Read Online 48 - Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) - Free Book Online Page B

long, loud burp. And groaned again.
    “I never want to see another candy bar in my life,” Walker whispered to me.
    I tried to reply. But my mouth was full.
    “More houses!” one of the pumpkin heads ordered.
    “More houses! More trick-or-treating!”
    “No—please!” Tabby begged.
    Bent over on the grass, Lee let out another long burp.
    “It’s almost midnight!” Tabby protested. “We have to go home!”
    “There are many houses to go,” a pumpkin head told her, narrowing its
fiery eyes. “Houses forever. Trick-or-treat forever!”
    “But we feel sick!” Lee moaned, holding his stomach. “We can’t do any more
houses tonight!”
    “Everyone has gone to sleep,” Walker told the pumpkin heads. “No one will
answer the door this late.”
    “They WILL in this neighborhood!” the pumpkin head replied.
    “No problem in THIS neighborhood,” the other creature agreed. “In
this neighborhood, you can trick-or-treat FOREVER!”
    “But—but—but—” I sputtered.
    I knew it was no use. The fiery creatures were going to force us to keep
going. They weren’t going to listen to our complaints.
    And they weren’t going to let us go home.
    “More houses! More! Trick-or-treat forever!”
    Tabby helped Lee to his feet. She picked up his trick-or-treat bag and placed
it in his hand. Then she brushed her hair out of her face and picked up her own
bag.
    The four of us trooped across the street, dragging the bags beside us. The
night air had grown cold and heavy. A strong breeze rattled the trees and sent
brown leaves scuttling past our feet.
    “Our parents must be so worried,” Lee murmured. “It’s really late.”
    “They should be worried!” Tabby declared in a trembling voice. “We may
never see them again.”
    The porch light at the first house was still on. The pumpkin heads forced us
onto the porch.
    “It’s too late to trick-or-treat,” Lee protested.
    But we had no choice. I rang the bell.
    We waited. Shivering. Feeling heavy and sick from all the candy we had forced
down.
    Slowly, the front door opened.
    And we all gasped in shock.

 
 
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    “Ohhh!” A low cry escaped Walker’s throat.
    Lee jumped off the porch.
    I stared at the creature in the yellow porch light. A woman. A woman with a
grinning jack-o’-lantern head.
    “Trick or treat?” she asked, turning her jagged smile on us. Orange flames
danced and flickered inside her head.
    “Uh—uh—uh—” Walker hopped off the porch and stumbled into Lee.
    I stared at the grinning pumpkin head. This is a nightmare! I told
myself. A living nightmare!
    The woman dropped some kind of candy into my bag. I didn’t even see what it
was. I couldn’t take my eyes off her pumpkin head.
    “Are you—?” I started to ask.
    But she closed the front door before I could get the words out.
    “More houses!” the pumpkin heads commanded. “More trick-or-treating!”
    We dragged ourselves to the next little house. The door swung open as we
climbed onto the front stoop.
    And we stared at another pumpkin-head creature.
    This one wore jeans and a maroon sweatshirt. The flames hissed and crackled
behind his eyes and mouth. Two wide, crooked teeth were carved into his mouth—one on top, one below—giving him a silly expression.
    But my friends and I were too terrified to laugh.
    At the next house, we were greeted by two jack-o’-lantern creatures. We
crossed the street and found another fiery-headed creature waiting for us at the
next house.
    Where are we? I wondered.
    What is this strange neighborhood?
    The two pumpkin heads forced us on to the next block. The houses here all had
jack-o’-lantern creatures living in them.
    At the end of the block, Tabby set down her trick-or-treat bag and turned to
face the pumpkin heads. “Please—let us stop!” she begged. “Please!”
    “We can’t do any more houses!” Lee exclaimed weakly. “I—I’m so tired. And I
really feel sick.”
    “Please—?” Walker pleaded.