Nice guy, isn’t he?
“What is all this equipment supposed to do?” Scarlet asked.
“Detect evil spirits, of course,” Carter snapped.
“I just thought of something,” my sister said.
Everyone stopped to listen.
“Where are you going to plug this stuff in, Carter? There’s no electricity.”
Danitia groaned and slapped her forehead. “Oh, wow. Now she thinks of it!”
Cheng shook his head. “We lugged this stuff up here for nothing?”
Carter raised a finger to his lips. “Shut up, everyone. Everyone, chill. I’m a pro, remember? I brought my own generator.”
He dragged a large square box across the room. “This will power all the equipment. It runs on gasoline,” he explained. “We plug everything into it. Then I start it by pulling this rope, like a lawn mower.”
We stood and watched Carter as he went to work. What else could we do? He wouldn’t let us help.
It took a long time to get all the devices and machines set up and plugged in. All the while, I stayed tense and alert. Watching for any creatures that might attack. And watching Mia. She stayed close to Scarlet and hardly spoke.
But I didn’t trust her. And I still couldn’t believe Scarlet had invited her.
“Stand back. Here we go,” Carter said, motioning us all away again. He stepped up to the generator and gave the rope a strong, two-handed pull. The generator made a chugging sound and started to roar. The lights Carter brought came on. The video screens clicked and flashed into motion.
Carter took a bow. We all applauded. It’s so annoying how Carter always needs to hog the spotlight and be the star. But I had to admit this was pretty awesome.
I grabbed the GoPro camera and started to take a video of all the equipment humming away. Scarlet and Mia sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of the motion detector screen. Cheng and Danitia stood behind them. They waved to the camera as I panned it past him.
The generator worked fine for about three minutes.
Then a deafening explosion made me jump.
The lights flickered and died. The screens went dark. I gasped as a flash of fiery light burst from the generator, followed by a sizzling current sound. Then silence.
I stood gazing at the dead equipment, breathing hard. And a powerful gust of cold wind swirled in from out of nowhere.
The torch on the wall made a loud whoooosh as it died. The red flames turned purple, then went dark.
All the candles went out.
All of them. All at once.
“Oh, wow,” I muttered, blinking into the complete blackness. “I don’t believe this.”
“I can’t see a thing!” Cheng cried.
“Somebody, do something!” Danitia shouted.
I gazed into the inky darkness. No light at all. Not a flicker.
I took a step toward the others, then stopped.
Something plopped heavily onto my foot.
I tried to kick it off. But I felt it slide under my jeans cuff.
Something … something warm and soft … with scratchy, prickly feet … something alive was crawling up my leg.
I screamed and started to kick my leg.
Prickly feet dug into the skin on my calf as the creature crawled higher.
I slapped at it. Twisted and kicked.
“Riley? What’s wrong?” I heard Scarlet’s cry in the dark.
“What’s going on?” Cheng demanded. “What’s happening?”
I grabbed at the creature under my jeans. I could feel it. A soft lump.
Moaning, I gave another hard kick. I felt it slide down my leg. I heard a thummmp as it hit the floor.
I cried out and shielded my eyes as a bright beam of light shone on my face. Squinting, I followed the light as it slid over the floor.
“How smart was I to bring this LED flashlight?” Carter said.
He shone the light on the creature. It was a mouse. It stood on its hind legs, staring up at me, its head tilted to one side.
“That’s a big mouse!” Danitia cried.
“It … climbed up my leg,” I stammered.
But then I recognized it. Suddenly, I remembered it from the game.
It wasn’t an ordinary mouse.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” I cried.
“Riley, it’s just a mouse,” Carter said.
“N-no,” I stammered.
I didn’t have to say anything else. In the light from Carter’s flashlight, we all saw the creature begin to grow.
Standing on its hind legs, it grew quickly. Stretched and grew. In seconds, it was the size of a cat. Its bones creaked and cracked as it rose up, stretched, rolling its eyes, cranking its head from side to side. As I stared in horror, it rose to the size of a German shepherd!
It gnashed its pointed teeth. The click of its jaws echoed off the walls. It swiped giant paws in the air, preparing to attack. A raspy growl escaped its open mouth.
And we took off.
I reached the doorway first and tore into the pitch black hall.
I hesitated. Which way to run? Which way?
It didn’t matter. We just had to get away from the jaws of the mouse monster.
Running in darkness, my shoes thudding on the hard floor, I heard the others behind me. Heard them breathing hard and murmuring their fear, sharp cries and whimpers. And I listened for the heavy bump of giant mouse paws as the creature chased after us, its prey.
Unable to see, my head smacked a wall. We’d come to the end of the hall. I let out a groan and staggered back, fighting off the pain and dizziness.
We all huddled in this dark corner. Carter’s white beam of light danced over us, revealing the terror on our faces.
“We can’t stay here,” I said. “This was a terrible idea. The house is just like the video game. The same creatures live here. They’re all deadly. All of them.”
“It can’t be the same,” Mia said. “That’s crazy.”
“You saw that mouse!” I cried. “How crazy was that?”
“We … we thought the old house was deserted. Empty.” Carter shook his head.
“Well, it’s not,” I said. “The game is true. That giant mouse is only on level two. If we run into more dangerous creatures … If we run into The Beast … we’re doomed.”
“The Beast?” Cheng asked in a tiny voice. “What’s that?”
I heard sounds down the hall. Thumps and scrapes. “No time to talk,” I said. “We have to find our parents and get out of here.”
“But … how do we get out?” Scarlet demanded.
Before I could answer, I saw a flash of light from a wall torch down the hall. An enormous creature burst into the light—and I opened my mouth in a scream of horror.
“It’s too late,” I told them, watching the creature lumber toward us. “It’s the Beast.”
“Hurry! This way!” I choked out.
We hurtled down the hall. Turned. Tore through another hall.
I had no time to tell them that the Beast was the most deadly creature of Shudder Mansion. Sometimes human, sometimes an enormous roaring animal, it couldn’t be defeated.
When I played the game, I never even tried to face the Beast. I turned and ran. I knew if I tried to battle him, it would be Game Over for me.
But this wasn’t the game. The Beast was real. All of the horrors of the Shudder Mansion game were real. My friends and I weren’t having a silly, safe adventure we could video. We were in real-life danger we probably wouldn’t survive.
Carter’s light danced over the floor and walls ahead of us as we ran. Not too far behind us, I could hear the grunts and growls and heavy footsteps of the creature pursuing us.
“We can’t keep running,” I said. “We have to find a place to hide.”
“That door is open,” Cheng said, pointing to a dark opening just ahead of us.
“Be careful,” I warned. “The Beast is very clever. He likes to set traps.”
Bu
t we didn’t have time to be careful. We dove into the room, gasping for breath, holding our sides.
Carter’s light swept all around. The room appeared to be a kitchen.
Danitia groaned and held her nose. “Ewwwww. Stinks in here,” she said.
The sour aroma choked my throat. “Like rotting, decayed meat or something,” I said, breathing out.
Scarlet pointed. “What’s that pile of stuff on the kitchen counter? Are those animal skeletons?”
Before anyone could answer, I uttered a startled cry. “Hey—my shoes—!”
Everyone discovered it at the same time.
The floor was soft and sticky. My shoes were stuck in some kind of gunk.
I struggled to raise my foot. I couldn’t lift my shoe out of the thick, sticky goo. I stood there on one foot for a while, trying to decide what to do.
The others were struggling, too. “Can’t walk,” Cheng groaned, bending his knees. His arms bobbed at his sides as he tried to keep his balance. He looked like he was doing a high-wire act in the circus.
I saw Danitia grab the back of one knee, trying to pry her foot out of the thick muck on the floor. She pulled hard—stumbled forward—and fell facedown with a horrified scream.
“Oooh, it smells! It smells!” Danitia cried, down on the floor. “Help me! Somebody!”
Scarlet and Mia struggled over to her and reached to pull her up from the sticky mess. We all were trying to pull our shoes free, tilting and squirming to keep our balance. The light from Carter’s flashlight zigzagged over the ceiling as he struggled to walk.
“We’re like flies in a spiderweb,” Danitia said. “We can’t move at all. What can we do?”
“It’s a trap,” I said, shaking my head sadly. “The Beast set a trap for us—and we walked right into it.”
“Now what?” Cheng asked in a trembling voice. “What happens in the game?”
“He’ll eat us one by one.”
Scarlet grabbed my arm. “Help me. Can you pull me to the door?”
I twisted to reach her—and my foot came out of my sneaker. With a cry of surprise, I gazed down at my shoe, stuck in the syrupy gunk. “I can’t move …” I rasped, trying to balance on one foot.
I can’t stand like this much longer, I thought, teetering to one side. I started to panic—and then it came to me.
I had been in this trap once before. Yes, I knew how we could escape—if the Beast didn’t get to us first.
“Take off your shoes,” I said.
The idea did not go over well.
“No way!”
“Are you crazy?”
“If we do that, our socks will be stuck in the goo.”
“That’s totally stupid.”
“Take off your shoes and socks,” I said. “Leave them where they are. Listen to me. I beat this trap once. I know this will work.”
“But then our feet will be stuck,” Danitia said. “The only way out of here is to fly.”
“Listen, everyone, you’ve got to believe me—” I said.
“What if we all hold on to each other?” Cheng suggested. “If we move as a group, maybe we can pull each other to the door.”
“We have to call our parents,” Scarlet said. “We need them to help us—”
“I already checked my phone. There’s no cell service,” I said. “And even if we all shouted at once, no way they’d hear us. Besides, they wouldn’t get here in time.” My voice trembled. “The Beast is right down the hall.”
Carter twisted and bent in the goo. He looked like he was doing a strange dance. “I … can’t … budge,” he said, gasping for breath. “Let’s listen to Riley.”
Whoa. That was a surprise.
“Okay. Take off your shoes and socks,” I said. “Don’t worry about stepping in the goo with your bare feet. The goo doesn’t stick to human skin. You won’t sink into it, I promise.”
“That’s crazy,” Cheng muttered.
“This is all crazy,” Danitia said.
“Riley is right. We’d better hurry,” Mia said. She had been silent this whole time. I’d almost forgotten she was there.
“I can’t believe we’re not getting this on the video,” Carter muttered. “Mrs. Blume will never believe it.”
“Hurry,” I said. “Forget about the video. We’re in a real trap. We’re helpless in here. Hurry!”
I already had one shoe off. I put one hand on the wall to balance myself, leaned over, and pulled off the sock. I tossed the sock into the gunk.
Then I slid my foot out of my other shoe. I pulled off my sock, balled it up, and heaved it away.
I glanced around. I was the first one to take my shoes and socks off. All eyes were on me now.
“Check it out,” I said. I was standing in the thick goo.
“My feet will bounce over the layer of gunk,” I said. “They won’t sink. They won’t stick. And I’ll be able to walk out of here without a problem.”
I was standing on top of my shoes. Now I lifted my right foot and lowered it to the goo. Then, balancing carefully, I lowered my left foot into the sticky gunk.
They sank deep into the goo.
I tried to move. I couldn’t pull them up. Both feet stuck.
A startled cry escaped my throat. “It … It didn’t work,” I stammered.
Everyone groaned.
“I knew it!” Scarlet cried.
And then I felt a tickle on the bottoms of my feet. The tickle became a push. I glanced down. It took a few seconds to realize what was happening.
The goo was pushing my feet up, bouncing them up to the surface.
I took a step. Then another.
Yes!
“I did it!” I shouted. “I’m free!”
The goo felt like Jell-O under my feet. But I walked over it until I reached the door. I poked my head out into the dark hall and peered both ways.
No sign of the Beast.
“Hurry!” I shouted.
“But what about our shoes?” Cheng demanded. “We can’t walk around barefoot.”
“Just leave them,” I said. “It’s better than being eaten by a monster.”
I watched them scramble out of their shoes and socks. A few seconds later, we were huddled barefoot in the hall.
“We have to tell our parents what happened,” Danitia said. “Maybe they can help us get our shoes back.”
“Forget the shoes,” I said. “Don’t you understand the danger we’re in? We have to get out of this house.”
“He’s right. But first we have to get the camcorder,” Carter said. “We have to get this on video. We have to get proof.”
“We’re going to die,” I moaned. “We can’t go back. We’re going to die.”
Carter ignored me. So did everyone else. They followed Carter back to the room, stumbling and fumbling in the dark. I’d never been so tense or alert in my life. With every footstep, I listened for sounds of the Beast or a glimpse of the hideous creature.
“I can’t see a thing,” Carter said. “Where is the camcorder? I’ve got to find my night vision goggles.”
Outside the windows, low clouds had covered the moon. Dim gray light managed to seep in.
“Carter, do you still have those matches?” I asked. “Let’s light some candles.”
“My feet are freezing,” Cheng said. “And I think I got a splinter walking down the hall.”
We managed to light three or four candles. The soft glow brought the room into focus.
Carter picked up the GoPro camera and handed it to me. “Riley, let’s video me talking about what happened in the room with the goo on the floor. Maybe we can go back there and take some shots of our shoes stuck in the floor.”
“Go back there? No way!” Cheng and Danitia exclaimed in unison.
“Are you crazy?” I cried. “Didn’t you hear what I said about the Beast? About this old house? It’s deadly, Carter. There are monsters around every corner. And this isn’t a game. It’s real. We really could die.”
Carte
r took a step back. For the first time, his grin faded and I saw a flash of fear on his face.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Now. No more talk till we are out of here and safe.”
I took a few steps, but Danitia pulled me back. “What’s your problem?” I snapped.
“Just wait a minute,” Danitia said. “Wait a minute, everyone. Where is Scarlet?”
“Huh?” Her question sent a chill to the back of my neck. “Scarlet?”
I gazed around the room. I didn’t see my sister.
“Did she escape the goo with us?” Mia asked.
“I … I don’t know,” Danitia said. “I think so. I think she was right behind me.”
“Hey—Scarlet!” I shouted. My voice came out high and shrill. “Scarlet—are you here?”
No answer.
I froze. I had to force myself to breathe.
I grabbed a candle and darted out into the hall. “Scarlet! Scarlet?” I shouted her name again and again, listening to my voice ring off the dark walls.
Trying to shield the candle flame with one hand, I went running full speed back down the hall. My heartbeats thudded as loudly as my bare feet on the floorboards.
“Riley—where are you going?” I heard Cheng’s voice behind me.
“To … find … Scarlet.” I said.
As I ran, I tried to think. Did anyone just vanish from sight in the video game? Did anyone just disappear?
There were so many levels in the game. Some single player. Some multiplayer. The higher levels got more and more dangerous. And sometimes, when someone disappeared, they NEVER RETURNED.
I reached the room with the sticky floor. My chest felt about to burst. My head throbbed.
“Scarlet? Are you in here?”
I pushed the candle in front of me. Raised it high so that its dim, flickering light spread over the floor.
I could see the shoes and socks, still sunk in the thick carpet of goo. No sign of my sister.
“Scarlet! Where are you?”
I turned and ran back to the others. My feet pounded the hard floor, but I didn’t feel anything. I was numb now. Numb with fright.
The others greeted me with wide-eyed, frightened expressions on their faces. “You … didn’t find her?” Mia stammered.