The Howler by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online

forth. He had grown very pale.
    I turned back to the Howler and pressed the red button. “Where are you?” I demanded, speaking into the box.
    “ Help me…. Help me…. ” the voice rasped. “ I’m buried…buried in your closet .”
    “No!” I gasped.
    Vanessa squeezed my shoulder so hard, it hurt. Ed and Justin stood frozen like statues.
    “ In your closet… ” the ghost repeated. “ Help me—please! I’ve been buried…so long…. Let me out! Let me out! ”
    I jumped to my feet.
    “Wh-what are you doing?” Vanessa demanded, her face tight with fear.
    I pointed to the closet beside the little table. “I’m going to open it. We have to see—”
    “No!” Justin and Ed screamed together. “Spencer, don’t do it!”
    Vanessa raised her hands to the sides of her face. She stared at the closet and didn’t say anything.
    “It’s—it’s in there,” Ed said in a trembling voice. “Don’t go there, Spencer. Don’t open the door.”
    “I have to,” I said. I reached for the doorknob.
    Ed and Justin had both backed to the attic door. Vanessa stood in the middle of the room, hands still pressed to her face. “Go ahead,” she whispered. “You know you’re going to do it. So go ahead. Open the door.”
    I squeezed the knob. Turned it.
    And jerked open the closet door.

18
    “AAAAAAGGGH!”
    Shrieking at the top of his lungs, the ghost came bursting out of the closet.
    Only it wasn’t a ghost. It was my brother, Nick.
    I let out a scream. We all screamed. Ed fell back against the wall.
    And Nick started laughing. He grabbed me and spun me around. He danced gleefully around the room. He shoved away the coats and jumped up and down on the bed.
    “You bozos!” he cried. “You bozos! Couldn’t you tell it was me? Couldn’t you tell the voice was coming from the closet?”
    Vanessa sank onto the desk chair. She shook her head, her eyes lowered to the floor.
    “You bozos!” Nick cried. He pumped his fists over his head as if celebrating a great victory. “You bozos!”
    “I knew it wasn’t real,” Justin muttered. “I knew it wasn’t a ghost.”
    “Liar,” Ed said, giving him a shove. “You were shaking even more than me.”
    I wanted to scream, but I was speechless. I had never been so disappointed in my life.
    “ I’m buried…buried in your closet ,” Nick rasped. Then he laughed his head off some more. “I heard you guys coming up the stairs. I knew why you were here. I knew Spencer wanted to show off his new toy. So I ran to the closet. I knew you would fall for my little joke.”
    “That was mean,” Vanessa murmured, her head still down.
    “Mean—and funny!” Nick exclaimed.
    I turned to Nick. I wanted to tackle him. Bring him down to the floor. And punch him and punch him and punch him.
    “Was that you I heard last night?” I asked. “Was that you playing the same trick on me?”
    A grin spread over Nick’s face. He nodded. “Three guesses.” He crossed the room and smacked the top of the Howler. “Your machine is a fake, Spencer. Take it back to the store. Admit you were a jerk.”
    I stared at the Howler and sighed. Another worthless piece of junk.
    Nick trotted to his room, still chuckling merrily to himself. I slammed the door behind him and turned to my friends.
    They had sprawled on the floor. The closet door stood open. The dial on the Howler glowed brightly.The speaker crackled with static.
    Vanessa had a strange smile on her face. “What’s so funny?” I muttered.
    “I just had an idea,” she replied. Her grin grew wider. “An awesome idea.”
    I slumped onto the edge of the bed and let out another unhappy sigh. “What is it?”
    “Your brother’s trick was mean,” Vanessa said. “But it’s a really good trick. What if we play it on Scott?”
    “Yesss!” Justin and Ed cried out together. They slapped each other a high-five.
    I wasn’t in the mood for playing tricks. “Why should we?” I asked.
    “He played that mean trick on you with the