The Third Horror

  Why? Why? Why?

  The questions spun around and around in Kody’s mind as if caught in a whirling cyclone.

  I’ve got to get out of here, she told herself. I’ve got to get away!

  She struggled again to loosen the ropes—but a word spoken by Mrs. Nordstrom on the other side of the wall made Kody stop. The word was Cally.

  What is she saying about my sister? Kody wondered. She lowered her face to the crack in the wall and struggled to hear.

  “Cally is a good girl,” Mrs. Nordstrom was saying, tenderly stroking the scraggly gray fur on the back of the rat in her hand.

  “She was a good girl,” Mr. Lurie commented. “But then we got hold of her.”

  All three of them laughed.

  “I said she’s good because she does everything we tell her,” Mrs. Nordstrom said. She sighed and set the rat down on the floor. It scrabbled over to join the others.

  “You like them obedient, don’t you!” Mr. Hankers said, chuckling.

  “Obedient and ignorant,” Mrs. Nordstrom replied, tossing the rats a slice of cheese and watching them battle over it. “That girl thinks she’s obeying her own will.”

  All three of them laughed as if Mrs. Nordstrom had cracked a very funny joke.

  Kody pulled back from the wall. She shut her eyes, trying to figure out what she had just heard.

  They just explained why Cally is so evil, she realized. I was right when I thought that Cally isn’t Cally.

  Those three weird people are controlling her.

  They’ve tricked Cally into obeying their wishes. Or maybe they’ve possessed her somehow.

  Kody realized she didn’t understand any of it. She knew only that she was now afraid for Cally as well as for herself.

  Shutting her eyes, she tried to think clearly. But nothing made any sense.

  She lost track of time again.

  The house had become silent. The excited, shouting voices from upstairs had all vanished. No footsteps. No sounds at all.

  What am I going to do? Kody asked herself.

  What can I do?

  When she opened her eyes, Cally was standing in front of her.

  Kody gasped and jumped to her feet. “Cally—!”

  Cally’s green eyes stared coldly at her. Her expression revealed no emotion at all.

  “Cally—what happened upstairs? What is going on?”

  Her sister’s ghost didn’t reply. Instead, she moved menacingly toward Kody.

  “No!” Kody shrieked, feeling terror in her chest. “Cally—no! What are you going to do?”

  “Goodbye, sister,” Cally replied coldly. “Goodbye forever.”

  Chapter 29

  “No. Cally—please!” Kody begged as the ghost floated nearer. “Don’t hurt me!”

  Cally’s pale lips twisted in an amused smile. “Hurt you? I don’t need to.” She pulled the ropes off Kody’s arms and legs. Then she waved to the open doorway. “Go.”

  Kody’s entire body trembled as she stared at her sister’s cruel smile.

  “Go,” Cally repeated. “The door is open, Kody.” And then she shouted impatiently, “Go!”

  “But—” Kody started to the door, then hesitated. “You’re not going to kill me?” she choked out.

  “No need,” Cally replied casually. “I’ve already taken care of you, Kody.”

  “Wh-what do you mean?” Kody stammered, edging toward the door.

  “You did some bad things upstairs this morning,” Cally replied, her green eyes glowing. “You stabbed Persia Bryce. And then you held a spotlight to the director’s face. You burned him so badly, his own mother won’t recognize him!”

  “No!” Kody cried in horror. “Cally, you didn’t—!”

  Cally nodded, her smile growing wider. “I did. I’m sorry, Kody. I don’t think you’re going to be a movie star after all. I think you’re going to spend a lot of years in prison—or in a mental hospital.”

  Kody struggled to speak. Had Cally really ruined her life?

  Why? Why did Cally hate her so much?

  It is the evil in the house, Kody told herself. It’s the three evil people in the next room. They’re controlling Cally. They’re making Cally do these things.

  Kody took a deep breath. I came here to keep a promise, she remembered. I came back here to help Cally. And I have to try to do that.

  “Go!” Cally shouted angrily, pointing to the door. “Hurry. Get out of here.” And then she added bitterly, “Have a nice life.”

  Kody took a step toward her sister. “I won’t go until you listen to me,” she insisted.

  Cally’s mouth twisted into a sneer. “You have nothing to say to me.”

  “Yes, I do,” Kody replied, gathering her courage. “Do you remember the story your boyfriend Anthony told us about this house? Do you remember? He said that when the workers dug the foundation, they found bodies buried in the ground? The people buried here were the victims of Angelica and Simon Fear. Remember?”

  “So what?” Cally snapped.

  “The house was built on top of their graves,” Kody continued, her voice trembling. “It’s an evil place, Cally. Filled with evil. And somehow—the three people in the next room—Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men—they’re controlling you. They’re evil too and they—”

  “Who?” Cally screamed, her eyes flashing angrily. The dust sparkled up around her as she swirled closer. “What are you talking about?”

  “In the next room,” Kody told her, pointing to the wall. “They play with the rats. They were supposed to be working for us. But, instead, they—they—” Kody stopped. She could see from Cally’s bewildered expression that she had no idea what power these three people had over her.

  “Have a nice time at the mental hospital,” Cally said softly. She let out a bitter laugh. “Send me a postcard.”

  “No!” Kody cried, grabbing her sister’s hand. It felt so cold, Kody nearly dropped it. But she managed to hold on, and tugged her sister to the small hole in the wall.

  “I’m not crazy,” Kody insisted. “Take a look through there, Cally. I’m not crazy. I want you to see the truth. I know this isn’t you. I know you’re not cruel and evil. It’s them, Cally. It’s them. Take a look. Please!”

  Cally made no move toward the narrow hole. “I really don’t care,” she said flatly, her voice as dry as air. “I’m dead. I don’t care about holes in the wall.”

  “Please!” Kody begged. “Take a look at them. Take a look at their evil faces. They’re controlling you. They’re using you. I heard them talk about it. I heard them laugh about it. They’re making you do these horrible things.”

  Cally hesitated, then floated down and peered through the crack in the wall.

  Kody stood tensely in the center of the small room, watching her sister. Cally seemed to freeze there. She didn’t move or blink. She stared into the other room for several minutes, her face completely expressionless.

  When she rose up and turned back to Kody, her expression had softened. The angry glow had faded from her eyes.

  “Did you see them?” Kody asked eagerly. “Did you see them with the rats?”

  Cally didn’t reply. She floated away from the wall, her pale face shimmering in and out of focus, her expression thoughtful.

  “Did you see them?” Kody insisted. “Do you believe me now?”

  Cally stared at Kody as if gazing right through her.

  “Come with me, Kody,” she whispered finally. “I will get you out of this house.”

  Kody let out a sigh of relief. Cally believes me! she told herself. I knew I could reach her. I knew I could show her the truth.

  But how can I help her? How?

  “The explosives!” Kody cried. “We can blow up the house, blow up all the evil.”

  Cally raised a finger to her lips to silence Kody. “Never mind that,” she said softly. “Let me get you out of here. Come with me. Hurry.”

  Cally swept past Kody and led the way to the door. Her heart pounding, Ko
dy followed close behind.

  Out into the basement. Gray evening light floated in from the narrow window, casting long shadows across the floor.

  “Thank you, Cally,” a voice said.

  Kody let out a low cry as Mrs. Nordstrom stepped forward, followed by Mr. Hankers and Mr. Lurie.

  “Thank you for bringing her to us, Cally,” Mrs. Nordstrom said, smiling warmly. “Now we will make sure you get your revenge.”

  Chapter 30

  “You tricked me!” Kody screeched at her sister. “You betrayed me!”

  Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men moved nearer, circling Kody, their faces set, their eyes narrowed, cold and menacing.

  “Cally—I’m your sister! Your twin! How could you?” Kody shrieked, so frightened she didn’t recognize her own voice.

  Cally’s face remained blank and uncaring. “I wouldn’t betray you,” she replied softly. “You showed me the truth. Run to the stairs, Kody. Run now! I will protect you from them.”

  Kody gasped as Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men moved closer. Was this just a trick? Or was Cally really going to protect her, to save her?

  “Run!” Cally screamed.

  Kody began backing toward the stairs, her eyes on the three people.

  “Hurry! Run!” Cally urged.

  But Kody stopped and stared in horror as Mrs. Nordstrom and the two men began to change.

  Their skin bubbled and blistered, darkening to a splotchy gray. Short, stubbly hair sprouted all over their faces and hands.

  Slowly, their faces stretched. Their noses lengthened into dark, hairy snouts. Sticky white whiskers twitched over jagged yellow teeth. Snakelike red tongues flicked over the gnarled teeth. Their wet eyes shriveled behind the twitching snouts to black marbles.

  Kody gaped in shock as the three figures shrank and their clothing fell away.

  Out from under the clothing darted three plump gray rats.

  Scuttling out from her skirt, Mrs. Nordstrom hissed at Kody and raised her rat claws menacingly.

  Mr. Lurie snapped his long, pink tail behind him. A line of drool fell from Mr. Hankers’s snarling mouth as he scratched the gray fur of his belly with both claws.

  “No!” Kody cried in a trembling, weak voice. “No! You—you can’t be—!”

  She backed to the stairs, her eyes wide in terror and disbelief.

  Rats. They’re rats. All three of them.

  Mrs. Nordstrom bared her teeth and, with a shrill hiss, leaped at Kody’s ankle.

  Kody cried out and kicked the plump rat hard. Her sneaker made a soft plop as it collided with the hissing rat, sending it sprawling on its back beside its two snarling companions.

  “Run, Kody! Run!” Cally was screaming.

  And as she backed toward the stairs, Kody saw more rats slithering out into the basement.

  From behind the furnace, from behind the crates of explosives, from holes in the walls and cracks in the floor, the rats—dozens and dozens of them—crept out.

  Screeching and hissing, sweeping their hairless pink tails behind them, rats blanketed the floor, a sea of gnarled teeth and glowing eyes.

  Struggling to move her trembling legs, Kody grabbed the railing and pulled herself onto the first step.

  “Hurry!” Cally urged, moving toward the explosives detonator. “Kody—hurry!”

  The floor appeared to seethe and toss. So many gray bodies rushing forward, screeching and hissing and snapping their jaws.

  “But wh-what about you?” Kody stammered.

  “I’m dead!” came Cally’s heartbreaking reply.

  The screeching of the rats drowned out Kody’s sob.

  The rats suddenly swept forward, hissing and whistling. Their claws thrashed the air as they scuttled to the stairs.

  “Ow!” Kody shrieked as a rat scratched its claw against her leg. A thousand eyes glared hungrily, moving toward her.

  Taking one last look at her sister, she turned and forced her legs to carry her up the stairs.

  Into the hallway, the screeching, the hissing, the sound of scrabbling feet following her, driving her forward, making her run.

  Past the dark living room. Out the front door.

  Into the darkness of the front yard.

  Running across the grass. Gasping for air. The horrifying sounds of the rats lingering in her ears.

  Kody was halfway to the street when the force of the explosion threw her to the ground.

  “Ohhhhh.” Landing hard on her knees and elbows, she let out a groan.

  The ground shook. She turned back to the house in time to see the blinding white burst.

  As bright as the sun.

  I can’t see! Kody thought.

  And then the white darkened to scarlet.

  A roar louder than thunder made her cover her ears.

  The roof shot up, shattering as it flew, rising above the dark trees. And then a wall of flame rose over the house. A roaring tidal wave of fire.

  “Noooooooo!”

  Kody couldn’t hear her own terrified wail over the crackling thunder of the blaze.

  Squinting into the fiery red brightness, she began to see dark shapes. Rat bodies, thrashing wildly, flying helplessly in the raging flames. Hundreds of rats, shooting skyward in the fire, sizzling, burning as they flew.

  Kody felt her stomach heave, felt the disgust rise up in her. But she couldn’t take her eyes away from the fiery sky, from the charred black rat bodies that flew over the roaring flames.

  And then human forms twisted up in the fire. Black shadows. The dark, tortured spirits of those buried under the house. Men and women, wailing and howling, thrashing in the flames as they rose higher, higher, and disappeared into the starless black sky.

  Kody cried out as a wall crashed to the ground. Red embers shot out in all directions.

  Gripped with horror, she stared. Stared as the mournful howls faded into the roar of the flames. Stared as the tortured bodies twisted up into the smoke-blackened sky.

  Stared as the wall of flames swallowed the house, consuming the evil, burning it all away.

  On her knees on the cool, soft grass, Kody stared into the flames, letting the heat of the fire dry her tears.

  “I’m sorry, Cally,” she murmured softly. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. . . .

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

  Chapter 31

  “What’s up with you? Don’t you ever want to go out?” Rob asked.

  Kody crossed the room and sat down across from him on the small, matching white leather armchair. “The police called again this morning. It’s been weeks since the explosion, and they still can’t figure out what happened. Everyone had a different story, and one version is stranger than the next. And they still have trouble believing that it was Cally, not me, who did all those horrible things.”

  Kody sighed. “Fortunately, they’re going to drop it. Of course, I’ll still have to go for therapy twice a week. But I’m glad no one is pressing charges.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Rob. “I just want to forget the whole thing.”

  “Me too. Anyway, I just feel like staying in. My parents are out for the night. I ordered a pizza.”

  Rob made a face. “Pizza again?”

  “I like pizza,” Kody insisted. “What can I say? I have simple tastes.”

  “You must have simple tastes. You’re going out with me!” Rob joked.

  It was three weeks after the fire that had destroyed 99 Fear Street—and put an end to the movie production.

  Back in her parents’ apartment in Los Angeles, Kody remained dazed by all that had happened. But Rob had been coming over nearly every day. He had managed to get her to smile and laugh again and feel almost normal.

  “I auditioned for a commercial this afternoon,” he told her.

  “That’s great!” Kody replied enthusiastically.

  “It’s for another dog food. But this time I don’t have to bark,” Rob told her.

  They both laughed.

 
The doorbell rang.

  “That’s the pizza,” Kody told him, climbing to her feet. “Get the door. I’ll go get some Cokes.”

  Kody hurried to the kitchen and pulled two cans of Coke from the refrigerator. When she returned to the living room, she was surprised to see Rob holding a large brown envelope.

  “Not the pizza,” he said. He removed a videocassette from the envelope. A note was taped to the box. Kody pulled it off and read it:

  Here’s a collector’s item for you, Kody. It’s the only film that was shot at 99 Fear Street. Talk about a big finish!

  Better luck to us all!

  Sam McCarthy

  “Who’s McCarthy?” Rob asked, leaning over her shoulder to read the note.

  “You remember,” Kody said softly. “He was the associate producer. You know. His hand—it was mangled in the garbage disposal.”

  Rob nodded, then slowly pulled the tape from the box. “Do you want to see it? Maybe we shouldn’t. It might upset you.”

  Kody stared at the tape thoughtfully. “Put it on,” she instructed him. “If it starts to get upsetting, we’ll turn it off.”

  Rob crossed the room to the video player. He clicked on the TV, then pushed the cassette into the VCR. Then he sat down beside Kody on the couch to watch.

  The screen was gray for a while. There was no sound.

  Then the screen suddenly blazed with color. Bright flashes of red and yellow.

  “It—it’s the fire!” Kody exclaimed, leaning closer to the screen. “I don’t believe it, Rob! Somebody filmed the fire! They must have been shooting exterior shots for the end!”

  “Look—there goes a wall!” Rob cried.

  The red glare of the TV screen reflected off their faces as they leaned forward to see better.

  The camera slid closer. The screen seemed to glow with bright white light.

  “Oh!” Kody let out a low cry as the faded image of a girl appeared inside the light, her features too faint to recognize.

  “Who is that?” Rob cried. “Was someone caught in the fire?”

  Kody rested her hand on his, but didn’t reply. Her entire body tensed as she leaned toward the screen.

  The girl in the fire raised one hand and waved it. A long, slow, sad wave.