The Second Evil by R.L. Stine Read Free Book Online

last booth at the back. Corky and Chip slid in across from her. Sarah Beth ordered tea, while Corky asked for hot chocolate. Chip ordered a Coke float with chocolate ice cream. “I have a craving,” he said, shrugging his broad shoulders in reply to the stares of the other two.
    The conversation was awkward at first. Corky began to wonder why she had agreed to come with this complete stranger. Sarah Beth seemed friendly enough. But Corky had an uneasy feeling about her, a suspicion she couldn’t put into words.
    â€œWhy do you have to do your gravestone rubbing at night?” she asked Sarah Beth.
    Again Sarah Beth’s eyes narrowed, as if the question displeased her. “Oh, I’m just running late, as usual,” she said, stirring her tea. “The assignment is due tomorrow morning, so of course I waited till the last possible minute.”
    It seemed like a perfectly reasonable explanation. But to Corky’s mind, it just didn’t ring true.
    â€œOops! Sorry.” Chip dropped his ice-cream spoon onto the seat. Moving to retrieve it, he accidentally bumped Corky’s hand.
    She cried out in pain, startling Sarah Beth.
    â€œIt’s my hand. I … uh … burned it,” Corky explained, holding up her bandaged hand.
    Sarah Beth continued to stare at her. For a frightening moment Corky had the feeling that Sarah Beth knew
how
she had burned it.
    But of course that was impossible.
    Stop being so suspicious, Corky scolded herself.
    â€œPlease tell us about Sarah Fear,” she urged Sarah Beth. “I’m really interested.”
    Sarah Beth took a long sip of tea, then set the mug down. She reached for the aluminum sugar dispenser. “Okay, here’s the little information I’ve been able to find,” she said, pouring a stream of sugar into the tea.
    â€œThere isn’t much information available about her. Strangely enough, I’ve been able to find out a lot more about her
death
than about her life.
    â€œShe married a grandson of Simon Fear, a mysterious man who moved to Shadyside and built an enormous mansion back in the woods, away from everyone else in—”
    â€œThat’s the burned-out old shell across from the cemetery,” Chip interrupted, busily scooping ice cream out of the tall soda glass.
    â€œThere wasn’t much of a cemetery when Simon built his house,” Sarah Beth replied. “He was all alone out here for a while. Then they built the mill in this area. Soon after that, the city built a road through the woods, right past the Fear mansion. And it came to be named Fear Street.”
    â€œWow, I never knew any of this,” Corky said, intrigued. “Of course my family is new in town. We just moved here this fall from Missouri. Have you lived in Shadyside a long time? Is that why you’re so interested in the town?”
    Sarah Beth took a sip of her tea, staring over thebooths to the front window of the restaurant. “I’ve lived here on and off,” she replied curtly.
    Am I being too nosy? Corky wondered. Is that why she got so cold?
    â€œAs I said, Sarah Fear married Simon’s grandson. She and her husband lived in a house near Simon’s mansion, a large house on Fear Lake.”
    â€œThat’s the small lake with the island in the middle of it,” Chip explained to Corky. “It’s back in the woods, two or three blocks from your house.”
    â€œAs I mentioned earlier, little is known of Sarah Fear’s life,” Sarah Beth continued, rolling the sugar dispenser between her long, slender hands. “Her husband died suddenly of pneumonia just two years after they were married, leaving her quite wealthy, according to the newspaper reports from the time. She had servants. Her house was always filled with people. After her husband died, her two brothers moved in with her, as did several cousins.
    â€œDespite her wealth, she was never mentioned on the social pages of