Phil and the Ghost of Camp Ch-Yo-Ca Read Online Free PDF Page A

it.
    All of a sudden you hear a noise.
    “What was that?” you ask.
    “What?”
    “Did you hear something?”
    John Luke shakes his head.
    You stand at the edge of the lake and squint. Only silence. And then . . .
    Ch-ch-ch-ka-ka-ka.
    “There   —that sound. Didn’t you hear it?”
    “No.”
    “Are you making noises on your phone?”
    “No, sir,” John Luke says, slipping the phone back into his jeans pocket.
    You peer into the forest, trying to see if someone’s out there. But you can’t spot anything out of the ordinary.
    “Let’s go back to the cabins,” you say. “It’s gonna be dark before we know it.”
    As you start to retrace your steps, you hear another ch-ch-ch . You stop cold.
    The sound stops with you.
    When you resume walking, it begins again.
    Ka-ka-ka.
    “You didn’t hear that, John Luke?”
    “No.”
    “Then I think my hearin’s going, or I’m imagining things.”
    “Maybe it’s the ghost.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Hi, ghost!” John Luke shouts.
    The sound goes off again.
    Ch-ch-ch-ka-ka-ka.
    When you get to the edge of the woods, you notice something sticking out of a tree. You walk over and try to pull it out. Looks like some kind of knife. “You ever seen this before, John Luke?”
    “No. We would never have a knife like that where the kids could find it. What should we do with it?”

    Do you continue trying to pull the blade out of the tree? Go here .
    Do you leave the weapon here and head to the cabins? It’s kind of late and dark to be examining this kind of evidence. Go here .

SCREAMING FOR BUBBLES

    “GET OUT OF THERE!” you yell at John Luke as his head emerges.
    Just as he turns in the water, the massive spider is on him. You still can’t believe how fast the creature is moving. Now the spider is clamped onto John Luke, and it drags him under the water.
    Did that just happen?
    “No!”
    The surface of the water gets very still.
    “No!” you scream again.
    Then you notice slight bubbles emerging from the lake. You stop screaming and the bubbles go away. You start screaming again and they continue.
    “No!” equals bubbles.
    Silence equals no bubbles.
    Soon you see something bobbing up and down in the water.
    It’s John Luke. He sucks in air and starts swimming back to land.
    “What happened?” you ask, confused but relieved.
    But he seems too out of breath to answer.
    As he starts to get out of the water, Si appears from the top of the hill. He’s holding a shotgun. John Luke is dripping and gasping.
    “You guys okay?” Si asks.
    “Are you okay, John Luke?”
    He nods and looks back at the water.
    “Why are you all wet?” Si asks.
    “I was hot.”
    Si shakes his head. “What’s with all these cobwebs everywhere? You guys seen any big spiders around?”
    “I just punched one in the face underwater,” John Luke says. He flexes his arms like a prizefighter.
    You throw him his shirt. “Dry off, Rocky.”
    “This place needs to be quarantined, Jack,” Si says.
    You don’t see anything else in the water, and you’re sure glad whatever it was that attacked John Luke hasn’t reemerged.
    “John Luke, I think it’s time we got out of here.”
    “Hey, Jack. What about me?”
    You turn to Si and pat him on the back. “You hold down the fort. We’ll send you some reinforcements.”
    “Who’s that?”
    “Oh, we’ll get Willie and Jase and Jep to come over here. That’ll be enough. You think, John Luke?”
    He nods at Si as you both start walking up the hill, leaving Si to continue talking.
    “Hey, man, this is serious stuff here! You see these cobwebs? They gotta belong to some ten-foot-tall spider. I mean, I once saw one over in ’Nam, and it had to be about fifteen feet tall, and I’m telling you, I got . . .”
    THE END
    Start over.
    Read “The Shadows That Follow Us: A Note from John Luke Robertson.”

SCENE OF THE CRIME

    JOHN LUKE GIVES YOU A BIG HUG when you get inside the Jeep.
    “There was a dude with a gas can who lit the whole