Ghouls Gone Wild by R.L. Stine Read Free Book Online Page B

head on her shoulders. No head …

22
    ISUDDENLYFELTDIZZY . I had to turn away.
    Nicky dragged his headless sister into the room with his one arm.
    “Is she … is she…?” I couldn't get any words out.
    “I'm okay,” Tara said.
    “Huh?” I gasped and stared at her shoulders— and at the spot above them, where her head should have been.
    “My head is just invisible,” she said. “The fight with the ghouls used up a lot of energy.”
    Nicky dropped Tara beside me on the bed. “My arm will come back too,” he said. “It's still there. See?” He reached out and touched my head with his invisible hand.
    “Why didn't you warn me?” I shouted. “You…you scared me to death!”
    I heard Tara sigh. “I wish we'd scared the
ghouls
to death. It would have been a lot easier.”
    I stared at her headless shoulders. “You mean…they're still here?”
    Nicky squeezed his invisible arm. “No. They're gone. But frightening them didn't work. We had to fight them.”
    “How?” I asked.
    Tara's face glimmered faintly. I could see her ears and her dangling earrings, and a little of her dark hair. Slowly, her head was coming back into view.
    She brushed a strand of hair off her forehead. “They tried to smother us. They had big, blobby bodies. Sticky like bubble gum. They stuck themselves to our faces. We couldn't breathe.”
    “How'd you get them off?” I asked.
    “We blew bubbles,” Nicky said.
    Tara chuckled. “It was kinda funny. We blew big bubble gum bubbles in their skin—and popped them.”
    “That made big holes in the ghouls’ bodies,” Nicky said, still squeezing his missing arm. “They didn't like that. They made these horrible squealing sounds. Then they unstuck themselves from us and ran out the front door.”
    “I don't think we'll see them again,” Tara said.
    I let out a long whoosh of breath. “Thanks, guys,” I said. “You really were awesome. You…you risked everything for me. I know you're dead, but you risked your
lives
for me!”
    Tara's face came back completely. “Well, we don't want to lose you,” she said. She grinned at me.
    I suddenly felt guilty. How could I
think
of leaving them here all alone?
    “I don't want to lose you, either,” I said. “You're my best friends. You fought for me. You saved me from those ghouls. I don't want to move to Texas and leave you here. I want to stay and help you, the way you helped me.”
    “Thanks, Max,” Nicky said. “We were hoping you'd say that.”
    “You're all we've got,” Tara said.
    “Maybe we can find a way to stop my dad from moving us,” I said.
    Nicky and Tara vanished a few minutes after that. I tried to get back to sleep, but no way. I kept picturing them struggling with sticky, blobby ghouls. My stomach did a flip-flop each time I remembered Tara being helped into my room without a head.
    I was still wide awake when Mom shouted upstairs that it was time to get dressed for school. Yawning, I pulled on jeans and a T-shirt and dragged myself into the kitchen.
    Mom set down the phone and greeted me with a big smile. “Good news, Maxie,” she said. “The Marvins have decided to buy our house!”

23
    T HE SCHOOL DAY WENT BY in an unhappy blur. I couldn't think about anything except the Marvins moving into our house. And me leaving Nicky and Tara and moving to Texas.
    Leaving them after they'd risked their lives for me …
    I saw that Traci Wayne wasn't in class, so I asked Ms. McDonald about her. She said that Traci had finally stopped howling. But her face was red and swollen. Her mom had said she looked like an overripe tomato. So she wasn't ready to come back to school.
    I still wanted to invite her to my birthday party next month. But what if my birthday party was in Texas?
    After school, I found Nicky and Tara waiting for me in my room. They both looked pale and worried.
    “We have to do something,” Nicky said. “Wehave to find a way to stop your parents from moving.”
    Tara tugged her hat down over her ears.