Goosebumps: The Blob That Ate Everyone by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online Page A

it
just stopped. As if someone turned it on, then turned it off.”
    Alex and I glanced at each other. “Yes. It was weird,” Alex agreed.
    I took a deep breath. “Uh… Dad?” I started.
    He beamed the light at my feet. “Yes, Zackie?”
    “Dad… when you were down in the basement… was there anything else down
there with you?”
    His heavy eyebrows rose up on his forehead. He stared hard at me. “Excuse
me?”
    “Did you see anything strange down there? Or hear anything strange?”
    He shook his head. “No. Nothing.” His eyes locked on mine. “Are you afraid,
Zackie? I know you have problems with being in the dark like this. Would you
like to hang out with me for a while?”
    “No. I’m fine. Really,” I insisted. “I just wondered…”
    Dad stepped past us and started toward the kitchen. “I’m going to call the
electric company,” he said. “They should have fixed the lines by now.”
    I watched him make his way down the hall. The white beam of light bounced in
front of him.
    I held my candle up to the basement door. “I guess the typewriter didn’t work this time,” I told Alex happily. “No Blob
Monster.”
    “Let’s go downstairs and check it out!” she replied.
    “Huh?” I backed away from the open doorway. “Are you crazy?”
    “We have to know if the old typewriter has powers or not,” Alex said. “We
have no choice, Zackie. We have to check out the basement.”
    “But—but—”
    She pushed past me onto the basement stairway. She walked down the first two
steps.
    Then she turned back to me. “Are you coming with me, or not?”

 
 
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    Did I have a choice?
    No.
    For one thing, I had the candle. I couldn’t let Alex go down there by
herself—in total darkness.
    But I held back, my heart pounding, my mouth dry as cotton. “Dad said he
didn’t hear anything,” I said. “So there is no reason for us to go.”
    “That’s lame and you know it,” Alex replied. She took another step down. “Am
I going down alone?”
    I forced my rubbery legs to move. “No. Wait up. I’m coming,” I said.
    I lowered my foot to the first stair. “But we’ll only stay down for a second—right?”
    “Just long enough to see if there is a Blob Monster hiding down there,” Alex
replied.
    Waiting for fresh meat, I added silently.
    I stumbled on the next step. But caught myself on the railing.
    The candle flame dipped low, but didn’t blow out.
    The basement spread in front of us like a black pit.
    We both stopped at the bottom of the steps—and listened.
    Silence.
    I raised the candle high. Tall stacks of cartons came into view. Behind them,
I could see the two wooden wardrobe closets where Mom and Dad store our winter
clothes.
    “The Blob Monster could be hiding behind those tall cartons,” Alex whispered.
“Or in those closets.”
    I swallowed hard. “Alex—give me a break,” I whispered back.
    We made our way slowly to the stacks of cartons. I raised the candle high. We
peeked behind the first stack.
    Nothing hiding there.
    “Can we go now?” I pleaded.
    Alex rolled her eyes. “Don’t you want to know the truth? Don’t you want to
know if your typewriter really has powers or not?”
    “No. Not really,” I whispered.
    She ignored me. She grabbed the candle from my hand and moved behind the next
stack of cartons.
    “Hey—give that back!” I cried.
    “You’re too slow,” she snapped. “Keep close behind me. You’ll be okay.”
    “I’m not okay,” I insisted. “I want to go back upstairs.”
    Alex moved quickly between the stacks of cartons. I had to hurry to keep up.
    I never liked the basement. In fact, I was afraid of the basement even in the
daytime.
    I knew there really wasn’t anything to be afraid of. But sometimes, telling
yourself that doesn’t do any good at all.
    “Alex—” I whispered. “Can we—?”
    I stopped when I heard the sound. A soft slapping, from somewhere against the
wall.
    Slap… slap… slap … slap…
    Steady as