11 - The Haunted Mask

  Sabrina was silent for a moment. “I guess it’s because you’re so scare-able, Carly Beth.”

  “Scare-able?”

  “You scream so easily,” Sabrina said. “Other people get scared. But they’re more quiet about it. You know Chuck and Steve. They don’t really mean to be mean. They just think it’s funny.”

  “Well, I don’t think it’s funny at all,” Carly Beth replied unhappily. “And I’m not going to be scare-able anymore. I mean it. I’m not ever going to scream or get frightened again.”

  The science projects were all set up for judging on the stage in the auditorium. Mrs. Armbruster, the principal, and Mr. Smythe, the science teacher, walked from display to display, making notes on their clipboards.

  The solar system, as designed by Carly Beth and Sabrina, had survived the trip to school in pretty good shape. Pluto had a slight dent in it, which the girls had struggled unsuccessfully to straighten out. And Earth kept coming loose from its string and bouncing across the floor. But both girls agreed the display looked pretty good.

  Maybe it wasn’t as impressive as Martin Goodman’s project. Martin had built a computer from scratch. But Martin was a genius. And Carly Beth figured the judges didn’t expect everyone else to be geniuses, too.

  Looking around the crowded, noisy stage, Carly Beth saw other interesting projects. Mary Sue Chong had built some kind of electronic robot arm that could pick up a cup or wave to people. And Brian Baldwin had several glass bottles filled with brown gunky stuff that he claimed was toxic waste.

  Someone had done a chemical analysis of the town’s drinking water. And someone had built a volcano that would erupt when the two judges came by.

  “Our project is kind of boring,” Sabrina whispered nervously to Carly Beth, her eyes on the two judges who were oohing and aahing over Martin Goodman’s homemade computer. “I mean, it’s just painted Ping-Pong balls on strings.”

  “I like our project,” Carly Beth insisted. “We worked hard on it, Sabrina.”

  “I know,” Sabrina replied fretfully. “But it’s still kind of boring.”

  The volcano erupted, sending up a gusher of red liquid. The judges appeared impressed. Several kids cheered.

  “Uh-oh. Here they come,” Carly Beth whispered, jamming her hands into her jeans pockets. Mrs. Armbruster and Mr. Smythe, smiles plastered across their faces, were coming closer.

  They stopped to examine a display of light and crystals.

  Suddenly, Carly Beth heard an excited shout from somewhere behind her on the stage. “My tarantula! Hey—my tarantula got out!”

  She recognized Steve’s voice.

  “Where’s my tarantula?” he called.

  Several kids uttered startled cries. Some kids laughed.

  I’m not going to get scared, Carly Beth told herself, swallowing hard.

  She knew she was terrified of tarantulas. But this time she was determined not to show it.

  “My tarantula—it got away!” Steve shouted over the roar of excited voices.

  I’m not going to get scared. I’m not going to get scared, Carly Beth repeated to herself.

  But then she felt something pinch the back of her leg and dig its spiny pincer into her skin—and Carly Beth uttered a shrill scream of terror that rang out through the auditorium.

  5

  Carly Beth screamed and knocked over the solar system.

  She kicked her leg wildly, trying to toss off the tarantula. Ping-Pong ball planets bounced over the floor.

  She screamed again. “Get it off me! Get it off!”

  “Carly Beth—stop!” Sabrina pleaded. “You’re okay! You’re okay!”

  It took Carly Beth a long while to realize that everyone was laughing. Her heart pounding, she spun around to find Steve down on his hands and knees behind her.

  He made a pinching motion with his thumb and finger. “Gotcha again,” he said, grinning up at her.

  “Noooo!” Carly Beth cried.

  There was no tarantula, she realized. Steve had pinched her leg.

  She raised her head and saw that kids all over the stage were laughing. Mrs. Armbruster and Mr. Smythe were laughing, too.

  With a cry of anger, Carly Beth tried to kick Steve in the side. But he spun away. She missed.

  “Help me pick up the planets,” she heard Sabrina say.

  But Sabrina seemed far, far away.

  All Carly Beth could hear was the pounding of her heart and the laughter of the kids all around her. Steve had climbed to his feet. He and Chuck were side by side, grinning at her, slapping each other high-fives.

  “Carly Beth—help me,” Sabrina pleaded.

  But Carly Beth spun away, jumped off the stage, and ran, escaping up the dark auditorium aisle.

  I’m going to pay Steve and Chuck back, she vowed angrily, her sneakers thudding loudly up the concrete aisle. I’m going to scare them, REALLY scare them!

  But how?

  6

  “Okay. What time should I meet you?” Carly Beth asked, cradling the phone between her chin and shoulder.

  On the other end of the line, Sabrina considered for a moment. “How about seven-thirty?”

  It was Halloween. The plan was to meet at Sabrina’s house, then go trick-or-treating through the entire neighborhood.

  “The earlier the better. We’ll get more candy,” Sabrina said. “Did Steve call you?”

  “Yeah. He called,” Carly Beth replied bitterly.

  “Did he apologize?”

  “Yeah, he apologized,” Carly Beth muttered, rolling her eyes. “Big deal. I mean, he already made me look like a jerk in front of the entire school. What good is an apology?”

  “I think he felt bad,” Sabrina replied.

  “I hope he felt bad!” Carly Beth exclaimed. “It was so mean!”

  “It was a dirty trick,” Sabrina agreed. And then she added, “But you’ll have to admit it was kind of funny.”

  “I don’t have to admit anything!” Carly Beth snapped.

  “Has it stopped raining?” Sabrina asked, changing the subject.

  Carly Beth pulled back the curtain to glance out her bedroom window. The evening sky was charcoal-gray. Dark clouds hovered low. But the rain had stopped. The street glistened wetly under the light of a streetlamp.

  “No rain. I’ve got to go. See you at seven-thirty,” Carly Beth said, speaking rapidly.

  “Hey, wait. What’s your costume?” Sabrina demanded.

  “It’s a surprise,” Carly Beth told her, and hung up.

  It’ll be a surprise to me, too, she told herself, glancing unhappily at the feathery duck costume, rolled up on the chair in the corner.

  Carly Beth’s plan had been to go to the new party store after school and pick out the ugliest, most disgusting, scariest mask they had. But her mother had picked her up after school and insisted that she stay home and watch Noah for a couple of hours.

  Mrs. Caldwell hadn’t returned home until five-fifteen. Now it was nearly a quarter till six. There was no way the party store would still be open, Carly Beth thought, frowning at the duck costume.

  “Quack quack,” she said miserably.

  She walked to the mirror and ran a hairbrush through her hair. Maybe it’s worth a try, she thought. Maybe that store stays open late on Halloween.

  She pulled open her top dresser drawer and took out her wallet. Did she have enough money for a good, scary mask?

  Thirty dollars. Her life savings.

  She wadded up the bills and stuffed them back into the wallet. Then, jamming the wallet into her jeans pocket, she grabbed her coat and hurried downstairs and out the front door.

  The evening air was cold and damp. Carly Beth struggled to zip her coat as she jogged toward the party store. The house next door had a glowing jack-o’-lantern in the front window. The house on the corner had paper skeletons strung up across the front porch.

  The wind howled through the bare trees. The branches above her head shook and rattled like bony arms.

&nbs
p; What a creepy night, Carly Beth thought.

  She started running a little faster. A car rolled silently by, sending harsh white light floating across the sidewalk like a bright ghost.

  Glancing across the street, Carly Beth saw the old Carpenter mansion looming over its dark, weed-choked lawn. Everyone said the ramshackle old house was haunted by people who had been murdered inside it a hundred years ago.

  Once, Carly Beth had heard frightening howls coming from the old mansion. When she was Noah’s age, Steve and Chuck and some other kids had dared each other to go up to the house and knock on the door. Carly Beth had run home instead. She never did find out if the other kids were brave enough to do it.

  Now Carly Beth felt a chill of fear as she hurried past the old house. She knew this neighborhood really well. She had lived in it her entire life. But tonight it looked different to her.

  Was it just the wet glow left by the rain?

  No. It was a heavy feeling in the air. A heavier darkness. The eerie orange glow of grinning pumpkins in windows. The silent cries of ghouls and monsters waiting to float free on their night to celebrate. Halloween.

  Trying to force all the scary thoughts from her mind, Carly Beth turned the corner. The little party store came into view. The window was lighted, revealing two rows of Halloween masks, staring out at the street.

  But was the store still open?

  Crossing her fingers, Carly Beth waited for a truck to rumble past, then eagerly jogged across the street. She stopped for a second to examine the masks in the window. There were gorilla masks, monster masks, some sort of blue-haired alien mask.

  Pretty good, she thought. These are pretty ugly. But they probably have even scarier ones inside.

  The lights were on in the store. She peered through the glass door. Then she tried turning the knob.

  It didn’t move.

  She tried again. She tried pulling the door open. Then she tried pushing.

  No. No way.

  She was too late. The store was closed.

  7

  Carly Beth sighed and peered in through the glass. The walls of the tiny store were covered with masks. The masks seemed to stare back at her.

  They’re laughing at me, she thought unhappily. Laughing at me because I’m too late. Because the store is closed, and I’m going to have to be a stupid duck for Halloween.

  Suddenly, a dark shadow moved over the glass, blocking Carly Beth’s view. She gasped and took a step back.

  It took her a moment to realize that the shadow was a man. A man in a black suit, staring out at her, a look of surprise on his face.

  “Are you—are you closed?” Carly Beth shouted through the glass.

  The man gestured that he couldn’t hear her. He turned the lock and pulled the door open an inch. “Can I help you?” he asked curtly. He had shiny black hair, parted in the middle and slicked down on his head, and a pencil-thin black mustache.

  “Are you open?” Carly Beth asked timidly. “I need a Halloween mask.”

  “It’s very late,” the man replied, not answering her question. He pulled the door open another few inches. “We normally close at five.”

  “I really would like to buy a mask,” Carly Beth told him in her most determined voice.

  The man’s tiny, black eyes peered into hers. His expression remained blank. “Come in,” he said quietly.

  As Carly Beth stepped past him into the store, she saw that he wore a black cape. It must be a Halloween costume, she told herself. I’m sure he doesn’t wear that all the time.

  She turned her attention to the masks on the two walls.

  “What kind of mask are you looking for?” the man asked, closing the door behind him.

  Carly Beth felt a stab of fear. His black eyes glowed like two burning coals. He seemed so strange. And here she was, locked in this closed store with him.

  “A s-scary one,” she stammered.

  He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He pointed to the wall. “The gorilla mask has been very popular. It has real hair. I believe I may have one left in stock.”

  Carly Beth stared up at the gorilla mask. She didn’t really want to be a gorilla. It was too ordinary. It wasn’t scary enough. “Hmmm… do you have anything scarier?” she asked.

  He flipped his cape back over the shoulder of his black suit. “How about that yellowish one with the pointy ears?” he suggested, pointing. “I believe it’s some sort of Star Trek character. I still have a few of them, I believe.”

  “No.” Carly Beth shook her head. “I need something really scary.”

  A strange smile formed under the man’s thin mustache. His eyes burned into hers, as if trying to read her thoughts. “Look around,” he said, with a sweep of his hand. “Everything I have left in stock is up on the walls.”

  Carly Beth turned her gaze to the masks. A pig mask with long, ugly tusks and blood trickling from the snout caught her eye. Pretty good, she thought. But not quite right.

  A hairy werewolf mask with white, pointy fangs was hung beside it. Again, too ordinary, Carly Beth decided.

  Her eyes glanced over a green Frankenstein mask, a Freddy Krueger mask that came with Freddy’s hand—complete with long, silvery blades for fingers—and an E.T. mask.

  Just not scary enough, Carly Beth thought, starting to feel a little desperate. I need something that will really make Steve and Chuck die of fright!

  “Young lady, I am afraid I must ask you to make your choice,” the man in the cape said softly. He had moved behind the narrow counter at the front and was turning a key in the cash register. “We really are closed, after all.”

  “I’m sorry,” Carly Beth started. “It’s just that—”

  The phone rang before she could finish explaining.

  The man picked it up quickly and began talking in a low voice, turning his back to Carly Beth.

  She wandered toward the back of the store, studying the masks as she walked. She passed a black cat mask with long, ugly yellow fangs. A vampire mask with bright red blood trickling down its lips was hung next to a grinning, bald mask of Uncle Fester from The Addams Family.

  Not right, not right, not right, Carly Beth thought, frowning.

  She hesitated when she spotted a narrow door slightly opened at the back of the store. Was there another room? Were there more masks back there?

  She glanced to the front. The man, hidden behind his cape, still had his back to her as he talked on the phone.

  Carly Beth gave the door a hesitant push to peek inside. The door creaked open. Pale orange light washed over the small, shadowy back room.

  Carly Beth stepped inside—and gasped in amazement.

  8

  Two dozen empty eye sockets stared blindly at Carly Beth.

  She gaped in horror at the distorted, deformed faces.

  They were masks, she realized. Two shelves of masks. But the masks were so ugly, so grotesque—so real—they made her breath catch in her throat.

  Carly Beth gripped the doorframe, reluctant to enter the tiny back room. Staring into the dim orange light, she studied the hideous masks.

  One mask had long, stringy yellow hair falling over its bulging, green forehead. A hairy black rat’s head poked up from a knot in the hair, the rat’s eyes gleaming like two dark jewels.

  The mask beside it had a large nail stuck through an eyehole. Thick, wet-looking blood poured from the eye, down the cheek.

  Chunks of rotting skin appeared to be falling off another mask, revealing gray bone underneath. An enormous black insect, some kind of grotesque beetle, poked out from between the green-and-yellow decayed teeth.

  Carly Beth’s horror mixed with excitement. She took a step into the room. The wooden floorboards creaked noisily beneath her.

  She took another step closer to the grotesque, grinning masks. They seemed so real, so horribly real. The faces had such detail. The skin appeared to be made of flesh, not rubber or plastic.

  These are perfect! she thought, her heart pounding. These
are just what I was looking for. They look terrifying just propped up on these shelves!

  She imagined Steve and Chuck seeing one of these masks coming at them in the dark of night. She pictured herself uttering a bloodcurdling scream and leaping out from behind a tree in one of them.

  She imagined the horrified expressions on the boys’ faces. She pictured Steve and Chuck shrieking in terror and running for their lives.

  Perfect. Perfect!

  What a laugh that would be. What a victory!

  Carly Beth took a deep breath and stepped up to the shelves. Her eyes settled on an ugly mask on the lower shelf.

  It had a bulging, bald head. Its skin was a putrid yellow-green. Its enormous, sunken eyes were an eerie orange and seemed to glow. It had a broad, flat nose, smashed in like a skeleton’s nose. The dark-lipped mouth gaped wide, revealing jagged animal fangs.

  Staring hard at the hideous mask, Carly Beth reached out a hand toward it. Reluctantly, she touched the broad forehead.

  And as she touched it, the mask cried out.

  9

  “Ohh!”

  Carly Beth shrieked and jerked back her hand.

  The mask grinned at her. Its orange eyes glowed brightly. The lips appeared to curl back over the fangs.

  She suddenly felt dizzy. What is going on here?

  As she staggered back, away from the shelves, she realized that the angry cry hadn’t come from the mask.

  It had come from behind her.

  Carly Beth spun around to see the black-caped store owner glaring at her from the doorway. His dark eyes flashed. His mouth was turned down into a menacing frown.

  “Oh. I thought—” Carly Beth started, glancing back at the mask. She still felt confused. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest.

  “I am sorry you saw these,” the man said in a low, threatening voice. He took a step toward her, his cape brushing the doorway.

  What is he going to do? Carly Beth wondered, uttering a horrified gasp. Why is he coming at me like that?