35 - A Shocker on Shock Street Read Online Free Page A

me?”
    “No,” I replied. “I thought—”
    “It’s some kind of trick with the lights,” he said. “Black light or
something. Some kind of neat movie special effect.”
    “Well, it creeped me out,” I confessed. “I really thought you disappeared.”
    “Sucker,” he sneered.
    And then we both jumped.
    A fire suddenly blazed in the big brick fireplace. Bright orange light filled
the room. A big black armchair spun around to reveal a grinning skeleton.
    The skeleton raised its bony yellowed head. The jaws moved. “I hope you
like my house,” its voice boomed. “Because you will never leave!”
    It tossed back its head and let out an evil cackle.
    The tram jolted to a start. We rumbled out of the living room. Into a long,
dark hallway. The skeleton’s laugh followed us into the hall.
    I fell back against the seat as we picked up speed.
    We whirred around a corner. Down another long hall, so dark I couldn’t see
the walls.
    Faster. Faster.
    We whipped around another corner. Made another sharp turn.
    We were climbing now. And then we took a sharp dip that made both of us throw
up our hands and scream.
    Around another sharp turn. Up, up, up. And then we came crashing down.
    A wild roller-coaster ride in total darkness.
    It was awesome. Even better because we didn’t expect it. Marty and I screamed
our heads off. We bumped hard against each other as the tram whirled around in
the black halls of The Haunted House of Horrors. Up, up, again—then we tilted
sharply down.
    I hung on to the front of the car for dear life. I gripped it so hard, both
hands ached. There was no seat belt, no safety bar.
    What if we tumbled out? I wondered.
    The car tilted sharply sideways, as if reading my frightened thoughts. I let
out a shriek and lost my grip. I slid against the side of the car. Marty fell on
top of me.
    I frantically reached out for something to hold on to.
    The car tilted back rightside up. I took a deep breath, slid back into place
on the long seat.
    “Whoa! That was excellent !” Marty cried, laughing. “Excellent!”
    Gripping the front of the car, I took another deep breath and held it. I was
trying to slow my racing heart.
    A door swung open in front of us, and we burst through it.
    The car bounced hard. I saw trees. The gray-fogged sky.
    We were back outside. Racing through the backyard. Both of us were tossed
from side to side as we roared over the weeds, zigzagging through the dark trees.
    “Whoa! Stop!” I choked out. I couldn’t catch my breath. The wind blew hard
against my face. The tram clattered and squealed as we bumped over the rough
ground.
    We were out of control. Something had definitely gone wrong with the tram.
    Bouncing hard on the plastic seat, holding on tightly, I searched for someone
who could help us.
    No one in sight.
    We bumped onto the road. The tram started to slow. I turned to Marty. His
hair was blown over his face. His mouth hung open. His eyes rolled around in his
head. He was totally dazed.
    The tram slowed, slowed, slowed, until we were creeping smoothly along.
    “That was great !” Marty declared. He smoothed back his hair with both
hands and grinned at me. I knew he had been scared, too. But he was pretending
that he enjoyed the crazy, wild ride.
    “Yeah. Great.” I tried to pretend, too. But my voice came out weak and shaky.
    “I’m going to tell your dad that the roller-coaster ride through the halls
was the best !” Marty declared.
    “It was kind of fun,” I agreed. “And kind of scary.”
    Marty turned away from me. “Hey. Where are we?”
    The tram had come to a stop. I pulled myself up and peered around. We had
parked between two rows of tall evergreen bushes. The bushes were slender,
shaped like spears reaching up to the sky.
    Above us, the afternoon sun was trying to break through the fog. Rays of pale
light beamed down from the gray sky. The tall, thin shadows of the bushes fell
over our tramcar.
    Marty stood up and turned to the back