ماسک روح زده فصل 12

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 12

Carly Beth pulled the old broom handle from the closet. She brushed off a thick ball of dust and examined the long, wooden pole.

Perfect, she thought.

She checked to make sure her mother was still in the kitchen. She was sure that her mother wouldn’t approve of what Carly Beth was about to do. Mrs. Caldwell still thought that Carly Beth was going to wear the duck costume.

Tiptoeing silently into the living room, Carly Beth stepped up to the mantel and pulled down the plaster of Paris head her mother had sculpted.

It really does look just like me, Carly Beth thought, holding the sculpture waist high and studying it carefully. It’s so lifelike. Mom is really talented.

Carefully, she placed the head on the broomstick. It balanced easily.

She carried it over to the hallway mirror. It looks like I’m carrying my real head on a stick, Carly Beth thought, admiring it. A wide grin broke out across her face. Her eyes sparkled gleefully.

Excellent!

She leaned the head and stick against the wall and pulled on the mask. Once again, the sour aroma rushed into her nostrils. The heat of the mask seemed to wrap around her.

The mask tightened against her skin as she pulled it down.

Raising her eyes to the mirror, she nearly frightened herself! It’s like a real face, she thought, unable to take her eyes away. My eyes seem a part of it. It doesn’t look as if I’m peering out of eyeholes.

She moved the gruesome mouth up and down a few times. It moves like a real mouth, she realized.

It doesn’t look like a mask at all.

It looks like a gross, deformed face.

Working with both hands, she flattened the bulging forehead, smoothing it over her hair.

Excellent! she repeated to herself, feeling her excitement grow. Excellent!

The mask is perfect! she decided. She couldn’t believe the man in the party store didn’t want to sell it to her. It was the scariest, realest, ugliest mask she had ever seen.

I will be the terror of Maple Avenue tonight! Carly Beth decided, admiring herself in the mirror. Kids will be having nightmares about me for weeks!

Especially Chuck and Steve, she told herself.

“Boo!” she muttered to herself, pleased to hear that the gruff voice had returned. “I’m ready.”

She picked up the broomstick, carefully balanced her sculpted head on top of it, and started to the door.

Her mother’s voice stopped her. “Carly Beth—wait up,” Mrs. Caldwell called from the kitchen. “I want to see how you look in that duck costume!”

“Uh-oh,” Carly Beth groaned out loud. “Mom isn’t going to like this.”