ماسک روح زده فصل 03

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 3

After school, Carly Beth hurried through the halls without talking to anyone. She heard kids laughing and whispering. She knew they were laughing at her.

Word had spread all over school that Carly Beth Caldwell had eaten a worm at lunch.

Carly Beth, the scaredy-cat. Carly Beth, who was frightened of her own shadow. Carly Beth, who was so easy to trick.

Chuck and Steve had sneaked a real worm, a fat brown worm, into a sandwich. And Carly Beth had taken a big bite.

What a jerk!

Carly Beth ran all the way home, three long blocks. Her anger grew with every step.

How could they do that to me? They’re supposed to be my friends!

Why do they think it’s so funny to scare me?

She burst into the house, breathing hard. “Anybody home?” she called, stopping in the hallway and leaning against the banister to catch her breath.

Her mother hurried out from the kitchen. “Carly Beth! Hi! What’s wrong?”

“I ran all the way,” Carly Beth told her, pulling off her blue windbreaker.

“Why?” Mrs. Caldwell asked.

“Just felt like it,” Carly Beth replied moodily.

Her mother took Carly Beth’s windbreaker and hung it in the front closet for her. Then she brushed a hand affectionately through Carly Beth’s soft brown hair. “Where’d you get the straight hair?” she muttered. Her mother was always saying that.

We don’t look like mother and daughter at all, Carly Beth realized. Her mother was a tall, chubby woman with thick curls of coppery hair, and lively gray-green eyes. She was extremely energetic, seldom stood still, and talked as rapidly as she moved.

Today she was wearing a paint-stained gray sweatshirt over black Lycra tights. “Why so grumpy?” Mrs. Caldwell asked. “Anything you’d care to talk about?”

Carly Beth shook her head. “Not really.” She didn’t feel like telling her mother that she had become the laughingstock of Walnut Avenue Middle School.

“Come here. I have something to show you,”

Mrs. Caldwell said, tugging Carly Beth toward the living room.

“I—I’m really not in the mood, Mom,” Carly Beth told her, hanging back. “I just—”

“Come on!” her mother insisted, and pulled her across the hallway. Carly Beth always found it impossible to argue with her mother. She was like a hurricane, sweeping everything in her direction.

“Look!” Mrs. Caldwell declared, grinning and gesturing to the mantelpiece.

Carly Beth followed her mother’s gaze to the mantel—and cried out in surprise. “It’s—a head!”

“Not just any head,” Mrs. Caldwell said, beaming. “Go on. Take a closer look.”

Carly Beth took a few steps toward the mantelpiece, her eyes on the head staring back at her. It took her a few moments to recognize the straight, brown hair, the brown eyes, the short snip of a nose, the round cheeks. “It’s me!” she cried, walking up to it.

“Yes. Life size!” Mrs. Caldwell declared. “I just came from my art class at the museum. I finished it today. What do you think?”

Carly Beth picked it up and studied it closely. “It looks just like me, Mom. Really. What’s it made of?”

“Plaster of Paris,” her mother replied, taking it from Carly Beth and holding it up so that Carly Beth was face to face, eye to eye with herself. “You have to be careful. It’s delicate. It’s hollow, see?”

Carly Beth stared intently at the head, peering into her own eyes. “It—it’s kind of creepy,” she muttered.

“You mean because I did such a good job?” her mother demanded.

“It’s just creepy, that’s all,” Carly Beth said. She forced herself to look away from the replica of herself, and saw that her mother’s smile had faded.

Mrs. Caldwell looked hurt. “Don’t you like it?”

“Yeah. Sure. It’s really good, Mom,” Carly Beth answered quickly. “But, I mean, why on earth did you make it?”

“Because I love you,” Mrs. Caldwell replied curtly. “Why else? Honestly, Carly Beth, you have the strangest reactions to things. I worked really hard on this sculpture. I thought—”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I like it. Really, I do,” Carly Beth insisted. “It was just a surprise, that’s all. It’s great. It looks just like me. I—I had a bad day, that’s all.”

Carly Beth took another long look at the sculpture. Its brown eyes—her brown eyes—stared back at her. The brown hair shimmered in the afternoon sunlight through the window.

It smiled at me! Carly Beth thought, her mouth dropping open. I saw it! I just saw it smile!

No. It had to be a trick of the light.

It was a plaster of Paris head, she reminded herself.

Don’t go scaring yourself over nothing, Carly Beth. Haven’t you made a big enough fool of yourself today?

“Thanks for showing it to me, Mom,” she said awkwardly, pulling her eyes away. She forced a smile. “Two heads are better than one, right?”

“Right,” Mrs. Caldwell agreed brightly. “Incidentally, Carly Beth, your duck costume is all ready. I put it on your bed.”

“Huh? Duck costume?”

“You saw a duck costume at the mall, remember?” Mrs. Caldwell carefully placed the sculpted head on the mantel. “The one with all the feathers and everything. You thought it would be funny to be a duck this Halloween? So I made you a duck costume.”

“Oh. Right,” Carly Beth said, her mind spinning. Do I really want to be a stupid duck this Halloween? she thought. “I’ll go up and take a look at it, Mom. Thanks.”

Carly Beth had forgotten all about the duck costume. I don’t want to be cute this Halloween, she thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. I want to be scary.

She had seen some really scary-looking masks in the window of a new party store that had opened a few blocks from school. One of them, she knew, would be perfect.

But now she’d have to walk around in feathers and have everyone quack at her and make fun of her.

It wasn’t fair. Why did her mother have to listen to every word she said?

Just because Carly Beth had admired a duck costume in a store didn’t mean she wanted to be a stupid duck for Halloween!

Carly Beth hesitated outside her bedroom. The door had been pulled closed for some reason. She never closed the door.

She listened carefully. She thought she heard someone breathing on the other side of the door. Someone or something.

The breathing grew louder.

Carly Beth pressed an ear to the door.

What was in her room?

There was only one way to find out.

Carly Beth pulled open the door—and uttered a startled cry.