Goosebumps- All In One

The Haunted Mask

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THE HAUNTED MASK 

Goosebumps - 11 

R.L. Stine 

(An Undead Scan v1.5) 

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1 

“What  are  you  going  to  be  for  Halloween?”  Sabrina  Mason  asked.  She  moved  her 

fork around in the bright yellow macaroni on her lunch tray, but didn’t take a bite. 

Carly  Beth  Caldwell  sighed  and  shook  her  head.  The overhead  light  on  the 

lunchroom  ceiling  made  her  straight  brown  hair  gleam.  “I  don’t  know.  A  witch, 

maybe.” 

Sabrina’s mouth dropped open. “You? A witch?” 

“Well,  why  not?”  Carly  Beth  demanded,  staring  across  the  long  table  at  her 

friend. 

“I  thought  you  were  afraid  of  witches,”  Sabrina  replied.  She  raised  a  forkful  of 

macaroni to her mouth and started to chew. “This macaroni is made of rubber,” she 

complained, chewing hard. “Remind me to start packing a lunch.” 

“I am not afraid of witches!” Carly Beth insisted, her dark eyes flashing angrily. 

“You just think I’m a big scaredy-cat, don’t you?” 

Sabrina giggled. “Yes.” She flipped her black ponytail behind her shoulders with 

a  quick  toss  of  her  head.  “Hey,  don’t  eat  the  macaroni.  Really,  Carly  Beth.  It’s 

gross.” She reached across the table to keep Carly Beth from raising her fork. 

“But I’m starving!” Carly Beth complained. 

The lunchroom grew crowded and noisy. At the next table, a group of fifth-grade 

boys  were  tossing  a  half-full  milk  carton  back  and forth.  Carly  Beth  saw  Chuck 

Greene ball up a bright red fruit rollup and shove the whole sticky thing in his mouth. 

“Yuck!” She made a disgusted face  at him. Then she turned back to Sabrina. “I 

am not a scaredy-cat, Sabrina. Just because everyone picks on me and—” 

“Carly  Beth,  what  about  last  week?  Remember?  At  my house?”  Sabrina  ripped 

open a bag of tortilla chips and offered some across the table to her friend. 

“You  mean  the  ghost  thing?”  Carly  Beth  replied,  frowning.  “That  was  really 

stupid.” 

“But  you  believed  it,”  Sabrina  said  with  a  mouthful  of  chips.  “You  really 

believed my attic was haunted. You should have seen the look on your face when the 

ceiling started to creak, and we heard the footsteps up there.” 

“That was so mean,” Carly Beth complained, rolling her eyes. 

“Then when you heard footsteps coming down the stairs, your face went all white 

and you screamed,” Sabrina recalled. “It was only Chuck and Steve.” 

“You know I’m afraid of ghosts,” Carly Beth said, blushing. 

“And  snakes  and  bugs  and  loud  noises  and  dark  rooms  and—and  witches!” 

Sabrina declared. 

“I  don’t  see  why  you  have  to  make  fun  of  me,”  Carly  Beth  pouted.  She  shoved 

her lunch tray away. “I don’t see why everyone always thinks it’s so much fun to try 

to scare me. Even you, my best friend.” 

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“I’m  sorry,”  Sabrina  said  sincerely.  She  reached  across  the  table  and  squeezed 

Carly  Beth’s  wrist  reassuringly.  “You’re  just  so  easy  to  scare.  It’s  hard  to  resist. 

Here. Want some more chips?” She shoved the bag toward Carly Beth. 

“Maybe I’ll scare you some day,” Carly Beth threatened. 

Her friend laughed. “No way!” 

Carly  Beth  continued  to  pout.  She  was  eleven.  But  she  was  tiny.  And  with  her 

round face and short stub of a nose (which she hated and wished would grow longer), 

she looked much younger. 

Sabrina,  on  the  other  hand,  was  tall,  dark,  and  sophisticated-looking.  She  had 

straight  black  hair  tied  behind  her  head  in  a  ponytail,  and  enormous,  dark  eyes. 

Everyone who saw them together assumed that Sabrina was twelve or thirteen. But, 

actually, Carly Beth was a month older than her friend. 

“Maybe I won’t be a witch,” Carly Beth said thoughtfully, resting her chin on her 

hands.  “Maybe  I’ll  be  a  disgusting  monster  with  hanging  eyeballs  and  green  slime 

dripping down my face and—” 

A loud crash made Carly Beth scream. 

It took her a few seconds to realize that it was just a lunch tray hitting the floor. 

She  turned  to  see  Gabe  Moser,  his  face  bright  red, drop  to  his  knees  and  start 

scooping his lunch off the floor. The lunchroom rang out with cheers and applause. 

Carly Beth hunched down in her seat, embarrassed that she had screamed. 

Her  breathing  had  just  returned  to  normal  when  a  strong  hand  grabbed  her 

shoulder from behind. 

Carly Beth’s shriek echoed through the room. 

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2 

She heard laughter. At another table, someone yelled, “Way to go, Steve!” 

She  whipped  her  head  around  to  see  her  friend  Steve  Boswell  standing  behind 

her, a mischievous grin on his face. “Gotcha,” he said, letting go of her shoulder. 

Steve pulled out the chair next to Carly Beth’s and lowered himself over its back. 

His  best  friend,  Chuck  Greene,  slammed  his  bookbag onto  the  table  and  then  sat 

down next to Sabrina. 

Steve and Chuck looked so much alike, they could have been brothers. Both were 

tall  and  thin,  with  straight  brown  hair,  which  they  usually  hid  under  baseball  caps. 

Both  had  dark  brown  eyes  and  goofy  grins.  Both  wore  faded  blue  jeans  and  dark-colored, long-sleeved T-shirts. 

And  both  of  them  loved  to  scare  Carly  Beth.  They  loved  to  startle  her,  to  make 

her jump and shriek. 

They spent hours dreaming up new ways to frighten her. 

She vowed every time that she would never—never—fall for one of their stupid 

tricks again. 

But so far, they had won every time. 

Carly  Beth  always  threatened  to  pay  them  back.  But in  all  the  time  they’d  been 

friends, she hadn’t been able to think of anything good enough. 

Chuck  reached  for  the  few  remaining  chips  in  Sabrina’s  bag.  She  playfully 

slapped his hand away. “Get your own.” 

Steve  held  a  crinkled  hunk  of  aluminum  foil  under  Carly  Beth’s  nose.  “Want  a 

sandwich? I don’t want it.” 

Carly Beth sniffed it suspiciously. “What kind is it? I’m starving!” 

“It’s a turkey sandwich. Here,” Steve said, handing it to Carly Beth. “It’s too dry. 

My mom forgot the mayo. You want it?” 

“Yeah,  sure.  Thanks!”  Carly  Beth  exclaimed.  She  took  the  sandwich  from  him 

and peeled back the aluminum foil. Then she took a big bite of the sandwich. 

As she started to chew, she realized that both Steve and Chuck were staring at her 

with big grins on their faces. 

Something tasted funny. Kind of sticky and sour. 

Carly Beth stopped chewing. 

Chuck and Steve were laughing now. Sabrina looked confused. 

Carly Beth uttered a disgusted groan and spit the chewed-up sandwich hunk into 

a napkin. Then she pulled the bread apart—and saw a big brown worm resting on top 

of the turkey. 

“Ohh!” With a moan, she covered her face with her hands. 

The room erupted with laughter. Cruel laughter. 

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“I  ate  a  worm.  I-I’m  going  to  be  sick!”  Carly  Beth groaned.  She  jumped  to  her 

feet  and  stared  angrily  at  Steve.  “How could you?”  she  demanded.  “It  isn’t  funny. 

It’s—it’s—” 

“It isn’t a real worm,” Chuck said. Steve was laughing too hard to talk. 

“Huh?” Carly Beth  gazed down at it and felt a  wave of nausea rise up from her 

stomach. 

“It isn’t real. It’s rubber. Pick it up,” Chuck urged. 

Carly Beth hesitated. 

Kids  all  through  the  vast  room  were  whispering  and pointing  at  her.  And 

laughing. 

“Go ahead. It isn’t real. Pick it up,” Chuck said, grinning. 

Carly  Beth  reached  down  with  two  fingers  and  reluctantly  picked  the  brown 

worm from the sandwich. It felt warm and sticky. 

“Gotcha again!” Chuck said with a laugh. 

It was real! A real worm! 

With  a  horrified  cry,  Carly  Beth  tossed  the  worm  at  Chuck,  who  was  laughing 

wildly.  Then  she  leapt  away  from  the  table,  knocking  the  chair  over.  As  the  chair 

clattered  noisily  against  the  hard  floor,  Carly  Beth  covered  her  mouth  and  ran 

gagging from the lunchroom. 

I can still taste it! she thought. 

I can still taste the worm in my mouth! 

I’ll pay them back for this, Carly Beth thought bitterly as she ran. 

I’ll pay them back. I really will. 

As she pushed through the double doors  and hurtled toward the  girls’ room, the 

cruel laughter followed her across the hall. 

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3 

After  school,  Carly  Beth  hurried  through  the  halls without  talking  to  anyone.  She 

heard kids laughing and whispering. She knew they were laughing at her. 

Word  had  spread  all  over  school  that  Carly  Beth  Caldwell  had  eaten  a  worm  at 

lunch. 

Carly Beth, the scaredy-cat. Carly Beth, who was frightened of her own shadow. 

Carly Beth, who was so easy to trick. 

Chuck  and  Steve  had  sneaked  a  real  worm,  a  fat  brown  worm,  into  a  sandwich. 

And Carly Beth had taken a big bite. 

What a jerk! 

Carly  Beth  ran  all  the  way  home,  three  long  blocks.  Her  anger  grew  with  every 

step. 

How could they do that to me? They’re supposed to be my friends! 

Why do they think it’s so funny to scare me? 

She burst into the house, breathing hard. “Anybody home?” she called, stopping 

in the hallway and leaning against the banister to catch her breath. 

Her mother hurried out from the kitchen. “Carly Beth! Hi! What’s wrong?” 

“I ran all the way,” Carly Beth told her, pulling off her blue windbreaker. 

“Why?” Mrs. Caldwell asked. 

“Just felt like it,” Carly Beth replied moodily. 

Her mother took Carly Beth’s windbreaker and hung it in the front closet for her. 

Then  she  brushed  a  hand  affectionately  through  Carly  Beth’s  soft  brown  hair. 

“Where’d  you  get  the  straight  hair?”  she  muttered. Her  mother  was  always  saying 

that. 

We  don’t  look  like  mother  and  daughter  at  all,  Carly  Beth  realized.  Her  mother 

was  a  tall,  chubby  woman  with  thick  curls  of  coppery  hair,  and  lively  gray-green 

eyes.  She  was  extremely  energetic,  seldom  stood  still,  and  talked  as  rapidly  as  she 

moved. 

Today  she  was  wearing  a  paint-stained  gray  sweatshirt  over  black  Lycra  tights. 

“Why so grumpy?” Mrs. Caldwell asked. “Anything you’d care to talk about?” 

Carly  Beth  shook  her  head.  “Not  really.”  She  didn’t  feel  like  telling  her  mother 

that she had become the laughingstock of Walnut Avenue Middle School. 

“Come here. I have something to show you,” 

Mrs. Caldwell said, tugging Carly Beth toward the living room. 

“I—I’m  really  not  in  the  mood,  Mom,”  Carly  Beth  told  her,  hanging  back.  “I 

just—” 

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“Come on!”  her  mother  insisted,  and  pulled  her  across  the  hallway.  Carly  Beth 

always  found  it  impossible  to  argue  with  her  mother.  She  was  like  a  hurricane, 

sweeping everything in her direction. 

“Look!” Mrs. Caldwell declared, grinning and gesturing to the mantelpiece. 

Carly Beth followed her mother’s gaze to the mantel—and cried out in surprise. 

“It’s—a head!” 

“Not just any head,” Mrs. Caldwell said, beaming. “Go on. Take a closer look.” 

Carly Beth took a few steps toward the mantelpiece, her eyes on the head staring 

back  at  her.  It  took  her  a  few  moments  to  recognize  the  straight,  brown  hair,  the 

brown eyes, the short snip of a nose, the round cheeks. “It’s me!” she cried, walking 

up to it. 

“Yes.  Life  size!”  Mrs.  Caldwell  declared.  “I  just  came  from  my  art  class  at  the 

museum. I finished it today. What do you think?” 

Carly  Beth  picked  it  up  and  studied  it  closely.  “It  looks  just  like  me,  Mom. 

Really. What’s it made of?” 

“Plaster of Paris,” her mother replied, taking it from Carly Beth and holding it up 

so that Carly Beth was face to face, eye to eye with herself. “You have to be careful. 

It’s delicate. It’s hollow, see?” 

Carly Beth stared intently at the head, peering into her own eyes. “It—it’s kind of 

creepy,” she muttered. 

“You mean because I did such a good job?” her mother demanded. 

“It’s  just  creepy,  that’s  all,”  Carly  Beth  said.  She  forced  herself  to  look  away 

from the replica of herself, and saw that her mother’s smile had faded. 

Mrs. Caldwell looked hurt. “Don’t you like it?” 

“Yeah. Sure. It’s really good, Mom,” Carly Beth answered quickly. “But, I mean, 

why on earth did you make it?” 

“Because I love  you,” Mrs. Caldwell replied curtly. “Why else? Honestly, Carly 

Beth,  you  have  the  strangest  reactions  to  things.  I  worked  really  hard  on  this 

sculpture. I thought—” 

“I’m  sorry,  Mom.  I  like  it.  Really,  I  do,”  Carly  Beth  insisted.  “It  was  just  a 

surprise, that’s all. It’s great. It looks just like me. I—I had a bad day, that’s all.” 

Carly  Beth  took  another  long  look  at  the  sculpture.  Its  brown  eyes—her brown 

eyes—stared  back  at  her.  The  brown  hair  shimmered  in  the  afternoon  sunlight 

through the window. 

It smiled at me! Carly Beth thought, her mouth dropping open. I saw it! I just saw 

it smile! 

No. It had to be a trick of the light. 

It was a plaster of Paris head, she reminded herself. 

Don’t  go  scaring  yourself  over  nothing,  Carly  Beth.  Haven’t  you  made  a  big 

enough fool of yourself today? 

“Thanks for showing it to me, Mom,” she said awkwardly, pulling her eyes away. 

She forced a smile. “Two heads are better than one, right?” 

“Right,”  Mrs.  Caldwell  agreed  brightly.  “Incidentally,  Carly  Beth,  your  duck 

costume is all ready. I put it on your bed.” 

“Huh? Duck costume?” 

  8 

“You  saw  a  duck  costume  at  the  mall,  remember?”  Mrs.  Caldwell  carefully 

placed the sculpted head on the mantel. “The one with all the feathers and everything. 

You thought it would be funny to be a duck this Halloween? So I made  you a duck 

costume.” 

“Oh. Right,” Carly Beth said, her mind spinning. Do I really want to be a stupid 

duck this Halloween? she thought. “I’ll go up and take a look at it, Mom. Thanks.” 

Carly Beth had forgotten all about the duck costume. I don’t want to be cute this 

Halloween, she thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. I want to be scary. 

She had seen some really scary-looking masks in the window of a new party store 

that had opened a few blocks from school. One of them, she knew, would be perfect. 

But  now  she’d  have  to  walk  around  in  feathers  and  have  everyone  quack  at  her 

and make fun of her. 

It wasn’t fair. Why did her mother have to listen to every word she said? 

Just because Carly Beth had admired a duck costume in a store didn’t mean she 

wanted to be a stupid duck for Halloween! 

Carly  Beth  hesitated  outside  her  bedroom.  The  door had  been  pulled  closed  for 

some reason. She never closed the door. 

She listened carefully. She thought she heard someone breathing on the other side 

of the door. Someone or something. 

The breathing grew louder. 

Carly Beth pressed an ear to the door. 

What was in her room? 

There was only one way to find out. 

Carly Beth pulled open the door—and uttered a startled cry. 

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4 

“QUAAAAAAACCCK!” 

With  a  hideous  cry,  an  enormous  white-feathered  duck,  its  eyes  wild  and 

frenzied, leapt at Carly Beth. 

As  she  staggered  backwards  in  astonishment,  the  duck  knocked  her  over  and 

pinned her to the hallway floor. 

“QUAAACCCK! QUAAAACK!” 

The costume has come alive! 

That was Carly Beth’s first frightened thought. 

Then she quickly realized the truth. “Noah—get off me!” she demanded, trying to 

push the big duck off her chest. 

The white feathers brushed against her nose. “Hey—that tickles!” 

She sneezed. 

“Noah—come on!” 

“QUAAAAACCCK!” 

“Noah, I mean it!” she told her eight-year-old brother. “What are you doing in my 

costume? It’s supposed to be my costume.” 

“I was just trying it on,” Noah said, his blue eyes staring down at her through the 

white-and-yellow duck mask. “Did I scare you?” 

“Not a bit,” Carly Beth lied. “Now get up! You’re heavy!” 

He refused to budge. 

“Why  do  you  always  want  everything  that’s  mine?”  Carly  Beth  demanded 

angrily. 

“I don’t,” he replied. 

“And why do you think it’s so funny to try to scare me all the time?” she asked. 

“I can’t help it if you get scared every time I say boo,” he replied nastily. 

“Get up! Get up!” 

He  quacked  a  few  more  times,  flapping  the  feathery wings.  Then  he  climbed  to 

his feet. “Can I have this costume? It’s really neat.” 

Carly  Beth  frowned  and  shook  her  head.  “You  got  feathers  all  over  me.  You’re 

molting!” 

“Molting?  What’s that mean?”  Noah  demanded.  He  pulled  off  the  mask.  His 

blond hair was damp from sweat and matted against his head. 

“It means you’re going to be a bald duck!” Carly Beth told him. 

“I don’t care. Can I have this costume?” Noah asked, examining the mask. “It fits 

me. Really!” 

“I don’t know,” Carly Beth told him. “Maybe.” 

  10 

The  phone  rang  in  her  room.  “Get  lost,  okay?  Go  fly  south  for  the  winter  or 

something,” she said, and hurried to answer the phone. 

As she ran to her desk, she saw white feathers all over her bed. That costume will 

never survive till Halloween! she thought. 

She picked up the receiver. “Hello? Oh, hi, Sabrina. Yeah. I’m okay.” 

Sabrina  had  called  to  remind  Carly  Beth  that  the  school  Science  Fair  was 

tomorrow.  They  had  to  finish  their  project,  a  model  of  the  solar  system  constructed 

with Ping-Pong balls. 

“Come over after dinner,” Carly Beth told her. “It’s almost finished. We just have 

to paint it. My mom said she’d help us take it to school tomorrow.” 

They chatted for a while. Then Carly Beth confided, “I was so mad, Sabrina. At 

lunch  today.  Why  do  Chuck  and  Steve  think  it’s  so  funny  to  do  things  like  that  to 

me?” 

Sabrina was silent for a moment. “I guess it’s because you’re so scare-able, Carly 

Beth.” 

“Scare-able?” 

“You scream so easily,” Sabrina said. “Other people get scared. But they’re more 

quiet about it. You know Chuck and Steve. They don’t really mean to be mean. They 

just think it’s funny.” 

“Well, I don’t think it’s funny at all,” Carly Beth replied unhappily. “And I’m not 

going  to  be scare-able anymore.  I  mean  it.  I’m not ever  going  to  scream  or  get 

frightened again.” 

The  science  projects  were  all  set  up  for  judging  on  the  stage  in  the  auditorium. 

Mrs.  Armbruster,  the  principal,  and  Mr.  Smythe,  the  science  teacher,  walked  from 

display to display, making notes on their clipboards. 

The solar system, as designed by Carly Beth and Sabrina, had survived the trip to 

school  in  pretty  good  shape.  Pluto  had  a  slight  dent  in  it,  which  the  girls  had 

struggled  unsuccessfully  to  straighten  out.  And  Earth  kept  coming  loose  from  its 

string and bouncing across the floor. But both girls agreed the display looked pretty 

good. 

Maybe it wasn’t  as impressive as Martin Goodman’s project. Martin had  built a 

computer from scratch. But Martin was a genius. And Carly Beth figured the judges 

didn’t expect everyone else to be geniuses, too. 

Looking  around  the  crowded,  noisy  stage,  Carly  Beth  saw  other  interesting 

projects. Mary Sue Chong had built some kind of electronic robot arm that could pick 

up a cup or wave to people. And Brian Baldwin had several glass bottles filled with 

brown gunky stuff that he claimed was toxic waste. 

Someone  had  done  a  chemical  analysis  of  the  town’s drinking  water.  And 

someone had built a volcano that would erupt when the two judges came by. 

“Our project is kind of boring,” Sabrina whispered nervously to Carly  Beth, her 

eyes  on  the  two  judges  who  were oohing and aahing over  Martin  Goodman’s 

homemade computer. “I mean, it’s just painted Ping-Pong balls on strings.” 

“I like our project,” Carly Beth insisted. “We worked hard on it, Sabrina.” 

“I know,” Sabrina replied fretfully. “But it’s still kind of boring.” 

  11 

The  volcano  erupted,  sending  up  a  gusher  of  red  liquid.  The  judges  appeared 

impressed. Several kids cheered. 

“Uh-oh.  Here  they  come,”  Carly  Beth  whispered,  jamming  her  hands  into  her 

jeans pockets. Mrs. Armbruster and Mr. Smythe, smiles plastered across their faces, 

were coming closer. 

They stopped to examine a display of light and crystals. 

Suddenly, Carly Beth heard an excited shout from somewhere behind her on the 

stage. “My tarantula! Hey—my tarantula got out!” 

She recognized Steve’s voice. 

“Where’s my tarantula?” he called. 

Several kids uttered startled cries. Some kids laughed. 

I’m not going to get scared, Carly Beth told herself, swallowing hard. 

She knew she was terrified of tarantulas. But this time she was determined not to 

show it. 

“My tarantula—it got away!” Steve shouted over the roar of excited voices. 

I’m not  going to  get scared.  I’m not  going to  get scared, Carly Beth repeated to 

herself. 

But then she felt something pinch the back of her leg and dig its spiny pincer into 

her  skin—and  Carly  Beth  uttered  a  shrill  scream  of terror  that  rang  out  through  the 

auditorium. 

  12 

5 

Carly Beth screamed and knocked over the solar system. 

She kicked her leg wildly, trying to toss off the tarantula. Ping-Pong ball planets 

bounced over the floor. 

She screamed again. “Get it off me! Get it off!” 

“Carly Beth—stop!” Sabrina pleaded. “You’re okay! You’re okay!” 

It took Carly Beth a long while to realize that everyone was laughing. Her heart 

pounding, she spun around to find Steve down on his hands and knees behind her. 

He made a pinching motion with his thumb and finger. “Gotcha again,” he said, 

grinning up at her. 

“Noooo!” Carly Beth cried. 

There was no tarantula, she realized. Steve had pinched her leg. 

She  raised  her  head  and  saw  that  kids  all  over  the stage  were  laughing.  Mrs. 

Armbruster and Mr. Smythe were laughing, too. 

With a cry of anger, Carly Beth tried to kick Steve in the side. But he spun away. 

She missed. 

“Help me pick up the planets,” she heard Sabrina say. 

But Sabrina seemed far, far away. 

All Carly Beth could hear was the pounding of her heart and the laughter of the 

kids all around her. Steve had climbed to his feet. He and Chuck were side by side, 

grinning at her, slapping each other high-fives. 

“Carly Beth—help me,” Sabrina pleaded. 

But  Carly  Beth  spun  away,  jumped  off  the  stage,  and  ran,  escaping  up  the  dark 

auditorium aisle. 

I’m  going  to  pay  Steve  and  Chuck  back,  she  vowed  angrily,  her  sneakers 

thudding loudly up the concrete aisle. I’m going to scare them, REALLY scare them! 

But how? 

  13 

6 

“Okay. What time should I meet you?” Carly Beth asked, cradling the phone between 

her chin and shoulder. 

On  the  other  end  of  the  line,  Sabrina  considered  for  a  moment.  “How  about 

seven-thirty?” 

It  was  Halloween.  The  plan  was  to  meet  at  Sabrina’s  house,  then  go  trick-or-treating through the entire neighborhood. 

“The  earlier  the  better.  We’ll  get  more  candy,”  Sabrina  said.  “Did  Steve  call 

you?” 

“Yeah. He called,” Carly Beth replied bitterly. 

“Did he apologize?” 

“Yeah, he apologized,” Carly Beth muttered, rolling her eyes. “Big deal. I mean, 

he  already  made  me  look  like  a  jerk  in  front  of  the  entire  school.  What  good  is  an 

apology?” 

“I think he felt bad,” Sabrina replied. 

“I hope he felt bad!” Carly Beth exclaimed. “It was so mean!” 

“It  was  a  dirty  trick,”  Sabrina  agreed.  And  then  she  added,  “But  you’ll  have  to 

admit it was kind of funny.” 

“I don’t have to admit anything!” Carly Beth snapped. 

“Has it stopped raining?” Sabrina asked, changing the subject. 

Carly  Beth  pulled  back  the  curtain  to  glance  out  her  bedroom  window.  The 

evening sky was charcoal-gray. Dark clouds hovered low. But the rain had stopped. 

The street glistened wetly under the light of a streetlamp. 

“No  rain.  I’ve  got  to  go.  See  you  at  seven-thirty,”  Carly  Beth  said,  speaking 

rapidly. 

“Hey, wait. What’s your costume?” Sabrina demanded. 

“It’s a surprise,” Carly Beth told her, and hung up. 

It’ll be a surprise to me, too, she told herself, glancing unhappily at the feathery 

duck costume, rolled up on the chair in the corner. 

Carly Beth’s plan had been to go to the new party store after school and pick out 

the  ugliest,  most  disgusting,  scariest  mask  they  had.  But  her  mother  had  picked  her 

up after school and insisted that she stay home and watch Noah for a couple of hours. 

Mrs.  Caldwell  hadn’t  returned  home  until  five-fifteen.  Now  it  was  nearly  a 

quarter  till  six.  There  was  no  way  the  party  store would  still  be  open,  Carly  Beth 

thought, frowning at the duck costume. 

“Quack quack,” she said miserably. 

She walked to the mirror and ran a hairbrush through her hair. Maybe it’s worth a 

try, she thought. Maybe that store stays open late on Halloween. 

  14 

She  pulled  open  her  top  dresser  drawer  and  took  out  her  wallet.  Did  she  have 

enough money for a good, scary mask? 

Thirty dollars. Her life savings. 

She wadded up the bills and stuffed them back into the wallet. Then, jamming the 

wallet into her jeans pocket, she grabbed her coat and hurried downstairs and out the 

front door. 

The evening air was cold and damp. Carly  Beth  struggled to zip her coat as she 

jogged toward the party store. The house next door had a glowing jack-o’-lantern in 

the front window. The house on the corner had paper skeletons strung up across the 

front porch. 

The wind howled through the bare trees. The branches above her head shook and 

rattled like bony arms. 

What a creepy night, Carly Beth thought. 

She  started  running  a  little  faster.  A  car  rolled  silently  by,  sending  harsh  white 

light floating across the sidewalk like a bright ghost. 

Glancing  across  the  street,  Carly  Beth  saw  the  old Carpenter  mansion  looming 

over  its  dark,  weed-choked  lawn.  Everyone  said  the ramshackle  old  house  was 

haunted by people who had been murdered inside it a hundred years ago. 

Once,  Carly  Beth  had  heard  frightening  howls  coming  from  the  old  mansion. 

When  she  was  Noah’s  age,  Steve  and  Chuck  and  some  other  kids  had  dared  each 

other to go up to the house and knock on the door. Carly Beth had run home instead. 

She never did find out if the other kids were brave enough to do it. 

Now  Carly  Beth  felt  a  chill  of  fear  as  she  hurried past  the  old  house.  She  knew 

this neighborhood really well. She had lived in it her entire life. But tonight it looked 

different to her. 

Was it just the wet glow left by the rain? 

No. It was a heavy feeling in the air. A heavier darkness. The eerie orange glow 

of grinning pumpkins in windows. The silent cries of ghouls and monsters waiting to 

float free on their night to celebrate. Halloween. 

Trying  to  force  all  the  scary  thoughts  from  her  mind,  Carly  Beth  turned  the 

corner. The little party store came into view. The window was lighted, revealing two 

rows of Halloween masks, staring out at the street. 

But was the store still open? 

Crossing  her  fingers,  Carly  Beth  waited  for  a  truck  to  rumble  past,  then  eagerly 

jogged  across  the  street.  She  stopped  for  a  second  to  examine  the  masks  in  the 

window.  There  were  gorilla  masks,  monster  masks,  some  sort  of  blue-haired  alien 

mask. 

Pretty  good,  she  thought.  These  are  pretty  ugly.  But  they  probably  have  even 

scarier ones inside. 

The lights were on in the store. She peered through the glass door. Then she tried 

turning the knob. 

It didn’t move. 

She tried again. She tried pulling the door open. Then she tried pushing. 

No. No way. 

  15 

She was too late. The store was closed. 

  16 

7 

Carly  Beth sighed and peered in through the  glass. The walls of the tiny  store were 

covered with masks. The masks seemed to stare back at her. 

They’re laughing at me, she thought unhappily. Laughing at me because I’m too 

late.  Because  the  store  is  closed,  and  I’m  going  to  have  to  be  a  stupid  duck  for 

Halloween. 

Suddenly, a dark shadow moved over the glass, blocking Carly Beth’s view. She 

gasped and took a step back. 

It took her a moment to realize that the shadow was a man. A man in a black suit, 

staring out at her, a look of surprise on his face. 

“Are you—are you closed?” Carly Beth shouted through the glass. 

The  man  gestured  that  he  couldn’t  hear  her.  He  turned  the  lock  and  pulled  the 

door open an inch. “Can I help you?” he asked curtly. He had shiny black hair, parted 

in the middle and slicked down on his head, and a pencil-thin black mustache. 

“Are you open?” Carly Beth asked timidly. “I need a Halloween mask.” 

“It’s very late,” the man replied, not answering her question. He pulled the door 

open another few inches. “We normally close at five.” 

“I really would like to buy a mask,” Carly Beth told him in her most determined 

voice. 

The  man’s  tiny,  black  eyes  peered  into  hers.  His  expression  remained  blank. 

“Come in,” he said quietly. 

As Carly Beth stepped past him into the store, she saw that he wore a black cape. 

It  must  be  a  Halloween  costume,  she  told  herself.  I’m  sure  he  doesn’t  wear  that  all 

the time. 

She turned her attention to the masks on the two walls. 

“What kind of mask are you looking for?” the man asked, closing the door behind 

him. 

Carly Beth felt a stab of fear. His black eyes glowed like two burning coals. He 

seemed so strange. And here she was, locked in this closed store with him. 

“A s-scary one,” she stammered. 

He  rubbed  his  chin  thoughtfully.  He  pointed  to  the wall.  “The  gorilla  mask  has 

been very popular. It has real hair. I believe I may have one left in stock.” 

Carly Beth stared up at the gorilla mask. She didn’t really want to be a gorilla. It 

was too ordinary. It wasn’t scary enough. “Hmmm… do you have anything scarier?” 

she asked. 

He  flipped  his  cape  back  over  the  shoulder  of  his  black  suit.  “How  about  that 

yellowish one with the pointy ears?” he suggested, pointing. “I believe it’s some sort 

of Star Trek character. I still have a few of them, I believe.” 

  17 

“No.” Carly Beth shook her head. “I need something really scary.” 

A  strange  smile  formed  under  the  man’s  thin  mustache.  His  eyes  burned  into 

hers,  as  if  trying  to  read  her  thoughts.  “Look  around,”  he  said,  with  a  sweep  of  his 

hand. “Everything I have left in stock is up on the walls.” 

Carly  Beth  turned  her  gaze  to  the  masks.  A  pig  mask  with  long,  ugly  tusks  and 

blood trickling from the snout caught her eye. Pretty good, she thought. But not quite 

right. 

A hairy werewolf mask  with white, pointy fangs was hung beside it. Again, too 

ordinary, Carly Beth decided. 

Her  eyes  glanced  over  a  green  Frankenstein  mask,  a Freddy  Krueger  mask  that 

came  with  Freddy’s  hand—complete  with  long,  silvery  blades  for  fingers—and  an 

E.T. mask. 

Just  not  scary  enough,  Carly  Beth  thought,  starting  to  feel  a  little  desperate.  I 

need something that will really make Steve and Chuck die of fright! 

“Young  lady,  I  am  afraid  I  must  ask  you  to  make  your  choice,”  the  man  in  the 

cape  said  softly.  He  had  moved  behind  the  narrow  counter  at  the  front  and  was 

turning a key in the cash register. “We really are closed, after all.” 

“I’m sorry,” Carly Beth started. “It’s just that—” 

The phone rang before she could finish explaining. 

The man picked it up quickly and began talking in a low voice, turning his back 

to Carly Beth. 

She  wandered  toward  the  back  of  the  store,  studying  the  masks  as  she  walked. 

She  passed  a  black  cat  mask  with  long,  ugly  yellow fangs.  A  vampire  mask  with 

bright  red  blood  trickling  down  its  lips  was  hung  next  to  a  grinning,  bald  mask  of 

Uncle Fester from The Addams Family. 

Not right, not right, not right, Carly Beth thought, frowning. 

She hesitated when she spotted a narrow door slightly opened at the back of the 

store. Was there another room? Were there more masks back there? 

She  glanced  to  the  front.  The  man,  hidden  behind  his  cape,  still  had  his back  to 

her as he talked on the phone. 

Carly Beth gave the door a hesitant push to peek inside. The door creaked open. 

Pale orange light washed over the small, shadowy back room. 

Carly Beth stepped inside—and gasped in amazement. 

  18 

8 

Two dozen empty eye sockets stared blindly at Carly Beth. 

She gaped in horror at the distorted, deformed faces. 

They  were  masks,  she  realized.  Two  shelves  of  masks.  But  the  masks  were  so 

ugly, so grotesque—so real—they made her breath catch in her throat. 

Carly Beth gripped the doorframe, reluctant to enter the tiny back room. Staring 

into the dim orange light, she studied the hideous masks. 

One mask had long, stringy  yellow hair falling over its bulging,  green forehead. 

A hairy black rat’s head poked up from a knot in the hair, the rat’s eyes gleaming like 

two dark jewels. 

The mask beside it had a large nail stuck through an eyehole. Thick, wet-looking 

blood poured from the eye, down the cheek. 

Chunks  of  rotting  skin  appeared  to  be  falling  off  another  mask,  revealing  gray 

bone  underneath.  An  enormous  black  insect,  some  kind  of  grotesque  beetle,  poked 

out from between the green-and-yellow decayed teeth. 

Carly  Beth’s  horror  mixed  with  excitement.  She  took  a  step  into  the  room.  The 

wooden floorboards creaked noisily beneath her. 

She  took  another  step  closer  to  the  grotesque,  grinning  masks.  They  seemed  so 

real,  so  horribly  real.  The  faces  had  such  detail. The  skin  appeared  to  be  made  of 

flesh, not rubber or plastic. 

These  are  perfect!  she  thought,  her  heart  pounding.  These  are  just  what  I  was 

looking for. They look terrifying just propped up on these shelves! 

She imagined Steve and Chuck seeing one of these masks coming at them in the 

dark  of  night.  She  pictured  herself  uttering  a  bloodcurdling  scream  and  leaping  out 

from behind a tree in one of them. 

She imagined the horrified expressions on the boys’ faces. She pictured Steve and 

Chuck shrieking in terror and running for their lives. 

Perfect. Perfect! 

What a laugh that would be. What a victory! 

Carly Beth took a deep breath and stepped up to the shelves. Her eyes settled on 

an ugly mask on the lower shelf. 

It  had  a  bulging,  bald  head.  Its  skin  was  a  putrid yellow-green.  Its  enormous, 

sunken  eyes  were  an  eerie  orange  and  seemed  to  glow.  It  had  a  broad,  flat  nose, 

smashed  in  like  a  skeleton’s  nose.  The  dark-lipped mouth  gaped  wide,  revealing 

jagged animal fangs. 

Staring  hard  at  the  hideous  mask,  Carly  Beth  reached  out  a  hand  toward  it. 

Reluctantly, she touched the broad forehead. 

And as she touched it, the mask cried out. 

  19 

9 

“Ohh!” 

Carly Beth shrieked and jerked back her hand. 

The  mask  grinned  at  her.  Its  orange  eyes  glowed  brightly.  The  lips  appeared  to 

curl back over the fangs. 

She suddenly felt dizzy. What is going on here? 

As  she  staggered  back,  away  from  the  shelves,  she  realized  that  the  angry  cry 

hadn’t come from the mask. 

It had come from behind her. 

Carly Beth spun around to see the black-caped store owner glaring at her from the 

doorway. His dark eyes flashed. His mouth was turned down into a menacing frown. 

“Oh.  I  thought—”  Carly  Beth  started,  glancing  back at  the  mask.  She  still  felt 

confused. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest. 

“I am sorry  you saw these,” the man said in a low, threatening voice. He took a 

step toward her, his cape brushing the doorway. 

What is he going to do? Carly Beth wondered, uttering a horrified gasp. Why is 

he coming at me like that? 

What is he going to do to me? 

“I  am  so  sorry,”  he  repeated,  his  small,  dark  eyes burning  into  hers.  He  took 

another step closer. 

Carly Beth backed away from him. Then she uttered a startled cry as she backed 

into the display shelves. 

The hideous masks jiggled and quaked, as if alive. 

“What—what do you mean?” she managed to choke out. “I—I was just—” 

“I am sorry you saw these because they are not for sale,” the man said softly. 

He stepped past her and straightened one of the masks on its stand. 

Carly  Beth  breathed  a  loud  sigh  of  relief.  He  didn’t  mean  to  scare  me,  she  told 

herself. I am scaring myself. 

She crossed her arms in front of her coat and tried to force her heartbeat to return 

to normal. She stepped to the side as the store owner continued to arrange the masks, 

handling them carefully, brushing their hair with one hand, tenderly dusting off their 

bulging, blood-covered foreheads. 

“Not  for  sale?  Why  not?”  Carly  Beth  demanded.  Her  voice  came  out  tiny  and 

shrill. 

“Too scary,” the man replied. He turned to smile at her. 

“But  I  want  a  really  scary  one,”  Carly  Beth  told  him.  “I  want that one.”  She 

pointed to the mask she had touched, the mask with the open mouth and its terrifying, 

jagged fangs. 

  20 

“Too scary,” the man repeated, pushing his cape behind his shoulder. 

“But it’s Halloween!” Carly Beth protested. 

“I have a really scary gorilla mask,” the man said, motioning for Carly Beth to go 

back to the front room. “Very scary. Looks like it’s growling. I will give you a good 

price on it since it’s so late.” 

Carly Beth shook her head, her arms crossed defiantly in front of her. “A gorilla 

mask won’t scare Steve and Chuck,” she said. 

The man’s expression changed. “Who?” 

“My friends,” she told him. “I have to have that one,” she insisted. “It’s so scary, 

I’m almost afraid to touch it. It’s perfect.” 

“It’s too scary,” the man repeated, lowering his eyes to it. He ran his hand over 

the green forehead. “I can’t take the responsibility.” 

“It’s so real looking!” Carly  Beth  gushed.  “They’ll both faint.  I know they  will. 

Then they’ll never try to scare me again.” 

“Young  lady—”  the  store  owner  started,  glancing  impatiently  at  his  watch.  “I 

really must insist that you make up your mind. I am a patient man, but—” 

“Please!” Carly Beth begged. “Please sell it to me! Here. Look.” She dug into her 

jeans pocket and pulled out the money she had brought. 

“Young lady, I—” 

“Thirty  dollars,”  Carly  Beth  said,  shoving  the  wadded-up  bills  into  the  man’s 

hand. “I’ll give you thirty dollars for it. That’s enough, isn’t it?” 

“It’s not a matter of money,” he told her. “These masks are not for sale.” With an 

exasperated sigh, he started toward the doorway that led to the front of the store. 

“Please! I need it. I really need it!” Carly Beth begged, chasing after him. 

“These  masks  are  too  real,”  he  insisted,  gesturing to  the  shelves.  “I’m  warning 

you—” 

“Please? Please?” 

He shut his eyes. “You will be sorry.” 

“No,  I  won’t.  I  won’t.  I know I  won’t!”  Carly  Beth  exclaimed  gleefully,  seeing 

that he was about to give in. 

He opened his eyes. He shook his head. She could see that he was debating with 

himself. 

With  a  sigh,  he  tucked  the  money  into  his  coat  pocket.  Then  he  carefully  lifted 

the mask from the shelf, straightening the pointed ears, and started to hand it to her. 

“Thanks!”  she  cried,  eagerly  snatching  the  mask  from  his  hands.  “It’s  perfect! 

Perfect!” 

She  held  the  mask  by  the  flat  nose.  It  felt  soft  and  surprisingly  warm.  “Thanks 

again!” she cried, hurrying to the front, the mask gripped tightly in her hand. 

“Can I give you a bag for it?” the man called after her. 

But Carly Beth was already out of the store. 

She  crossed  the  street  and  started  to  run  toward  home.  The  sky  was  black.  No 

stars poked through. The street still glistened wetly from the afternoon’s rain. 

This is going to be the best trick-or-treat night ever, Carly Beth thought happily. 

Because this is the night I get my revenge. 

  21 

She  couldn’t  wait  to  spring  out  at  Steve  and  Chuck.  She  wondered  what  their 

costumes would be. They had both talked about painting their faces blue and dyeing 

their hair blue and being Smurfs. 

Lame. Really lame. 

Carly Beth stopped under a streetlight and held up the mask, gripping it with both 

hands by its pointed ears. It grinned up at her, the two crooked rows of fangs hanging 

over its thick, rubbery lips. 

Then, tucking it carefully under one arm, she ran the rest of the way home. 

Stopping  at  the  bottom  of  the  driveway,  she  gazed  up  at  her  house,  the  front 

windows all glowing brightly, the porchlight sending white light over the lawn. 

I’ve got to try this mask out on someone, she thought eagerly. I’ve got to see just 

how good it is. 

Her brother’s grinning face popped into her mind. 

“Noah. Of course,” she said aloud. “Noah has really been asking for it.” 

Grinning gleefully, Carly Beth hurried up the drive, eager to make Noah her first 

victim. 

  22 

10 

Carly Beth crept silently through the front door and tossed her coat onto the entryway 

floor.  The  house  felt  stuffy  and  hot.  A  sweet  smell,  the  aroma  of  hot  cider  on  the 

stove, greeted her. 

Mom really gets into holidays, she thought with a smile. 

Tiptoeing through the front hallway, holding the mask in front of her, Carly Beth 

listened hard. 

Noah, where are you? 

Where are you, my little guinea pig? 

Noah  was  always  bragging  about  how  he  was  so  much  braver  than  Carly  Beth. 

He was always putting bugs down her back and planting rubber snakes in her bed—

anything he could think of to make her scream. 

She heard footsteps above her head.  Noah must be up in his room, she realized. 

He’s probably putting on his Halloween costume. 

At the last minute, Noah had decided he wanted to be a cockroach. Mrs. Caldwell 

had dashed frantically all over the house, finding the materials to build pointy feelers 

and a hard shell for his back. 

Well, the little bug is in for a surprise, Carly Beth thought evilly. She examined 

her mask. This should send that cockroach scampering under the sink! 

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. She could hear loud music coming from 

Noah’s room. An old heavy-metal song. 

Gripping the mask by the rubbery neck, she raised it carefully over her head, then 

pulled it slowly down. 

It  was  surprisingly  warm  inside.  The  mask  fit  tighter  than  Carly  Beth  had 

imagined. It had a funny smell, kind of sour, kind of old, like damp newspapers that 

have been left for years in an attic or garage. 

She  slid  it  all  the  way  down  until  she  could  see  through  the  eyeholes.  Then  she 

smoothed the bulging, bald head over her head and tugged the neck down. 

I should have stopped in front of a mirror, she fretted. I can’t see if it looks right. 

The mask felt very tight. Her breathing echoed noisily in the flat nose. She forced 

herself to ignore the sour smell that invaded her nose. 

She held on tightly to the banister as she crept up the stairs. It was hard to see the 

steps through the eyeholes. She had to take the climb slowly, one step at a time. 

The heavy-metal music ended as she stepped onto the landing. She crept silently 

down the hall and stopped outside Noah’s door. 

Carly  Beth  edged  her  head  into  the  doorway  and  peeked  into  the  brightly  lit 

room.  Noah  was  standing  in  front  of  the  mirror,  adjusting  the  two  long  cockroach 

feelers above his head. 

  23 

“Noah—I’m coming for you!” Carly Beth called. 

To her surprise, her voice came out gruff and low. It wasn’t her voice at all! 

“Huh?” Startled, Noah spun around. 

“Noah—I’ve got you!” Carly Beth shrieked, her voice deep, raspy, evil. 

“No!”  her  brother  uttered  a  hushed  cry  of  protest. Even  under  his  bug  makeup, 

Carly Beth could see him go pale. 

She darted into the room, her arms outstretched as if ready to grab him. 

“No—please!” he cried, his expression terrified. “Who are you? How—how did 

you get in?” 

He doesn’t even recognize me! Carly Beth thought gleefully. 

And he’s scared to death! 

Was it the hideous face? The deep rumble of a voice? Or both? 

Carly Beth didn’t care. The mask was definitely a success! 

“I’ve GOT you!” she screamed, surprising herself at how scary her voice sounded 

from inside the mask. 

“No! Please!” Noah begged. “Mom! Mom!” He backed toward the bed, trembling 

all over, his feelers quivering in fright. “Mom! Hellllp!” 

Carly Beth burst out laughing. The laughter came out in a deep rumble. “It’s me, 

stupid!” she cried. “What a yellow-bellied scaredy-cat!” 

“Huh?” Still huddled by the bed, Noah stared hard at her. 

“Don’t  you  recognize  my  jeans?  My  sweater?  It’s  me,  you  idiot!”  Carly  Beth 

declared in the gruff voice. 

“But your face—that mask!” Noah stammered. “It—it really scared me. I mean—

”  He  gaped  at  her,  studying  the  mask.  “It  didn’t  sound  like  you,  Carly  Beth,”  he 

muttered. “I thought—” 

Carly  Beth  tugged  at  the  bottom  of  the  mask,  trying  to  lift  it  off.  It  felt  hot  and 

sticky. She was panting noisily. 

She tried pulling the bottom with both hands. The mask didn’t budge. 

She  raised  her  hands  to  the  pointed  ears  and  tried lifting  it  off.  She  tugged. 

Tugged harder. 

She tried pulling the mask off by the top of the head. It didn’t move. 

“Hey—it won’t come off!” she cried. “The mask—it won’t come off!” 

  24 

11 

“What’s going on here?” Carly Beth cried, tugging at the mask with both hands. 

“Stop it!” Noah cried. His voice sounded angry, but his eyes revealed fear. “Stop 

kidding around, Carly Beth. You’re scaring me!” 

“I’m not kidding around,” Carly Beth insisted in her harsh, raspy voice. “I really 

can’t—get—this—off!” 

“Take it off! You’re not funny!” her brother shouted. 

With  great  effort,  Carly  Beth  managed  to  slip  her  fingers  under  the  neck  of  the 

mask. Then, she pulled it away from her skin and lifted it off her head. 

“Whew!” 

The air felt so cool and sweet. She shook her hair free. Then she playfully tossed 

the mask at Noah. “Good mask, huh?” She grinned at him. 

He  let  the  mask  bounce  onto  the  bed.  Then  he  picked  it  up  hesitantly  and 

examined it. “Where’d you get it?” he asked, poking a finger against the ugly fangs. 

“At  that  new  party  store,”  she  told  him,  wiping  perspiration  from  her  forehead. 

“It’s so hot inside it.” 

“Can I try it on?” Noah asked, pushing his fingers through the eyeholes. 

“Not now. I’m late,” she replied sharply. She laughed. “You sure looked scared.” 

He  tossed  the  mask  back  at  her,  frowning.  “I  was  just  pretending,”  he  said.  “I 

knew it was you.” 

“For  sure!”  she  replied,  rolling  her  eyes.  “That’s why  you  screamed  like  a 

maniac.” 

“I did not scream,” Noah protested. “I was just putting on an act. For you.” 

“Yeah.  Right,”  Carly  Beth  muttered.  She  turned  and headed  toward  the  door, 

rolling the mask over her hand. 

“How’d you change your voice like that?” Noah called after her. 

Carly Beth stopped at the doorway and turned back to him. Her smile gave way 

to a puzzled expression. 

“That  deep  voice  was  the  scariest  part,”  Noah  said,  staring  at  the  mask  in  her 

hand. “How did you do that?” 

“I don’t know,” Carly Beth replied thoughtfully. “I really don’t know.” 

* * * 

By the time she got to her room, she was grinning again. The mask had worked. 

It had been a wonderful success. 

Noah might not want to admit it, but when Carly Beth burst in on him, growling 

through the hideous mask, he nearly jumped out of his cockroach shell. 

  25 

Look out, Chuck and Steve! she thought gleefully. You’re next! 

She sat down on her bed and glanced at the clock radio on her bed table. She had 

a few minutes until it was time to meet everyone in front of Sabrina’s house. 

Time  enough  to  think  of  the  best  possible  way  to  give  them  the  scare  of  their 

lives. 

I  don’t  want  to  just  jump  out  at  them,  Carly  Beth  thought,  playing  her  fingers 

over the sharp fangs. That’s too boring. 

I want to do something they’ll remember. 

Something they’ll never forget. 

She ran her hands over the mask’s pointy ears. Suddenly she had an idea. 

  26 

12 

Carly Beth pulled the old broom handle from the closet. She brushed off a thick ball 

of dust and examined the long, wooden pole. 

Perfect, she thought. 

She checked to make sure her mother was still in the kitchen. She was sure that 

her mother wouldn’t approve of what Carly Beth was about to do. Mrs. Caldwell still 

thought that Carly Beth was going to wear the duck costume. 

Tiptoeing silently into the living room, Carly Beth stepped up to the mantel and 

pulled down the plaster of Paris head her mother had sculpted. 

It  really  does  look  just  like  me,  Carly  Beth  thought,  holding  the  sculpture  waist 

high and studying it carefully. It’s so lifelike. Mom is really talented. 

Carefully, she placed the head on the broomstick. It balanced easily. 

She carried it over to the hallway mirror. It looks like I’m carrying my real head 

on  a  stick,  Carly  Beth  thought,  admiring  it.  A  wide  grin  broke  out  across  her  face. 

Her eyes sparkled gleefully. 

Excellent! 

She  leaned  the  head  and  stick  against  the  wall  and pulled  on  the  mask.  Once 

again, the sour aroma rushed into her nostrils. The heat of the mask seemed to wrap 

around her. 

The mask tightened against her skin as she pulled it down. 

Raising her eyes to the mirror, she nearly frightened herself! It’s like a real face, 

she thought, unable to take her eyes away. My eyes seem a part of it. It doesn’t look 

as if I’m peering out of eyeholes. 

She  moved  the  gruesome  mouth  up  and  down  a  few  times.  It  moves  like  a  real 

mouth, she realized. 

It doesn’t look like a mask at all. 

It looks like a gross, deformed face. 

Working  with  both  hands,  she  flattened  the  bulging forehead,  smoothing  it  over 

her hair. 

Excellent! she repeated to herself, feeling her excitement grow. Excellent! 

The mask is perfect! she decided. She couldn’t believe the man in the party store 

didn’t  want  to  sell  it  to  her.  It  was  the  scariest,  realest,  ugliest  mask  she  had  ever 

seen. 

I  will  be  the  terror  of  Maple  Avenue  tonight!  Carly  Beth  decided,  admiring 

herself in the mirror. Kids will be having nightmares about me for weeks! 

Especially Chuck and Steve, she told herself. 

“Boo!” she muttered to herself, pleased to hear that the gruff voice had returned. 

“I’m ready.” 

  27 

She picked up the broomstick, carefully balanced her sculpted head on top of it, 

and started to the door. 

Her  mother’s  voice  stopped  her.  “Carly  Beth—wait  up,”  Mrs.  Caldwell  called 

from the kitchen. “I want to see how you look in that duck costume!” 

“Uh-oh,” Carly Beth groaned out loud. “Mom isn’t going to like this.” 

  28 

13 

Carly Beth froze in the doorway. She could hear her mother’s footsteps approaching 

in the hallway. 

“Let me see you, dear,” Mrs. Caldwell called. “Did the costume fit?” 

Maybe  I  should’ve  told  her  about  my  change  of  plans,  Carly  Beth  thought 

guiltily. I would’ve said something, but I didn’t want to hurt Mom’s feelings. 

Now she’s in for a shock. And she’s going to be really angry when she sees I’ve 

borrowed her sculpture. 

She’s going to make me put it back on the mantel. 

She’s going to ruin everything. 

“I’m kind of in a hurry, Mom,” Carly Beth called, her voice deep and raspy inside 

the mask. “I’ll see you later, okay?” She pulled open the front door. 

“You  can  wait  one  second  while  I  see  my  costume  on you,”  her  mother  called. 

She rounded the corner and came into view. 

I’m sunk, Carly Beth thought with a groan. 

I’m caught. 

The phone rang. The sound echoed loudly inside Carly Beth’s mask. 

Her mother stopped and turned back to the kitchen. “Oh, darn. I’d better answer 

that.  It’s  probably  your  father  calling  from  Chicago.”  She  disappeared  back  to  the 

kitchen. “I’ll have to see you later, Carly Beth. Be careful, okay?” 

Carly Beth breathed a sigh of relief. Saved by the bell, she thought. 

Balancing  the  head  on  the  broomstick,  she  hurried  out  the  door.  She  closed  the 

door behind her and jogged down the front yard. 

It had become a clear, cool night. A pale half-moon rose low over the bare trees. 

Fat brown leaves swirled around her ankles as she headed to the sidewalk. 

The  plan  was  to  meet  Chuck  and  Steve  in  front  of  Sabrina’s  house.  Carly  Beth 

couldn’t wait. 

Her  head  bobbed  and  bounced  on  the  broomstick  as  she  ran.  The  house  on  the 

corner  had  been  decorated  for  Halloween.  Orange  lights  ran  along  the  top  of  the 

stoop.  Two  large,  smiling  pumpkin  cutouts  stood  beside  the  doorway.  A  cardboard 

skeleton had been propped up at the end of the front walk. 

I  love  Halloween!  Carly  Beth  thought  happily.  She  crossed the  street  onto 

Sabrina’s block. 

On  other  Halloween  nights,  she  had  been  frightened.  Her  friends  were  always 

playing  mean  tricks  on  her.  Last  year,  Steve  had  slipped  a  very  real-looking  rubber 

rat into her trick-or-treat bag. 

  29 

When Carly Beth had reached into the bag, she felt something soft and hairy. She 

pulled out the rat and shrieked at the top of her lungs. She was so scared, she spilled 

her candy all over the driveway. 

Chuck  and  Steve  thought  it  was  a  riot.  So  did  Sabrina.  They  always  spoiled 

Halloween for her. They thought it was so hilarious to scare Carly Beth and make her 

scream. 

Well,  this  year  I  won’t  be  the  one  screaming,  she  thought.  This  year,  I’ll  be  the 

one making everyone else scream. 

Sabrina’s house was at the end of the block. As Carly Beth hurried toward it, bare 

tree limbs shivered above her. The half-moon disappeared behind a heavy cloud, and 

the ground darkened. 

The head on the broom handle bounced and nearly fell off. Carly Beth slowed her 

pace. She glanced up at the head, shifting her grip on the broomstick. 

The  eyes  on  the  sculpted  head  stared  straight  ahead,  as  if  watching  out  for 

trouble. In the darkness, the head looked real. The shadows moving over it as Carly 

Beth walked under the bare tree limbs made the eyes and mouth appear to move. 

Hearing laughter, Carly Beth turned. Across the street, a group of trick-or-treaters 

was  invading  a  brightly  lit  front  porch.  In  the  yellow  porchlight,  Carly  Beth  saw  a 

ghost,  a  Mutant  Ninja  Turtle,  a  Freddy  Krueger,  and  a  princess  in  a  pink  ballgown 

and a tinfoil crown. The kids were little. Two mothers watched them from the foot of 

the driveway. 

Carly Beth watched them get their candy. Then she walked the rest of the way to 

Sabrina’s house. She  climbed the front stoop, stepping into a  white triangle of light 

from  the  porchlight.  She  could  hear  voices  inside  the  house,  Sabrina  shouting 

something to her mother, a TV on in the living room. 

Carly  Beth  adjusted  her  mask  with  her  free  hand.  She  straightened  the  gaping, 

fanged  mouth.  Then  she  checked  to  make  sure  the  head  was  balanced  on  the 

broomstick. 

She reached to ring Sabrina’s doorbell—then stopped. 

Voices behind her. 

She  turned  and  squinted  into  the  darkness.  Two  costumed  boys  were 

approaching, shoving each other playfully on the sidewalk. 

Chuck and Steve! 

I’m just in time, Carly Beth thought happily. She leapt off the stoop and crouched 

behind a low evergreen shrub. 

Okay, guys, she thought eagerly, her heart pounding. Get ready for a scare. 

  30 

14 

Carly Beth peered over the top of the shrub. The two boys were halfway up the drive. 

It  was  too  dark  to  get  a  good  look  at  their  costumes.  One  of  them  wore  a  long 

overcoat and a wide-brimmed, Indiana Jones fedora. She couldn’t really see the other 

one. 

Carly Beth took a deep breath and prepared to leap out at them. She gripped the 

broomstick tightly. 

My whole body is trembling, she realized. The mask suddenly felt hot, as if her 

excitement had heated it up. Her breath rattled noisily in the flat nose. 

Walking  slowly,  playfully  blocking  each  other  with their  shoulders  like  football 

linemen,  the  boys  made  their  way  up  the  driveway.  One  of  them  said  something 

Carly Beth couldn’t hear. The other one laughed loudly, a high-pitched giggle. 

Peering into the darkness, Carly Beth watched them until they were nearly  right 

in front of the shrub. 

Okay—now! she declared silently. 

Raising the broomstick with its staring head on the top, she leapt out. 

The boys shrieked, startled. 

She could see their dark eyes go wide as they gaped at her mask. 

A ferocious roar escaped her throat. A deep, rumbling howl that frightened even 

her. 

At the terrifying sound, both boys cried out again. One of them actually dropped 

to his knees on the driveway. 

They  both  stared  up  at  the  head,  bobbing  on  the  broomstick.  It  seemed  to  glare 

down at them. 

Another  howl  escaped  Carly  Beth’s  throat.  It  started  low,  as  if  coming  from  far 

away, and then pierced the air, raspy and deep, like the roar of an angry creature. 

“Noooo!” one of the boys cried. 

“Who are you?” the other cried. “Leave us alone!” 

Carly Beth heard rapid footsteps crunching over the dead leaves on the driveway. 

Looking up, she saw a woman in a bulky down coat running up the drive. 

“Hey—what  are  you  doing?”  the  woman  demanded,  her  voice  shrill  and  angry. 

“Are you scaring my kids?” 

“Huh?”  Carly  Beth  swallowed  hard.  She  turned  her  eyes  back  to  the  two 

frightened boys. 

“Wait!” she cried, realizing they weren’t Chuck and Steve. 

“What  are  you  doing?”  the  woman  repeated  breathlessly.  She  stepped  up  to  the 

two boys and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Are you two okay?” 

“Yeah. We’re okay, Mom,” the one in the overcoat and fedora replied. 

  31 

The other boy wore white makeup and a red clown nose. “She—she jumped out 

at us,” he told his mother, avoiding Carly Beth’s stare. “She kind of scared us.” 

The woman turned angrily to Carly Beth and shook her finger at her accusingly. 

“Don’t you have anything better to do than to scare two young boys? Why don’t you 

pick on someone your own age?” 

Normally  Carly  Beth  would  have  apologized.  She  would  have  explained  to  the 

woman that she made a mistake, that she meant to scare two different boys. 

But hidden behind the ugly mask, still hearing the strange howl that had burst so 

unexpectedly from her throat, she didn’t feel like apologizing. 

She felt… anger. And she wasn’t sure why. 

“Go  away!”  she  rasped,  waving  the  broomstick  menacingly.  The  head—her 

head—stared down at the two startled boys. 

“What did  you  say?”  their  mother  demanded,  her  voice  tight  with  growing 

outrage. “What did you say?” 

“I  said go  away!”  Carly  Beth  snarled  in  a  voice  so  deep,  so  terrifying,  that  it 

frightened even her. 

The woman crossed her arms in front of the heavy, down coat. Her eyes narrowed 

on  Carly  Beth.  “Who  are  you?  What  is  your  name?”  she  demanded.  “Do  you  live 

around here?” 

“Mom—let’s  just  go,”  the  boy  with  the  clown  face  urged,  tugging  at  her  coat 

sleeve. 

“Yeah. Come on,” his brother pleaded. 

“Go away. I’m WARNING you!” Carly Beth growled. 

The  woman  stood  her  ground,  her  arms  tightly  crossed,  her  eyes  narrowed  at 

Carly Beth. “Just because it’s Halloween doesn’t give you the right—” 

“Mom,  we  want  to  get  some  candy!”  the  clown  pleaded,  tugging  his  mother’s 

sleeve harder. “Come on!” 

“We’re wasting the whole night!” his brother complained. 

Carly Beth was breathing hard, her breath escaping the mask in low, noisy grunts. 

I sound like an animal, she thought, puzzled. What is happening to me? 

She could feel her anger growing. Her breathing rattled noisily in the tight mask. 

Her face felt burning hot. 

Her anger raged through her chest. Her entire body was trembling. She felt about 

to burst. 

I’m going to tear this woman apart! Carly Beth decided. 

  32 

15 

I’ll chew her to bits! I’ll tear her skin off her bones! Furious thoughts raged through 

Carly Beth’s mind. 

She tensed her muscles, crouched low, and prepared to pounce. 

But before she could make her move, the two boys pulled their mother away. 

“Let’s go, Mom.” 

“Yeah. Let’s go. She’s crazy!” 

Yeah. I’m crazy. Crazy, crazy, CRAZY. The word repeated, roaring through Carly 

Beth’s mind. The mask grew hotter, tighter. 

The woman gave Carly Beth one last cold stare. Then she turned and led the two 

boys down the driveway. 

Carly Beth stared after them, panting loudly. She had a strong urge to chase after 

them—to really scare them! 

But a loud cry made her stop and spin around. 

Sabrina stood on the front stoop, leaning on the storm door, her mouth open in a 

wide O of surprise. “Who’s there?” she cried, squinting into the darkness. 

Sabrina  was  dressed  as  Cat  Woman,  with  a  silver-and-gray  catsuit  beneath  a 

silver mask. Her black hair was pulled tightly behind her head. Her dark eyes stared 

intently at Carly Beth. 

“Don’t you recognize me?” Carly Beth rasped, stepping closer. 

She  could  see  the  fright  in  Sabrina’s  eyes.  Sabrina  gripped  the  door  handle 

tightly, standing half in and half out of her house. 

“Don’t you recognize me, Sabrina?” She waved the head on the broomstick, as if 

giving her friend a clue. 

Sabrina gasped and raised her hand to her mouth as she noticed the head on the 

pole.  “Carly  Beth—is  that—is  that you?”  she  stammered.  Her  eyes  darted  from  the 

mask to the head, then back again. 

“Hi, Sabrina,” Carly Beth growled. “It’s me.” 

Sabrina  continued  to  study  her.  “That  mask!”  she  cried  finally.  “It’s excellent! 

Really. Excellent. It’s so scary.” 

“I like your catsuit,” Carly Beth told her, stepping closer, into the light. 

Sabrina’s eyes were raised to the top of the broomstick. “That head—it’s so real! 

Where did you get it?” 

“It’s my real head!” Carly Beth joked. 

Sabrina continued to stare at it. “Carly Beth, when I first saw it, I—” 

“My mom made it,” Carly Beth told her. “In her art class.” 

“I  thought  it  was  a  real  head,”  Sabrina  said.  She  shivered.  “The  eyes.  The  way 

they stare at you.” 

  33 

Carly Beth shook the broomstick, making the head nod. 

Sabrina  studied  Carly  Beth’s  mask.  “Wait  till  Chuck  and  Steve  see  your 

costume.” 

I  can’t  wait!  Carly  Beth  thought  darkly.  “Where  are  they?”  she  demanded, 

glancing back to the street. 

“Steve called,” Sabrina replied. “He said they’d  be late. He has to take his little 

sister trick-or-treating before he can meet us.” 

Carly Beth sighed, disappointed. 

“We’ll start without them,” Sabrina suggested. “They can catch up to us later.” 

“Yeah. Okay,” Carly Beth replied. 

“I’ll get my coat and we can go,” Sabrina said. She took one last, lingering look 

at the head on the broomstick, then the storm door slammed shut with a bang as she 

disappeared inside to get her coat. 

The wind picked up as the two girls made their way down the block. Dead leaves 

swirled at their feet. The bare trees bent and shivered. Above the dark, sloping roofs, 

the pale half-moon slipped in and out of the clouds. 

Sabrina  chattered  about  all  the  problems  she’d  had with  her  costume.  The  first 

catsuit she’d bought had a long run in one leg and had to be returned. Then Sabrina 

couldn’t find a cat-eyed mask that looked right. 

Carly Beth remained quiet. She couldn’t hide her disappointment that Chuck and 

Steve hadn’t met them as planned. 

What if they  never catch up to us? she wondered. What if we don’t see them at 

all? 

The  whole  point  of  the  night,  as  far  as  Carly  Beth was  concerned,  was  meeting 

the two boys and scaring the living daylights out of them. 

Sabrina had given her a shopping bag to put her candy in. As they walked, Carly 

Beth gripped the bag in one hand, struggling to keep the head balanced on the pole in 

her other hand. 

“So where did you buy your mask? Your mother didn’t make it, did she? Did you 

go to that new party store? Can I touch it?” 

Sabrina  always  talked  a  lot.  But  tonight  she  was  going  for  a  world’s  record  of 

nonstop chatter. 

Carly  Beth  obediently  stopped  so  that  her  friend  could  touch  the  mask.  Sabrina 

pressed her fingers against the cheek, then instantly jerked them back. 

“Oh! It feels like skin!” 

Carly Beth laughed, a scornful laugh she had never heard before. 

“Yuck!  What’s  it  made  of?”  Sabrina  demanded.  “It  isn’t  skin—is it?  It’s  some 

kind of rubber, right?” 

“I guess,” Carly Beth muttered. 

“Then  how  come  it’s  so  warm?”  Sabrina  asked.  “Is  it  uncomfortable  to  wear? 

You must be sweating like a pig.” 

Feeling a surge of rage, Carly Beth dropped the bag and the broomstick. 

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” she snarled. 

  34 

Then  with  an  angry  howl,  she  grabbed  Sabrina’s  throat  with  both  hands  and 

began to choke her. 

  35 

16 

Sabrina uttered a shocked cry and staggered back, pulling herself from Carly Beth’s 

grip. “C-Carly Beth!” she sputtered. 

What  is  happening  to  me?  Carly  Beth  wondered,  gaping  in  horror  at  her  friend. 

Why did I do that? 

“Uh…  gotcha!” Carly  Beth exclaimed. She laughed. “You should have seen the 

look on your face, Sabrina. Did you think I was really choking you?” 

Sabrina rubbed her neck with one silver-gloved hand. She frowned at her friend. 

“That was a joke? You scared me to death!” 

Carly  Beth  laughed  again.  “Just  keeping  in  character,”  she  said  lightly,  pointing 

to  her  mask.  “You  know.  Trying  to  get  in  the  right mood.  Ha-ha.  I like scaring 

people. You know. Usually I’m the one who’s trembling in fright.” 

She picked up the bag and broomstick, fixing the plaster of Paris head on the top. 

Then she hurried up the nearest driveway toward a well-lighted house with a HAPPY 

HALLOWEEN banner in the front window. 

Does  Sabrina  believe  it  was  just  a  joke?  Carly  Beth  asked  herself  as  she  raised 

her shopping bag and rang the doorbell. What on earth was I doing? 

Why did I suddenly get so angry? Why did I attack my best friend like that? 

Sabrina  stepped  up  beside  her  as  the  front  door  was  pulled  open.  Two  little 

blonde  kids,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  appeared  in  the  doorway.  Their  mother  stepped  up 

behind them. 

“Trick or Treat!” Carly Beth and Sabrina called out in unison. 

“Ooh, that’s a scary mask!” the woman said to her two children, grinning at Carly 

Beth. 

“What are you supposed to be? A cat?” the little boy asked Sabrina. 

Sabrina meowed at him. “I’m Cat Woman,” she told him. 

“I  don’t  like  the  other  one!”  the  little  girl  exclaimed  to  her  mother.  “It’s  too 

scary.” 

“It’s just a funny mask,” the mother assured her daughter. 

“Too scary. It’s scaring me!” the little girl insisted. 

Carly Beth leaned into the entryway of the house, bringing her grotesque face up 

close to the little girl. “I’ll eat you up!” she growled nastily. 

The little girl screamed and disappeared into the house. Her brother stared wide-eyed at Carly Beth. The mother quickly dropped candy bars into the girls’ bags. “You 

shouldn’t have scared her,” she said softly. “She has nightmares.” 

Instead of apologizing, Carly Beth turned to the little boy. “I’ll eat you up too!” 

she snarled. 

“Hey—stop!” the woman protested. 

  36 

Carly  Beth  laughed  a  deep-throated  laugh,  jumped  off  the  porch,  and  took  off 

across the front lawn. 

“Why’d  you  do  that?”  Sabrina  asked  as  they  made  their  way  across  the  street. 

“Why’d you scare those kids like that?” 

“The  mask  made  me  do  it,”  Carly  Beth  replied.  She  meant  it  as  a  joke.  But  the 

thought troubled her mind. 

At the next few houses, Carly Beth hung back and let Sabrina do the talking. At 

one house, a middle-aged man in a torn blue sweater pretended to be scared of Carly 

Beth’s mask. His wife insisted that the girls come inside so that they could show their 

elderly mother the great costumes. 

Carly Beth groaned loudly, but followed Sabrina into the house. The old woman 

gazed at them blankly from her wheelchair. Carly  Beth growled at her, but it didn’t 

appear to make any impression. 

On their way out the door, the man in the torn sweater handed each girl a green 

apple.  Carly  Beth  waited  till  they  were  down  on  the  sidewalk.  Then  she  turned, 

pulled back her arm, and heaved the apple at the man’s house with all her might. 

It made a loud thunk as it smacked against the shingled front wall near the front 

door. 

“I  really hate getting  apples  on  Halloween!”  Carly  Beth  declared. “Especially 

green ones!” 

“Carly  Beth—I’m  worried  about  you!”  Sabrina  cried, eyeing  her  friend  with 

concern. “You’re not acting like you at all.” 

No. I’m not a pitiful, frightened little mouse tonight, Carly Beth thought bitterly. 

“Give me that,” she ordered Sabrina, and grabbed Sabrina’s apple from her bag. 

“Hey—stop!” Sabrina protested. 

But Carly Beth arched her arm and tossed Sabrina’s apple at the house. It clanged 

noisily as it hit the aluminum gutter. 

The man in the torn sweater poked his head out the door. “Hey—what’s the big 

idea?” 

“Run!” Carly Beth screamed. 

The  two  girls  took  off,  running  at  full  speed  down the  block.  They  didn’t  stop 

until the house was out of sight. 

Sabrina  grabbed  Carly  Beth’s  shoulders  and  held  on,  struggling  to  catch  her 

breath. “You’re crazy!” she gasped. “You’re really crazy!” 

“It takes one to know one,” Carly Beth said playfully. 

They both laughed. 

Carly  Beth  searched  the  block,  looking  for  Chuck  and  Steve.  She  saw  a  small 

group of costumed kids huddled together at the corner. But no sign of the two boys. 

Smaller houses, jammed closer together, lined the two sides of this block. “Let’s 

split  up,”  Carly  Beth  suggested,  leaning  against  the  broomstick.  “We’ll  get  more 

candy that way.” 

Sabrina  frowned  at  her  friend,  eyeing  her  suspiciously.  “Carly  Beth,  you  don’t 

even like candy!” she exclaimed. 

  37 

But  Carly  Beth  was  already  running  up  the  driveway to  the  first  house,  her 

sculpted head bobbing wildly above her on its broomstick. 

This  is  my  night,  Carly  Beth  thought,  accepting  a  candy  bar  from  the  smiling 

woman who answered the door. My night! 

She felt a tingle of excitement she’d never felt before. And a strange feeling she 

couldn’t describe. A hunger… 

A few minutes later, her shopping bag starting to feel heavy, she came to the end 

of the block. She hesitated on the corner, trying to decide whether to do the other side 

of the street or go on to the next block. 

It was very dark there, she realized. The moon had once again disappeared behind 

dark clouds. The corner streetlight was out, probably burned out. 

Across  the  street,  four  very  young  trick  or  treaters  were  giggling  as  they 

approached a house with a jack-o’-lantern on the porch. 

Carly Beth sank back into the darkness. She heard voices, boys’ voices. 

Chuck and Steve? 

No. The voices were unfamiliar. They were arguing about where to trick-or-treat 

next. One of them wanted to go home and call a friend. 

How  about  a  little  scare  for  you  guys? Carly  Beth  thought,  a  smile  spreading 

across her face. How about something to remember this Halloween night? 

She waited, listening, until they were a few feet away. She could see them now. 

Two mummies, their faces wrapped in gauze. 

Closer, closer. She waited for the perfect moment. 

Then  she  burst  from  the  shadows,  uttering  an  angry animal  howl  that  shattered 

the air. 

The two boys gasped and jumped back. 

“Hey—!” One of them tried to shout, but his voice caught in his throat. 

The other one dropped his bag of candy. 

As he started to pick it up, Carly Beth moved quickly. She grabbed the bag from 

his hand, jerked it away from him, and started to run. 

“Come back!” 

“That’s mine!” 

“Hey—” 

Their voices were high and shrill, filled with fear and surprise. As she ran across 

the street, Carly Beth glanced back to see if they were following her. 

No.  They  were  too  frightened.  They  stood  huddled  together  on  the  corner, 

shouting after her. 

Holding the stolen candy bag tightly in her free hand, Carly Beth tossed back her 

head  and  laughed.  A  cruel  laugh,  a  triumphant  laugh.  A  laugh  she  had  never  heard 

before. 

She  emptied  the  boy’s  candy  into  her  own  bag,  then tossed  his  bag  onto  the 

ground. 

She felt good, really good. Really strong. And ready for more fun. 

Come on, Chuck and Steve, she thought. It’s YOUR turn next! 

  38 

17 

Carly Beth found Chuck and Steve a few minutes later. 

They  were  across  the  street  from  her,  standing  in  the  light  of  someone’s 

driveway, examining the contents of their trick-or-treat bags. 

Carly  Beth  ducked  behind  the  wide  trunk  of  an  old  tree  near  the  sidewalk.  Her 

heart began to pound as she spied on them. 

Neither  boy  had  bothered  to  put  on  a  real  costume. Chuck  had  a  red  bandanna 

tied around his head and a black mask over his eyes. Steve had blackened his cheeks 

and forehead with big smudges and wore an old tennis hat and a torn raincoat. 

Is he supposed to be a bum? Carly Beth wondered. 

She  watched  them  sift  through  their  bags.  They  had been  out  for  quite  a  while, 

she saw. Their bags appeared pretty full. 

Suddenly, Steve glanced up in her direction. 

Carly Beth jerked her head back behind the tree trunk. 

Had he seen her? 

No. 

Don’t  blow  it  now,  she  told  herself.  You’ve  waited so  long  for  this  moment. 

You’ve waited so long to pay them back for all the scares. 

Carly Beth watched the two boys make their way up to the front porch of the next 

house.  Nearly  tripping  over  the  broomstick,  she  darted  away  from  the  tree.  She  ran 

across the street and ducked low behind a hedge. 

When they come back down the drive, I’ll leap out. I’ll pounce on them. I’ll scare 

them to death, she thought. 

The low hedge smelled piney and sweet. It was still wet from the morning’s rain. 

The wind made the leaves tremble. What was that strange whistling sound? 

It took Carly Beth a while to realize it was her own breathing. 

She suddenly began to have doubts. 

This  isn’t  going  to  work,  she  thought,  crouching  lower  behind  the  trembling 

hedge. 

I  am  a  complete  jerk.  Chuck  and  Steve  aren’t  going to  be  scared  by  a  stupid 

mask. 

I’m going to jump out at them, and they’re going to laugh at me. As they always 

do. 

They’re  going  to  laugh  and  say,  “Oh,  hi,  Carly  Beth.  Looking  good!”  Or 

something like that. 

And  then  they’ll  tell  everyone  in  school  how  I  thought  I  was  so  scary  and  how 

they recognized me immediately and what a total jerk I am. And everyone will have a 

good laugh at my expense. 

  39 

Why  did  I  ever  think  this  would  work?  What  made  me think  it  was  such  a  hot 

idea? 

Crouched  behind  the  hedge,  Carly  Beth  could  feel  her  anger  grow.  Anger  at 

herself. Anger at the two boys. 

Her  face  felt  burning  hot  inside  the  ugly  mask.  Her  heart  thudded  loudly.  Her 

rapid breaths whistled against the flat nose. 

Chuck  and  Steve  were  approaching.  She  could  hear  their  sneakers  crunch  over 

the gravel driveway. 

Carly Beth tensed her leg muscles and prepared to pounce. 

Okay, she thought, taking a deep breath, here goes! 

  40 

18 

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. 

The two boys moved slowly past the hedge. They were talking excitedly to each 

other. But to Carly Beth, their voices seemed low and far away. 

She pulled herself up, stepped out from the hedge, and screamed at the top of her 

lungs. 

Even in the dim light, she could see their reactions clearly. 

Their  eyes  went  wide.  Their  mouths  dropped  open.  Their  hands  shot  up  above 

their heads. 

Steve cried out. Chuck grabbed the sleeve of Steve’s coat. 

Carly Beth’s scream echoed over the dark front lawn. The sound seemed to hover 

in the air. 

Everything moved so slowly. So slowly, Carly Beth could see Chuck’s eyebrows 

quiver. She could see his chin tremble. 

She could see the fear shimmer in Steve’s eyes as they moved from her mask up 

to the head on the broomstick. 

She waved the broomstick menacingly. 

Steve uttered a frightened whimper. 

Chuck gaped at Carly Beth, his frightened eyes locked on hers. “Carly Beth—is 

that you?” he finally managed to choke out. 

Carly Beth uttered an animal growl, but didn’t reply. 

“Who are you?” Steve demanded, his voice trembling. 

“It—it’s Carly Beth—I think!” Chuck told him. “Is it you in there, Carly Beth?” 

Steve let out a tense laugh. “You—scared us!” 

“Carly Beth—is it you?” Chuck demanded again. 

Carly  Beth  waved  the  broomstick.  She  pointed  up  to the  head.  “That’s  Carly 

Beth’s head,” she told them. Her voice was a deep, throaty rasp. 

“Huh?” Both boys gazed up at it uncertainly. 

“That’s  Carly  Beth’s  head,”  she  repeated  slowly,  waving  it  toward  them.  The 

painted eyes of the sculpted face appeared to glare down at them. “Poor Carly Beth 

didn’t want to give up her head tonight. But I took it anyway.” 

Both boys stared up at the head. 

Chuck continued to grip Steve’s coat sleeve. 

Steve  uttered  another  tense  laugh.  He  stared  at  Carly  Beth,  his  expression 

confused. “You’re Carly Beth, right? How are you making that weird voice?” 

“That’s  your  friend  Carly  Beth,”  she  growled,  pointing  up  to  the  head  on  the 

broomstick. “That’s all that’s left of her!” 

  41 

Chuck swallowed hard. His eyes were trained on the bobbing head. Steve stared 

intently at Carly Beth’s mask. 

“Hand over your candy,” Carly Beth snarled, surprised by the vicious tone in her 

voice. 

“Huh?” Steve cried. 

“Hand it over. Now. Or I’ll put your heads on the stick.” 

Both boys laughed, shrill giggles. 

“I’m not joking!” Carly Beth roared. 

Her angry words cut their laughter short. 

“Carly  Beth—give  us  a  break,”  Chuck  muttered  uncertainly,  his  eyes  still 

narrowed in fear. 

“Yeah. Really,” Steve said softly. 

“Hand over your bags,” Carly Beth insisted coldly. “Or your heads will adorn my 

stick.” 

She lowered the broomstick toward them menacingly. 

And as she lowered it, all three of them stared up at the dark-eyed face. All three 

of them studied the frozen face, the face that looked so real, that looked so much like 

Carly Beth Caldwell. 

A sudden breeze swirled around them, making the head bob on the stick. 

And then, all three of them saw the eyes blink. 

Once. Twice. 

The brown eyes blinked. 

And the lips on the head parted, making a dry scraping sound. 

Frozen in horror, Carly Beth stared up at the face along with the two boys. 

And all three of them saw the lips move. And heard the dry, crackling sound. 

All three of them saw the dark lips squeeze together, then part. 

All  three  of  them  saw  the  bobbing  head  form  the  silent  words: “Help  me.  Help 

me.” 

  42 

19 

In  her  horror,  Carly  Beth  let  go  of  the  broomstick.  It  hit  the  ground  beside  Chuck. 

The head rolled under the hedge. 

“It—it talked!” Steve cried. 

Chuck uttered a low whimper. 

Without  another  word,  both  boys  dropped  their  candy  bags  and  took  off,  their 

sneakers thudding loudly on the sidewalk. 

The wind swirled around Carly Beth as if holding her in place. 

She felt like tossing her head back and howling. 

She felt like tearing off her coat and flying through the night. 

She felt like climbing a tree, leaping onto a roof, roaring up at the starless, black 

sky. 

She stood frozen for a long moment, letting the wind sweep around her. The boys 

were gone. They had fled in terror. 

Terror! 

Carly Beth had succeeded. She had scared them nearly to death. 

She  knew  she’d  never  forget  the  horrified  looks  on their  faces,  the  fear  and 

disbelief that glowed in their dark eyes. 

And  she  would  never  forget  her  feeling  of  triumph. The  thrilling  sweetness  of 

revenge. 

For a brief moment, she realized, she had felt the fear, too. 

She had imagined that the head on the stick had come to life, had blinked its eyes, 

had spoken silently to them. 

For a brief moment, she had caught the fear. She had fallen under the spell of her 

own trickery. 

But, of course, the head hadn’t come alive, she assured herself now. Of course the 

lips hadn’t moved, hadn’t made their silent plea: “Help me. Help me.” 

It had to be shadows, she knew. Shadows cast by the light of the moon, floating 

out from behind the shifting, black clouds. 

Where was the head? 

Where was the broomstick she had dropped? 

It didn’t matter now. They were no longer of any use to her. 

Carly Beth had won her victory. 

And  now  she  was  running.  Running  wildly  over  the  front  lawns.  Jumping  over 

shrubs and hedges. Flying over the dark, hard ground. 

She  was  running  blindly,  the  houses  whirring  past  on  both  sides.  The  blustery 

wind swirled, and she swirled with it, rising over the sidewalks, rushing through tall 

weeds, blowing with the wind like a helpless leaf. 

  43 

Holding  her  bulging  candy  bag,  she  ran  past  startled  trick  or  treaters,  past 

glowing pumpkins, past rattling skeletons. 

She ran until her breath gave out. 

Then she stopped, panting loudly, and shut her eyes, waiting for her heart to stop 

pounding, for the blood to stop pulsing at her temples. 

And a hand grabbed her shoulder roughly from behind. 

  44 

20 

Startled, Carly Beth shrieked and spun around. “Sabrina!” she cried breathlessly. 

Grinning,  Sabrina  let  go  of  her  shoulder.  “I’ve  been  looking  for  you  for  hours,” 

Sabrina scolded. “Where’d you go?” 

“I—I guess I got lost,” Carly Beth replied, still struggling to catch her breath. 

“One  minute  you  were  there.  The  next  minute,  you  disappeared,”  Sabrina  said, 

adjusting her mask over her dark hair. 

“How’d you do?” Carly Beth asked, trying to speak in her normal voice. 

“I  ripped  my  catsuit,”  Sabrina  complained,  frowning.  She  pulled  at  the  Lycra 

material on one leg to show Carly Beth. “Snagged it on a stupid mailbox.” 

“Bad news,” Carly Beth sympathized. 

“Did  you  scare  anyone  with  that  mask?”  Sabrina  demanded,  still  fingering  the 

tear in the catsuit leg. 

“Yeah. A few kids,” Carly Beth replied casually. 

“It’s really gross,” Sabrina said. 

“That’s why I picked it.” 

They both laughed. 

“Did you get a lot of candy?” Sabrina asked. She picked up Carly Beth’s bag and 

looked inside. “Wow! What a haul!” 

“I hit a lot of houses,” Carly Beth said. 

“Let’s go back to my house and check out the loot,” Sabrina suggested. 

“Yeah. Okay.” Carly Beth followed her friend across the street. 

“Unless  you  want  to  trick-or-treat  some  more,”  Sabrina  offered,  stopping  in  the 

middle of the street. 

“No. I’ve done enough,” Carly Beth said. She laughed to herself. I did everything 

I wanted to do tonight. 

They started walking again. They were walking against the wind, but Carly Beth 

didn’t feel at all chilled. 

Two  girls in frilly dresses, their faces brightly  made up, funny, blonde,  moplike 

wigs  on  their  heads,  ran  by.  One  of  them  slowed  when  she  caught  sight  of  Carly 

Beth’s mask. She uttered a soft gasp, then hurried after her friend. 

“Did  you  see  Steve  and  Chuck?”  Sabrina  asked.  “I  searched  everywhere  for 

them.”  She  groaned.  “That’s  all  I  did  tonight.  I  spent  the  whole  night  looking  for 

everybody. You. Steve and Chuck. How come we never got together?” 

Carly  Beth  shrugged.  “I  saw  them,”  she  told  her  friend.  “A  few  minutes  ago. 

Back there.” She motioned with her head. “They’re such scaredy-cats.” 

“Huh? Steve and Chuck?” Sabrina’s expression turned to surprise. 

  45 

“Yeah.  They  got  one  look  at  my  mask  and  they  took  off,”  Carly  Beth  told  her, 

laughing. “They were screaming like babies.” 

Sabrina joined in the laughter. “I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “They always 

act so tough. And—” 

“I called after them, but they just kept running,” Carly Beth told her, grinning. 

“Weird!” Sabrina declared. 

“Yeah. Weird,” Carly Beth agreed. 

“Did they know it was you?” Sabrina asked. 

Carly Beth shrugged. “I don’t know. They took one look at me, and they ran like 

rabbits.” 

“They told me they planned to scare you,” Sabrina revealed. “They were going to 

sneak up behind you and make scary noises or something.” 

Carly  Beth  snickered.  “It’s  hard  to  sneak  up  behind  someone  when  you’re 

running for your life!” 

Sabrina’s  house  came  into  view.  Carly  Beth  shifted the  candy  bag  to  her  other 

hand. 

“I got some good stuff,” Sabrina said, peering into her bag as she walked. “I had 

to get a lot. I have to share it with my cousin. She has the flu and couldn’t trick-or-treat tonight.” 

“I’m  not  sharing  any  of  mine,”  Carly  Beth  said.  “Noah  went  out  with  his  pals. 

He’ll probably come home with a year’s supply.” 

“Mrs. Connelly gave cookies and popcorn again this year,” Sabrina said, sighing. 

“I’ll just have to throw it all out. Mom won’t let me eat anything that isn’t wrapped. 

She’s afraid some  ghoul will put poison in it.  I  had to throw out a lot of good stuff 

last year.” 

Sabrina knocked on her front door. A few seconds later, her mother opened it and 

the girls entered. “That’s some mask, Carly Beth,” she said, studying it. “How’d you 

girls do?” 

“Okay, I think,” Sabrina replied. 

“Well, just remember—” 

“I know. I know, Mom,” Sabrina interrupted impatiently. “Throw out everything 

that isn’t wrapped. Even the fruit.” 

As soon as Mrs. Mason had gone back to the den, the two girls turned over their 

bags and dumped all the candy onto the living room rug. 

“Hey, look—a big Milky Way!” Sabrina declared, pulling it out of the pile. “My 

favorite!” 

“I hate these!”  Carly  Beth  said,  holding  up  an  enormous  blue  jawbreaker.  “The 

last time I tried sucking one of these,  I cut my tongue to pieces.” She tossed it onto 

Sabrina’s pile. 

“Thanks  a  bunch,”  Sabrina  said  sarcastically.  She  tugged  off  her  mask  and 

dropped it onto the carpet. Her face was flushed. She shook out her black hair. 

“There. That  feels better,” Sabrina said. “Wow.  That mask was hot.” She raised 

her eyes to Carly Beth. “Don’t you want to take off your mask? You must be boiling 

inside it!” 

“Yeah. Good idea.” Carly Beth had actually forgotten she was wearing a mask. 

  46 

She reached up with both hands and tugged at the ears. “Ouch!” The mask didn’t 

budge. 

She pulled it by the top of the head. Then she tried stretching it out and tugging it 

from the cheeks. 

“Ouch!” 

“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked, concentrating on sorting her candy into piles. 

Carly  Beth  didn’t  reply.  She  tried  prying  the  mask off  at  the  neck.  Then  she 

tugged it up by the ears again. 

“Carly Beth—what’s wrong?” Sabrina asked, looking up from her candy. 

“Help  me!”  Carly  Beth  pleaded  in  a  shrill,  frightened  voice.  “Please—help  me! 

The mask—it won’t come off!” 

  47 

21 

On her knees on the carpet, Sabrina glanced up from her piles of candy bars. “Carly 

Beth, stop clowning around.” 

“I’m not!” Carly Beth insisted, her voice shrill with panic. 

“Aren’t you tired of scaring people tonight?” Sabrina demanded. She picked up a 

clear plastic bag of candy corn. “Wonder if Mom will let me keep this. It’s wrapped.” 

“I’m  not  trying  to  scare  you.  I’m  serious!”  Carly  Beth  cried.  She  tugged  at  the 

ears of the mask, but couldn’t get a good grip. 

Sabrina tossed down the bag of candy corn and climbed to her feet. “You really 

can’t get the mask off?” 

Carly Beth pulled hard on the chin. “Ouch!” She cried out in pain. “It—it’s stuck 

to my skin or something. Help me.” 

Sabrina  laughed.  “We’re  going  to  look  pretty  stupid  if  we  have  to  call  the  fire 

department to get you out of your mask!” 

Carly Beth didn’t find it funny. She gripped the top of the mask with both hands 

and pulled with all her strength. The mask didn’t budge. 

Sabrina’s  grin  faded.  She  stepped  over  to  her  friend.  “You’re  not  goofing—are 

you. You’re really stuck.” 

Carly  Beth  nodded.  “Well,  come  on,”  she  urged  impatiently.  “Help  me  pull  it 

off.” 

Sabrina  grabbed  the  mask  top.  “It’s  so  warm!”  she  exclaimed.  “You  must  be 

suffocating in there.” 

“Just pull!” Carly Beth wailed. 

Sabrina pulled. 

“Ouch! Not so hard!” Carly Beth cried. “It really hurts!” 

Sabrina pulled more gently, but the mask didn’t budge. She lowered her hands to 

the cheeks and pulled. 

“Ouch!” Carly Beth shrieked. “It’s really stuck to my face.” 

“What’s  this  thing  made  of?”  Sabrina  asked,  staring  intently  at  the  mask.  “It 

doesn’t feel like rubber. It feels like skin.” 

“I don’t know what it’s made of, and I don’t care,” Carly Beth grumbled. “I just 

want it off. Maybe we should cut it off. You know. With scissors.” 

“And wreck the mask?” Sabrina asked. 

“I  don’t  care!”  Carly  Beth  exclaimed,  tugging  furiously  on  it.  “I  really  don’t!  I 

just want out! If I don’t get this thing off me, I’m going to freak out. I’m serious!” 

Sabrina put a calming hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Okay. Okay. One more try. 

Then we’ll cut it off.” 

  48 

She  narrowed  her  eyes  as  she  examined  the  mask.  “I should  be  able  to  reach 

underneath  it  and  pull  it  away,”  she  said,  thinking  out  loud.  “If  I  slip  my  hands  up 

through the neck, I can stretch it out and then push it up.” 

“Well, go ahead. Just hurry!” Carly Beth pleaded. 

But Sabrina didn’t move. Her dark eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped open 

as she studied the mask. She uttered a soft gasp of surprise. 

“Sabrina? What’s the matter?” Carly Beth demanded. 

Sabrina didn’t reply. Instead, she ran her fingers over Carly Beth’s throat. 

Her astonished expression remained frozen on her face. She moved behind Carly 

Beth and ran her fingers along the back of Carly Beth’s neck. 

“What is it? What’s the matter?” Carly Beth demanded shrilly. 

Sabrina  ran  a  hand  back  through  her  black  hair.  Her  forehead  wrinkled  in 

concentration. “Carly Beth,” she said finally, “there’s something very weird going on 

here.” 

“What? What are you talking about?” Carly Beth demanded. 

“There’s no bottom to the mask.” 

“Huh?”  Carly  Beth’s  hands  shot  up  to  her  neck.  She felt  around  frantically. 

“What do you mean?” 

“There’s no line,” Sabrina told her in a trembling voice. “There’s no line between 

the mask and your skin. No place to slip my hand in.” 

“But that’s crazy!” Carly Beth cried. She moved her hands to her throat, pushing 

up the skin, feeling for the bottom of the mask. “That’s crazy! Just crazy!” 

Sabrina raised her hands to her face, her features tight with horror. 

“That’s crazy! Crazy!” Carly Beth repeated in a high-pitched, frightened voice. 

But  as  her  trembling  fingers  desperately  explored  her  neck,  Carly  Beth  realized 

that her friend was right. 

There was no longer a bottom to the mask. No place where the mask ended. No 

opening between the mask and Carly Beth’s skin. 

The mask had become her face. 

  49 

22 

Carly Beth’s legs trembled as she made her way to the mirror in the front entryway. 

Her  hands  still  frantically  searched  her  throat  as she  stepped  up  to  the  large, 

rectangular wall mirror and brought her face close to the glass. 

“No line!” she cried. “No mask line!” 

Sabrina stood a few feet back, her expression troubled. “I—I don’t understand it,” 

she muttered, staring at Carly Beth’s reflection. 

Carly Beth uttered a sharp gasp. “Those aren’t my eyes!” she screamed. 

“Huh?” Sabrina stepped up beside her, still staring into the mirror. 

“Those aren’t my eyes!” Carly Beth wailed. “My eyes don’t look like that.” 

“Try to calm down,” Sabrina urged softly. “Your eyes—” 

“They’re  not  mine!  Not  mine!”  Carly  Beth  cried,  ignoring  her  friend’s  plea  for 

calm.  “Where  are  my  eyes?  Where  am I?  Where  am  I,  Sabrina?  This  isn’t me in 

here!” 

“Carly Beth—please calm down!” Sabrina urged. But her voice came out choked 

and frightened. 

“It  isn’t  me!”  Carly  Beth  declared,  gaping  in  open-mouthed  horror  at  her 

reflection,  her  hands  pressed  tightly  against  the  grotesquely  wrinkled  cheeks  of  the 

mask. “It isn’t me!” 

Sabrina  reached  out  to  her  friend.  But  Carly  Beth  pulled  away.  With  a  high-pitched wail, a cry of horror and despair, she flung herself through the hallway. She 

pulled open the front door, struggling with the lock, sobbing loudly. 

“Carly Beth—stop! Come back!” 

Ignoring  Sabrina’s  pleas,  Carly  Beth  plunged  back  into  the  darkness.  The  storm 

door slammed behind her. 

As  she  began  to  run,  she  could  hear  Sabrina’s  frantic  cries  from  the  doorway: 

“Carly Beth—your coat! Come back! You forgot your coat!” 

Carly  Beth’s  sneakers  thudded  over  the  hard  ground.  She  ran  into  the  darkness 

beneath the trees, as if trying to hide, as if trying to keep her hideous face from view. 

She reached the sidewalk, turned right, and kept running. 

She had no idea where she was going. She only knew she had to run away from 

Sabrina, away from the mirror. 

She wanted to run away from herself, away from her face, the hideous face that 

had stared back at her in the mirror with those frightening, unfamiliar eyes. 

Someone else’s eyes. Someone else’s eyes in her head. 

Only  it  was  no  longer  her  head.  It  was  an  ugly  green  monster  head  that  had 

attached itself to hers. 

  50 

Uttering another cry of panic, Carly Beth crossed the street and kept running. The 

dark  trees,  black  against  the  starless  night  sky,  swayed  and  shivered  overhead. 

Houses whirred past, a blur of orange light from their windows. 

Into  the  darkness  she  ran,  breathing  noisily  through  the  ugly,  flat  nose.  She 

lowered her smooth, green head against the wind and stared at the ground as she ran. 

But  no  matter  where  she  turned  her  gaze,  she  saw  the  mask.  She  saw  the  face 

staring  back  at  her,  the  ugly,  puckered  skin,  the  glowing  orange  eyes,  the  rows  of 

jagged animal teeth. 

My face… my face… 

High-pitched screams startled her from her thoughts. 

Carly  Beth  glanced  up  to  see  that  she  had  run  into a  group  of  trick  or  treaters. 

There were six or seven of them, all turned toward her, screaming and pointing. 

She  opened  her  mouth  wide,  revealing  the  sharp  fangs,  and  growled  at  them,  a 

deep animal growl. 

The growl made them grow silent. They stared hard at her, trying to decide if she 

was threatening them or only kidding. 

“What are you supposed to be?” a girl in a red-and-white ruffled clown costume 

called to her. 

I’m supposed to be ME, but I’m not! Carly Beth thought bitterly. 

She  ignored  the  question.  Lowering  her  head,  turning  away  from  them,  she 

started to run again. 

She could hear them laughing now. They were laughing in relief, she knew, glad 

she was leaving them. 

With a bitter sob, she turned the corner and kept running. 

Where am I going? What am I doing? Am I going to keep running forever? 

The questions roared through her mind. 

She stopped short when the party store came into view. 

Of course, she thought. The party store. 

The strange man in the cape. He will help me. He will know what to do. 

The man in the cape will know how to get this mask off. 

Feeling a surge of hope, Carly Beth jogged toward the store. 

But as she neared it, her hope dimmed as dark as the store window. Through the 

glass she could see that all the lights were out. The store was as dark as the night. It 

was closed. 

  51 

23 

As she stared into the darkened store, a wave of despair swept over Carly Beth. 

Her  hands  raised  against  the  window,  she  pressed  her  head  against  the  glass.  It 

felt cool against her hot forehead. The mask’s hot forehead. 

She closed her eyes. 

What do I do now? What am I going to do? 

“It’s all a bad dream,” she murmured out loud. “A bad dream. I’m going to open 

my eyes now, and wake up.” 

She opened her eyes. She could see her eyes, her glowing orange eyes, reflected 

in the dark window glass. 

She could see her grotesque face, staring darkly back at her. 

“Noooo!”  With  a  shudder  that  shook  her  entire  body,  Carly  Beth  slammed  her 

fists against the window. 

Why didn’t I wear my mother’s duck costume? 

she asked herself angrily. Why was I so determined to be the scariest creature that 

ever roamed on Halloween? Why was I so determined to terrify Chuck and Steve? 

She swallowed hard. Now I’m going to scare people for the rest of my life. 

As  the  bitter  thoughts  rolled  through  her  mind,  Carly  Beth  suddenly  became 

aware of movement inside the store. She saw a dark shadow roll over the floor. She 

heard footsteps. 

The door rattled, then opened a few inches. 

The  store  owner  poked  his  head  out.  His  eyes  narrowed  as  they  studied  Carly 

Beth. “I stayed late,” he said quietly. “I expected to see you again.” 

Carly Beth was startled by his calmness. “I—I can’t get it off!” she sputtered. She 

tugged at the top of her head to demonstrate. 

“I know,” the man said. His expression didn’t change. “Come inside.” He pushed 

the door open the rest of the way, then stepped back. 

Carly  Beth hesitated, then walked quickly into the dark store.  It was very warm 

inside. 

The  owner  turned  on  a  single  light  above  the  front counter.  He  was  no  longer 

wearing the cape, Carly Beth saw. He wore black suit pants and a white dress shirt. 

“You knew I’d  come  back?”  Carly  Beth  demanded  shrilly.  The  raspy  voice  she 

had  acquired  inside  the  mask  revealed  both  anger  and  confusion.  “How  did  you 

know?” 

“I  didn’t  want  to  sell  it  to  you,”  he  replied,  staring  at  the  mask.  He  shook  his 

head, frowning. “You remember, don’t you? You remember that I didn’t want to sell 

it to you?” 

  52 

“I  remember,”  Carly  Beth  replied  impatiently.  “Just  help  me  take  it  off.  Okay? 

Help me.” 

He stared hard at her. He didn’t reply. 

“Help me take it off,” Carly Beth insisted, shouting. “I want you to take it off!” 

He sighed. “I can’t,” he told her sadly. “I can’t take it off. I’m really sorry.” 

  53 

24 

“Wh-what do you mean?” Carly Beth stammered. 

The  store  owner  didn’t  reply.  He  turned  toward  the back  of  the  store  and 

motioned for her to follow him. 

“Answer me!” Carly Beth shrieked. “Don’t walk away! Answer me! What do you 

mean the mask can’t be taken off?” 

She followed him into the back room, her heart pounding. He clicked on the light. 

Carly  Beth  blinked  in  the  sudden  brightness.  The  two  long  shelves  of  hideous 

masks came into focus. She saw a bare spot on the shelf where hers had stood. 

The grotesque masks all seemed to stare at her. She forced herself to look away 

from  them.  “Take  this  mask  off—now!”  she  demanded, moving  to  block  the  store 

owner’s path. 

“I can’t remove it,” he repeated softly, almost sadly. 

“Why not?” Carly Beth demanded. 

He lowered his voice. “Because it isn’t a mask.” 

Carly Beth gaped at him. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. 

“It isn’t a mask,” he told her. “It’s a real face.” 

Carly Beth suddenly felt dizzy. The floor tilted. The rows of ugly faces glared at 

her. All of the bulging, bloodshot, yellow and green eyes seemed to be trained on her. 

She pressed her back against the wall and tried to steady herself. 

The store owner walked over to the display shelf and gestured to the ugly, staring 

heads. “The Unloved,” he said sadly, his voice lowered to a whisper. 

“I—I don’t understand,” Carly Beth managed to choke out. 

“These are not masks. They are faces,” he explained. “Real faces. I made them. I 

created them in my lab—real faces.” 

“But—but they are so ugly—” Carly Beth started. “Why—?” 

“They  weren’t  ugly  in  the  beginning,”  he  interrupted,  his  voice  bitter,  his  eyes 

angry. “They were beautiful. And they were alive. But something went wrong. When 

they  were  taken  out  of  the  lab,  they  changed.  My  experiments—my  poor  heads—

were a failure. But I had to keep them alive. I had to.” 

“I—I  don’t  believe  it!”  Carly  Beth  exclaimed  breathlessly,  raising  her  hands  to 

the sides of her face, her green, distorted face. “I don’t believe any of it.” 

“I am telling the truth,” the store owner continued, running a finger over one side 

of his narrow mustache, his eyes burning into Carly Beth’s. “I keep them here. I call 

them  The  Unloved  because  no  one  will  ever  want  to  see  them.  Occasionally, 

someone wanders into the back room—you, for example—and one of my faces finds 

a new home….” 

  54 

“Nooooo!” Carly  Beth  uttered  a  cry  of  protest,  more  an  animal  wail  than  a 

human cry. 

She stared at the gnarled, twisted faces on the shelf. The bulging heads, the open 

wounds, the animal fangs. Monsters! All monsters! 

“Take this off!” she screamed, losing control. “Take this off! Take it off!” 

She began tearing frantically at her face, trying to pull it off, trying to rip it off in 

pieces. 

“Take it off! Take it off!” 

He  raised  a  hand  to  quiet  her.  “I  am  sorry.  The  face  is  your  face  now,”  he  said 

without expression. 

“No!”  Carly  Beth  shrieked  again  in  her  new,  raspy  voice.  “Take  it  off!  Take  it 

off—NOW!” 

She tore at the face. But even in her anger and panic, she knew her actions were 

useless. 

“The face can be removed,” the store owner told her, speaking softly. 

“Huh?”  Carly  Beth  lowered  her  hands.  She  stared  hard  at  him.  “What  did  you 

say?” 

“I said there is one way the face can be removed.” 

“Yes?” Carly Beth felt a powerful chill run down her back, a chill of hope. “Yes? 

How? Tell me!” she pleaded. “Please—tell me!” 

“I cannot do it for you,” he replied, frowning. “But I can tell you how. However, 

if it ever again attaches itself to you or to another person, it will be forever.” 

“How  do  I  get  it  off?  Tell  me! Tell  me!”  Carly  Beth  begged.  “How  do  I  get  it 

off?” 

  55 

25 

The light flickered overhead. The rows of bloated, distorted faces continued to stare 

at Carly Beth. 

Monsters, she thought. 

It’s a room full of monsters, waiting to come alive. 

And now I’m one of them. 

Now I’m a monster, too. 

The floorboards creaked as the store owner moved away from the display shelves 

and came up close to Carly Beth. 

“How do I get this off me?” she pleaded. “Tell me. Show me—now!” 

“It can only be removed once,” he repeated softly. “And it can only be removed 

by a symbol of love.” 

She stared at him, waiting for him to continue. 

The silence filled the room. Heavy silence. 

“I—I don’t understand,” Carly Beth stammered finally. “You’ve got to help me. I 

don’t understand you! Tell me something that makes sense! Help me!” 

“I  can  say  no  more,”  he  said,  lowering  his  head,  shutting  his  eyes,  and  wearily 

rubbing his eyelids with his fingers. 

“But—what  do  you mean by  a  symbol  of  love?”  Carly  Beth  demanded.  She 

grabbed  the  front  of  his  shirt  with  both  hands.  “What  do  you  mean? What  do  you 

mean?” 

He made no attempt to remove her hands. “I can say no more,” he repeated in a 

whisper. 

“No!” she shouted. “No! You have to help me! You have to!” 

She could feel her rage explode, could feel herself burst out of control—but she 

couldn’t stop herself. 

“I  want  my  face  back!”  she  shrieked,  pounding  on  his  chest  with  both  fists.  “I 

want my face back! I want myself back!” 

She was screaming at the top of her lungs now, but she didn’t care. 

The  store  owner  backed  away,  motioning  with  both  hands  for  her  to  be  quiet. 

Then, suddenly, his eyes opened wide in fear. 

Carly Beth followed his gaze to the display shelves. 

“Ohh!” She uttered a startled cry of horror as she saw the rows of faces all begin 

to move. 

Bulging eyes blinked. Swollen tongues licked at dry lips. Dark wounds began to 

pulsate. 

The heads were all bobbing, blinking, breathing. 

“What—what is happening?” Carly Beth cried in a trembling whisper. 

  56 

“You’ve awakened them all!” he cried, his expression as frightened as hers. 

“But—but—” 

“Run!” he screamed, giving her a hard shove toward the doorway. “Run!” 

  57 

26 

Carly Beth hesitated. She turned back to stare at the heads bobbing on the shelves. 

Fat, dark lips began to move, making wet sucking sounds. Crooked fangs clicked 

up and down. Ugly, inhuman noses twitched and gasped air noisily. 

The heads, two long rows of them, throbbed to life. 

And the eyes—the blood-veined, bulging eyes—the green eyes, the sickly yellow 

eyes,  the  bright  scarlet  eyes,  the  disgusting  eyeballs  hanging  by  threads—they  were 

all on her! 

“Run! You’ve awakened them!” the store owner screamed, his voice choked with 

fear. “Run! Get away from here!” 

Carly Beth wanted to run. But her legs wouldn’t cooperate. Her knees felt wobbly 

and weak. She suddenly felt as if she weighed a thousand pounds. 

“Run! Run!” The store owner repeated his frantic cry. 

But she couldn’t take her eyes off the throbbing, twitching heads. 

Carly  Beth  gaped  at  the  hideous  scene,  frozen  in  terror,  feeling  her  legs  turn  to 

Jell-O, feeling her breath catch in her throat. And as she watched, the heads rose up 

and floated into the air. 

“Run! Hurry! Run!” 

The store owner’s voice seemed far away now. 

The  heads  began  to  jabber  in  rumbling,  deep  voices,  drowning  out  his  frantic 

cries.  They  murmured  excitedly,  making  only  sounds,  no  words,  like  a  chorus  of 

frogs. 

Up, up, they floated, as Carly Beth stared in silent horror. 

“Run! Run!” 

Yes. 

She turned. She forced her legs to move. 

And with a burst of energy, she began to run. 

She ran through the dimly lit front room of the store. Her hands grabbed for the 

doorknob, and she pulled open the door. 

A  second  later,  she  was  out  on  the  sidewalk,  running  through  the  darkness.  Her 

sneakers thudded loudly on the pavement. She felt a shock of cold air against her hot 

face. 

Her hot, green face. 

Her monster face. 

The monster face she could not remove. 

She crossed the street and kept running. 

What was that sound? That deep, gurgling sound? That low murmur that seemed 

to be following her? 

  58 

Following her? 

“Oh,  no!”  Carly  Beth  cried  out  as  she  glanced  back—and  saw  the  gruesome 

heads flying after her. 

A ghoulish parade. 

They flew in single file, one long chain of throbbing, jabbering heads. Their eyes 

glowed brightly, as bright as car headlights, and they were all trained on Carly Beth. 

Choked with fear, Carly Beth stumbled over the curb. 

Her arms shot forward as she struggled to regain her balance. Her legs wanted to 

collapse, but she forced them to move again. 

Bent into the wind, she ran, past dark houses and empty lots. 

It must be late, she realized. It must be very late. 

Too late. 

The words flashed into her mind. 

Too late for me. 

The hideous, glowing heads flew after her. Getting closer. Closer. The rumbling 

of their animal murmurs grew louder in her ears until the frightening sound seemed 

to surround her. 

The wind roared, gusting hard, as if deliberately pushing her back. 

The murmuring heads floated closer. 

I’m running through a dark nightmare, she thought. 

I may run forever. 

Too late. Too late for me. 

Or was it? 

An  idea  formed  its  way  through  her  nightmarish  panic.  As  she  ran,  her  arms 

thrashing  the  air  in  front  of  her  as  if  reaching  for  safety,  her  mind  struggled  for  a 

solution, an escape. 

A symbol of love. 

She heard the store owner’s words over the rumble of ugly voices behind her. 

A symbol of love. 

That’s  what  it  would  take  to  rid  her  of  the  monster  head  that  had  become  her 

own. 

Would it also stop the throbbing, glowing heads that pursued her? Would it send 

the faces of The Unloved back to where they came from? 

Gasping  loudly  for  breath,  Carly  Beth  turned  the  corner  and  kept  running. 

Glancing back, she could see her chattering pursuers turn, too. 

Where am I? she wondered, turning her eyes to the houses she was passing. 

She had been too frightened to care where she ran. 

But, now, Carly Beth had an idea. A desperate idea. 

And she had to get there before the gruesome parade of heads caught up with her. 

She had a symbol of love. 

It was her head. The plaster of Paris head her mother had sculpted of her. 

Carly  Beth  remembered  asking  her  mother  why  she  had  sculpted  it.  And  her 

mother had replied, “Because  I love  you.” Maybe it could save her. Maybe it could 

help her out of this nightmare. 

  59 

But where was it? 

She  had  tossed  it  aside.  She  had  let  it  fall  behind  a  hedge.  She  had  left  it  in 

someone’s yard, and— 

And now she was back on the block. 

She recognized the street. She recognized the houses. 

This was where she had met up with Chuck and Steve. This is where she had sent 

them running off in terror. 

But where was the house? Where was the hedge? 

Her eyes darted frantically from yard to yard. 

Behind  her,  she  saw,  the  heads  had  swarmed  together.  Like  buzzing  bees,  they 

had bunched together, grinning now, grinning hideous, wet grins as they prepared to 

close in on her. 

I’ve got to find the head! Carly Beth told herself, struggling to breathe, struggling 

to keep her aching legs moving. 

I’ve got to find my head. 

The rumbling, jabbering voices grew louder. The heads swarmed closer. 

“Where? Where?” she screamed aloud. 

And then she saw the tall hedge. Across the street. 

The yard across the street. 

The head, the beautiful head—she had let it fall behind that hedge. 

Could she get to it before the ugly heads swarmed over her? 

Yes! 

Sucking in a deep breath of air, her arms reaching out desperately in front of her, 

she turned and ran across the street. 

And  dove  behind  the  hedge.  Onto  her  hands  and  knees.  Her  chest  heaving.  Her 

breath rasping. Her head pounding. 

She reached for the head. 

It was gone. 

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27 

Gone. 

The head was gone. 

My  last  chance,  Carly  Beth  thought,  searching  blindly,  her  hand  thrashing 

frantically through the bottom of the hedge. 

Gone. 

Too late for me. 

Still on her knees, she turned to face her ghoulish pursuers. The heads, jabbering 

their mindless sounds, rose up in front of her, forming a wall. 

Carly Beth started to her feet. 

The throbbing wall of monster heads inched closer. 

She turned, searching for an escape route. 

And saw it. 

Saw her head. 

Saw the plaster of Paris head staring up at her from between two upraised roots 

on the big tree near the driveway. 

The wind must have blown it over there, she realized. 

And as the ugly heads bobbed closer, she dove for the tree. And grabbed the head 

with both hands. 

With  a  cry  of  triumph,  she  turned  the  sculpted  face  toward  the  jabbering  heads 

and raised it high. 

“Go  away!  Go  away!”  Carly  Beth  screamed,  holding  the  head  up  so  they  could 

all see it. “This is a symbol of love! This is a symbol of love! Go away!” 

The heads bobbed together. The glowing eyes stared at the sculpted head. 

They murmured excitedly. Wet smiles formed on their distorted lips. 

“Go away! Go away!” 

Carly Beth heard them laugh. Low, scornful laughter. 

Then they moved quickly, surrounding her, eager to swallow her up. 

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28 

Too late for me. 

The words repeated in Carly Beth’s mind. 

Her idea had failed. 

The  heads  swarmed  around  her,  drooled  over  her,  eyes  bulging  gleefully  in 

triumph. 

Their  rumbling  murmurs  became  a  roar.  She  felt  herself  being  swallowed  up  in 

their foul-smelling heat. 

Without  thinking,  she  lowered  the  sculpted  head.  And  pulled  it  down  hard  over 

her hideous monster head. 

To her surprise, it slid over her like a mask. 

I’m wearing my own face like a mask, she thought bitterly. 

As she pulled it over her, darkness descended. 

There were no eyeholes. She couldn’t see out. 

She couldn’t hear. 

What will the gruesome heads do to me? she wondered, alone with her fear. 

Will I become one of The Unloved now? 

Will I end up on display on a shelf along with them? 

Surrounded by the tight, silent darkness, Carly Beth waited. 

And waited. 

She could feel the blood pulsing at her temples. She could feel the throb of fear in 

her chest, the ache of her dry throat. 

What are they going to do? 

What are they doing? 

She  couldn’t  bear  being  alone,  shut  in  with  her  fear,  surrounded  by  silence  and 

the dark. 

With a hard tug, she pulled off the sculpted head. 

The gruesome heads were gone. 

Vanished. 

Carly  Beth  stared  straight  ahead  in  disbelief.  Then  her  eyes  darted  around  the 

shadowy lawn. She searched the trees and shrubs. She squinted into the dark spaces 

between the houses. 

Gone. 

They were gone. 

For a long moment, Carly Beth sat in the cold, wet grass, the sculpted head in her 

lap, breathing hard, staring across the silent, empty front yards. 

Soon her breathing returned to normal. She climbed to her feet. 

  62 

The  wind  had  gentled.  The  pale  half-moon  slipped  out  from  behind  the  dark 

clouds that had covered it. 

Carly Beth felt something flap against her throat. 

Startled, she reached up and felt the bottom of the mask. 

The bottom of the mask? 

Yes! 

There was a gap between the mask and her neck. 

“Hey!”  she  cried  aloud.  Setting  the  sculpted  head  down  gently  at  her  feet,  she 

raised both hands to the bottom of the mask and pulled up. 

The mask came off easily. 

Stunned, she lowered it and held it in front of her. She folded it up, then unfolded 

it. 

The  orange  eyes  that  had  glowed  like  fire  had  faded.  The  pointed  animal  fangs 

had become rubbery and limp. 

“You’re just a mask!” she cried aloud. “Just a mask again!” 

Laughing gleefully, she tossed it up in the air and caught it. 

It can be removed only once, the store owner had told her. 

Only once by a symbol of love. 

Well,  I’ve  done  it!  Carly  Beth  told  herself  happily.  I’ve  removed  it.  And  don’t 

worry—I’ll never put it on again! 

Never! 

She suddenly felt exhausted. 

I’ve got to get home, she told herself. It’s probably close to midnight. 

Most  of  the  houses  were  dark.  There  were  no  cars  moving  on  the  streets.  The 

trick or treaters had all gone home. 

Carly  Beth  bent  to  pick  up  the  sculpted  head.  Then,  carrying  the  mask  and  the 

plaster head, she began walking quickly toward her house. 

Halfway up the driveway, she stopped. 

She reached up and examined her face with one hand. 

Do I have my old face back? she wondered. 

She rubbed her cheeks, then ran her fingers over her nose. 

Is it my old face? Do I look like me? 

She couldn’t tell just by touching. 

“I’ve got to get to a mirror!” she exclaimed out loud. 

Desperate to see if her face had returned to normal, she ran up to her front door 

and rang the bell. 

After  a  few seconds the  door swung open,  and Noah appeared. He pushed open 

the storm door. 

Then he raised his eyes to her face—and started to scream. 

“Take off that mask! Take it off! You’re so ugly!!” 

  63 

29 

“No!” Carly Beth cried in horror. 

The mask must have changed her face, she realized. 

“No! Oh, no!” 

She pushed past her brother, tossed down the head and the mask, and ran to the 

hallway mirror. 

Her face stared back at her. 

Perfectly normal. Her old face. Her good old face. 

Her  dark  brown  eyes.  Her  broad  forehead.  Her  snip  of  a  nose,  which  she  had 

always wished was longer. 

I’ll never complain about my nose again, she thought happily. 

Her face was normal again. All normal. 

As she stared at herself, she could hear Noah laughing at the doorway. 

She spun around angrily. “Noah—how could you?” 

He laughed harder. “It was just a joke. I can’t believe you fell for it.” 

“It was no joke to me!” Carly Beth exclaimed angrily. 

Her mother appeared at the end of the hall. “Carly Beth, where have you been? I 

expected you back an hour ago.” 

“Sorry, Mom,” Carly Beth replied, grinning. 

I’m so happy, I may never stop grinning! she thought. 

“It’s sort of a long story,” she told her mother. “Sort of a long, weird story.” 

“But you’re okay?” Mrs. Caldwell’s eyes narrowed as she studied her daughter. 

“Yeah. I’m okay,” Carly Beth said. 

“Come  into  the  kitchen,”  Mrs.  Caldwell  instructed  her.  “I  have  some  nice  hot 

cider for you.” 

Carly Beth obediently followed her mother to the kitchen. The kitchen was warm 

and bright. The sweet cider aroma filled the room. 

Carly  Beth  had  never  been  so  glad  to  be  home  in  all  her  life.  She  hugged  her 

mother, then took a seat at the counter. 

“Why didn’t  you wear your duck costume?” Mrs. Caldwell asked, pouring out a 

cup  of  steaming  cider.  “Where  have  you  been?  Why  weren’t  you  with  Sabrina? 

Sabrina has called twice already, wondering what happened to you.” 

“Well…” Carly Beth began. “It’s sort of a long story, Mom.” 

“I’m not going anywhere,” her mother said, setting the cup of cider down in front 

of  Carly  Beth.  She  leaned  against  the  counter,  resting  her  chin  in  one  hand.  “Go 

ahead. Talk.” 

“Well…”  Carly  Beth  hesitated.  “Everything  is  fine  now,  Mom.  Perfectly  fine. 

But—” 

  64 

Before she could say another word, Noah burst into the room. 

“Hey,  Carly  Beth—”  he  called  in  a  deep,  raspy  voice.  “Look  at  me!  How  do  I 

look in your mask?” 

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