Stacey And The Mystery Of Stoneybrook Read Online Free PDF

from way back when Stoneybrook first got electricity. It was going to take awhile to get all that stuff out of the house. Once they'd removed it all, they could just knock down whatever was left.
    Charlotte and I walked around the outside of the house, fighting our way through the weeds and brambles. I had to admit that it was a pretty neat old place, even if I didn't think it rated right up there with Gary Rock-man as hot news. It was built on a huge scale. There was a long porch that wrapped around the front of it, and a smaller one at the back door. One of the upstairs rooms had big windowed doors that opened out onto a little balcony.
    It also had several little towers sticking up here and there. Imagine having your bedroom in one of those round turrets — you could pretend you were Rapunzel or something. Charlotte liked that idea.' "Or what if there was a secret trapdoor, so you could be up there and nobody would ever know," she said. One of the things I love about her is her imagination. She is so creative.
    As I was checking out the towers, trying to decide which one I would choose for my room, I saw something that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. There was a face in the window of one of the towers, and it was looking right back at me! I gasped and turned to Charlotte to see if she'd seen it, but she was examining the gingerbread trim on the porch roof. I looked back quickly, but the face had disappeared from the window. Maybe it hadn't really been there in the first place. I was probably just imagining things.
    I walked on ahead to catch up with Charlotte. When I found her, her face was dead white. "Did you hear that noise, Stacey?" she asked.
    "What noise? I don't hear — " Just then, I did hear it. Something was clanking rhythmically. It sounded like chains being dragged across the floors.
    "Oh, that's just, um . . . loose pipes! Yeah, that's it. I'm sure it's just the plumbing, Charlotte."
    I wasn't really all that sure, but I hoped there
    was no way that Charlotte would be able to tell. Anyway, I knew the workmen were also removing some of the plumbing and fixtures for preservation. Mom had said that there were antique radiators and also some of those big old bathtubs that sit on clawed feet. Maybe the men had been working on pulling that stuff out today, and some of the pipes had been left to bang against each other. That really could explain the noises we'd heard. Couldn't it?
    We kept walking around the house. It was kind of sad to see it looking so shabby. Most of the windows were broken, and the shutters hung crookedly. The paint was peeling. And what was that near the back door?
    I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a gigantic, and I mean huge, swarm of gross flies, just like in The Amityville Horror. That movie has to be the scariest thing I've ever seen. It's about this family that moves into a house that has ghosts or spirits in it, and all these horrible things keep happening. The flies were the least of it, believe me! Scenes from the movie flashed through my mind as Charlotte and I looked at the flies, but I gritted my teeth, took Charlotte's hand, and kept walking around the house. We'd gone almost all the way around it by now anyway. I wasn't going to let some
    dumb old spooky house get the better of me.
    "Oooooohhhhhhh . . ."
    What was that? I looked at Charlotte. Had she moaned? She looked back at me. We kept walking.
    "Oooooooooohhhhhhhh . . ."I heard it again, and this time I knew it hadn't come from Charlotte. It had come from the house. I tightened my grip on her hand, and we took off. That spooky old house had gotten the better of me. We were history.
    We made it back to my house in record time. Charlotte was looking a little shaky. I was feeling a little shaky myself. But once we were away from the house I felt better. It was like there was a bad feeling coming from that place. I didn't plan to go back there any time soon.
    "What do you think made that noise, Stacey? That was