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Oliver still alive?
    Oliver snorted and turned over again. He started snoring.
    Oliver wasn’t dead.
    He was just asleep. Deeply asleep.
    Robbie couldn’t believe it!
    Oliver had slept through the entire haunting!
    Every moan, every howl, every creeping, slobbering, skritching, stumbling sound of it!
    All of Robbie’s best work!
    How could he?
    Robbie was so mad that if he had had any energy left, he would have tipped Oliver out of bed onto the floor!
    That would have done it! Yeah! Tangle him up in sheets and dump him onto the floor!
    Why hadn’t Robbie thought of that before?
    Nothing like a good thud on a hardwood floor to wake somebody up surprised!
    But no. Robbie had used up all his energy on sound effects.
    What an idiot he was!
    â€œRats!” Robbie muttered, stomping around the room.
    He almost tripped over Spooky.
    Even the dog slept through Robbie’s haunting!
    â€œBoo,” Robbie said. Then, enraged, he screamed “Boo!” as loud as he could in Spooky’s ear.
    â€œWoof,” Spooky mumbled without opening his eyes.
    What a waste! What a worthless waste!
    â€œWell, that was as exciting as a Sunday afternoon nap,” Dora’s snotty voice jeered.
    Oh, great. Not only did he use up all his best noises, but now he’d have to listen to Dora gloat!
    Robbie headed for the attic. He couldn’t stand being in Oliver’s room a moment longer. The scene of his miserable failure.
    All his best skills. And not one of them had scared his victim.
    Robbie felt exhausted as he climbed the attic stairs. He was so tired, he couldn’t even float up.
    He couldn’t remember feeling this tired before.
    He began the night with so much energy. Now he had almost zero. He didn’t have enough energy to be bothered when Dora danced around the attic, taunting him.
    He was too tired to care!
    â€œMr. High-and-Frighty,” Dora teased.
    â€œCut it out,” Robbie moaned. “Just shut up.” He slumped in the armchair, so weak, he couldn’t even raise dust.
    Dora did a little tap dance. “Don’t you worry, Mr. Useless-Excuse-for-a-Nightmare!”
    â€œDon’t worry? Even you can’t scare this guy. Nothing works,” Robbie mumbled. “We’ve tried everything we usually do.”
    Dora grinned. “So it’s time for something completely different! A whole new tactic. Guess what? Tomorrow I’m going to follow Oliver to school!”
    â€œSchool?” Robbie felt stunned. “When was the last time we left the house?”
    â€œNever,” Dora admitted. “But this is a special case. Don’t you want to get this guy? How could he ignore that last howl of yours?”
    Robbie stared at his sister. Had she almost said something nice about his haunting?
    â€œLet’s scare him out in the open, in front of other kids!” Dora exclaimed.
    What a mean plan!
    Robbie felt so encouraged, he even managed to smile.
    * * *
    In the morning Robbie watched Oliver and Nell having breakfast.
    Robbie was still so tired from haunting the night before, he wished he could eat some Sugar-Frosted Nuggets himself
    Mrs. Bowen stood by the counter, yawning, drinking coffee, and making lunches for the kids.
    â€œDid either of you have any more weird dreams last night?” she asked.
    â€œNo,” Nell replied.
    Robbie tensed, hoping that Oliver would talk about monsters. Ghosts. Bats, wolves, owls . . . anything!
    â€œNo,” Oliver said. “Not that I remember.”
    Dumb kid!
    Maybe he had no imagination.
    Maybe he was too stupid to be scared!
    â€œOh, wait. There was something about . . . chains . . .” Oliver murmured.
    Yes! Robbie perked up. Here it comes!
    â€œChains?” Mrs. Bowen asked.
    â€œChains,” Oliver repeated. “Rattling chains. I think I was dreaming—about my band! Yeah! Finally an awesome name for my band. The Rattling Chains! I like