ماسک روح زده فصل 20

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 20

Startled, Carly Beth shrieked and spun around. “Sabrina!” she cried breathlessly.

Grinning, Sabrina let go of her shoulder. “I’ve been looking for you for hours,” Sabrina scolded. “Where’d you go?”

“I—I guess I got lost,” Carly Beth replied, still struggling to catch her breath.

“One minute you were there. The next minute, you disappeared,” Sabrina said, adjusting her mask over her dark hair.

“How’d you do?” Carly Beth asked, trying to speak in her normal voice.

“I ripped my catsuit,” Sabrina complained, frowning. She pulled at the Lycra material on one leg to show Carly Beth. “Snagged it on a stupid mailbox.”

“Bad news,” Carly Beth sympathized.

“Did you scare anyone with that mask?” Sabrina demanded, still fingering the tear in the catsuit leg.

“Yeah. A few kids,” Carly Beth replied casually.

“It’s really gross,” Sabrina said.

“That’s why I picked it.”

They both laughed.

“Did you get a lot of candy?” Sabrina asked. She picked up Carly Beth’s bag and looked inside. “Wow! What a haul!”

“I hit a lot of houses,” Carly Beth said.

“Let’s go back to my house and check out the loot,” Sabrina suggested.

“Yeah. Okay.” Carly Beth followed her friend across the street.

“Unless you want to trick-or-treat some more,” Sabrina offered, stopping in the middle of the street.

“No. I’ve done enough,” Carly Beth said. She laughed to herself. I did everything I wanted to do tonight.

They started walking again. They were walking against the wind, but Carly Beth didn’t feel at all chilled.

Two girls in frilly dresses, their faces brightly made up, funny, blonde, moplike wigs on their heads, ran by. One of them slowed when she caught sight of Carly Beth’s mask. She uttered a soft gasp, then hurried after her friend.

“Did you see Steve and Chuck?” Sabrina asked. “I searched everywhere for them.” She groaned. “That’s all I did tonight. I spent the whole night looking for everybody. You. Steve and Chuck. How come we never got together?”

Carly Beth shrugged. “I saw them,” she told her friend. “A few minutes ago. Back there.” She motioned with her head. “They’re such scaredy-cats.”

“Huh? Steve and Chuck?” Sabrina’s expression turned to surprise.

“Yeah. They got one look at my mask and they took off,” Carly Beth told her, laughing. “They were screaming like babies.”

Sabrina joined in the laughter. “I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “They always act so tough. And—”

“I called after them, but they just kept running,” Carly Beth told her, grinning.

“Weird!” Sabrina declared.

“Yeah. Weird,” Carly Beth agreed.

“Did they know it was you?” Sabrina asked.

Carly Beth shrugged. “I don’t know. They took one look at me, and they ran like rabbits.”

“They told me they planned to scare you,” Sabrina revealed. “They were going to sneak up behind you and make scary noises or something.”

Carly Beth snickered. “It’s hard to sneak up behind someone when you’re running for your life!”

Sabrina’s house came into view. Carly Beth shifted the candy bag to her other hand.

“I got some good stuff,” Sabrina said, peering into her bag as she walked. “I had to get a lot. I have to share it with my cousin. She has the flu and couldn’t trick-or-treat tonight.”

“I’m not sharing any of mine,” Carly Beth said. “Noah went out with his pals. He’ll probably come home with a year’s supply.”

“Mrs. Connelly gave cookies and popcorn again this year,” Sabrina said, sighing. “I’ll just have to throw it all out. Mom won’t let me eat anything that isn’t wrapped. She’s afraid some ghoul will put poison in it. I had to throw out a lot of good stuff last year.”

Sabrina knocked on her front door. A few seconds later, her mother opened it and the girls entered. “That’s some mask, Carly Beth,” she said, studying it. “How’d you girls do?”

“Okay, I think,” Sabrina replied.

“Well, just remember—”

“I know. I know, Mom,” Sabrina interrupted impatiently. “Throw out everything that isn’t wrapped. Even the fruit.”

As soon as Mrs. Mason had gone back to the den, the two girls turned over their bags and dumped all the candy onto the living room rug.

“Hey, look—a big Milky Way!” Sabrina declared, pulling it out of the pile. “My favorite!”

“I hate these!” Carly Beth said, holding up an enormous blue jawbreaker. “The last time I tried sucking one of these, I cut my tongue to pieces.” She tossed it onto Sabrina’s pile.

“Thanks a bunch,” Sabrina said sarcastically. She tugged off her mask and dropped it onto the carpet. Her face was flushed. She shook out her black hair.

“There. That feels better,” Sabrina said. “Wow. That mask was hot.” She raised her eyes to Carly Beth. “Don’t you want to take off your mask? You must be boiling inside it!”

“Yeah. Good idea.” Carly Beth had actually forgotten she was wearing a mask.

She reached up with both hands and tugged at the ears. “Ouch!” The mask didn’t budge.

She pulled it by the top of the head. Then she tried stretching it out and tugging it from the cheeks.

“Ouch!”

“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked, concentrating on sorting her candy into piles.

Carly Beth didn’t reply. She tried prying the mask off at the neck. Then she tugged it up by the ears again.

“Carly Beth—what’s wrong?” Sabrina asked, looking up from her candy.

“Help me!” Carly Beth pleaded in a shrill, frightened voice. “Please—help me! The mask—it won’t come off!”