The Haunted Mask II by R. L. Stine

Author:R. L. Stine
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Humorous Stories, Holidays & Celebrations, Juvenile Fiction, Halloween, Horror & Ghost Stories, Monsters
ISBN: 9780439671132
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2004-11-30T23:00:00+00:00

14

“No!”

I began pawing frantically through the drawer, tossing all the socks onto the floor.

No mask. Gone.

The balled-up socks bounced all over the room. My heart was bouncing too.

Then I remembered that I had moved the mask. Before school that morning. I was worried that my mom might do laundry. And open my sock drawer. And see it there.

So I had shoved it to the back of my closet, behind my rolled-up sleeping bag.

Letting out a long whoosh of air, I dropped to my hands and knees. I quickly collected all the socks and stuffed them back into the drawer. Then I opened the closet door and pulled down the mask from the top shelf.

Steve, you’ve got to calm down, man, I told myself. It’s just a Halloween mask, after all. You’ve got to stop scaring yourself like that.

Sometimes it helps to scold yourself, to give yourself advice.

I started to feel a little calmer. I smoothed back the stringy yellow hair and rubbed my hand over the craggy, scab-covered skin of the mask.

The brown lips sneered at me. I poked my little finger through the disgusting wormhole in the tooth. I squeezed the spiders hiding inside the ears.

“This is so cool!” I declared out loud.

I couldn’t wait a whole day till Halloween. I had to show it to someone.

No. I had to scare someone with it.

Chuck’s face popped instantly into my mind. My old friend Chuck was the perfect victim. I knew that he was home. I had seen him there a few minutes ago.

Wow. Will he be shocked! I told myself. Chuck thought that I ran out of that store basement empty-handed. When I sneak into his house and creep up on him wearing this disgusting mask, he’ll faint!

I glanced at the clock. I had an hour before dinnertime. Mom and Dad weren’t even home yet.

Yes, I’ll do it! I decided.

“Heh-heh-heh.” I practiced my old-man cackle. “Heh-heh-heh.” The scariest, most evil cackle I could do.

Then I grasped the wrinkled neck of the mask in both hands. Stepping in front of the mirror, I raised the mask over my head.

And tugged it down.

It slid easily over my hair. It felt soft and warm as I pulled it over my face.

Down over my ears. Over my cheeks.

Down, down.

Until I felt the top of the mask settle onto my hair. I twisted it until I could see out of the narrow eyeholes.

Then I lowered my hands to my sides and stepped closer to the mirror to check myself out.

So warm.

I suddenly felt too warm.

The rubbery mask pressed tightly against my cheeks and forehead.

Warmer.

“Hey—!” I cried out as my face began to burn.

So hot…

So hard to breathe.

“Hey… what is happening to me?”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.