Horror Holiday Read Online Free Page B

even frighten a postman. I wish there was something I could do to convince him that I’m a big bad wolf.”
    Maud crawled inside the tent and shoved the poles upright. “I’ll try and help if you like, as soon as I’ve written my essay.”
    “That would be monstrous!” said Wilf, stretching the waterproof flysheet over the top.
    Maud got out and pulled the rope at the front until it was taut.
    “Thanks, Wilf,” she said. “I think that tent’s staying put now.”
    Just then, a violent gust of wind blew through the clearing, parting the wisps of mist. It lifted the tent straight up into the air, where it flew around like a huge kite, until finally
plummeting into the stagnant bog at the bottom of the slope.
    “Drat,” said Maud.
    As she padded down to the bog and grabbed the corner of her soggy tent, she heard a cackle coming from behind her. Penelope was watching from the clearing, grinning.
    “How do you like my holiday reading?” she asked, holding up a dusty hardback book called
Weather Spells for Beginners
. “I’m only on the first chapter and
it’s going down a storm. Literally.” She broke into another fit of giggles.
    “Hilarious,” said Maud, dragging her muddy tent back up the slope.
    “Wilf told me you need to get full marks on your essay or you’ll drop down a year,” said Penelope with mock concern. “You know how much I’d hate to see you get
thrown out of our class. But it’s not going to be easy with all this unpredictable weather around.”
    Maud said nothing, but she knew Penelope was right. Writing a flawless Fright essay would be difficult at any time. But with a witch playing magical pranks on her, it was going to be practically
impossible.
     

M r Montague clapped his hands together. “There we are!” he said. “It’s going a treat now!”
    Maud’s dad had finally managed to get a small fire going after almost an hour of searching for dry twigs in the soggy swamp. The Wilds and the Montagues sat around on canvas stools, while
weak flames and sparks flickered into the night air.
    Only Milly had refused to join in. She’d dashed straight from the car to the caravan, and announced she was going to stay inside and alphabetise her flower-pressing collection until the
whole ‘ordeal’ was over.
    “Who knows a good campfire song?” asked Mr Montague.
    “I know ‘Born to be Wild’,” said Mrs Montague hopefully.
    “That’s not a campfire song,” said Maud. “If anything, that’s a driving song. And I think we’ve all heard it enough for one day.”
    Maud turned to her exercise book and started to scribble.

    My biggest fright was the time I almost ate a dead woodlouse. I put it in my lunchbox for safekeeping. But then I forgot and when I opened it again, I thought it was a raisin.
    Maud looked back at her essay. She’d just started and she could already tell it wasn’t going to be nearly frightening enough. She ripped the page out of her book and threw it into
the fire.
    “Thank you kindly,” said Mr Montague. “Every little helps.”
    Maud thought she’d be making a lot of kindling at the rate she was going. Everything she wrote seemed wrong. Thinking up scary stuff was harder than it sounded.
    Mrs Wild unzipped her picnic bag and brought out a packet of raw steaks. “I hope everyone’s hungry,” she said. “It’s time for dindins!”
    Warren barked with excitement as Mrs Wild tore into the packet with her teeth and handed out the steaks.
    “My, do those look good,” said Mrs Montague. “How are we going to cook them?”
    “Cook them?” asked Mr Wild. “And take all the flavour out?”
    He chomped off the end of the raw steak and chewed it noisily. Mrs Wild and Warren did the same.
    Maud waited for her parents to cry out with disgust, but they both kept smiling politely.
    The sight of the Wilds gnashing away with flecks of blood on their strong white teeth was pretty ghastly. But they were werewolves, and Maud supposed it was the natural way