Simon continued to stare at the doorway, the expectant smile frozen on his face.
Daniel stepped quickly to the wall, his shoes pounding like thunder in the empty ballroom.
What should I do? he wondered. They are mad, completely mad—both of them!
Should I bring Nora out and introduce her now? Shall I tell them that Nora and I have married?
Or should I take Nora and flee this frightening place?
No. I cannot run. I must stay and tell them.
Watching Simon from across the room, Daniel wondered how the old man would react. A Fear had married a Goode. Today, on Simon’s birthday, the ancient feud between the two families had ended. Hundreds of years of bitterness, of treachery, of evil, had come to an end. The Fears and the Goodes would be one family now.
Will my grandfather share my joy? Daniel wondered.
Daniel heard a rumbling from the far end of the ballroom. He glanced up to see a birthday cake being wheeled in on a cart.
It was an enormous round cake, three tall tiers, frosted in white and yellow. On top were seventy-five candles, creating a blaze of yellow light that shimmered over the cake.
This is absurd! Daniel thought. Such a magnificent cake for such an empty celebration.
Who would bring such a cake into a tomb! A tomb!
I’ve got to get Nora now, he decided. I will tell my grandparents my news. And then Nora and I will flee into the night, never to return!
As the hired servants slowly wheeled the cake toward Simon and Angelica, Daniel hurried to the pantry to retrieve Nora. Holding her hand tightly, he pulled her into the ballroom.
In the gloomy, eerie silence, Simon was preparing to blow out the candles, his face red in the glow from seventy-five candles.
Nora resisted, but Daniel pulled her across the empty ballroom. Squeezing her hand, he gave her a reassuring smile. She looks so beautiful, Daniel thought.
Nora wore a simple pale blue dress with a lacy white collar. The silver three-toed pendant glowed at her throat.
“Grandfather, Grandmother, I have an announcement to make,” Daniel declared, his voice booming in the empty room. Nora lingered just behind him.
Daniel saw Simon’s eyes narrow. Simon was staring at the pendant at Nora’s throat. “Wh— what is this?” he stammered.
Holding tightly to Nora’s hand, Daniel took a deep breath. “Grandfather, on this happy occasion I—I would like to introduce my wife to you. I have married Nora Goode!”
Chapter 30
“Noooooooo!”
A hideous wail, a cry of anguish and of horror rose over the ballroom, causing a thousand candles to flicker and bend low.
It took Nora a long while to realize that the howl had come from Simon Fear.
Frightened, she took a few steps back as Simon rose from his wheelchair. The old man’s eyes were wide with horror. He pointed a trembling finger at the three-clawed disk around Nora’s throat.
“Nooooooo!” Another animal howl escaped Simon’s lips.
Still pointing, he staggered toward her.
But his legs would not support him. He stumbled. Trying to steady himself, he leaned against the cart and pushed over the cake.
Angelica began to shriek as the enormous cake splattered to the floor.
“Daniel, what shall we do?” Nora cried. But her words were drowned out by yet another howl from Simon and by Angelica’s shrill cries.
“Daniel, what is happening?”
A small carpet caught fire first. Then the entire room was ablaze—as if all the candles in the ballroom had suddenly fallen and flared into tall flames.
“Daniel, please! Daniel!”
She couldn’t see him. He was hidden behind a bright wall of fire only feet from her.
Flames leapt from the floor and danced off the four walls.
How could the room be burning so quickly? Nora wondered, choking on the thick smoke, choking on her fear. “Daniel? Daniel?”
It was so bright, so blindingly bright.
As she stared into the flames, surrounded by screams and terrified cries, Nora saw a struggling figure emerge from the yellow-orange brightness.
“Daniel? Where are you?”
The figure grew closer, clearer.
Nora raised her hand to her mouth as she realized she was staring at a girl about her age, a girl struggling against a dark wooden stake, surrounded by flames, a girl burning, burning, burning, screaming as she burned. Susannah Goode, burning at the stake beside her mother.
And as Nora gaped in open-mouthed horror, other tortured figures invaded the room, rising up through the crackling, blistering flames.
Nora saw Rebecca Fier, her neck broken, hanging by a rope from a dark rafter. Old Benjamin Fier rose into the room, impaled like a scarecrow, a wooden shaft pushed up through the back of his skull.
Nora screamed and tried to shut her eyes. But she had to watch, she had to bear witness as the other victims of the past emerged in the burning ballroom.
As she stared in silent horror, she saw Matthew and Constance Fier, skeletons behind their walledup prison. William Goode, his head exploded, his skull showing through rotted flesh, hovered into view.
The ghost of little Abigail Goode floated overhead. Abigail’s mother, Jane, staggered stiffly after her, her face bloated from drowning. Kate Fier rose in front of them, a knitting needle through her heart. Hannah Fear came next, a sword through her chest.
Then Nora saw Julia Fear, scratching the air, scratching at nothing, her fingernails cut and bleeding. Poor Julia, buried alive, but back now to join the other victims of the centuries.
The victims, the phantoms of the past, Fears and Goodes, roared around the room, their cries louder than the thunder of the flames. They swept round and round, faster, faster, until they became a raging whirlwind of pain, of brutal death.
“Daniel, where are you? Daniel?”
Nora stared into the swirling flame. “Daniel, oh, Daniel!”
Unable to find him, unable to endure the howls of the dead, their cries of agony as they swept around the room, Nora covered her eyes and fled.
Moments later she was in the cool darkness of the night, watching the blaze from the front lawn, trembling from the sudden cold, gripping the silver medallion with both hands as villagers made their way from town and gathered, muttering about the evil of the Fears, about the centuries of evil that had led to this night, to this final fire.
“Daniel! Please come out, Daniel!”
Nora called his name again and again.
But as the flames raged, swallowing the Fear mansion in their eerie light, and the terrifying howls rose up in the night like a symphony of pain and horror, Nora knew she would never see Daniel again.
Epilogue
Nora dipped her pen, but the inkwell had run dry. Yawning, she set down the pen and stared at the stack of pages she had written.
Our marriage ended the feud between the Fears and the Goodes, she thought miserably. But not as we had intended.
No one came out of the fire. Not Daniel. No one.
The house burned for days until the fire finally smoldered out, leaving nothing but a black, charred shell in its place. Leaving the charred ruins of the Fear mansion and a legacy of evil—evil that will hover over the entire village.
This is why I have written my story, Nora thought, flexing her aching fingers. This is why I have spent the night writing down everything I know about the Goodes and the Fears.
Maybe someone reading this will be able to stop the evil before it rises again.
They think I am insane, Nora realized. They think the fire and all I saw drove me mad.
That is why they brought me to this insane asylum. That is why they locked me in this room.
But I am not mad. My story had to be told. It had to be written. I had to stop the hideous evil. I had to.
Glancing at the sunlight pouring through the window, Nora heard footsteps. Voices in the hall.
The door to her room op
ened. Two uniformed nurses entered. Their faces were solemn, their eyes cold. “The doctors will see you now, Nora,” one of them said softly.
“Yes. Very well,” Nora said, rising from the hard chair she had spent the night in. She lifted the heavy sheaf of papers from the small desk. “Here. They must read this,” she told the nurse. “They must read the whole story. They must know about the evil. The evil will destroy us all, you see. They must know—”
Narrowing her eyes, studying Nora’s face, the nurse took Nora’s pages and tossed them into the fire.
“No!” Nora shrieked. She tried to dive after them, but the nurses held her back firmly.
“It is for your own good, Nora,” one of them said softly. “If the doctors saw what you have spent the night scribbling, they would lock you up and throw away the key.”
Nora stared at her pages as they caught flame and started to burn, sending thick white smoke up the chimney.
“You do not understand!” she protested, tears forming in her tired eyes. “The evil is still alive. The evil is still there! The word must get out. People must know—”
“Come with us, Nora.” The nurse’s voice was soft, but her grip was hard and tight on Nora’s arm. “Come with us now. Try to forget your wild tale.”
“Did you not hear the news?” the other nurse asked brightly. “This will surely cheer you, Nora. The Fear mansion is gone, but the village is to build a road on the property.”
“What? A road?” Nora asked, feeling dazed. “But the horror—”
“No more horror, Nora. No more. The road will be lovely. It means that lovely houses will be built there,” the nurse told her, edging her toward the door. “And do you know what they’re going to call the new road?”
“What?” Nora asked weakly.
“They’re going to call it Fear Street.”
About the Author
“Where do you get your ideas?”
That’s the question that R. L. Stine is asked most often. “I don’t know where my ideas come from,” he says. “But I do know that I have a lot more scary stories in my mind that I can’t wait to write.”
So far, he has written over a hundred mysteries and thrillers for young people, all of them best-sellers.
Bob grew up in Columbus, Ohio. Today he lives in an apartment near Central Park in New York City with his wife, Jane.
THE NIGHTMARES NEVER END … WHEN YOU VISIT
FEAR STREET®
Next … SILENT NIGHT II
Wealthy, spoiled Reva Dalby is back—and Pres Nichols is out to get her. Pres and his friend Diane are broke, but Pres knows how they can get a million dollars … just in time for Christmas.
Pres and Diane decide to kidnap Reva and demand a million dollars ransom.
Can they do it? Can they get away with it? Will Reva get out of this alive?
DARK SECRETS™
by Elizabeth Chandler
Who is Megan? She’s about to find out….
#1: Legacy of Lies
Megan thought she knew who she was. Until she came to Grandmother’s house. Until she met Matt, who angered and attracted her as no boy ever had before Then she began having dreams again, of a life she never lived, a love she never knew…a secret that threatened to drive her to the grave.
Home is where the horror is….
#2: Don’t Tell
Lauren is coming home, eight years after her mother’s mysterious drowning. They said it was an accident. But the tabloids screamed murder. Aunt Jule was her only refuge, the beloved second mother she’s returning to see. But first Lauren stops at Wisteria’s annual street festival and meets Nick, a tease, a flirt, and a childhood playmate. The day is almost perfect—until she realizes she’s being watched. A series of nasty “accidents” makes Lauren realize someone wants her dead. And this time there’s no place to run….
Published by Simon & Schuster
3027-01
Students are dying to get out of…
FEAR HALL
Don’t miss this shocking two-part story!
FEAR HALL: THE BEGINNING
The horror is just getting started…
FEAR HALL: THE CONCLUSION
Welcome back to the scariest dorm on campus. Nobody lives here for long!
Come hang out at Fear Hall, where life is a scream!
You can’t get the whole story unless you read both books!
R. L. STINE
Published by Simon & Schuster
1390-01
—FEAR STREET—
R. L. STINE
GOODNIGHT KISS
Collector’s Edition
Includes
Goodnight Kiss Their first kiss could be her last….
Goodnight Kiss 2 It’s the kiss of death.
Plus…
The Vampire Club A NEW Vampire story by R. L. Stine
Published by Simon & Schuster
1360-02
R.L. Stine, The Burning
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