House of a Thousand Screams Read online

  Cool, I thought. This was going to be great! Scary stories in a house on Fear Street!

  I turned my attention back to Pearl, who was starting her story.

  “Since Lizzy is new here, I will tell the story of the first troop of Camp Fear Girls.” Pearl leaned forward and spoke in an eerie voice. “This story begins almost one hundred years ago. Thirteen girls—a troop of Shadyside scouts called the Camp Fear Girls—decided to go for a camp-out in the Fear Street Woods. Those thirteen girls left home and were never seen again.”

  “Their families searched and searched for these thirteen girls, but they were never found.”

  Pearl raised her candle to just below her chin.

  “There are rumors—wild, horrible rumors,” she continued, “that those thirteen scouts were turned into hideous monsters. By who—or what—no one knows.”

  As Pearl spoke, the candle cast strange shadows on the wall.

  One shadow, behind Pearl, seemed larger than the others. I fixed my eyes on it. The shadow seemed to have a head. And sharp teeth. And claws!

  A monster!

  I blinked. The shadow was just a black blob again.

  Wow! I was totally freaking myself out. Pearl’s story was really creepy!

  Pearl lowered her voice to a hoarse whisper. “Those monsters still roam Shadyside today, looking for new people to add to their troop.

  “And once you join, you can never leave. You become one of the un-dead. Your body becomes like theirs. Your skin rots and falls off your bones. Your eyes sink back into your head. And you are forced to walk the earth that way—forever!”

  My eyes went wide with horror.

  I felt Amy tap me on the shoulder. “Pretty scary, huh, Lizzy?” she whispered in my ear.

  I turned around to agree with her—and screamed!

  Amy’s skin was grayish-green.

  One eye dangled—out of its socket.

  A huge open cut ran down the side of her face. Green slime oozed from it.

  Amy was a monster!

  About R. L Stine

  R. L. Stine, the creator of Ghosts of Fear Street, has written almost 100 scary novels for kids. The Ghosts of Fear Street series, like the Fear Street series, takes place in Shadyside and centers on the scary events that happen to people on Fear Street.

  When he isn’t writing, R. L. Stine likes to play pinball on his very own pinball machine, and explore New York City with his wife, Jane, and son, Matt.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Aladdin

  An Imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1997 by Parachute Press, Inc.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN 0-671-00190-6

  eISBN 978-1-4424-8776-5

  First Minstrel Books paperback printing February 1997

  Aladdin and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.