ماسک روح زده فصل 13

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 13

Carly Beth froze in the doorway. She could hear her mother’s footsteps approaching in the hallway.

“Let me see you, dear,” Mrs. Caldwell called. “Did the costume fit?”

Maybe I should’ve told her about my change of plans, Carly Beth thought guiltily. I would’ve said something, but I didn’t want to hurt Mom’s feelings.

Now she’s in for a shock. And she’s going to be really angry when she sees I’ve borrowed her sculpture.

She’s going to make me put it back on the mantel.

She’s going to ruin everything.

“I’m kind of in a hurry, Mom,” Carly Beth called, her voice deep and raspy inside the mask. “I’ll see you later, okay?” She pulled open the front door.

“You can wait one second while I see my costume on you,” her mother called. She rounded the corner and came into view.

I’m sunk, Carly Beth thought with a groan.

I’m caught.

The phone rang. The sound echoed loudly inside Carly Beth’s mask.

Her mother stopped and turned back to the kitchen. “Oh, darn. I’d better answer that. It’s probably your father calling from Chicago.” She disappeared back to the kitchen. “I’ll have to see you later, Carly Beth. Be careful, okay?”

Carly Beth breathed a sigh of relief. Saved by the bell, she thought.

Balancing the head on the broomstick, she hurried out the door. She closed the door behind her and jogged down the front yard.

It had become a clear, cool night. A pale half-moon rose low over the bare trees. Fat brown leaves swirled around her ankles as she headed to the sidewalk.

The plan was to meet Chuck and Steve in front of Sabrina’s house. Carly Beth couldn’t wait.

Her head bobbed and bounced on the broomstick as she ran. The house on the corner had been decorated for Halloween. Orange lights ran along the top of the stoop. Two large, smiling pumpkin cutouts stood beside the doorway. A cardboard skeleton had been propped up at the end of the front walk.

I love Halloween! Carly Beth thought happily. She crossed the street onto Sabrina’s block.

On other Halloween nights, she had been frightened. Her friends were always playing mean tricks on her. Last year, Steve had slipped a very real-looking rubber rat into her trick-or-treat bag.

When Carly Beth had reached into the bag, she felt something soft and hairy. She pulled out the rat and shrieked at the top of her lungs. She was so scared, she spilled her candy all over the driveway.

Chuck and Steve thought it was a riot. So did Sabrina. They always spoiled Halloween for her. They thought it was so hilarious to scare Carly Beth and make her scream.

Well, this year I won’t be the one screaming, she thought. This year, I’ll be the one making everyone else scream.

Sabrina’s house was at the end of the block. As Carly Beth hurried toward it, bare tree limbs shivered above her. The half-moon disappeared behind a heavy cloud, and the ground darkened.

The head on the broom handle bounced and nearly fell off. Carly Beth slowed her pace. She glanced up at the head, shifting her grip on the broomstick.

The eyes on the sculpted head stared straight ahead, as if watching out for trouble. In the darkness, the head looked real. The shadows moving over it as Carly Beth walked under the bare tree limbs made the eyes and mouth appear to move.

Hearing laughter, Carly Beth turned. Across the street, a group of trick-or-treaters was invading a brightly lit front porch. In the yellow porchlight, Carly Beth saw a ghost, a Mutant Ninja Turtle, a Freddy Krueger, and a princess in a pink ballgown and a tinfoil crown. The kids were little. Two mothers watched them from the foot of the driveway.

Carly Beth watched them get their candy. Then she walked the rest of the way to Sabrina’s house. She climbed the front stoop, stepping into a white triangle of light from the porchlight. She could hear voices inside the house, Sabrina shouting something to her mother, a TV on in the living room.

Carly Beth adjusted her mask with her free hand. She straightened the gaping, fanged mouth. Then she checked to make sure the head was balanced on the broomstick.

She reached to ring Sabrina’s doorbell—then stopped.

Voices behind her.

She turned and squinted into the darkness. Two costumed boys were approaching, shoving each other playfully on the sidewalk.

Chuck and Steve!

I’m just in time, Carly Beth thought happily. She leapt off the stoop and crouched behind a low evergreen shrub.

Okay, guys, she thought eagerly, her heart pounding. Get ready for a scare.