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    The Horror
    The Horror
    The Horror
    Ebook134 pages1 hour

    The Horror

    By Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A haunted house continues its quest for vengeance on two young children

    After surviving the wrath of the house that wants them dead, Jason and his four-year-old sister, Sally, face a new challenge—a week without their mom and dad. When their parents are called away to deal with a work crisis, they are left with Katie, a seventeen-year-old babysitter.
     
    Katie doesn’t believe in spirits, but that doesn’t matter to Bobby, the ghost of the child who was murdered here. Bobby has become closer than ever to Sally—in fact, he now possesses her. And his hatred of babysitters and desire for vengeance will leave Jason, Sally, and Katie in even more danger than before.

    The Horror is the second book of the chilling House on Cherry Street trilogy from prolific wife-and-husband coauthors Lynn Harnett and Rodman Philbrick, the Newbery Honor Award–winning author of Freak the Mighty.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateDec 16, 2014
    ISBN9781497685369
    The Horror
    Author

    Rodman Philbrick

    Rodman Philbrick grew up on the coast of New Hampshire and has been writing since the age of sixteen. For a number of years he published mystery and suspense fiction for adults. Brothers & Sinners won the Shamus Award in 1994, and two of his other detective novels were nominees. In 1993 his debut young adult novel, Freak the Mighty, won numerous honors, and in 1998 was made into the feature film The Mighty, starring Sharon Stone and James Gandolfini. Freak the Mighty has become a standard reading selection in thousands of classrooms worldwide, and there are more than three million copies in print. In 2010 Philbrick won a Newbery Honor for The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg.

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      Book preview

      The Horror - Rodman Philbrick

      1

      The baby-sitter didn’t believe in ghosts. Don’t be silly, she said. There’s no such thing as a haunted house.

      Her name was Katie, and she was a teenager with red hair and an attitude—meaning she thought I was a total dweeb for trying to tell her about the ghosts in the house on Cherry Street.

      Don’t say I didn’t warn you, I said stubbornly.

      She smirked at me and then shaded her eyes, looking up at the decaying mansion my family had rented for the summer. What a place! she said. It really is kind of spooky looking.

      My parents didn’t believe in ghosts, either, and they’d left Katie in charge while they went away on a business trip. Not that I needed a babysitter or anything. At twelve I can pretty much look after myself. But my little sister Sally was only four and the ghosts were very interested in her.

      I better go inside, Katie announced cheerfully. Check things out.

      And then she marched up the steps and walked right through the door of that creepy old house as if nothing could possibly hurt her.

      Maybe it couldn’t. Maybe the haunting would be as invisible to her as it had been to my parents, who blamed everything on my overactive imagination.

      Maybe. But I didn’t think so.

      As the door shut behind Katie the glass in the windows shivered. And so did I.

      Sally? I said, calling to my little sister. We better go in, too.

      That’s when I noticed that something was wrong with Sally’s face. Her expression was stiff and her eyes were blank. As if she was in a trance or something.

      A chill zapped me.

      Sally? My voice was shaky.

      Sally’s head jerked to one side and then the other, like a puppet. Her eyes smoldered and glowed.

      I fought the urge to leap away from her.

      Then she opened her mouth and spoke. I’m not Sally.

      The voice that came out of her mouth was rough, as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. And it had a hollow ring. As if it was coming from the inside of an empty tomb.

      Sally’s face scowled at me and the strange voice growled again. My name is Bobby and I’m dead, she said.

      I was paralyzed. I wanted to run. I wanted to scream.

      My little sister was possessed!

      2

      Her face was like a mask. A mask that looked just like my little sister. Except for the eyes.

      Sally? I said. Please talk to me.

      Her face scowled at me. Out of her mouth came that strange rough voice again. I’m not Sally. My name is Bobby and I’m dead, dead, dead!

      She danced away, taunting me.

      Where’s my sister? I demanded.

      I recognized the voice coming from Sally. I’d heard it night after night, crying in the hallway outside my room. It was the voice of a child ghost and I had never figured out what it wanted.

      But lately I suspected what it wanted was Sally. And now it had her.

      My name is Bobby, it repeated, and Sally danced farther away from me.

      I shivered, remembering when I’d first seen the ghost. It was the first day we arrived. We were driving up the long driveway under the tall whispery pines and I saw his pale, sad face.

      A little boy peering at us from the attic windows. Little Bobby, who’d been dead for years and years.

      Of course, no one believed me then.

      They still didn’t believe me. And the ghost had been careful to make sure they wouldn’t. Now he had taken possession of my sister.

      Let me talk to Sally, I demanded, my voice cracking with fright.

      Bobby wasn’t an evil ghost, I told myself. At least Sally never thought so. She thought he was just a sad little boy who wanted to be her invisible friend. So what if he’d been dead for years?

      So what if nobody else could see him? She could.

      Maybe if I could keep him talking I could make him realize what a bad thing he was doing. I want to talk to Sally, Bobby, where is she?

      Sally pressed her lips together tight. Or Bobby pressed her lips together. I was getting nowhere.

      My head was spinning with a million different thoughts.

      Bobby must have heard my parents talking about going away to Mayfield on a job and leaving me and Sally alone with a baby-sitter. A seventeen-year-old, red-haired girl who giggled at the idea of ghosts.

      He must have been waiting for this chance.

      Maybe he’d made friends with Sally just so she’d get to trust him. Then when the moment was right he seized her body and took it over.

      Maybe he’d moved in permanently! The idea of this dead thing speaking from inside my sister made me feel like I’d swallowed a chunk of roadkill.

      Look, Bobby, tell me what you want, I said, inching closer. I can help you if I know what you want.

      Hey, Jason! Sally!

      It was our baby-sitter Katie. She was supposed to be upstairs unpacking. Instead here she was leaning out the front door, grinning at us like she wanted to be friends. Her thick red hair fanned across her shoulders like a halo.

      Come on in and have a snack or something, Katie suggested.

      Uh, in a minute, I started to say. How could I tell her what had happened to my little sister?

      Just then a ferocious scowl came over Sally’s face. Blood rushed to her cheeks and her eyes seemed to glow with fire.

      Something terrible was about to happen.

      I reached out to grab Sally, but she was too fast for me.

      She let out a scream of rage and charged straight at the baby-sitter.

      3

      The thing that ran up the steps after the babysitter wasn’t my sister, it was a small demon.

      Look out! I shouted.

      But Katie just stood there. Her friendly smile went kind of limp, like she couldn’t believe what was happening as Sally’s hard little fists smacked her in the knees.

      Hey! Katie cried out. Hey, what are you doing?

      Sally was punching and kicking and scratching like a fierce little animal, and the poor baby-sitter didn’t know what to do.

      I had to save her—and Sally, too. I ran up the porch steps and grabbed my little sister from behind. Not so rough that I hurt her, but strong enough to pin her arms.

      See, I didn’t want to hurt her. After all, Sally was just a little kid. So I just tried to stop her from hitting the baby-sitter.

      That’s when she turned around and smacked me, hard, right in the stomach.

      Ooof, the air went out of me and I sat down, holding my stomach. Sally ran off, disappearing inside the house.

      Hey, are you okay? Katie knelt down, checking me out.

      I nodded, struggling to get my breath back.

      What’s wrong with your sister? she asked.

      You don’t want to know, I panted.

      Of course I do, she said. I’m supposed to be in charge of you two until your parents get back.

      Just then I heard Sally’s little feet running across the kitchen floor. She was heading for the back door!

      Hurry! I said. We’ve got to stop her!

      I started running. Horrible thoughts exploded in my brain. What if Bobby did something terrible? What if he made my sister run into the lake, or out in front of a car?

      Then she’d be like him forever. Another little ghost haunting this big creepy house.

      I made myself run faster. No, Sally! Stop! I cried desperately.

      I reached the kitchen just as Sally whipped the back door open.

      She was too fast for me. In a second she’d be

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