Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombie Read Online Free

“What was that?” Keats asked in shock.
    “It’s too dark,” Henry said. “I can’t tell.”
    Keats pressed the button for the light on his watch. He aimed the light down at the carpet.
    “There are faces on the rug!” Keats yelled. In the dim light from his watch, he could see the pattern in the carpet. Faces as big as oranges had been woven into the fabric.
    The faces were repeated over and over. There was one about every three inches—and they were moving!
    Blinking, yawning, frowning. Each face was like the head of a stick figure. They just had eyes and mouths and looked like something a little kid might draw.
    Henry crouched down and touched one of the faces.
    “Ouch!” the face cried. It bit Henry’s finger. He pulled his hand back.

    “I don’t think they have teeth, but that still hurts!” Henry said. “Why would Mr. Cigam want a carpet like this?”
    “Maybe the faces are like the zombie, and he doesn’t want them here,” Keats said. “What are we going to do? We can’t go back. And we can’t get to the attic steps without stepping on the faces.”
    Henry frowned and then snapped his fingers. “Sure we can!” he announced. “Just walk on your toes. Like this.” Henry stood up on the tips of his shoes and stepped forward. As Henry moved, he put his toes in the empty spaces between the faces.
    Henry tiptoed farther down the hall. “Come on, Keats! It’s kind of like dancing.”
    That was the problem. Keats wasn’t a very good dancer. But he didn’t have a choice.
    Keats got up on his toes. He looked down and started walking carefully on the carpet. His eyes were used to the dark now. As Keats stepped between the faces, they watched him. A couple opened their mouths. They were ready to bite him if he stepped too close.
    That made it even harder to think about what he was doing. Keats started tiptoeing faster. Soon he was moving so quickly, he couldn’t stop. If he did, he’d fall over.
    Waving the wand in front of him, Keats pushed past Henry and almost tripped both of them. Then he started to mess up.
    “Ouch!” said a face on the carpet as Keats stepped on it.
    “Ouch!” said Keats as the face bit his toe.
    “Ouch!” another face shouted, and bit down.
    “Ouch!” Keats cried again.
    The hall filled with shouts of “Ouch!” from the faces and Keats.
    “Almost there!” Henry called over the racket. “Keep going!”
    The boys were just a few feet away from the attic stairs. But Keats couldn’t make it. A face bit down especially hard on his toe. Keats finally lost his balance and fell sideways.
    “Ack!” Keats yelled. He tumbled through a doorway. The wrong doorway.
    Henry didn’t have a choice. He had to follow Keats or they would be separated.
    “I’m coming, Keats!” Henry shouted.
    And before the door could disappear, Henry dove after him.

THE COUSINS ROLLED through the doorway, across the room’s hard floor, and banged to a stop against a bookshelf.
    Once again, Keats and Henry found themselves lying on their backs, trying to catch their breath.
    “Where are we?” Henry asked, sitting up.
    Keats sat up, too. Luckily, he had managed to hold on to the wand. He looked around theroom. Bookshelves climbed up the high walls. Weird railings that looked like thick tubes wove in and out of the shelves.
    “It’s a library,” Keats said. He was still a little dizzy from all the tumbling.
    Henry looked pretty unhappy. “Well, I’m glad we’re in one of your favorite places,” he said. “Because we’re trapped.”
    It was true. The door to the hallway had become a wall after they fell through it. And there wasn’t a single door or window in the room.
    Keats felt lousy. “I’m sorry, Henry. We were so close to the attic and getting the lightbulb! I just couldn’t keep my balance.”
    Henry gave him a smile. “Hey, don’t worry about it, Keats,” he said. “I wanted a tour of the house anyway.”
    Keats smiled, too. Then he thought of something. “In