The Haunted Mask II by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online

and hooting. More shoving and hair-pulling and wrestling
on the ground.
    Luckily, their parents and baby-sitters showed up to take them home. I
watched them go with a big smile on my face. A big, evil smile.
    Then I grabbed up my backpack and hurried home. I ran all the way. I was
eager to take another look at my mask.
    Chuck stepped out as I jogged past his house. “Hey, Steve… what’s up?”
he called.
    “Not much!” I called back. “Later, man!”
    I kept running. I didn’t want to hang out with Chuck. I needed to check out
that mask. I needed to remind myself of how awesome it was. How totally
terrifying.
    I burst through the front door. Then I ran straight up the stairs to my room,
taking the stairs three at a time.
    I raced down the long hall. I turned into my room and tossed my backpack onto
the bed. Then I hurried across the room to my dresser and eagerly jerked open my
sock drawer.
    “Huh?”
    I peered inside. With a trembling hand, I shoved away several balled-up pairs
of socks.
    The mask was gone.

 
 
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    “No!”
    I began pawing frantically through the drawer, tossing all the socks onto the
floor.
    No mask. Gone.
    The balled-up socks bounced all over the room. My heart was bouncing too.
    Then I remembered that I had moved the mask. Before school that morning. I
was worried that my mom might do laundry. And open my sock drawer. And see it
there.
    So I had shoved it to the back of my closet, behind my rolled-up sleeping
bag.
    Letting out a long whoosh of air, I dropped to my hands and knees. I quickly
collected all the socks and stuffed them back into the drawer. Then I opened the
closet door and pulled down the mask from the top shelf.
    Steve, you’ve got to calm down, man, I told myself. It’s just a Halloween
mask, after all. You’ve got to stop scaring yourself like that.
    Sometimes it helps to scold yourself, to give yourself advice.
    I started to feel a little calmer. I smoothed back the stringy yellow hair
and rubbed my hand over the craggy, scab-covered skin of the mask.
    The brown lips sneered at me. I poked my little finger through the disgusting
wormhole in the tooth. I squeezed the spiders hiding inside the ears.
    “This is so cool!” I declared out loud.
    I couldn’t wait a whole day till Halloween. I had to show it to someone.
    No. I had to scare someone with it.
    Chuck’s face popped instantly into my mind. My old friend Chuck was the
perfect victim. I knew that he was home. I had seen him there a few minutes ago.
    Wow. Will he be shocked! I told myself. Chuck thought that I ran out of that
store basement empty-handed. When I sneak into his house and creep up on him
wearing this disgusting mask, he’ll faint!
    I glanced at the clock. I had an hour before dinnertime. Mom and Dad weren’t
even home yet.
    Yes, I’ll do it! I decided.
    “Heh-heh-heh.” I practiced my old-man cackle. “Heh-heh-heh.” The scariest,
most evil cackle I could do.
    Then I grasped the wrinkled neck of the mask in both hands. Stepping in front of the mirror, I raised the mask over my
head.
    And tugged it down.
    It slid easily over my hair. It felt soft and warm as I pulled it over my
face.
    Down over my ears. Over my cheeks.
    Down, down.
    Until I felt the top of the mask settle onto my hair. I twisted it until I
could see out of the narrow eyeholes.
    Then I lowered my hands to my sides and stepped closer to the mirror to check
myself out.
    So warm.
    I suddenly felt too warm.
    The rubbery mask pressed tightly against my cheeks and forehead.
    Warmer.
    “Hey—!” I cried out as my face began to burn.
    So hot…
    So hard to breathe.
    “Hey… what is happening to me?”

 
 
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    I could feel the skin of the mask tightening around my face.
    My cheeks burned. A sour odor swept over me, choked me.
    I gagged. I sucked in a deep breath through my mouth. But the mask was so
tight, I could hardly breathe.
    I grabbed the ears with both hands. The outside of the mask felt