Dudes, the School Is Haunted! Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes bulged. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Help us!” he
screamed. “Can anybody hear me? Help us!”
    Silence.
    Then I spotted the red button at the top of the control panel. “Ben—look,”
I said. I pointed to the red button.
    “An emergency button!” he exclaimed happily. “Go ahead, Tommy. Push it! It’s
probably an alarm. Someone will hear it and come rescue us!”
    I pushed the red button.
    I didn’t hear an alarm.
    But the elevator started to hum.
    I heard the clank of gears. The floor vibrated beneath our feet.
    “Hey—we’re moving!” Ben cried happily.
    I let out a cheer. Then I raised my hand to slap him a high five.
    But the elevator jerked hard, and I fell against the wall.
    “Uh-oh,” I murmured, pulling myself up straight. I turned to Ben. We stared
at each other in wide-eyed silence, not believing what was happening.
    The elevator wasn’t moving up. Or down. It was moving sideways.

 
 
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    The elevator rumbled and shook. I grabbed the wooden railing on the side.
Gears clanked noisily. The floor vibrated beneath my shoes.
    We stared at each other, realizing what was happening. Neither of us spoke.
    Ben finally broke the silence. “This is impossible,” he murmured. His words
came out in a choked whisper.
    “Where is it taking us?” I asked softly, gripping the rail so hard that my
hands hurt.
    “It’s impossible!” Ben repeated. “It can’t be happening. Elevators only go up
and—”
    The car jolted hard as we came to a very sudden stop.
    “Whoooa!” I let out a cry as my shoulder slammed into the elevator wall.
    “Next time, we’re taking the stairs,” Ben growled.
    The doors slid open.
    We peered out. Into total blackness.
    “Are we in the basement?” Ben asked, sticking his head out the door.
    “We didn’t go down,” I replied. A shiver ran down the back of my neck. “We
didn’t go up or down. So…”
    “We’re still on the first floor.” Ben finished my sentence for me. “But why
is it so dark here? I can’t believe this is happening!”
    We stepped out of the elevator.
    I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. But they couldn’t adjust. It
was too dark.
    “There must be a light switch,” I said. I ran my hand along the wall. I could
feel the outline of tiles. But no light switch.
    I swept both hands up and down the wall. No. No light switch.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Ben urged. “We don’t want to get trapped here. We
can’t see a thing.”
    I was still searching for the light. “Okay,” I agreed. I lowered my hand and
started back to the elevator.
    I heard the doors slide shut.
    “No!” I let out a sharp cry.
    Ben and I banged on the elevator doors. Then I felt along the wall for the
button to open the doors.
    Panicked, my hand trembled. I swept my open palm all along the wall on both
sides of the closed doors.
    No button. No elevator button.
    I turned and leaned my back against the wall. I was suddenly breathing hard. My heart pounded.
    “I can’t believe this is happening,” Ben muttered.
    “Would you please stop saying that!” I demanded. “It is happening. We’re here. We don’t know where. But we’re here.”
    “But if we can’t call the elevator, how do we get out of here?” Ben whined.
    “We’ll find our way,” I told him. I took a deep breath and held it. I decided
I had to be the calm one since he was being so whiny and scared.
    I listened hard. “I can’t hear any music or voices or anything. We must be
far away from the gym.”
    “Well… what do we do?” Ben cried. “We can’t just stand here!”
    My mind whirred. I squinted into the darkness, hoping to make out the shape
of a door or a window. Anything!
    But the blackness that surrounded us was darker than the sky on a starless
night.
    I pressed my back against the cool tile wall. “I know,” I said. “We’ll keep
against the wall.”
    “And?” Ben whispered. “And we’ll do what ?”
    “We’ll move along the wall,” I