Ghouls Gone Wild Read Online Free PDF Page A

sniffed again. “Oh, yuck. Is that sour milk?”
    I jerked my arm away from Tara. She backed up, surprised.
    “You got me into
major
trouble again!” I shouted. “Now do you understand why I can't
wait
to move to Texas?”
    “But we really didn't do anything, dude,” Nicky said.
    “No way. We weren't here,” Tara said.
    They both raised their right hands. “We swear.”
    “Then who did it?” I screamed.
    Colin burst into my room. He glanced around. Of course, he couldn't see Nicky and Tara standing right in front of him. “Hey, loser, who are you yelling at?”
    I swallowed. “Uh…myself,” I said. “I'm yelling at myself for letting those bottles explode.”
    Colin sniffed. “Smells like puke,” he said. “Know what? That smell will seep into your skin tonight while you sleep. At school, your new name will be the Human Puke.”
    “Go away, Colin,” I pleaded. “I want to yell at myself some more. I really deserve it.”
    He grinned. “Yes, you do.” He sniffed the air a few times, made a disgusted face, and hurried out.
    I turned back to my two ghost friends.
    “You believe us, don't you, Max?” Nicky said. “You believe we didn't make the bottles pop open?”
    I stared from one to the other. “If you two didn't do it,” I said, “who did?”
    Nicky and Tara both shrugged.
    I suddenly felt a little frightened. Were they telling the truth? If they were…who had made the milk bottles explode?
    Had someone else been in my room? Another ghost?
    The boy in black? Again, I pictured him. His face changing from young to old. The car headlights piercing right through him …
    “I'm watching…,”
he had whispered.
“I'm watching…”
    Had he been here in my room? Did he make the bottles explode? Was another ghost out to get me?

12
    I CHANGED FOR BED , but I couldn't sleep. For one thing, I couldn't get the puke smell out of my nose.
    And I had a tingling feeling. My skin prickled.
    I had a hunch. A frightening hunch.
    I climbed out of bed and crept to the window. I pushed aside the curtains and squinted down to the front yard.
    And yes. There he was.
    “Oh no!” I uttered a hoarse cry.
    I stared down at the figure in black. He stood half hidden in darkness beside the big birch tree near the driveway.
    I couldn't see his face. But I saw his frail, thin body huddled against the tree trunk.
    And then the moonlight shifted through the fluttering branches. Light washed over him.
    I saw him clearly.
    I saw his face.
A young boy's face.
    Leaning out the open window, I saw dark eyes peering up at me. Short dark hair. A long slender face, silvery in the bright moonlight.
    I gripped the windowsill.
    I froze in fright.
    And as I stared down into the patch of moonlight, the boy's face changed. It grew longer. It stretched. His eyes pulled back. His snout slid forward.
    Dark fur sprouted over his head. His hair stood on end.
    Gripped with horror, I stood frozen at the window. Staring out…
at the face of a growling wolf!
    “Noooo …” A whispered moan escaped my throat.
    The wind swirled into my open window, fluttering my pajamas.
    The wolf snarled and floated off the ground. A boy in black with a wolf face, eyes glowing red, jagged teeth snapping …
    He floated up, rising toward my window.
    “No!” I screamed. “No—please!”
    I slammed the window shut. I pulled the shade down.
    I backed away, trembling. “Don't come in. Please—don't come in.”
    Silence now.
    The wind rattled the windowpane, as if trying to burst through.
    Just the wind now.
    No wolf boy shooting through the glass into my room.
    Another ghost. Another creature come to haunt me.
    No wonder
I wanted to move away from all this. No wonder.
    Did I sleep at all that night?
    Three guesses.

13
    M ONDAY MORNING I made a new friend.
    I was walking across the playground at school, searching for Aaron. I still wanted to tell him the news that my family was moving to Texas. And I wanted to tell him about the boy in black, the ghost boy who