What Scares You the Most? by R.L. Stine Read Free Book Online

turned to her mother.
    Katherine’s eyes narrowed on Deborah. She flung the black cloak to the deck and tensed her entire body, as if expecting a fight.
    Deborah caught a flash of fear in her mother’s eyes.
    Katherine’s chin trembled. She clenched her hands into fists.
    It was the daughter’s turn to smile.
    â€œDo you wonder what is happening to these poor men, Mother?” Deborah asked. “At night when you slept, I slid your book from your arms. It was a long sea journey. Time enough for me to learn a few things.”
    â€œNo!” Katherine gasped.
    â€œI am not going to that island,” Deborah said, pointing over the rail. “The real witch will be spending her life there—not I!”
    Katherine sucked in a deep breath. “Foolish girl!” she screamed. She raised her right hand, preparing to cast a spell on her daughter.
    But Deborah acted quickly.
    She slapped her mother’s hand away. Then she shouted out the strange words she had taught herself from the old spell book.
    Katherine froze like a statue.
    Her eyes bulged. Her mouth gaped open. One arm was flung back. The other hand pointed at Deborah.
    All around, the sailors wailed and screamed. Hands over their eyes, they staggered blindly around the deck.
    Deborah acted quickly.
    She knew the spell wouldn’t keep her mother frozen for long.
    She pulled off her blue cloak and swung it over Katherine’s shoulders. She laced it tightly with trembling fingers, dropping the hood over Katherine’s head.
    Then Deborah shouted out another spell, a spell of strength.
    She wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist and lifted her up.
    Staggering under the weight, Deborah made her way to the rail and raised Katherine’s stiff body high.
    â€œGood-bye, Mother,” she said softly. “Have a wonderful life on the island.”
    Then she heaved Katherine over the rail.

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    Deborah watched her mother splash into the gentle waves. The blue cloak bubbled around Katherine as her body plunged into the water.
    And then Deborah heard a sharp cracking sound as Katherine floated to the surface. The cracking spread, echoing over the ocean like thunder.
    Deborah stared in amazement as the warm waters turned to ice.
    The waves had been washing toward shore so gently. But now they creaked and cracked and froze in place.
    Katherine bobbed in a large block of ice, surrounded by the frozen sea.
    Leaning over the rail, Deborah saw her mother come out of the spell. Katherine blinked her eyes, staring through the ice. She shook her head. Moved her arms. Struggled to breathe.
    She pounded on the ice, but she couldn’t break through. Her skin was bright blue now, as blue as thefrozen ocean. Gasping for breath, she raised a fist to the ship and shook it furiously at Deborah.
    Over the cries of the blind sailors and the cracking of the ice, Katherine’s angry words floated up to Deborah. “You and I will meet again, daughter!”
    Then, quickly, the ice began to melt. The waves began to wash to shore again.
    And, carried by the current, the block of ice with Katherine inside bobbed its way toward the island, where the shore was covered in smooth rocks.
    Deborah watched the block of ice melt. She watched Katherine crawl out of the ocean onto the rocks, the blue cloak clinging to her back. Then Deborah turned away. It was the last she ever saw of her mother.
    Ignoring the screaming sailors, Deborah strode across the deck to where Katherine’s black cloak lay. She bent down and picked it up. She pulled it over her shoulders and hid her face inside the hood.
    Then she uttered the words needed to return the sailors’ sight to them.
    Over the happy cries and cheers of the sailors, Deborah called out, “My daughter cast a spell on you. But nothing could keep her from the fate she deserved. Look—see her on the island. We can return home safely now.”
    She tried her best to sound like her mother. The