Read The Haunted Mask II for Free Online Page A

big,
pointy ears, I lifted it in front of my face and examined it closely.
    A single white tooth hung down over the bottom lip. A brown wormhole poked
through the center of the tooth.
    Outside on the front stoop, the big tooth had scraped my chest, I realized.
That’s what made me think the mask was biting me.
    The mouth was twisted in an evil sneer. The lips curled like two brown worms.
    The long nose had gobs of green dripping from each nostril. A square patch of
skin was missing just above the forehead. I could see gray skull bone in the
hole.
    The whole face was creased and lined. The flesh was a sickly green. The skin
appeared to be peeling off the face. Dark scabs bulged from the sunken cheeks.
    Black spiders appeared to crawl through the stringy, yellow hair. Spiders
poked out of the two ears.
    “Yuck!” I cried.
    Was I holding the scariest Halloween mask in the world?
    No. In the universe!
    I began to feel a little queasy just holding it. I rubbed the scabby cheek
with one finger. The skin felt warm, like real skin.
    “Heh-heh-heh.” I practiced laughing like an old man. “Heh-heh-heh.” I tried a
dry cackle.
    Look out, Hogs! I told myself. When I come leaping out at you on Halloween
night in this mask, you will jump out of your skins!
    “Heh-heh-heh.”
    I raked the ugly, long hair back over the head. My fingers bumped over the
spiders tangled in the hair. The spiders didn’t feel rubbery. They felt soft and
warm like the skin.
    I gazed down happily at the disgusting, old face. It sneered back at me. The
brown worm lips quivered.
    Should I try it on?
    I carried it over to the mirror on my closet door. I was dying to see what
I’d look like.
    I’ll slip it on for just a second, I decided. Long enough to see how ugly and
frightening I’d look.
    Holding it in both hands, I raised the mask over my head.
    Then slowly, carefully… very carefully… I began to pull the mask
down, down, down over my face.

 
 
12
     
     
    “Steve—!”
    Mom’s loud cry from downstairs startled me.
    “Steve—where are you? Get down here for your dinner!”
    “Coming!” I shouted back. I lowered the mask. I’d try it on later, I decided.
    I walked quickly to the dresser and pulled open my sock drawer. Smoothing the
long, spidery hair over the ugly face, I set the mask down carefully in the
drawer. Then I hid it under several pairs of socks and closed the drawer.
    I hurried down to the kitchen. Mom had a salad on the table and a plate of
warmed-up macaroni-and-cheese.
    My stomach growled. I suddenly realized that I was starved! I sat down,
pushed the salad aside, and started forking up the macaroni as fast as I could.
    I glanced down to see Sparky staring up at me with his big, black, soulful eyes. He saw me looking at him and tilted his
head.
    “Sparky,” I said, “you don’t like macaroni—remember?”
    He tilted his head the other way, as if trying to understand. I slipped him a
couple of noodles. He sniffed them and left them on the floor.
    Behind me, Mom busily cleaned out the refrigerator, making room for the
groceries Dad was out buying. I was dying to tell her about the scary
mask. I wanted to show it to her. Maybe put it on and make her scream.
    But I knew she’d ask too many questions about where I bought it, and how much
it cost, and how much of my allowance I used up to pay for it.
    All questions I couldn’t answer.
    So I bit my tongue and forced myself not to blurt out the exciting news that
I wouldn’t have to be a hobo again this Halloween.
    That was my costume for the past five years. A hobo. Actually, it wasn’t much
of a costume. I wore one of Dad’s baggy old suits with patches on the pants. Mom
rubbed charcoal on my face to make me look dirty. And I carried a knapsack on a
fishing pole over my shoulder.
    Bor-ring!
    This Halloween will be different, I promised myself. This Halloween will not
be boring.
    I was so happy. As I sat gobbling down macaroni-and-cheese, I