by R. L. Stine
And then I saw them.
Mom and Dad. They were tied up, back-to-back, standing in the center of the floor at the bottom of the amphitheater in front of everyone.
They looked so uncomfortable, so terrified. Their arms were tied down tightly at their sides. Dad’s face was bright red. Mom’s hair was all messed up, hanging wildly down over her forehead, her head bowed.
Squinting into the darkness cast by the tree, I saw Mr. Dawes standing beside them along with another, older man. And I saw that the rows of long benches built into the ground were filled with people. Not a single empty space.
Everyone in town must be here, I realized.
Everyone except Josh and me.
“They’re going to kill Mom and Dad,” Josh whispered, grabbing my arm, squeezing it in fear. “They’re going to make Mom and Dad just like them.”
“Then they’ll come after us,” I said, thinking out loud, staring through the shadows at my poor parents. Both of them had their heads bowed now as they stood before the silent crowd. Both of them were awaiting their fate.
“What are we going to do?” Josh whispered.
“Huh?” I was staring so hard at Mom and Dad, I guess I momentarily blanked out.
“What are we going to do?” Josh repeated urgently, still holding desperately to my arm. “We can’t just stand here and —”
I suddenly knew what we were going to do.
It just came to me. I didn’t even have to think hard.
“Maybe we can save them,” I whispered, backing away from the tree. “Maybe we can do something.”
Josh let go of my arm. He stared at me eagerly.
“We’re going to push this tree over,” I whispered with so much confidence that I surprised myself. “We’re going to push the tree over so the sunlight will fill the amphitheater.”
“Yes!” Josh cried immediately. “Look at this tree. It’s practically down already. We can do it!”
I knew we could do it. I don’t know where my confidence came from. But I knew we could do it.
And I knew we had to do it fast.
Peering over the top of the trunk again, struggling to see through the shadows, I could see that everyone in the theater had stood up. They were all starting to move forward, down toward Mom and Dad.
“Come on, Josh,” I whispered. “We’ll take a running jump and push the tree over. Come on!”
Without another word, we both took several steps back.
We just had to give the trunk a good, hard push, and the tree would topple right over. The roots were already almost entirely up out of the ground, after all.
One hard push. That’s all it would take. And the sunlight would pour into the theater. Beautiful, golden sunlight. Bright, bright sunlight.
The dead people would all crumble.
And Mom and Dad would be saved.
All four of us would be saved.
“Come on, Josh,” I whispered. “Ready?”
He nodded, his face solemn, his eyes frightened.
“Okay. Let’s go!” I cried.
We both ran forward, digging our sneakers into the ground, moving as fast as we could, our arms outstretched and ready.
In a second, we hit the tree trunk and pushed with all of our strength, shoving it with our hands and then moving our shoulders into it, pushing … pushing … pushing …
It didn’t budge.
18
“Push!” I cried. “Push it again!”
Josh let out an exasperated, defeated sigh. “I can’t, Amanda. I can’t move it.”
“Josh —” I glared at him.
He backed up to try again.
Below, I could hear startled voices, angry voices.
“Quick!” I yelled. “Push!”
We hurtled into the tree trunk with our shoulders, both of us grunting from the effort, our muscles straining, our faces bright red.
“Push! Keep pushing!”
The veins at my temples felt about to pop.
Was the tree moving?
No.
It gave a little but bounced right back.
The voices from below were getting louder.
“We can’t do it!” I cried, so disappointed, so frustrated, so terrified. “We can’t move it!”
Defeated, I slumped over onto the tree trunk and started to bury my face in my hands.
I pulled back with a gasp when I heard the soft cracking sound. The cracking grew louder until it was a rumble, then a roar. It sounded as if the ground were ripping apart.
The old tree fell quickly. It didn’t have far to fall. But it hit with a thundering crash that seemed to shake the ground.
I grabbed Josh and we both stood in amazement and disbelief as bright sunlight poured into the amphitheater.
The cries went up instantly. Horrified cries. Angry cries. Frantic cries.
The cries became howls. Howls of pain, of agony.
The people in the amphitheater, the living dead caught in the golden light, began scrambling over one another, screeching, pulling, climbing, pushing, trying to claw their way to shade.
But it was too late.
Their skin began to drop off their bones and, as I stared openmouthed, they crumbled to powder and dissolved to the ground, their clothes disintegrating along with them.
The painful cries continued to ring out as the bodies fell apart, the skin melted away, the dry bones collapsed. I saw Karen Somerset staggering across the floor. I saw her hair fall to the ground in a heap, revealing the dark skull underneath. She cast a glance up at me, a longing look, a look of regret. And then her eyeballs rolled out of their sockets, and she opened her toothless mouth and cried, “Thank you, Amanda! Thank you!” and collapsed.
Josh and I covered our ears to shut out the ghastly cries. We both looked away, unable to keep watching the entire town fall in agony and crumble to powder, destroyed by the sun, the clear, warm sun.
When we looked back, they had all disappeared.
Mom and Dad were standing right where they had been, tied back-to-back, their expressions a mixture of horror and disbelief.
“Mom! Dad!” I cried.
I’ll never forget their smiles as Josh and I ran forward to free them.
It didn’t take our parents long to get us packed up and to arrange for the movers to take us back to our old neighborhood and our old house. “I guess it’s lucky after all that we couldn’t sell the old place,” Dad said as we eagerly piled into the car to leave.
Dad backed down the driveway and started to roar away.
“Stop!” I cried suddenly. I’m not sure why, but I had a sudden, powerful urge to take one last look at the old house.
As both of my parents called out to me in confusion, I pushed open the door and jogged back to the driveway. Standing in the middle of the yard, I stared up at the house, silent, empty, still covered in thick layers of blue-gray shadows.
I found myself gazing up at the old house as if I were hypnotized. I don’t know how long I stood there.
The crunch of tires on the gravel driveway snapped me out of my spell. Startled, I turned to see a red station wagon parked in the driveway.
Two boys about Josh’s age jumped out of the back. Their parents followed. Staring up at the house, they didn’t seem to notice me.
“Here we are, kids,” the mother said, smiling at them. “Our new house.”
“It doesn’t look new. It looks old,” one of the boys said.
And then his brother’s eyes widened as he noticed me. “Who are you?” he demanded.
The other members of his family turned to stare at me.
“Oh. I … uh …” His question caught me by surprise. I could hear my dad honking his horn impatiently down on the street. “I … uh … used to live in your house,” I found myself answering.
And then I turned and ran full speed down to the street.
Wasn’t that Mr. Dawes standing at the porch, clipboard in hand? I wondered, catching a glimpse of a dark figure as I r
an to the car.
No, it couldn’t be Mr. Dawes up there waiting for them, I decided.
It just couldn’t be.
I didn’t look back. I slammed the car door behind me, and we sped away.
BEHIND THE SCREAMS
WELCOME TO DEAD HOUSE
CONTENTS
About the Author
Q & A with R.L. Stine
Hungry … for YOU!
Cemeteries
Pop Quiz: Which House Is Haunted?
Create Your Own Haunted House Tale!
A Terrifying Peek at
GOOSEBUMPS HORRORLAND #14:
LITTLE SHOP Of HAMSTERS
Bonus material written and compiled
by Matthew D. Payne
About the Author
R.L. Stine’s books are read all over the world. So far, his books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children’s authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written the teen series Fear Street, the funny series Rotten School, as well as the Mostly Ghostly series, The Nightmare Room series, and the two-book thriller Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and Minnie, his King Charles spaniel. You can learn more about him at www.RLStine.com.
Q & A with R.L. Stine
Petey, the family’s white terrier, knew something was fishy in Dark Falls before the human members of the family did. As Ray, one of the creepy neighborhood kids, said in Chapter 13, “Dogs always know.” Has your pooch, or any of your friends’ pooches, ever detected ghosts or ghouls?
R.L. Stine (RLS): I can’t say that my dog has ever detected a ghost — but I do think that dogs have a kind of sensitivity to the world that can be a little creepy. My dog is so terrified of thunder and lightning that she always hides in the closet when there is a storm. But recently we noticed that almost an hour before the storm starts — even if the sun is shining — poor Minnie heads for the closet. Dogs know things… .
Eleven-year-old Josh was fearless the night he went to the cemetery to find Petey. When you were Josh’s age, could you have walked through a cemetery in the dead of night without getting scared?
RLS: No! But when I was a kid, there was a big pile of white stones behind my house. My brother and I believed that there were dead people buried under those stones. One Halloween my brother and I decided to go to the mound of stones and wait for ghosts. I remember the moon was full, and the stones sparkled in the moonlight. My brother and I inched our way close to the mound and then we looked at each other and ran home! It was too scary.
You’re an incredibly well-known — and well-read! — children’s book author. The Goosebumps series has sold over 300 million copies! You must have tons of people come to hear you read. What’s the biggest crowd or longest line you’ve ever had at a book signing?
RLS: Once I was doing a signing in Columbus, Ohio, where I grew up. I was driving to the bookstore and I got stuck in a huge traffic jam. I was really upset because I knew that if the traffic didn’t ease up, I’d be late for the signing. Finally, I yelled out the window to a policeman to find out what was causing the traffic jam. The answer amazed me. I was the cause of the traffic jam! So many people showed up to see me that the street was totally blocked. That was cool!
If you weren’t an author, what career path do you think you would have followed?
RLS: I always wanted to be a cartoonist. But there’s a problem with that. I can’t draw.
It’s one thing to write, but another thing to come up with ideas to write about. Without ideas, you can’t write about anything!
How do you keep coming up with new ideas and creepy creatures year after year?
RLS: I really don’t know. Ideas come from everywhere. But most of the time, I think of a title for a book — then the idea starts to take shape in my mind. For instance, Goosebumps HorrorLand #13: When the Ghost Dog Howls. Having that title makes me think: When does the dog howl? And why is he a ghost? And where does he come from? Answering those questions gives me the start of a story. I hope you like the book. Here’s a secret: I’m writing a bunch more HorrorLand books with new villains, new attractions, and new scares.
Speaking of the next HorrorLand book, most people think of hamsters as cute, cuddly pets, but your stories tend to go in a different direction. What do you have in store for readers with HorrorLand # 14: Little Shop of Hamsters?
RLS: Sure, everyone thinks hamsters are cute and cuddly — but that’s just an act! The hamsters in Little Shop of Hamsters look cute, but here’s some advice: Don’t get them mad!
To find out if R.L. Stine could survive in the wild, grab a copy of the new collector’s edition of
GOOSEBUMPS: WELCOME TO CAMP NIGHTMARE,
and LOOK in the back of the BOOK.
Hungry … for YOU!
Bloodsuckers! Brain eaters! The children in Welcome to Dead House are just a few of the many creatures, dead and living, who can all agree that YOU are their favorite food. Hopefully, you won’t run into the hideous creatures on this list.
Cemeteries: Come for a Visit … Stay for
ETERNITY
The cemetery in Dark Falls is super-creepy at night. Most cemeteries are scary … even without the LIVING DEAD roaming around! During the day, though, cemeteries are actually a great place to head for some peace. In most cities and towns, it’s the only area where things are completely QUIET! Everyone just lies around and relaxes … SIX FEET under the ground.
The cemeteries we see today are larger versions of the GRAVEYARDS that are found in old churchyards. The dead were buried in church grounds with markers or headstones at the grave sites. The only problem was, these small churches ran out of space — CORPSES were piled up on one another in the graves!
In addition to the space crunch, having the dead so close to the living, especially in large cities, helped to spread DISEASE. Cities realized this and placed a ban on burials. Soon, massive cemeteries were built outside of cities.
One such cemetery is Green-Wood in Brooklyn, New York. It is so large and beautiful that since its creation in 1838, people have been going there to relax, sightsee, and just walk around. When New York City’s CENTRAL PARK opened decades later, many said it looked just like Green-Wood … without the TOMBSTONES!
Still, there’s just something SOOO creepy about being surrounded by so many DEAD PEOPLE. As the saying goes, “It’s quiet … TOO quiet!” Generally, cemeteries are not a place to be at night: The risk of hitting your knee on a tombstone (and that really bruises) or falling into an OPEN GRAVE are reasons enough to stay away. Plus, there have been numerous reports of CEMETERY HAUNTINGS across the U.S. Moaning or weeping can be heard from inside large CRYPTS. Onlookers have seen strange mists on clear nights. People born hundreds of years ago have been seen going for a late-night walk together.
Perhaps the most terrifying tomb tale is about The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, buried in the St. Louis Cemetery #1. Since her death in 1881, there have been numerous sightings of her ghost. Legend has it that you can hear her casting a CURSE on those who trespass within the cemetery walls and vandalize gravestones. Many people have reported seeing her in the form of a BLACK CAT walking amongst the graves. Don’t let her see your back or you’ll be cursed to do her bidding for eternity!
The scariest thing of all: Soon there won’t be any more room left in places like Green-Wood to comfortably bury anyone! Some interesting solutions to this problem have been found. For instance, several SKYSCRAPER CEMETERIES have been built in South America. Dozens of floors high, they offer the tradition of tomb burial while saving a whole lot of space. So will there soon be an R.L. Stine book on the horrors of being locked in a skyscraper cemetery at night? We shall see… .
The largest cemetery in the world (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) is the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg, Germany. Covering an area of almost 1,000 acres, it has nearly 1.4 million “residents.”
Not every culture buries its dead. One of the creepier tra
ditions was found in ancient Persia. Followers of Zoroastrianism used to gather the dead in huge “Towers of Silence,” where FLESH-EATING BIRDS like vultures picked away at the corpses until only the BONES were left.
Which House Is Haunted?
Read the descriptions of five different haunted houses. Some are real haunted houses, but two are houses that R.L. Stine created for his terrifying tales. Can you tell which haunted houses are real and which are made up by R.L. Stine? Write your answers on a piece of paper and use the key at the bottom of the facing page to see if you’re right. If you can’t pick out the two R.L. Stine houses, you need to read more Goosebumps!
1 A family moves out of their house after a poltergeist breaks photo frames, messes up the furniture, and even melts a phone! Eventually, the family comes back home and defeats the ghost.
2 One night, the Payne family abandons their home, and the neighbors never hear from them again. Kids passing by the house on Halloween night dare each other to break in and have a terrifying run-in with a demon dog!
3 The Lutz family moves into a house whose previous inhabitants were murdered. Soon after, crazy things start to happen — green ooze pours out of the walls, flies are everywhere (even in the winter), and faces appear in the fireplace.
4 After their baby dies, a young couple lock themselves in their house and spend the rest of their lives bitter and arguing. After they die, they haunt the house and turn any children who come inside into ghosts!
5 A famous gun maker’s wife is haunted by the ghosts of the people killed by his guns. She is forced to move and build a new, bigger house — and must continue to build more and more rooms for them to haunt, or she’ll die!
KEY 1: REAL! The Galway Ghost terrified a family in Ireland. 2: R.L. Stine! From his Give Yourself Goosebumps book One Night in Payne House. 3: REAL! The Amityville Horror took place on Long Island, New York. 4: R.L. Stine! From the short story “The House of No Return” from Tales to Give You Goosebumps. 5: REAL! The Winchester Mystery House was built by the widow of real-life gun maker William Winchester.
