Nightmare Hour (12 page)

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Authors: R. l. Stine

“Let me go! Let me go!”

“Lauren, I need your skin. Lauren, I need your body!”

“Ohhhhh.” A moan of horror escaped my throat.

And Rachel's words flashed through my mind.
The ghostly stare
.

The advice Rachel's grandmother gave her: Don't run. Stare into the ghost's eyes. Stare as if searching for its soul.

Would it work?

I had no choice. Abigail's ghost was pulling me closeâ¦closer.

I jerked my head back, raised my eyes to her empty sockets--and stared. I stared wide-eyed, without blinking, into those deep, dark holes. Stared as if I was searching for Abigail's soul.

She stopped pulling. We both froze, like graveyard statues.

Her bony jaw made a cracking sound and dropped open.
Her scraggly, dark hair flew straight out from her skull.

“Laurenâ¦” she moaned. “Laurenâ¦”

And then her gloved hands let go of my hair and dropped to the sides of her rotting, stained dress.

And still I stared, stared without blinking. Stared deep into those empty holes where her eyes had once been.

The ghostly stareâ¦

She started to sinkâ¦lowerâ¦lowerâ¦.

Her hair settled over her face again. Her bony shoulders crackled as they slumped into the dress. Lowerâ¦I watched her drop behind the gravestoneâ¦sink back into her grave.

“Laurenâ¦?” She whispered my name one more time.

And then she was gone.

I started to breathe again, sucking in long, cold breaths.

And then I ran! My shoes thudded hard over the crusted snow. To my relief, I heard Mark running right behind me, our shoes pounding together like drumbeats.

I didn't stop or slow down until we reached home. I burst through the front door, my heart pounding, my sides aching.

Staggering into the living room, I bent over, pressed my hands on my knees, struggled to catch my breath. “The stareâ¦.” I said. “I can't believe it! It worked! The ghostly stare. You used it too--right?”

Still panting hard, I turned back to him.

And screamed.

A shrill scream of horror--as I stared at the ragged black overcoat, the skeletal face, the fat brown worms curling from an open, toothless mouth. The bald, rutted skull. The deep, empty eye sockets.

“Where is Mark? What did you do to Mark?” I
screamed. “You don't belong here! Where is Mark?”

The jaw creaked open, and a cloud of sour air escaped from deep inside the ghost's rotting belly.

“Where is my brother?” I wailed. “Is he back in the graveyard? What do you want? What do you
want?
”

Before I could move, the ghost slid over to the wall. He raised a bony hand to the lightswitch--and clicked off the light.

We stood in total blackness now.

“W-why did you do that?” I whispered.

“
Lauren, it isn't polite to STARE!
” he growled.

And then I felt his hard, bony fingers wrap around my throat.

“Lauren, I'm so coldâ¦” he rasped. “Laurenâ¦I need your sweaterâ¦Lauren, I need your hair. Laurenâ¦I need your
skin!
”

About the Author

R
OBERT
L
AWRENCE
S
TINE
is the best-selling children's author in history. He began his writing career at the age of nine writing short stories, joke books, and comic books for his friends and has been at it ever since. A graduate of Ohio State University, Mr. Stine served as editor-in-chief of
Bananas
, a humor magazine for children, before teaming up with Parachute Press to create
Fear Street
, the first and #1 best-selling young adult horror series. After the enormous success of
Fear Street
, Stine and Parachute went on to launch
Goosebumps
, the best-selling series that made Stine an international celebrity and the #1 best-selling children's author of all time (
Guinness Book of Records
).

R.L. Stine lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jane, their teenage son, Matthew, and their dog, Nadine.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Also by R.L. Stine

The Haunting Hour

When Good Ghouls Go Bad

Beware!

Dangerous Girls

Dangerous Girls #2: The Taste of Night

Series:

The Nightmare Room

The Nightmare Room Thrillogy

Rotten School

Copyright

Cover photograph by Katie Yu. From R.L. Stine's THE HAUNTING HOUR: the Series on the HUB. Used by permission.

Nightmare Hour

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stine, R.L.

Nightmare hour / by R.L. Stine.

Â Â Â Â p. cm.

Summary: A collection of ten short horror stories featuring a Halloween visit to a strange pumpkin patch, a girl who wants the power and respect that comes with being a witch, and a mask that lets the wearer see into another time.

Contents: Pumpkinhead â Alien candy â Most evil sorcerer â Nightmare inn â I'm not Martin â Black mask â Afraid of clowns â Dead body â Make me a witch â Ghostly stare.

“A Parachute Press book.”

ISBN 978-0-06-210692-6

[1. Horror tales, American. 2. Children's stories, American. 3. Horror stories. 4. OccultismâFiction. 5. Short stories.] I. Title.

PZ7.S863037 NI 1999

[Fic]

99063663

CIP

11Â Â 12Â Â 13Â Â 14Â Â 15 CG/CW 10Â Â 9Â Â 8Â Â 7Â Â 6Â Â 5Â Â 4Â Â 3Â Â 2Â Â 1

EPub Edition Â© AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9780062107688

Revised paperback edition, 2011

About the Publisher

Australia