Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls by Wendelin Van Draanen Read Free Book Online Page A

like the skulls we saw at the haunted house.” What’s also weird about them is that one of them is ashy white and the other is almost brown.
    Casey takes the white one from Billy and raps it with his knuckles. “Does that sound real?”
    “How should we know?” Marissa snaps. “Personally, I’ve never knocked on a skull before!”
    “Well, here,” Billy says, practically sticking his head in her lap. “Knock away!”
    “You’re a knucklehead, all right,” Marissa says, pushing him back. “But I’m serious. What if those are real?”
    “Aw, come on. They can’t be,” Holly says. “And I do think they look like the ones at the haunted house.”
    “But that’s a long way to chase someone for a couple of fake skulls,” I tell her. “And why would that guy be chasing him all that way with a
shovel
?”
    Billy gives me a perky look. “Because he’s Shovel Man!”
    I grin and roll my eyes. “Oh, right. I forgot.”
    “Wait,” Holly says to me. “Are you thinking he
dug
them up?
Tonight?
”
    But before I can answer, Billy says, “If he dug them up, they’d be full of dirt! Or, uh”—he eyes Marissa—“crypt composting creatures.”
    I squint at him. “Crypt composting creatures?”
    “I’m trying to be sensitive here …,” he whispers through gritted teeth. Then he cups a hand on the side of his mouth and leans my way. “You know … maggots?”
    But Marissa hears him anyway. “Eeeeeew!” she squeaks.
    “Well, they would be,” Billy says. “And these bad boys are clean as a”—he blows down into one of the eye sockets like he’s playing a flute—“whistle!”
    Holly shrugs. “Billy’s right. If they’d just been dug up, they’d be dirty. Besides, who digs up a grave in the middle of the night?”
    “That’s exactly when you’d dig up a grave! You wouldn’t do it in broad daylight!”
    “Two graves,” Casey says.
    “But on Halloween?” Holly asks. “When people are notorious for cutting through graveyards?”
    But something else isn’t making sense to me. “If a body’s in a casket, would there even be dirt? I mean, what’s the casket for? To keep the dirt and bugs out, right?”
    Holly shakes her head. “Then how does the body decompose?”
    “Can we
please
change the subject?” Marissa begs.
    Casey turns the skull he’s holding over and back, and says, “Sure. ’Cause you know what? If you saw this in a store you’d say, Cool skull! It’s because they got handed off in a graveyard that we’re talking about it.”
    “Yeah,” Billy says, reaching for the skull Casey’s holding. “So quit messin’ with my head.”
    Marissa throws him a scowl, but it’s not serious. “Very funny.”
    “Thank you,” Billy says proudly as he puts the skulls down in front of him. “Now let’s name ’em!”
    “Name the
skulls
?” Holly asks.
    “That’s right! You know, Heckle and Jeckle? Tom and Jerry? Bert and Ernie?”
    Casey adds, “Beavis and Butt-Head?” and then everybody starts throwing in names. “Batman and Robin!” “Bonnie and Clyde!” “Calvin and Hobbes!” “Lewis and Clark!”
    Then Holly says, “How about Adam and Eve?” and Billy cries, “Scooby and Shaggy!” and Marissa throws in,
    “Edward and Bella?”
    “Ew,” Holly and I say, squinting at Marissa.
    “Yeah, you’re right,” she says, looking embarrassed.
    I mutter, “How about Grim and Reaper?”
    “That’s genius!” Billy cries. “Grim and Reaper!”
    The darker skull is turned a little sideways in front of Billy and it feels like it’s looking at me.
    Laughing
at me.
    I try to ignore the eerie vibe I’m getting from it, but I can’t seem to shake it. It’s like the skull is letting out an invisible vapor.
    Surrounding us.
    Absorbing us.
    Watching
us.
    Then all of a sudden there’s a
honk, honk
outside and the invisible vapor goes
poof
.
    Marissa sighs and says, “That’s my mom,” which makes me look at the clock and go, “Wow. I’ve got to go, too!”
    So