Read Online 21 - Go Eat Worms! by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) - Free Book Online

stared out the window at the pale half-moon—and
thought about the worms.
    Regina was sleeping over at Beth’s—but the bed was full of worms.
    How?
    How were they wriggling into his backpack? Into his notebooks? Into his
breakfast? His lunch?
    The room began to whirl. Todd felt dizzy. So sleepy. So very sleepy…
    But he couldn’t stop puzzling about the worms. Such a mystery.
    The night sky grew darker. The moon rose away from the window.
    It’s so late, Todd thought, and I can’t get to sleep.
    Maybe I do need a hot bath, he told himself, lowering his feet to the floor.
Baths always relaxed him.
    He crept silently out of his room and down the hall to the bathroom. He
didn’t want to wake his parents. Closing the bathroom door behind him, he
clicked on the light. Then he turned on the water and filled the tub, making it
nice and hot.
    When the water was nearly to the top, he pulled off his pajamas. Then he lowered himself into the steamy water. “Mmmmmm,” he
hummed aloud as he settled into it. The hot water felt so good, so soothing.
    This was a good idea, he told himself, resting his head against the back of
the tub. He smiled and shut his eyes. Just what I needed.
    A soft splash made Todd open his eyes and glance at the faucet. Had he
forgotten to turn it off?
    Another splash.
    “Ohh.” Todd let out a soft moan as a fat purple worm slid out of the faucet
and hit the water. “Oh, no!”
    Splash.
    Another worm dropped from the faucet. Then two more. They hit the surface of
the water and plunged to the tub bottom just past Todd’s feet.
    “Hey—!” He pulled his feet away and drew himself up to a sitting position.
“What’s going on?!”
    As Todd stared in horror, brown and purple worms tumbled from the faucet,
three and four at a time, splashing into the tub. He raised his eyes to see more
worms—sliding down the tile wall, plopping onto the water, onto his legs, onto
his shoulders.
    “No—!”
    He struggled to climb out, trying to push himself to his feet with both
hands.
    But the tub bottom was covered with wriggling, swimming, slithering worms.
And his hands kept slipping out from under him.
    “Help—!”
    Breathing hard, he managed to climb to his knees.
    Worms clung to his back, his shoulders. He could feel them crawling over his
hot, wet skin.
    More worms tumbled down the wall. They seemed to be raining from the ceiling.
More and more poured out of the faucet.
    They had turned the entire tub into a seething, wriggling sea of brown and
purple.
    “Help—somebody!” Todd shouted.
    But the worms were pulling him now. Pulling him down.
    He could feel their wet grasp, hundreds of tiny prickles, as they held him
tightly and tugged him down, down, into the churning water.
    They plopped onto his head. Crawled over his face. Dangled from his quivering
shoulders.
    Covered him. Covered him, and continued to rain down, to pour down, and pull
him down with them, into the wriggling, dark sea of warm, wet worms.

 
 
22
     
     
    “Please—help me!”
    Todd struggled and squirmed. He twisted his body, trying to swing his arms
free.
    But the worms held on, forcing him down, pulling him into the slimy, brown
water. And more worms rained down, curling and uncurling as they slid down the
wall, dropped from the ceiling, and poured from the faucet.
    “Oh!”
    He let out a startled cry as he tugged himself back to a sitting position. He
thrashed his arms hard, sending a spray of water over the side of the tub.
    He blinked. Once. Twice.
    And the worms disappeared. All of them.
    “Huh?” His mouth dropped open as he gazed into the tub. The ceiling light
reflected in the clear water.
    Hesitantly, he moved his toes. He splashed the water with both feet.
    Clear. Perfectly clear and clean.
    “Wow,” Todd murmured, shaking his head. “Wow.”
    The wriggling, tumbling worms lingered in his mind. Despite the heat of the
bathwater, a cold shiver ran down his body.
    He climbed quickly out of the