ماسک روح زده فصل 15

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 15

I’ll chew her to bits! I’ll tear her skin off her bones! Furious thoughts raged through Carly Beth’s mind.

She tensed her muscles, crouched low, and prepared to pounce.

But before she could make her move, the two boys pulled their mother away.

“Let’s go, Mom.”

“Yeah. Let’s go. She’s crazy!”

Yeah. I’m crazy. Crazy, crazy, CRAZY. The word repeated, roaring through Carly Beth’s mind. The mask grew hotter, tighter.

The woman gave Carly Beth one last cold stare. Then she turned and led the two boys down the driveway.

Carly Beth stared after them, panting loudly. She had a strong urge to chase after them—to really scare them!

But a loud cry made her stop and spin around.

Sabrina stood on the front stoop, leaning on the storm door, her mouth open in a wide O of surprise. “Who’s there?” she cried, squinting into the darkness.

Sabrina was dressed as Cat Woman, with a silver-and-gray catsuit beneath a silver mask. Her black hair was pulled tightly behind her head. Her dark eyes stared intently at Carly Beth.

“Don’t you recognize me?” Carly Beth rasped, stepping closer.

She could see the fright in Sabrina’s eyes. Sabrina gripped the door handle tightly, standing half in and half out of her house.

“Don’t you recognize me, Sabrina?” She waved the head on the broomstick, as if giving her friend a clue.

Sabrina gasped and raised her hand to her mouth as she noticed the head on the pole. “Carly Beth—is that—is that you?” she stammered. Her eyes darted from the mask to the head, then back again.

“Hi, Sabrina,” Carly Beth growled. “It’s me.”

Sabrina continued to study her. “That mask!” she cried finally. “It’s excellent! Really. Excellent. It’s so scary.”

“I like your catsuit,” Carly Beth told her, stepping closer, into the light.

Sabrina’s eyes were raised to the top of the broomstick. “That head—it’s so real! Where did you get it?”

“It’s my real head!” Carly Beth joked.

Sabrina continued to stare at it. “Carly Beth, when I first saw it, I—”

“My mom made it,” Carly Beth told her. “In her art class.”

“I thought it was a real head,” Sabrina said. She shivered. “The eyes. The way they stare at you.”

Carly Beth shook the broomstick, making the head nod.

Sabrina studied Carly Beth’s mask. “Wait till Chuck and Steve see your costume.”

I can’t wait! Carly Beth thought darkly. “Where are they?” she demanded, glancing back to the street.

“Steve called,” Sabrina replied. “He said they’d be late. He has to take his little sister trick-or-treating before he can meet us.”

Carly Beth sighed, disappointed.

“We’ll start without them,” Sabrina suggested. “They can catch up to us later.”

“Yeah. Okay,” Carly Beth replied.

“I’ll get my coat and we can go,” Sabrina said. She took one last, lingering look at the head on the broomstick, then the storm door slammed shut with a bang as she disappeared inside to get her coat.

The wind picked up as the two girls made their way down the block. Dead leaves swirled at their feet. The bare trees bent and shivered. Above the dark, sloping roofs, the pale half-moon slipped in and out of the clouds.

Sabrina chattered about all the problems she’d had with her costume. The first catsuit she’d bought had a long run in one leg and had to be returned. Then Sabrina couldn’t find a cat-eyed mask that looked right.

Carly Beth remained quiet. She couldn’t hide her disappointment that Chuck and Steve hadn’t met them as planned.

What if they never catch up to us? she wondered. What if we don’t see them at all?

The whole point of the night, as far as Carly Beth was concerned, was meeting the two boys and scaring the living daylights out of them.

Sabrina had given her a shopping bag to put her candy in. As they walked, Carly Beth gripped the bag in one hand, struggling to keep the head balanced on the pole in her other hand.

“So where did you buy your mask? Your mother didn’t make it, did she? Did you go to that new party store? Can I touch it?”

Sabrina always talked a lot. But tonight she was going for a world’s record of nonstop chatter.

Carly Beth obediently stopped so that her friend could touch the mask. Sabrina pressed her fingers against the cheek, then instantly jerked them back.

“Oh! It feels like skin!”

Carly Beth laughed, a scornful laugh she had never heard before.

“Yuck! What’s it made of?” Sabrina demanded. “It isn’t skin—is it? It’s some kind of rubber, right?”

“I guess,” Carly Beth muttered.

“Then how come it’s so warm?” Sabrina asked. “Is it uncomfortable to wear? You must be sweating like a pig.”

Feeling a surge of rage, Carly Beth dropped the bag and the broomstick.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” she snarled.

Then with an angry howl, she grabbed Sabrina’s throat with both hands and began to choke her.