Don't Scream! Read Online Free Page A

screen.
    â€œGo home, Eli,” she said. “
I’m
Jack’s best friend now. We don’t want you here.”
    Eli had gone very pale. His chin was trembling.
    He set the phone down carefully on the bedspread. Then he pulled me toward the hall.
    â€œWe have to talk,” he whispered.
    â€œDon’t try anything,” the girl called from the phone. “I can hurt you both. I can really mess you up.”
    Eli pulled me into the hall. “I see what you were saying,” he whispered. “The phone is definitely powered off. But she’s talking through it. She doesn’t turn off.”
    â€œShe won’t go away,” I whispered back. “And you hear how mean she is. She’s crazy.”
    â€œWhat are we going to do?” Eli whispered, glancing toward my bedroom door. “How do we get rid of her?”
    â€œHuh? You tell
me
!” I cried. “
You’re
the electronics genius.”
    Eli chewed his bottom lip some more. Then his eyes went wide. “I have a
genius
plan,” he said.

11
    He wiped his nose. He started to blink a lot. That meant he was thinking hard.
    â€œWhat’s your plan?” I whispered.
    â€œI need a small-bladed screwdriver,” Eli said. “And a small Phillips screwdriver. A watchmaker’s pick. And needle-nose pliers.”
    â€œMy dad has all that stuff down in his workshop,” I said. “But what do you plan to do?”
    â€œI have to open the phone,” he replied. “I think someone has planted two SIM cards in there.”
    â€œTwo SIM cards?”
    He nodded. “That’s what controls the phone. It would be easy to plant a second receiver and speaker in there, too.”
    â€œYou mean — ?”
    â€œYou turn off the one phone. But someone has installed a
second
phone inside that can’t be shut down.”
    I thought about it. It
could
make sense.
    â€œI have to remove the SIM card. And try to find the second receiver and speaker and remove them. Then the girl will be cut off. She will lose her connection. And the phone should act like a normal phone.”
    â€œGenius!” I said. “I’ll go get the tools.”
    I took a few steps toward the stairway. Then I stopped. I turned back to Eli. “No good,” I said.
    I walked back to him. “No way. You can’t take the phone apart,” I whispered.
    He squinted at me. “Why not?”
    â€œWay too dangerous,” I said.
    â€œI can handle a screwdriver. I won’t poke myself in the eye or anything.”
    â€œYou don’t get it. She’ll zap you,” I said. “You start to mess with the insides and she’ll
electrocute
you. Really. I don’t know how, but she can do it. And it’s not a little shock. It’s
major pain
.”
    Eli stared hard at me. He thought for a moment. “Okay,” he said. “I have another plan.”

12
    â€œGet a hammer,” Eli said. “A really big one.”
    I guessed what Eli planned to do. It didn’t take an electronics genius to do what he planned.
    Wow. I hated to lose a really awesome phone. But it seemed like the best way to get rid of the girl.
    I rocketed down to my dad’s workshop in the basement. All of his woodworking tools were neatly hung on the wall above his workbench. Dad is a real neat-freak when it comes to his tools.
    I knew where he kept the sledgehammer. It stood on its head beside one of the tall metal supply cabinets.
    I grabbed the wooden handle and tried to pick it up with one hand. But the thing weighed a ton. I gripped it in both hands and dragged it up the stairs to my room.
    â€œThat should do the job,” Eli said. He lifted the phone off my bed and set it down on top of a big book in the middle of the floor.
    I bent over the phone. The screen was totally black. “Are you still there?” I called into it.
    â€œI’ll
always
be here,” the girl replied. “Best