ho. Hee-hee. Ha-ha!” Luke shouted. He suddenly realized he couldn’t say anything else. But it was okay. He was a clown. He could make everyone laugh with just those few words.

  A tall, bald ghoul in a karate gi and a short goblin stood next to the entrance to the Hall of Horrors.

  Dr. Hysteria pointed to Luke and said in a bored tone, “Get him into costume.”

  The ghoul and the goblin stepped forward.

  “Yes, yes, a costume,” Luke the clown crowed. “Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Words had come back to him. He wanted a costume. That would make his jokes even funnier. Everyone loves a clown, don’t they? Everyone would love him and his jokes. Nobody would tell him to stop clowning around ever again.

  “Tailored just for you.” Dr. Hysteria handed the goblin a set of clothes and huge clown shoes.

  The ghoul and the goblin grabbed Luke’s arms and herded him into the Hall of Horrors. Luke laughed at the huge picture of Dr. Hysteria. “That’s a big nose!” he shouted.

  The goblin just growled.

  “Good lad,” Dr. Hysteria said. He surveyed the street with an expectant smile. The first one was here. The others wouldn’t be far behind. By midnight, he would be able to feast.

  Beth couldn’t stand waiting any longer. She walked up to Ms. Sarkosian’s desk.

  “Yes?” asked the teacher.

  “Nicole’s been gone a really long time now,” Beth said. “Do you think I could go and check on her?”

  “Go ahead.” Ms. Sarkosian wrote out another hall pass and handed it to her. She gave Beth a look that warned her there better not be any mischief afoot.

  Beth hurried out into the empty hall. Nicole had turned left out of the room, so she went that way. After a few more steps, something rushed at her.

  Beth stared in shock. It was a witch. Her hands were claws, her face wrinkled and warty and hideous.

  The witch ran full-speed into Beth, knocking her to the floor like a linebacker tackling a running back. All the air burst out of Beth in a gasp.

  The witch gripped the front of Beth’s shirt and shrieked in her face. Her breath smelled worse than roadkill. Her beady eyes bored into Beth’s.

  The next moment, the witch jumped to her feet and jerked Beth up with inhuman strength. Again she roared in Beth’s face, showing her rotten teeth.

  Beth looked down. The witch was wearing familiar clothes. They were Nicole’s.

  “Nicole?” she asked, not wanting to believe what she was seeing.

  The witch hurled her away, and Beth slammed into a row of lockers and slid to the floor.

  For a moment, she just lay there, trying to breathe—and trying to accept what she’d seen and heard. She struggled to get up. Every inch of her body ached from Nicole’s blow.

  She pushed herself up to her elbows. The hall was deserted. Nicole was gone.

  Beth had a bad feeling about where Nicole had gone. Her stomach ached at the thought of what had happened to her best friend.

  It was so clear now … and so awful. All the people trapped in the Cabinet of Souls were teenagers once. They had all vanished.

  Now her friends were next. And Dr. Hysteria was behind it all.

  She had to stop him. But she couldn’t do this by herself. She needed help.

  But who was left to help her? All her friends were gone.

  Beth was alone.

  BETH SAT IN THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE. On the other side of the desk, Principal Callahan watched her. Behind him stood Ms. Sarkosian and Sheriff Wilson. She’d told them everything she’d seen and heard.

  They looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  How could she convince them?

  “It’s Dr. Hysteria,” she insisted. She had to get them to listen to her. She knew that what she had to say sounded crazy. But it was crazy true. “He’s turning teenagers into monsters, and he’s taking their souls. He collects them in this cabinet—the Cabinet of Souls—which according to my research probably makes him some kind of minor demon. He’s keeping them for later so he can feed off of them. And now he has my friends—Kellen, Luke, Nicole. They’re all missing. I think he’s going to take their souls, too, if I don’t stop him by midnight. Tonight!”

  Ms. Sarkosian and the sheriff exchanged a worried look while the principal stared at her over hi
s coffee cup.

  “Right,” said the sheriff, crossing his arms and giving Beth a smile that hinted it’d be best if she were sedated before she hurt herself or others.

  “This is my most steady student,” Ms. Sarkosian said with a sympathetic smile.

  Beth smiled back, encouraging her teacher. She doubted Ms. Sarkosian believed her, but she was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

  “Straight As,” Ms. Sarkosian went on. “The good citizenship award. And there are kids missing.”

  The principal just stared, but the sheriff sighed.

  Beth hoped that meant he was going to help. She didn’t know where else to turn.

  Half an hour later, the sheriff’s patrol car rolled up in front of the Hall of Horrors. Beth sat in the passenger’s seat.

  “He’s really, really dangerous,” Beth warned the sheriff as he unlatched his seat belt.

  Sheriff Wilson looked down at his service revolver.

  “A gun isn’t going to do you any good against a demon,” she said.

  “Okay, then,” he said, and she knew he was just humoring her. “How am I supposed to stop a, er, demon?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Right.” He grumbled. “Then you stay here and figure that out while I go have a look around.” He got out. As he closed the door, he gave her a warning look. Its message was clear: She better not set as much as a toenail outside the car.

  As the sheriff approached the Hall of Horrors, Dr. Hysteria stepped out.

  “Hello, Sheriff Wilson,” Dr. Hysteria said, as if he’d been expecting company. “How may I be of service?”

  Beth shuddered. Was his polite smile just another way Dr. Hysteria twisted people to his will?

  Sheriff Wilson looked embarrassed. “The girl says that you’re a de—” He couldn’t say the words. “She says that there may be some missing kids here.”

  “Really?” drawled Dr. Hysteria, still smiling. His eyes, cold as a snake’s, shifted toward Beth, and she shivered again. “She said that?”

  “So I was wondering,” the sheriff said, “if I could have a look around?”

  “By all means.”

  “Thank you.”

  Listening to the sheriff, Beth wasn’t sure if he was thanking Dr. Hysteria for letting him look around or for not laughing in his face at the peculiar request.

  Dr. Hysteria’s smile turned into a scowl as the sheriff walked past him. His eyes blazed with fury as he focused on Beth.

  She was starting to think letting him know she suspected him had been a big mistake.

  Then he smiled at her. It was the smile of someone who knew he was going to win. He turned and followed the sheriff into the Hall of Horrors.

  Beth hugged her knees to her chest. How was she going to protect her friends … and herself?

  Inside, Dr. Hysteria led Sheriff Wilson into the zombie classroom. The light was dim, but not frightening.

  “Did you want to look at my permits?” Dr. Hysteria asked. “The originals are all filed at city hall.”

  “No, no. That’s okay.” The sheriff was getting the creeps. He just wanted to find out if there was any truth to Beth’s suspicions, and then get out of there.

  Dr. Hysteria went over to a switch on the wall. “Showbiz magic. It’s amazing what it can do to the imagination.” He flipped it up.

  Lights flashed. Ghostly laughter and screams came from all around them. Doors creaked, and moans echoed as if from the depths of the earth. A painting dropped to the floor, and a fake skeleton with glowing eyes jumped forward, growling. A trapdoor popped up from the teacher’s desk, and the head of a hairy beast sprang up from underneath it.

  Sheriff Wilson flinched. He couldn’t help it. The place was spooky.

  Dr. Hysteria flipped the switch back up. Instantly, the lights returned to normal, and it was quiet again. The picture slid back into place, hiding the skeleton again. The trapdoor closed on the desk.

  “Wow,” Sheriff Wilson said with an ironic smile. “I get your point.”

  “Indeed.” Dr. Hysteria motioned back in the direction from which they’d come. “After you.”

  Satisfied, the sheriff walked out of the room. He didn’t glance over his shoulder, or he would have seen the grim expression on Dr. Hysteria’s face.

  The demon didn’t like anyone interfering with his plans. He was going to make Beth pay for the trouble she’d caused him.

  Soon.

  Beth was doing research on her phone when a movement in the rearview mirror caught her eye. Kellen and Lilith were walking past the sheriff’s car.

  “Kellen!” She opened the car door and jumped out.

  Kellen didn’t stop. He just kept walking with Lilith. It reminded her too much of the way Nicole was acting.

  “Kellen!” She ran to his side and grabbed his arm.

  Just then, the sheriff and Dr. Hysteria emerged from the Hall of Horrors.

  Sheriff Wilson headed over to Beth. “Is this one of the missing boys?” he asked her.

  “This is Kellen,” she said.

  “Missing?” Kellen asked, looking at the sheriff in confusion. “I’m not missing. I’m right here.” He frowned at her. “You said I was missing?”

  Beth tried to salvage the situation. “Well, he’s not himself. And he wasn’t at school …” She knew that she sounded weak. But she also knew that her friends were in terrible danger—even if they didn’t believe it.

  Kellen gave the sheriff a look that said he didn’t have any idea what she was talking about.

  Dr. Hysteria stared at Beth expressionlessly. That was scarier than one of his scowls.

  Beth knew that this was her only chance. She couldn’t waste it.

  “I’ll show you.” She ran past the others and into the Hall of Horrors.

  “Wait!” called the sheriff. “No—” There was a note of genuine fear in his voice. He really didn’t want to go back into that freaky place.

  “Oh, my!” said Dr. Hysteria, turning to follow Beth.

  Kellen, Lilith, and the sheriff went with him. As they walked through the corridors, it was oddly silent.

  “I really don’t like her running around back here,” Dr. Hysteria said, sounding very sincere. “She could get hurt.”

  They came to an intersection, and everyone looked both ways. Beth was nowhere in sight.

  “Boy, this is quite a maze you’ve got here.” The sheriff was careful about where he stepped.

  “It’s all modular. We move it around during the show.” He gave a short laugh. “Sometimes even I get lost.”

  Ahead of them, Beth retraced the steps she and Hunter had taken the night they’d discovered the Cabinet of Souls. Could it have been only last night? It seemed a lifetime ago. And if she wanted to save Andrea Payton and her friends and the other trapped souls, she needed to prove that Dr. Hysteria was truly a demon.

  There! That was the door she’d gone through when she saw the vampire and the zombie. She opened it and, to her relief, recognized the next corridor as well. She kept running.

  After a few more turns, she’d discovered the door she’d gone through last night. It was slightly ajar, so she crept inside.

  The Cabinet of Souls stood across from her. It was silent as a tomb. Not a single moan came from it.

  No matter, Beth told herself. She’d found it, and now she could show the sheriff what was inside.

  “I found it!” she called.

  A moment later, Dr. Hysteria appeared. The wide-eyed sheriff, Kellen, and Lilith were right behind him. They all stared at her.

  She pointed toward the cabinet. “This is what I was talking about. Andrea Payton is in here.”

  “This is an expensive prop,” Dr. Hysteria said, “and it’s not ready. Don’t go near it!”

  “Right,” Beth said with a tight laugh. He wasn’t going to stop her that easily. She knew what she had seen. Nobody was going to talk her out of it. Not again. She grabbed the handles on the doors.

  “Please, don’
t!” Dr. Hysteria cried.

  Beth ignored him. She yanked on the doors, and they creaked open.

  Inside, there was nothing but a sheet of black plywood. The fake front wobbled, and then crashed down, leaving Beth standing in what had been the doorway. Pieces of broken plywood were scattered around her.

  The Cabinet of Souls was gone.

  Whirling, she saw a snide smile on Lilith’s lips. Worse, Kellen was looking at her with pity.

  Now everyone thought she’d lost her mind.

  Beth was beginning to think they were right.

  HOW HAD THEY DONE IT?

  As Beth sat in the sheriff’s car, she couldn’t think of an answer. She was frustrated, and she had no idea what to do next.

  But she knew what she’d seen. She knew she wasn’t crazy. The satisfied smiles on both Dr. Hysteria and Lilith’s faces made her angry, but they also made her determined to find the real Cabinet of Souls. Dr. Hysteria and Lilith were evil. They had to be stopped. And she would do it.

  But how?

  She watched Dr. Hysteria emerge from the Hall of Horrors with Sheriff Wilson.

  “There’s no reason to make a legal case out of it,” said Dr. Hysteria. “I believe the young lady just got wrapped up in the spirit of the season.”

  Sheriff Wilson couldn’t hide his relief that the whole situation was over. All he wanted was to get far away from the Hall of Horrors. “That’s very decent of you. I’ll get her back to her parents now.”

  Beth sighed. She wouldn’t get any more help from the sheriff. Not that he had been much help anyhow. He hadn’t believed her from the start. He’d been easily charmed by Dr. Hysteria’s smooth talk. She had to figure out what she was going to do next to save her friends.

  Kellen and Lilith were standing by the VIP entrance, listening to the two men talk. Kellen pulled out his phone and punched in a number.

  “I’m calling Beth,” he said when Lilith looked at him with a faint frown. It should have been obvious. He was puzzled by Beth’s weird behavior, but she was still one of his best friends. “I feel bad for her.”

  “I do, too.” Lilith said. She reached out and took his phone. “But we can’t fix everyone’s problems. C’mon. Let me show you something.”