R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 03 Read Online Free Page B

floating in the cold air. The foot had no toes! The toes had been sliced off. I could see the dark scabs at the end of it.
    The foot vanished and a man appeared, sad-looking, staring down at me with pleading eyes. Hands reached for me. I saw several people floating under the dripping ceiling, all sad, all pale, their mouths moving as if they were trying to talk to me.
    A hand shot out and grabbed for the silver pendant around my neck. The pendant is shaped like a bullet. My mother found it when we moved into our house, and she gave it to me for good luck.
    With a cry, I jerked back. The hand wrapped tightly around my pendant and started to pull.
    “No!” I slapped it away.
    I spun around, holding the pendant with both hands.
    “Aaron—where are you?”
    The howls turned to moans. The drumming on the walls became deafening. My boots stuck in the thick hot goo. I gazed up at the sad, damaged faces and bodies moving so slowly, as if in a nightmare.
    But this is real, I thought. Horribly real.
    I was shivering from the cold. My teeth were chattering. Icy fingers brushed my cheeks.
    I lurched away from them. Tugged and tugged—and finally unstuck my boots from the thick green ooze—and staggered to the door. I grabbed the knob and pulled it hard. To my surprise, the door opened easily. Back in the hidden hallway I ran, leaving the howls and drumming behind.
    I turned a corner, breathing hard. Someone stood hunched in a doorway. A dark figure.
    I stopped. And raised my light.
    Aaron?
    “Aaron, where did you go?”
    “Nowhere. I was in that kids’ room. With you.”
    “No, you weren’t. I looked for you,” I said. “How did you get out here?”
    He shook his head groggily. “I … don’t reallyremember. I was looking for you, Max. I couldn’t seem to find you anywhere.”
    I pointed toward the room. “Real g-ghosts,” I stammered. “You missed them. Real ones.”
    “No way,” Aaron said. “This whole place is a fake. You were right, Max.”
    I didn’t want to argue. I just wanted to get
out
.
    We ran to the end of the hidden hallway, out the narrow door, down another long, dimly lit hall. We found the stairway and took the steps down two at a time.
    I didn’t look back. I didn’t want to see anything following me.
    Curtains fluttered in a strong breeze over a broken window. The floor creaked beneath us as we ran.
    The front door!
    I reached it first, gasping for breath, my side aching.I grabbed the knob and yanked the door open.
    “No!” I let out a cry of disappointment. Not the front door. A closet.
    I turned away and started to run again—but something caught my eye. Something shiny on the closet floor.
    I bent down to investigate. And saw a pile of silver objects. Bullet-shaped objects. Just like the one I wore around my neck.
    What were they doing in this closet?
    I grabbed a bunch and shoved them into my parka pocket. Then I started to run again.
    “Hey, Max—slow down,” Aaron called. “What's your hurry?”
    “I want to get
out
of here!” I shouted.
    The halls twisted and curved. We ran past the dining room, a den we hadn’t seen, the huge ballroom—and found ourselves back at the dining room.
    Or was it a
different
dining room?
    “Are … are we going around in circles?” Aaron asked, gasping for breath.
    “I think … that way,” I said, pointing.
    We trotted down another hall with rooms on both sides. A dark wooden door came into view at the end. Yes! This had to be the front door.
    I recognized the entryway. “This is where we came in,” I said. “And this is where we go out!”
    I grabbed the knob, turned it, and pulled.
    The door didn’t budge. I tried again.
    Then I tried pushing.
    No way.
    And then I heard the eerie, terrifying howls in the hall behind us. Growing louder. Coming closer.
    Frantically, I turned the knob and struggled with the door. And then with a hoarse sigh, I turned to Aaron. “We’re locked in,” I said. “We’re trapped in here.”

9
    AARON HAD BEEN