شبی با عروسک زنده فصل 05

Night of the Living Dummy - Chapter 5

“Oh!” As the hand tightened around her wrist, Kris cried out and spun around.

To her surprise, Lindy was crouched beside her. Lindy had a tight grip on Kris’ wrist.

Kris jerked her hand from Lindy’s grasp.

Moonlight through the window lit up Lindy’s devilish grin. “Gotcha again!” she declared.

“You didn’t scare me!” Kris insisted. But her voice came out a trembling whisper.

“You jumped a mile!” Lindy exclaimed gleefully. “You really thought the dummy grabbed you.” “Did not!” Kris replied. She hurried to her bed.

“What were you doing up, anyway?” Lindy demanded. “Were you messing with Slappy?”

“No. I… uh… had a bad dream,” Kris told her. “I just went to look out the window.” Lindy snickered. “You should’ve seen the look on your face.”

“I’m going back to sleep. Leave me alone,” Kris snapped. She pulled the covers up to her chin.

Lindy pushed the dummy back to a sitting position. Then she returned to her bed, still chuckling over the scare she’d given her sister.

Kris rearranged her pillows, then glanced across the room to the window. The dummy’s face was half covered in shadow now. But the eyes glowed as if he were alive. And they stared into hers as if they were trying to tell her something.

Why does he have to grin like that? Kris asked herself, trying to rub away the prickly feeling on the back of her neck.

She pulled up the sheet, settled into the bed, and turned on her side, away from the wide, staring eyes.

But even with her back turned, she could feel them gazing at her. Even with her eyes closed and the covers pulled up to her head, she could picture the shadowy, distorted grin, the unblinking eyes. Staring at her. Staring. Staring.

She drifted into an uncomfortable sleep, drifted into another dark nightmare. Someone was chasing her. Someone very evil was chasing her.

But who?

On Monday afternoon, Lindy and Kris both stayed after school to rehearse for the spring concert. It was nearly five when they arrived home, and they were surprised to see their dad’s car in the driveway.

“You’re home so early!” Kris exclaimed, finding him in the kitchen helping their mother prepare dinner.

“I’m leaving tomorrow for a sales conference in Portland,” Mr. Powell explained, peeling an onion over the sink with a small paring knife. “So I only worked half a day today.” “What’s for dinner?” Lindy asked.

“Meatloaf,” Mrs. Powell replied, “if your father ever gets the onion peeled.”

“There’s a trick to not crying when you peel an onion,” Mr. Powell said, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Wish I knew it.” “How was chorus rehearsal?” Mrs. Powell asked, kneading a big ball of red ground beef in her hands.

“Boring,” Lindy complained, opening the refrigerator and taking out a can of Coke.

“Yeah. We’re doing all these Russian and Yugoslavian songs,” Kris said. “They’re so sad. They’re all about sheep or something. We don’t really know what they’re about. There’s no translation.” Mr. Powell rushed to the sink and began splashing cold water on his red, runny eyes. “I can’t take this!” he wailed. He tossed the half-peeled onion back to his wife.

“Crybaby,” she muttered, shaking her head.

Kris headed up the stairs to drop her backpack in her room. She tossed it onto the desk she shared with Lindy, then turned to go back downstairs.

But something by the window caught her eye.

Spinning around, she gasped.

“Oh, no!” The startled cry escaped her lips.

Kris raised her hands to her cheeks and stared in disbelief.

Slappy was propped up in the chair in front of the window, grinning at her with his usual wide-eyed stare. And seated beside him was another dummy, also grinning at her.

And they were holding hands.

“What’s going on here?” Kris cried aloud.