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success.
    I didn’t tell Chuck. I didn’t want Chuck to know.
    But when the caped man clicked on the basement light—in that split second before he saw me and I saw him—I grabbed
a mask from the carton. And I shoved it under my sweatshirt.
    I had a mask!
    It hadn’t been easy. In fact, being trapped in that eerie basement with that
strange man had been the scariest time of my life.
    But I had a mask! Safely tucked under my sweatshirt.
    I could feel it against my chest as I ran. And I could feel it now, warm
against my skin as I reached for the front door.
    I was so happy. So pleased with myself.
    And then I felt the mask start to move.
    And I screamed as something sharp bit into my chest.

 
 
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    I grabbed the front of my sweatshirt. I pressed both hands tight against the
bulge of the mask.
    “Whoa,” I murmured, holding the mask in place under the sweatshirt.
    Stop imagining things, Steve, I scolded myself.
    Calm down. The mask started to slip down your chest. That’s all. It wasn’t
moving. It didn’t bite you.
    Get in the house, I ordered myself. Hide the thing in a drawer in your room.
And pull yourself together.
    Why was I so nervous?
    The scary part was over. I had escaped with one of the great masks. Now it
was my turn to scare other people. Why was I standing there scaring
myself?
    Still holding the front of my sweatshirt, I pushed open the front door and
stepped into the house. “Down, boy! Get down, Sparky!” I cried as the little
black terrier greeted me. He leaped high off the floor, bouncing off me, barking and whining as if he hadn’t seen
me in twenty years.
    “Get down, Sparky! Down!”
    I wanted to sneak into the house, run up to my room, and stash the mask away
before my parents heard me return. But Sparky ruined that plan.
    “Steve—is that you?” Mom stormed into the living room, a fretful frown on
her face. She glared at me and angrily blew a curl of blond hair from in front
of her eyes. “Where on earth were you? Your father and I went ahead and ate
dinner. Yours is ice-cold by now!”
    “Sorry, Mom,” I said, still holding the front of my sweatshirt to keep the
mask in place as I tried to push Sparky away.
    The lock of hair fell back over her forehead. She blew at it again. “Well?
Where were you?”
    “I… well…”
    Think fast, Steve.
    You can’t tell her you sneaked out to steal a Halloween mask from the
basement of a store.
    “I had to help Chuck with something,” I finally answered.
    Sure, it was a lie. But it wasn’t a serious lie.
    I’m usually a very honest guy. But right then, all I cared about was having
the mask! I had it, and I was desperate to get it out from under my sweatshirt
and hidden in a safe place in my room.
    “Well, you should have told me where you were going,” Mom scolded. “Your father went out to do the grocery shopping. But
he’s very angry, too. You should have been home for dinner.”
    I lowered my head. “Sorry, Mom.”
    Sparky gazed up at me. Was he staring at the bulge in my sweatshirt?
    If the dog could see it, Mom could see it too.
    “I’ll take off my coat and come right down,” I told her.
    I didn’t give her a chance to reply. I spun around, leaped onto the stairs,
and ran up two at a time. I flew down the hall, burst into my room, and slammed
the door behind me.
    I took a few seconds to catch my breath. I listened hard, making sure that
Mom hadn’t followed me upstairs.
    No. I could hear her banging around in the kitchen, getting my dinner ready.
    I couldn’t wait to check out the mask!
    Which one did I take? When the light came on in the store basement, I grabbed
a mask without looking. I stuffed it under my sweatshirt before I could see it.
    Now I eagerly reached under the sweatshirt and pulled out my hard-won prize.
    “Wow!” I raised it in both hands and admired it.
    The old-man mask. I took the mask of the creepy old man.
    I smoothed out its long strings of yellow-white hair. Holding it by the