Escape From Shudder Mansion

by R. L. Stine

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

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  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

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  SLAPPY HERE, EVERYONE.

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  EPILOGUE

  SNEAK PEEK!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO AVAILABLE

  COPYRIGHT

  Welcome to My World.

  Yes, it’s SlappyWorld—you’re only screaming in it! Hahaha.

  You know, being a living evil dummy is a tough job—but someone’s got to do it. And who does it better than me? Ha.

  I only wish I had longer arms. Then I could pat myself on the back.

  Hey, I’m going to a party tonight. Know why I get invited to so many parties? Because I’m a SCREAM! Hahahaha.

  But don’t call me dummy, dummy. My IQ is so high, you have to climb a ladder to read it! Ha.

  I don’t want to brag. I have faults just like anyone else. Know my biggest fault? I’m TOO AWESOME! Hahahaha.

  Now, here’s a story that will haunt you. That’s because it’s about a haunted house.

  Riley Shiner knows it’s a house of monsters and evil spirits. But he and his twin sister, Scarlet, decide to spend the night there anyway. Just think of all the scary things that could happen to them.

  Actually, you don’t have to think about them. Because I’m going to tell them all to you in GRUESOME detail. Hahaha.

  I call this story Escape from Shudder Mansion. But the title is a lie—because there IS no escape! Hahaha.

  It’s just one more terrifying tale from SlappyWorld.

  Every time I see the huge, old mansion, my mouth goes dry, and I feel a chill tighten the back of my neck. When I step into the yard, I can feel the temperature drop at least ten degrees.

  I guess that’s because the ancient trees are so tall, they block out most of the sunlight. But I think the cold is coming from the house, seeping out through the cracked windows and crooked doors.

  With its black slate roof and high stone towers, the house rises above the treetops and casts a deep shadow, no matter the time of day. The house is nearly hidden by the trees that grow at the garden’s border at the edge of the sidewalk. You have to step far into the yard until its dark walls and blackened windows come into view.

  By that time, it’s too late. Too late to escape its ghostly coldness … too late to escape the evil as it curls around you and freezes you in its icy grip.

  Okay, okay.

  I know I got a little carried away there. You don’t know me yet. If you knew me, you would know that sometimes I get excited and go a little overboard.

  I am Riley Shiner. I’m twelve. My twin sister, Scarlet, knows me best. Scarlet says I’m just like her guitar. Sometimes the strings get wound too tight and make a shrill sound.

  She says I’m just like those strings. Wound too tight.

  LOL, right? I can’t argue with Scarlet. And I can’t get angry at her because she makes me laugh. Scarlet is funny.

  People expect a lot from you when you’re twins. For one thing, they expect you to look alike. Well … Scarlet and I don’t.

  She is tall and thin and has wavy red hair and blue eyes. I’m about three inches shorter and a little chubby, and my hair and eyes are dark brown.

  When people meet us for the first time, they don’t think we’re twins. They don’t even think we’re brother and sister! “Actually, we’re identical twins,” Scarlet tells people. That always cracks us both up. Most people just get confused.

  “You have to listen to me, Riley,” Scarlet says. “Because I’m twelve minutes older than you.”

  I don’t know if she means that or not. Does she really think she can boss me around because she’s the big sister?

  Anyway, it was after school and she was leading the way through the trees in back of Shudder Mansion. Yes. Shudder Mansion. The name of the house says it all. It was maybe the last place I wanted to be.

  I stepped in front of her to block her path. “Scarlet, why do we have to go this way? You know the stories about this place.”

  “It’s a shortcut,” she said.

  “And we’re in a hurry because …?”

  “I’m late for my Wednesday guitar lesson,” she said.

  “But today is Thursday!” I protested.

  “That means I’m really late!”

  I told you. She’s funny.

  She pushed me out of her way and started walking a zigzag path through the trees. I gazed at the back of the house. The stone walls were cracked—long cracks that looked like lightning bolts. Two back windows were boarded up, the glass missing.

  I felt another chill.

  “Scarlet, this isn’t going to save us any time,” I said.

  “Not if you keep stopping,” she said. She narrowed her blue eyes at me. “You don’t really believe the stories about this mansion—do you?”

  “Maybe,” I said. The word came out in a squeak. “Look at this place.” I motioned with one hand. “It has to be evil.”

  She shook her head. “Seriously. You have got to stop playing that video game.”

  You have to understand. Shudder Mansion is so scary and so famous, there is an awesome, best-selling video game about it. The game is called Escape from Shudder Mansion. And to tell the truth, I’m kind of obsessed with it.

  I mean, how many games take place right in your neighborhood? The game starts two blocks from my house!

  I’ve played it so much, I know every room, every twist and turn of the dark halls. It’s about these evil spirits that are trapped in the house. They want revenge for their fate on anyone who ventures into the house.

  Sometimes the spirits take the form of humans. Sometimes they become monsters. You never know what’s around the corner or behind a door.

  As you play, you accumulate weapons. The idea is you have to destroy each evil spirit before it can kill you—or you will become one of them, trapped in Shudder Mansion forever.

  I’ve made it to the fourth level. It wasn’t easy. I had a lot of scary moments and close calls and I died a lot. The fifth level has a scary monster that I haven’t been able to destroy no matter what I try.

  Scarlet keeps telling me it’s just a game. But … where did the idea for the game come from? It came from the real Shudder Mansion. And what if the game makers were telling the truth? What if they didn’t make the story up?

  A lot of horror movies are based on true stories, right?

  So I think you can see why I didn’t want to take a shortcut through the back lawn. Even if Scarlet was late for her guitar lesson.

  “Come on, Riley. Hurry,” she said. “Stop looking at the house.”

  Standing in a small clearing of trees, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I squinted into the shadowy, flickering light—and thought I saw something. Something like smoke, narrow and black. I watched it float out of one of the broken windows.

  I gasped. “Scarlet—look—”

  But she was far ahead of me, making her way through the trees.

  Unable to breathe, or move, I watched the black shadow grow larger as it whirled away from the mansion. Blacker tha
n the other shadows, like a cloud of ink, it curled low to the ground, taking the shape of a snake, slithering, folding in on itself, raising a fanged, triangle-shaped head.

  And then I remembered this black, snaky creature—from the video game!

  I’d seen it. I’d seen it—and I’d never defeated it.

  And it’s coming for me, I realized.

  Silently, it slid and curled over the grass, in a straight line now, a straight line toward me. This black serpent shadow.

  My whole body went cold. As it slithered closer, I could feel its evil washing around me.

  I could feel it. I could feel it. The whole yard turning dark now.

  I opened my mouth in a scream—spun around—and started to run.

  I stumbled over a clump of tall weeds. My backpack flew over my head as I tumbled to the ground. I landed hard. The breath shot out of me with a loud whoosh, and pain spread over my chest.

  I wanted to scramble to my feet, but I couldn’t breathe. I rolled onto my back, choking, gasping for air.

  I raised my head and saw the black shadow coming closer. I watched it rise up like a tall ocean wave. It spread out and rose higher, higher. Then it swept over me.

  I lay there helpless, still unable to breathe, smothered in its coldness now, covered in blackness. And inside the shadow, deep inside, I saw the glow, the blazing glow of red eyes.

  Red eyes flaming inside a monstrous face, a face twisted and distorted, with lips like fat worms, lips that opened to reveal two sets of pointed gray teeth.

  I stared helplessly at the glowing red eyes as the shadow creature spread its blackness over me. I shivered and shook. I struggled to toss it off.

  But it clung to me. Wrapped itself tightly around my shoulders. And started to shake me hard.

  It shook me. Shook me so hard my teeth rattled. I struggled to see it in the total darkness.

  And then the shadow lifted. I blinked as the trees above me came into focus. Rays of yellow sunlight flashed and flickered in the leaves.

  I gazed up. It was Scarlet, shaking me by the shoulders—not the monster inside the black cloud. She had both hands on my shoulders. She was on her knees, leaning over me, shaking me.

  Where was the evil shadow?

  Scarlet finally let go and climbed to her feet. “What’s wrong, Riley?” she demanded. “Why are you on the ground?”

  I raised my head. “A shadow—” I murmured.

  “Get up. What are you doing down there?” She lowered a hand to pull me to my feet.

  But I didn’t take her hand. Instead, I stared at the creature beside me in the grass. A cat. A green-eyed black cat.

  “Whoa!” I uttered a cry and jumped up.

  Scarlet laughed. “Is that what scared you? A black cat?”

  “N-no,” I stammered.

  The cat tilted its head to one side and stared up at me without blinking.

  It’s not a cat, Scarlet, I thought, my heart pounding. It’s some kind of shadow creature from the house. I didn’t imagine it. This is not really a cat.

  Scarlet tugged my T-shirt sleeve. “Let’s go. Don’t you know you can’t win a staring contest with a cat?”

  Before I could move, the cat hissed at me and swiped a paw in the air.

  I jumped back.

  My sister laughed. “That cat doesn’t like you.”

  “I don’t like it, either,” I whispered. I squinted down at it and tried to read its eyes. I knew I was right about it.

  “Get over it,” Scarlet said. “You can’t be afraid of a black cat, Riley. Look how tame and sweet it is.”

  I watched it spin away from me, raising its tail high behind it. The cat loped off through the tall weeds, then silently padded over the grass toward the mansion.

  And as it ran, it appeared to dissolve. It just melted away. Poof. It became a blob of smoke again. When it neared the mansion, floating over the lawn, it faded into a flickering shadow.

  Then I gasped as the shadow exploded. It burst apart, into a million pieces. Like dandelion seeds when you blow on them. I stood frozen, watching the tiny bits of shadow blow apart, float high over the grass, and disappear.

  “Did you see that, Scarlet?” I screamed. “Did you see that?”

  She was bent over, picking my backpack up from where I’d dropped it. “See what, Riley?”

  “The cat—it—it—” I sputtered.

  “It ran away. So what?”

  “No. You don’t understand. The cat—” I stopped with my mouth hanging open. I squinted into the shadowy light to the low stone wall that ran along the back of the yard.

  Something moved along the wall.

  There was someone there. A girl. Standing very still, under a tree that overhung the wall.

  I squinted harder. “Who is that?”

  “Let’s find out,” Scarlet said. She jumped over a fallen tree branch and began walking toward the girl.

  I hesitated.

  Scarlet turned back. “You’re not scared of her, too, are you? Are you going to throw yourself on the ground and start hyperventilating again?”

  I could feel my face turning red. “Okay, okay. Give me a break.”

  I knew what I’d seen was real. But what was the point of arguing with Scarlet? She was twelve minutes older than me. That meant she had to win every argument and be right all the time.

  The girl watched us as we made our way to her. Her blond hair sparkled in a splash of sunlight. Even from a distance, I could see she was very pale. She looked about our age, short and very thin.

  She wore a white top and blue skirt that came down to her knees. She had both hands tucked into the pockets of her skirt.

  “Hey,” Scarlet called. “Hi.”

  The girl removed one hand from a pocket and gave us a short wave. She was very pretty, I thought. Dark eyes. Her smile slowly spread over her face.

  Why is she standing against the back wall of Shudder Mansion?

  As we stepped close, her smile grew wider. Her blond hair fluttered in a gust of wind.

  “Hi,” Scarlet said. “How’s it going? I’m Scarlet and he’s Riley.”

  “My name is Mia,” she said. She had a soft, whispery voice. It seemed to come from deep in her throat.

  “We were just taking a shortcut through the back lawn here,” I said.

  “We live two blocks over there,” Scarlet explained, pointing in the direction of our house. “Are you new here?”

  Mia nodded. “My family just moved in. Two blocks that way,” she said in her throaty whisper and pointed in the opposite direction.

  “What are you doing back here?” I blurted out.

  Scarlet gave me a look. Like, What kind of question is that? Mia has every right to be here, too.

  Mia shrugged. “Just exploring. I don’t know the neighborhood at all.”

  Scarlet started to say something, but I interrupted. “Did you see that black cat?”

  Mia shook her head. “No. I didn’t see a cat.”

  Scarlet frowned at me. “Riley, give us a break. It was just a black cat. No one is interested.”

  Mia studied me. “Are you afraid of black cats?”

  I shrugged. “Not really,” I answered. “You just wandered back here? Did anyone tell you about this house?”

  Scarlet rolled her eyes.

  I didn’t care. Mia was new in the neighborhood. She should be warned. “Do you believe in evil spirits?” I said. “Do you believe a whole house can be evil?”

  Mia laughed. She had a high, tinkly laugh. Kind of musical. “I don’t think so.”

  “Well, this place is called—”

  “Don’t listen to my brother,” Scarlet interrupted. “He’s obsessed with the video game about this old house. It’s called Escape from Shudder Mansion. Have you heard of it?”

  Mia tugged a strand of blond hair. “I don’t think so. I’m not too into video games.”

  “Well, Riley plays it for hours,” Scarlet said. “It’s all about this old mansion and how evil it is
. Riley is obsessed with the game—and he’s started to believe it.”

  “A lot of people believe it!” I snapped. “I’m not crazy.” I was tired of Scarlet making fun of me. And I didn’t think she should start telling Mia how stupid I was for believing the stories about the mansion.

  Okay. Maybe I had an instant crush on Mia. Maybe I didn’t want my sister to embarrass me in front of her. Maybe. That’s all I’m saying.

  I realized Mia was still studying me. “So what do you believe is inside the mansion?” she asked.

  “Evil spirits,” I said. “They once were human. But they were turned into shadow creatures. They can be human. Or they can be monsters. They’re trapped inside the mansion. There’s no way they can get out. And they wait for someone to come inside. So they can take their revenge on the world that trapped them.”

  Mia laughed. “Sounds like a horror movie or something.”

  “I warned you,” Scarlet said.

  Mia raised her eyes to the mansion. “Is there really a video game about this old abandoned mansion?”

  I nodded. “It might be the scariest game ever made. And it all takes place right in our neighborhood.”

  Mia’s eyes burned into mine. “Would you be afraid to go into the mansion? Would you ever, like, dare to go inside?”

  Her question caught me by surprise. The answer was no. But I didn’t want Mia to think I was a wimp.

  “Yeah. I’d go inside,” I said. “But I’d probably like for some of my friends to come with me.”

  Scarlet rolled her eyes, then turned away to wave to some kids she knew.

  Mia laughed.

  And as Mia laughed, something weird happened. She changed.

  Her pale skin seemed to fade away. I mean, I could see right through it. I could see right through her skin—into her skull!

  As she laughed, I could see her bony skull. I stared in horror at her skeletal grin. Her eyes disappeared. Her eyeballs sank back into their sockets until the sockets appeared like two deep holes in the front of her skull.

  Her teeth now looked crooked and cracked.

  And her lips … Her lips were gone!

  She stood there, hands in pockets, a skull. A laughing, eyeless skull.

  I couldn’t hold it in. I couldn’t stop the scream that burst from deep inside me.