Frightmares 3 by Michael Dahl

Author:Michael Dahl [Dahl, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV018000;JUVENILE FICTION / Horror;JUV058000;JUVENILE FICTION / Paranormal;JUV038000;JUVENILE FICTION / Short Stories;anthology;fiction;Stone Arch Books;Michael Dahl's Really Scary Stories;9781496549150;9781496549174;9781496549167
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2017-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

STUCK

For Raj and his cousins, it was the day after Halloween that scared them.

Cleanup day.

All the Halloween decorations had to be taken down, wiped off, pulled apart, packed up, and hauled away. Every last glow-in-the-dark skeleton, zombie figure, and witch’s cauldron. When it came to plastic pumpkins alone, there were forty-three to collect, clean, and pack away.

“So. Many. Decorations,” Raj moaned.

“You didn’t complain yesterday when you were collecting candy and scaring your cousins,” said Uncle Dan.

Raj’s aunt and uncle hosted a huge Halloween party each year at their modern home at the edge of town. Behind their house stood a much older building. The building made the perfect haunted mansion. Even before the decorations had been added, it looked like the set of a horror film. Doors hung open on broken hinges. Ceiling and wall lamps were coated with thick dust. Spider webs and cobwebs had created their own kingdom. They invaded every corner, every window ledge, and every piece of furniture.

Web duty was the worst job to have on cleanup day.

“I can’t do it, Raj,” whispered his cousin Christopher. “I can’t do webs. Do you know how long that takes?”

“Stick with me,” said Raj. “I’ve got a plan.”

His plan was volunteering for the second-worst job. They would clean out the haunted shack. By choosing the second-worst job, they avoided the very worst, and they didn’t look lazy either. It was the best Raj could come up with.

The haunted shack was a small building behind the haunted mansion. Each year Uncle Dan hid a speaker inside that played screams and bloodcurdling laughter. It was decorated with plastic pumpkin lights. A skeleton popped out of a window every few minutes.

“Everybody to their stations!” announced Uncle Dan. The cousins rushed to their various jobs.

Rumor had it that the shack was the home of bugs and rats and maybe worse. But Raj didn’t mind. “At least there’s not miles and miles of cobwebs,” said Raj as he pulled open the squeaky door.

He spoke too soon. As soon as he and Christopher stepped inside, they walked into a wall of sticky webbing.

“Ewwwww! I told you I didn’t want to deal with webs,” said Christopher.

“These shouldn’t be here,” said Raj. “Trick-or-treaters don’t even come inside the shack on Halloween.”

“Uncle Dan put these here on purpose,” said Christopher. “He figured we’d weasel out of web duty, like we did last year. He’s trying to teach us a lesson.” Christopher looked around for a stick or tool he could use to rip a path through the clingy material.

Raj fought his way inside. “Well, we’re stuck with it now,” he said. A thick web coiled around his legs. It was connected to the door, and as Raj trudged forward, the door was pulled shut behind him.

Christopher had had enough of the webs. As he headed back to the closed door, the webs seemed to grow thicker. More and more of them wrapped around his legs and arms. “I can hardly move,” said Christopher.

“Mmmmphhfh!” Raj couldn’t answer. Webbing was tightening around his face and chest like boa constrictors.

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