by R. L. Stine
Jenna covered her mouth with her hands. She was so scared that she was afraid she might start screaming uncontrollably.
As if he knew what she was thinking, Rob turned back. Gently, he laid his hand on her shoulder. It was only for a moment, but that brief touch steadied her.
Grabbing the shovel, he crouched in the shadows at the bottom of the stairs.
The door opened with a creak that shredded Jenna’s nerves. Simon Fear entered, carrying a large trunk. She guessed it was heavy by the way he grunted as he hauled it down the stairs.
She didn’t want to know what was inside.
She saw a slight movement in the shadows where Rob had hidden. Jenna swallowed hard. This was their chance, their one chance.
Simon groaned with effort, and it seemed to take him forever to maneuver down the stairs. Once, he nearly dropped the trunk. But he caught it and heaved it into a more secure position in his arms.
Jenna felt ready to scream by the time he reached the bottom. Under her breath, she prayed that Angelica wasn’t following.
Simon stared over at Jenna, and she shivered.
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded.
He smiled at her. “I think you already know.”
“It won’t work,” she told him, barely keeping her voice from shaking. “It’s unnatural. It can’t work.”
With a laugh, he flung his head back. “Oh, poor, misguided Jenna. Don’t you know that the unnatural works all the time … when the Fears command it to?”
“You’re evil!” she cried.
“Why, yes,” he agreed. “We are.”
Rob slipped out of hiding. Sneaking up behind Simon, he raised the shovel high. Jenna held her breath. Please let it work. Please let us get away! And then, with all his strength, Rob swung the shovel down.
Straight at Simon Fear’s head.
Chapter
20
Simon whirled to face Rob. “Stop,” he commanded.
The shovel halted a few inches from Simon’s head. Rob’s eyes grew wide in astonishment. He set his jaw and tried again. Jenna saw his muscles quiver as he struggled to make them obey.
But some power had taken over his body and he couldn’t move.
Jenna clenched her fists. “Leave him alone!” she cried.
Carefully, Simon set the trunk down on the floor. Then he turned to her, his lips stretched in a terrible smile. “Isn’t this sweet?” he drawled. “The hero comes to the rescue. But it turns out he isn’t much of a hero after all.”
He swung back around to face Rob. “Drop the shovel.”
Rob’s hand opened. The clatter of the shovel hitting the floor sent echoes bouncing around the room.
Simon reached into his pocket and drew out a small object. It caught the light and sent it back in a shower of blue-white sparks. Jenna gasped. The crystal bracelet! Somehow he had retrieved it from he room.
“Now,” Simon ordered. “Put it on Jenna’s arm.”
Rob tried to resist. But his arm lifted, and he took the bracelet from Simon. Then Rob turned toward Jenna.
She gasped as Rob grabbed her arm and fastened the bracelet around her wrist. Instantly, her skin began to tingle. But nothing more happened.
“Now go back where you were,” Simon told Rob.
Rob obeyed. Despair dulled his eyes as he looked at the man who forced his own body to work against him. “What have you done to me?” he rasped.
“We gave you life,” Angelica announced.
With a shocked gasp, Jenna looked up at the doorway. Angelica stood at the top of the stairs. Her hair hung around her shoulders like a black cloak. The white streak stood out starkly.
Behind her, shadows lurked in the doorway. They coiled about her, blending with her black hair. Her face seemed to float in blackness.
“What did you say?” Rob demanded.
She started downstairs, walking gracefully, her hand on the iron railing. Smiling. She stopped in front of Rob. Running one pointed fingernail down his cheek, she looked into his eyes.
“I said we gave you life,” she told him.
“No,” Rob whispered.
Angelica laughed softly. “Do you remember where you came from?”
He shook his head. A terrible look flashed in his eyes. More than fear. More than despair. Jenna took a step toward him. But Simon turned his black gaze on her, and terror froze her where she stood.
“Now, Robert,” Angelica continued. “There have been times when you tried to remember your past, and couldn’t.”
“I blacked out,” he admitted.
“That is because you were dead,” she told him.
“No,” he whispered, his eyes wide with horror.
“Yes,” Simon countered. His smile was cruel, and so were his eyes. “You were an experiment. If we could bring you back to life, and keep you alive, then we’d perfected a way to bring our daughters back.”
Jenna began to tremble. Her heart beat so fast and hard that she was sure everyone else could hear it. “You killed him,” she accused.
Angelica looked at her. Jenna had never seen such malice on a human face, and the sight chilled her to her soul.
“Of course we killed him,” Angelica said.
Rob looked as stunned as Jenna felt. “It … it can’t be true.”
“Of course it’s true.” Simon’s smile faded. “But you’ve disobeyed us, Rob. You worked against us. That wasn’t in our plan. That is a problem I didn’t foresee. But that problem will soon be at an end.”
Rob frowned, obviously not understanding. But Jenna did.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“It means …” Simon paused, and Jenna knew it was on purpose. He liked tormenting people. “It means that at the time we reanimated you, we hadn’t yet figured out how to make the process permanent.”
Jenna closed her eyes. This was too terrible to be real. She had to be dreaming. But when she opened her eyes again, she was still a prisoner.
“No,” Rob gasped. “No.”
“Yes,” Simon corrected. “You were most useful, Rob. You lasted the longest of any of our experiments. With what we learned from you, we found the way to keep our daughters with us permanently.”
Angelica nodded. “We need the right … donors. Only the proper spirits will bring our daughters back to us.”
Jenna glanced at Hallie. Jenna and Julia, she thought. Hallie and Hannah. She and Hallie thought of themselves as sisters. Oh, yes. Exactly right.
“How long do I have?” Rob asked. All the hope had died in his eyes.
“Not long now,” Simon murmured. He reached up and unfastened his shirt. Jenna saw his long, thin fingers clasp onto something. It looked like a silver medallion on a chain.
“Not long at all,” Simon added.
Right before Jenna’s eyes, Rob’s skin began to change. It swiftly darkened and shriveled, as if flesh and fat and muscle had drained away.
He looked down at his hands. The skin was dry, hanging loosely from the bones. “Noooo,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry,” Angelica told him, as gaily as if they were going to a party. “It will all be over soon.”
“Stop it!” Jenna cried. “Don’t torture him like this! Haven’t you done enough to him?”
“Angelica, my love, our pretty guest thinks we’re tormenting young Robert,” Simon murmured.
“Ah.” Triumph flickered in Angelica’s eyes. “Don’t worry yourself over it, dear. Robert feels no pain.” Her smile widened. “Dead people don’t, you know.”
Jenna looked at her friend. His eyes were clouded with fear and despair. The Fears had taken his life, his past, and now his future. Anger washed through her, rage for what they’d done. For a moment, she forgot her own terror.
“Look into his eyes, Mrs. Fear,” she snapped. “Then tell me he feels no pain.”
Angelica went to stand directly in front of Rob. She looked straight into his eyes. Then she turned, pinning Jenna with her mad, green stare.
And then she laughed.
Chapter
21
Jenna squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t watch.
When she dared to open them again, Rob looked like an ancient mummy. Wrinkled. Dry. Dead.
She could see his ribs, the knobby outlines of his knees, the shape of his skull beneath the leathery hide.
His mouth opened. Dust puffed out, and Jenna could see a flap of leathery tongue inside. “Jenna.” he croaked. “S-sorry.”
“Oh, Rob,” she whispered.
She reached out to him. He tottered toward her, a scarecrow, a wasted thing of skin and bone. His fingers brushed hers. Just for a moment, he looked straight at her.
Then his eyeballs turned milky-white, and she knew he could see no longer.
Slowly, horribly, he sank to the floor. His outstretched hand twitched for a moment, and then remained still. A rush of tears stung Jenna’s eyes.
“Poor Rob,” she whispered. “Poor, poor Rob.”
He was dead. Soon she would be, too.
That was the worst, knowing it would happen. With Rob gone, no one knew where she and Hallie were. No one could save them. The Fears would rob their souls to make Julia and Hannah come back to life.
Simon bent and opened the trunk. The lid creaked loudly as he swung it up. Angelica reached past him and lifted out a long, white bone.
A leg bone. A human leg bone.
Someone moaned. With a shock, Jenna realized she’d made that sound. She pressed her hand over her mouth.
Stealthily, she took a step backward. She didn’t know where she could run, but she wasn’t about to just stand here and let them steal her soul from her.
Holding her breath, she took another step.
“Stay where you are,” Simon commanded.
Jenna froze. She didn’t want to, but something held her in place. The bracelet. It was beginning to control her, she realized. She reached toward it with her free hand.
“No,” Simon snapped.
Her hand fell to her side. But inside, where it counted, she raged and burned. She wanted to live! Somehow, she’d find a way to break the hold these evil people had on her.
“You really should have worn the bracelet when we first gave it to you,” Angelica told her. “This would have been much easier for you. Look at your friend. She isn’t at all frightened.”
Jenna glanced at Hallie. The other girl still stared ahead, her eyes wide and empty. The locket pulsed and glowed beneath her skin. No, Jenna thought. She wasn’t frightened. But she couldn’t feel or think. Or even fight to save herself.
“If that’s the easy way, I’d rather be afraid,” Jenna hissed.
Angelica smiled. “Our young friend has a great deal of spirit, it seems.”
“So did Julia,” Simon noted. “It’s the perfect match.”
“Perfect,” Angelica agreed, smiling up at her husband.
Simon lifted a skull out of the trunk. He examined it for a moment, then set it gently on the floor. Angelica retrieved another. She set it beside the first, then bent again to the trunk.
Jenna looked into those staring, empty eye sockets and shuddered. Julia and Hannah. Their skulls. Their bones.
Remembering the story Hallie had told that first night, Jenna felt as though her heart had frozen inside her chest. There were times, as the tale went, when the skeletons of the Fear girls walked the earth.
How many times have the Fears attempted this? she wondered, her mind reeling in terror. How many lives have been lost in the mad scheme to bring Julia and Hannah back?
The Fears worked together, separating the bones into two piles on the floor. Jenna didn’t know how they knew which was which. Nor did she care. She just wanted to get away.
Soon, the trunk was empty. Angelica picked up one of the skulls. She stroked the smooth white dome of the skull. “Soon,” she murmured. “Soon, my Hannah. Soon you will be back with me.”
Gently, lovingly, Angelica set the skull on top of the pile of bones. Straightening, she turned toward the door.
“It is time,” she said.
A long tendril of black mist curled in through the open door. It slithered across the landing to the top step. Behind it, a thick mass of shadow oozed through the opening.
An unbearably rotten stench stung Jenna’s nostrils. Shapes writhed and twisted within that darkness, things half-seen, half-formed.
Again, Simon reached up and grasped the medallion. The lamp sputtered. On the landing, the shadows thickened as though they’d gained strength from the dying of the light.
Black mist trickled down the steps. Then the whole mass followed, pouring like a tide into the basement. They flowed straight to Hannah’s and Julia’s bones. Coiling. Caressing. Smoky tendrils swirled in the depths of Hannah’s empty eye sockets. A long coil of darkness oozed from Julia’s mouth.
Simon smiled at his wife, then reached out and took her hands in his. “Ready, my love?” he asked.
“I’ve been ready since the day our poor daughters died.”
The Fears walked in a circle around the bones, Angelica going one way, Simon the other. In the sputtering lamplight, his face contorted into a frightening mask, all sharp edges and cruel lines. But Angelica looked more terrifying still, with her mad, mad eyes and her stark, unnatural beauty.
They stopped, took each other’s hands, and began to chant. Jenna didn’t recognize the words. But the eerie sound sent a frigid chill racing through her soul. Jenna knew instinctively that the words summoned up power. An evil power. One so strong and savage that the whole basement stank of it.
The lamp sputtered and died. Shadows claimed the room. Jenna thought she’d suffocate from the taste of evil they carried. Now she could only see the pale glimmer of Angelica’s white dress. And the glistening flash of Simon’s teeth as he smiled.
“Please,” Jenna whispered. “Help us. Someone help us.”
But she knew no one would hear her. No one would answer.
She and Hallie remained trapped at the Fears’ mercy. And neither Simon nor Angelica knew the meaning of the word.
An eerie, blue-white fire burst into life above the Fears’ clasped hands. It sent a cold, unearthly glow through the room.
Drawn to the light, the shadows seemed to feed from it, growing thicker and more menacing with every passing moment.
Jenna couldn’t look. Her gaze dropped to the two piles of bones. A faint rattling sound punctuated the rhythm of the Fears’ voices.
Jenna’s legs felt weak. Her breath went out in a long sigh, and she sank to her knees on the cold floor.
The bones trembled. Shifted. Moved.
“No,” Jenna whispered “No!”
Simon let go of Angelica’s hands. They both stepped back. The blue-white flame hung in midair. Burning. Burning. Tiny reflections came to life in the skulls’ eye sockets. The rattling grew louder and louder, until it seemed to shake the room.
Jenna clapped both hands over her ears. Her cry of terror was lost in the deafening clatter of the bones.
Angelica and Simon’s voices lifted in a shout as their chant grew in rhythm and power. Her voice had turned shrill, and Simon’s had deepened to a croak. If Jenna hadn’t been looking right at them, she wouldn’t have thought two human beings were speaking.
All around, the shadows writhed and danced.
Without warning, the rattling stopped. The sudden silence shocked Jenna. Then she gasped, and her suddenly nerveless hands dropped away from her ears.
Slowly, eerily, the bones floated up off the floor.
Chapter
22
Jenna watched in horror as the bones began to move.
Small bones slid together in perfect order, forming skeletal feet and hands and spinal column. Then the larger bones connected, one at a time.
Jenna didn’t dare look any longer. She was too scared. Dropping her gaze to her left hand, she concentrated on m
aking it move. If she could just get that bracelet off …
Simon and Angelica’s chant grew louder. Louder. Their voices rang through the room, echoing off the stone walls. And it seemed as though a thousand other voices echoed with them.
Closing her eyes, Jenna focused her whole being into the task of making her hand move. One finger, even. She’d never worked harder in her life! Her pulse roared in her ears, making her dizzy.
She wouldn’t give up. She’d never give up!
The rhythm of the chant changed. Her mind shrieking in alarm, Jenna looked up.
Simon and Angelica didn’t look human anymore.
Their eyes had turned into pools of light. Ugly, blue-white light. It welled out, spilling along their cheeks and striking sparks in Angelica’s wildly tossing hair.
The skeletons’ heads turned toward them. The tiny spark still glowed in the depths of those yawning eye sockets. Those flames grew larger and brighter, leaping in rhythm to the chant. Rays speared from every opening in the skulls, until the bone itself almost looked transparent.
Slowly, the skeletons floated down to the floor. For a moment, they sank to their knees, as though they’d forgotten how to stand. Their skulls began to sag.
Angelica cried out. Simon flung his head back, his hand gripping that mysterious medallion that rested on his chest. Whatever it was, Jenna was sure it was the source of his power.
“Julia,” he intoned, his voice crashing like storm-waves upon the beach. “Hannah. Rise, my daughters.”
The skeletons rose. Then, with a creak that could be heard even through the chanting, those glowing skulls turned toward Jenna and Hallie.
Sudden silence fell in the room. Jenna’s skin crawled with horror. The unearthly blue-white radiance spread and grew, until it reached Jenna.
Julia’s skull turned toward the Fears once again. Slowly, horribly, she lifted one skeletal arm to point at Jenna.
“Yes, my darling,” Angelica crooned. “She is yours.”
The Fears began chanting again. And the skeletons took a step. Hesitant. Tottering. But they did it. Then they took another step. Another.
Jenna whimpered. This couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t! She could hear the clicking of the skeletons’ foot bones on the stone floor. Closer they came. Closer still.
