Authors: R.L. Stine,Bill Schmidt

Tags: #SOC035000

The Secret Bedroom (17 page)

“Stay back, ghouls!” Catherine screamed in Lea's voice.

But the skeletons moved with surprising agility.

The man's hand snapped out, and his dry, bony fingers wrapped themselves like snakes around Lea's throat.

“E
vil child!” the woman cried, her voice whistling through her open throat.

Lea gagged as the man's fingers tightened around her throat. She couldn't breathe through her nose because the foul odor of decaying flesh choked her. She tried to pull away from the hideous, grinning skulls with their dark, cavernous eye sockets, but both of them had hold of her now.

Their cadaverous arms wrapped around her, smothering her in darkness, choking her with the sour smell of the dead, laughing triumphantly, dry huffs of silent laughter blowing through their open jaws.

They're going to swallow me up, Lea thought.

They're going to make me like them.

And as she thought this, and as she surrendered to the hard, bony forms that were attempting to smother her, Lea felt Catherine float away.

I'm going to die now, Lea thought. But Catherine will not die with me.

Her parents are going to kill me now, and Catherine will survive.

Lea began to see flashes of red, swirls of red, growing brighter and brighter as the skeletons hugged her, choked off her breath, and wrapped themselves around her.

And then she saw Catherine beside her, her eyes glowing red as fire, her mouth twisted in anger, pointing an accusing finger at Lea's attackers.

“They murdered me once!” Catherine screamed. “Now they want to murder me again!”

“You evil liar!” the woman shrieked in brittle fury.

The skeletal figures relaxed their death grip on Lea. Lea uttered a low cry and sank to her knees, frantically sucking air.

“You evil liar!” the woman repeated, turning her yellowed, eyeless skull on Catherine. “You murdered us both and locked us forever in this room. But we have waited here all these years for you. We vowed not to rest until we stopped your evil!”

Her eyes glowing even brighter, Catherine tossed back her head and started to laugh. But her laughter was cut short as both her parents leapt at her, bones clattering.

They circled her with their putrid, baggy clothes, the odor rising in a vapor of decay, parts of them dropping off, bones falling to the floor, as they swept around her.

Catherine disappeared inside this foul, murderous
hug. As Lea gaped in frozen horror, the vengeful ghouls hugged their daughter, wrapping her tighter and tighter in a furious, swirling grip, suffocating her.

“Help me! Pleaseâhelp me!” Catherine cried out to Lea.

Catherine's pale hand reached out from the smothering embrace of her parents. But a skeletal hand grabbed Catherine's hand and, with a violent jerk, twisted the hand off and tossed it to the floor.

Catherine and Lea screamed at the same time.

Lea covered her ears and shut her eyes.

But she couldn't shut out Catherine's final screamâthe scream of an animal caught in a death trap.

When the scream faded away, Lea opened her eyes. As she stared in openmouthed horror, all three ghostly figures melted together in a glowing, malodorous ball of flame, which slowly vanished in a choking cloud of yellow, sulfurous smoke.

Sobbing in terror, still struggling to catch her breath, Lea stared at the thick yellow vapor as it rose to the attic ceiling.

Everything went red.

And then black.

She could feel herself sinking to the floor, but she couldn't do anything about it.

W
hen she opened her eyes, she saw only white.

Is this heaven? she wondered.

It took Lea a while to realize that she was staring up at a ceiling.

And then her mother's face hovered into view.

“Lea? Are you awake?”

Her mother had tears in the corners of her eyes, and her chin trembled as she stared down at Lea.

“Are you awake?” her mother repeated.

And then, from somewhere nearby, Lea heard the voice of her father. “Stand back a little. Give her room to breathe.”

“I'm alive?” Lea asked, confused. She felt weak.

“Of course you're alive, dear,” her mother said, wiping the tears with her finger.

Lea realized she was lying on her back. She looked
down and saw that she was in an unfamiliar bed, covered with a sheet and light blue blanket.

“Where am I?”

“Shadyside General,” her father said, moving closer. “You've been very sick, Lea.”

“I have?”

“You've had such a high temperature. It was a hundred and six for three days,” Mrs. Carson said, her voice quavering.

“How long have I been here?” Lea asked, closing her eyes. The bright lights reflecting off the shiny, white ceiling were hurting her eyes.

“Nearly a week,” her father said softly. And then quickly added, “But you're going to be okay.”

“You mean it was all just a dream?” Lea asked, opening her eyes, turning her head toward her parents. Her head throbbed when she moved it.

“A dream?” Mrs. Carson was obviously confused.

“Did you have a lot of dreams?” Mr. Carson asked. “Sometimes when you have a high fever, you get very vivid and unusual dreams. They're called âfever dreams.'”

“It was all a fever dream?” Lea asked.

She tried to sit up, but her entire body protested, and she groaned and sank back onto the pillow.

“You're going to be okay,” Mr. Carson repeated. “You're just weak from being in bed so long.”

“You'll be home in no time,” Mrs. Carson told her. “And Deena says she's been organizing all your homework so you'll be able to catch up.”

“Oh, great,” Lea moaned. “Thanks a bunch, Deena.”

Mr. Carson laughed. “Sounds like you're already back to normal.”

“A boy has been calling for you. Every day,” her mother said. “Don Jacobs. He sounded very worried about you.”

Lea smiled. It was so hard to concentrate. “I can't believe it was all a dream,” she said, drifting back to sleep.

Lea's first thought upon returning home three days later was to climb up to the attic and check the secret room. But her parents insisted that she stay in bed a few more days, and they kept a close and constant watch on her. She couldn't sneak up there.

Finally she couldn't wait any longer. Awakening early on a Saturday morning before either of her parents had stirred, she crept out of bed, pulled on a robe and her rubber thongs, and made her way silently up to the attic.

Pale morning light filtered in through the circular window. The floorboards creaked as always beneath her silent tread.

Sure enough, the hidden bedroom was locked and boarded up still.

All a dream, Lea thought.

She stood there in the silence for a while, trying to sort out her feelings. She couldn't decide if she was relieved or disappointed.

Still feeling shaky, she turned away from the hidden room and climbed back down to her bedroom. On the way back to bed, she passed the oval mirror above her dresser and took a peek at herself.

“I really need a haircut,” she told herself. “My bangs are down over my eyes. I look like some kind of mangy sheepdog.”

And then something beside the dresser lamp caught her eye.

A black ribbon.

Lea picked it up with a trembling hand. She knew immediately what it was.

It was Catherine's black velvet hair ribbon.

She held it tightly in one hand, running the fingers of the other hand over the smooth velvet.

Catherine and her evil had been real, after all.

And the room above Lea's bedroom had held Catherine's parents, waiting patiently for a hundred years to get their revenge on their daughter.

Staring at the ribbon, Lea felt a stab of renewed horror.

Marci. Poor Marci, she thought.

Marci had been the final victim of Catherine's evil. And Lea had been partly to blame.

Feelings of regret flooded over Lea. Regret and sadness.

She knew this was a feeling she would have to live with for a long, long time.

Lea toyed with the ribbon, tying it and untying it around her hand.

Should she tell anyone where the ribbon came from?

No, she decided.

The secret bedroom must remain a secret. Another secret of Fear Street, a street of secrets.

She put down the ribbon and made her way downstairs to fix some breakfast.

About the Author

R. L. STINE doesn't know
where
he gets the ideas for his scary books! But he wants to assure worried readers that none of the horrors of FEAR STREET ever happened to him in real life.

Bob lives in New York City with his wife and eleven-year-old son. He is the author of nearly twenty bestselling mysteries and thrillers for Young Adult readers. He also writes funny novels, joke books, and books for younger readers.

In addition to his publishing work, he is Head Writer of the children's TV show “Eureeka's Castle,” seen on Nickelodeon.

WATCH OUT FOR FEAR

SILENT NIGHT

Reva has always had it easy. She's rich, beautifulâand spoiled. But this time she's gone too far. Now someone has some surprises in store for her. Robbery? Terror? Even murder? Someone wants to treat Reva to a holiday she'll never forget! Holiday cheer turns to holiday chills for Reva. Someone is stalking herâsomeone wants revenge. Her money can't help her. No one can.