The Haunting Hour Read Online Free PDF

the Matthew cookie—and plunged it into the center.
    â€œ OW! ” I screamed, and doubled over with a sharp pain in my stomach. “Lulu—stop!” I gasped.
    She twirled the feather in the cookie.
    Pain shot through my whole body. I crumpled to the floor. “Please,” I whispered. “Please—take it out.”
    She pulled the feather out of the cookie and, little by little, the pain faded away.
    Lulu picked up my sister’s cookie. “Do I have to teach you alesson too?” she asked Courtney.
    â€œNo. No. I get it,” Courtney said, her voice trembling.
    â€œThen let’s get to work,” Lulu said. “And do exactly as I say. Unless you’d like to see what happens when I dip your mud cookies in boiling water.”
    Courtney and I had no choice. I climbed shakily to my feet. My stomach still ached. I couldn’t catch my breath.
    To my surprise Courtney did a cartwheel. She flipped over to the couch, forcing Lulu to jump back. Then Courtney climbed to her feet and brushed herself off.
    â€œNo tricks,” Lulu warned. She had the two cookies gripped tightly in her hands. “I like torturing kids.” Lulu’s mouth broke into a crooked smile. “But I love to torture adults even more! Get moving. Today we will make mud cookies of your parents.”
    Courtney and I trudged out to the backyard to dig up mud. We squatted by the vegetable garden and started to shovel.
    â€œWhat was that cartwheel about?” I whispered. “Did you go totally nuts for a moment?”
    Courtney glanced back at the kitchen window. Then she dug her hand into her shirt pocket. “Check this out,” she whispered.
    She held up a long black hair. “I spotted it on the rug. I picked it up when I did my cartwheel.”
    I began to see my sister’s plan. “You’re going to use it in a mud cookie?”
    Courtney nodded. “Instead of Mom, I’m going to do Lulu.”
    Â 
    The plan worked. Courtney and I were a team. My sister made the Lulu cookie. And I kept Lulu busy on the other side of the kitchen. I pretended I had a splinter in my thumb. I made Lulu search and search for it.
    Courtney slid the cookies into the oven to bake. When it was time for the cookies to cool, I got Lulu out of the kitchen. I took her upstairs to show her what we had done to the Larry and the Maryjo cookies.
    â€œNice work,” Lulu said, grinning. “You really paid them back for being so disgusting.”
    When we returned to the kitchen, Courtney’s surprise was ready. Lulu stared in horror at the mud cookie on the kitchen counter. It had bright-purple lips, a purple scarf at its throat, and Lulu’s long black hair baked into its head.
    â€œNOOOOOOO!” Lulu screamed. “You can’t do this!” She dove for the cookie.
    But Courtney grabbed the cookie out of Lulu’s reach.
    â€œGive it! Give it!” Lulu shouted. She made another frantic grab for it.
    Courtney tossed the cookie to me. Startled, I caught it in one hand.
    And its head fell off .
    Lulu screamed again. She grabbed for the cookie with both hands.
    Too late. Her head rolled off her neck and bounced onto the kitchen floor.
    The head kept right on screaming. Its eyes bulged with horror as it rolled to a stop against the kitchen counter. “Give me that cookie! Give it!” the head screeched.
    Lulu’s headless body lurched toward me, her arms outstretched. As she staggered forward, the purple scarf unraveled, revealing her open, cut neck.
    Clawing the air, she took another step. Another.
    Across the room her head screeched and cried, “Give it! Give it!”
    Gripping the mud cookie, I backed against the wall.
    The headless Lulu, her arms stretched in front of her, her hands grabbing, grabbing, closed in on me.
    I was pressed against the wall. My heart thudded in terror.
    I tried to duck away from her—and the cookie dropped out of my hand.
    It hit