Dudes, the School Is Haunted! by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online Page B

on
the walls and call for help all the time.”
    “But no one ever answers,” Eloise added. “And no one ever comes to help.”
    I gazed down at my hands. They were completely gray to the wrists. I pulled
up my sleeves. The color of my arms was starting to fade.
    “Ben—!” I started. He was staring at his graying skin too.
    My mind whirred. I suddenly felt dizzy.
    “How do we escape from here? How do we get back to our world?”
    “Maybe the elevator?” Ben suggested.
    “It’s no use,” Seth warned.
    But we ignored him and bolted through the aisle between the desks. To the
alcove in back of the big gray classroom. The narrow alcove that held the
elevator.
    “There’s no elevator button,” Mary called after us. “No way to call the
elevator.”
    “It never runs,” Seth added. “It hasn’t run in fifty years. When we heard it
moving tonight, we couldn’t believe it.”
    “There’s got to be a way!” I cried.
    I smoothed my hand over the wall beside the elevator doors. “There’s got to
be a hidden button.” The wall felt warm and smooth.
    I pounded it with my fist until my whole hand ached.
    Ben pressed his hands along the crack between the two doors. With a groan, he
struggled to pry the elevator doors open.
    No luck.
    “A screwdriver?” he called over his shoulder. “Does anyone have a
screwdriver?”
    “Or maybe a knife, or a stick, or something?” I added. “To pry the doors
apart?”
    “We tried it,” Eloise moaned in her hoarse, scratchy voice. “We tried
everything. Everything !”
    I kicked the metal doors hard. I felt so frustrated, and angry, and
frightened—all at the same time.
    Pain shot up my foot and leg. I hobbled back against the wall, breathing
hard.
    My shirtsleeves were graying. I pulled up one sleeve. The gray on my skin had
moved past my wrist.
    “Sit down with us,” Mary called. “Sit down and wait. It really isn’t that
bad.”
    “You get used to it,” Seth added softly.
    “Used to it?” I cried shrilly, still breathing hard. “Used to a world without
any color? Used to being totally in black and white? And not being able to go
home? Or go anywhere?”
    Mary lowered her head. The others gazed back at Ben and me, their gray faces
solemn and sad.
    “I—I’m not going to get used to it!” I stammered. “Ben and I are getting
out of here.”
    I raised one hand and rubbed it with the other. I guess I thought maybe I
could rub the gray off. My skin felt warm and soft as ever. It didn’t feel any different.
    But the color was gone. And the gray was creeping up, creeping up fast.
    “What are we going to do?” Ben cried. His eyes were wild. His voice came out
high and shrill.
    “The window!” I shouted, pointing. “Come on. Out the window!”
    “No!” Seth shouted. He moved quickly to block our path. “No—don’t! I’m
warning you—”
    “Don’t go out there!” Eddie cried.
    Why are they trying to stop us? I wondered. They don’t want us to escape!
They want to keep us here! They want us to be as gray as they are!
    “Out of the way, Seth!” I cried.
    Ben dodged one way. I dodged the other.
    Seth made a grab for me. But I slid away from him.
    And dove to the window ledge.
    Staring out into the gray night, I shoved up the window.
    “Stay away from the kids!”
    “They’re crazy! They’ve all gone crazy!”
    “They’ll take you to the pit!”
    We heard their cries and warnings behind us. But they didn’t make any sense
to us. So we ignored them.
    Ben and I climbed onto the window ledge—and scrambled out.

 
 
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    Ben dropped onto the ground with a hard THUD. I followed him, landing
on my feet on soft grass.
    The night sky spread overhead, a solid black. No stars. No moon.
    Seth and the others appeared at the window, shouting and signaling for us to
come back. But we both took off, jogging over the dark grass.
    We crossed the street and saw low, dark houses set far back on gray lawns. No
lights shone in the windows.