How I Got My Shrunken Head by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online

opened, and they all began to sing.
“Hurry, Mark. Hurry.”
That was their song.
    The words came out hoarse and raspy. The sound of air rattling through dead leaves.
    “Hurry, Mark. Hurry.”
An ugly, frightening chant.
    “Hurry, Mark. Hurry.”
    The black lips twisted into a sneer as they sang. The coal eyes glowed. The heads — dozens of shriveled, wrinkled heads — bobbed and bounced.
    I woke up with the whispered words in my ear.
    I blinked. Gray morning light shimmered down through the tree leaves. My back ached. My clothes felt damp.
    It took me a few seconds to remember where I was.
    The frightening dream stayed in my mind. My hand slid up to my T-shirt pocket. I felt the shrunken head tucked tightly inside.
    My face itched.
    I reached up to scratch my cheek — and pulled something off it. A leaf?
    No.
    I squinted at the insect in my hand. A large red ant. Nearly the size of a grasshopper.
    “Yuck!” I tossed it away.
    My skin tingled. My back itched. Something moved up and down my legs.
    I jerked myself up straight. Alert. Wide-awake now.
    Itching like crazy. My whole body tingling.
    I stared down at myself. Stared down at my jeans and T-shirt.
    And started to scream.

16
    I jumped to my feet. I thrashed my arms in the air. I kicked my legs.
    My body was covered with giant red ants.
    Hundreds and hundreds of them. Crawling over my arms, my legs, my chest.
    Their prickly legs scratched over my throat and the back of my neck. I pulled a fat one off my forehead. Then another off my cheek.
    I reached up and felt them crawling in my hair.
    “Ohhhh.” A low moan escaped my throat as I slapped at my hair. Swept my hands through it. Watched the big red ants fall to the ground.
    I felt them crawl over the backs of my hands. Hot and prickly. So big. And so many of them.
    I dropped to my knees, slapping at my chest, pulling the insects off my neck. I began rolling frantically in the tall grass, dripping wet from the heavy morning dew.
    I rolled and slapped at myself. Rolled over and over, trying to flatten the insects, trying to kickthem off me. I grabbed another handful out of my hair and heaved them into a leafy bush.
    I struggled back to my feet, twisting and squirming. Pulling at the big red ants.
    But there were too many of them. My skin itched and tingled. Their tiny feet prickled my arms, my legs, my chest.
    It itched so badly, I felt I couldn’t breathe.
    I’m suffocating,
I realized.
The ants — they’re going to
smother
me!
    “Kah-lee-ah!” I screamed, squirming and slapping. “Kah-lee-ah!”
    To my surprise, ants started to drop off my body.
    “Kah-lee-ah!” I screamed again.
    Ants showered down to the ground. They leaped out of my hair, dropped off my forehead, off the front of my shirt.
    I stared in amazement as they fell to the ground. Then they scurried away, climbing over each other, stampeding over and under the tall grass.
    I rubbed my neck. I scratched my legs. My whole body still tingled. I still itched all over.
    But the big ants were gone. They had all jumped off when I shouted my special word.
    Special word.
    I glanced down over my shirt, trying to rub away the horrible tingling. Inside my pocket, the shrunken head’s eyes glowed. A bright, yellow glow.
    “Whoa!” I grabbed the head and tugged it from my pocket. I held it up in front of me.
    “Kah-lee-ah!” I shouted.
    The eyes glowed brighter.
    My special word.
    Where did the word come from? I didn’t know. I thought I made it up.
    But I suddenly knew that the word was the secret behind the Jungle Magic.
    The word — and the shrunken head.
    Somehow the word brought the Jungle Magic to life. When I shouted it out, the ants jumped off me and hurried away.
    I gazed at the glowing little head with new excitement. My heart pounded in my chest. I concentrated on the head, thinking hard.
    I
did
have Jungle Magic.
    Dr. Hawlings and Carolyn were right.
    I had Jungle Magic and didn’t know it. And the word
Kah-lee-ah
was the key that