Read Online Dudes, the School Is Haunted! by R. L. Stine - Free Book Online

thought.
    “Good luck,” Ben murmured.
    “Three!” I shouted.
    We lowered our heads and started to run.

 
 
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    I went about four steps and slipped on the wet grass.
    “OW!” I cried out as pain shot up my right leg. Did I pull a muscle?
    The chanting stopped. The gray kids let out shouts of surprise.
    My leg throbbed with pain. I had to stop. I bent to rub the leg muscle.
    Raising my gaze, I saw Ben dart toward the circle. “Aaaiiiii!” He let out a
wild scream as he ran.
    Two boys tackled him: one high, one low. Ben dropped to the grass, and they
fell on top of him.
    “Get off! Get off me!” Ben shrieked.
    A boy and girl grabbed me roughly. They spun me around. And shoved me hard
toward Ben.
    “Let us go!” I cried. “What are you doing? Why are you keeping us here?”
    They pulled Ben to his feet. And shoved us together.
    They grouped around us quickly, bodies tensed, ready to capture us if we
tried another escape.
    “We’re not going anywhere,” I sighed. “Will somebody please explain
what is going on here.”
    “Turn, turn,” a girl with long gray braids said in a husky voice.
    “I’ve heard that!” I cried angrily.
    “Turn to gray,” the girl added. “We’re waiting for you to turn.”
    “Why?” I demanded. “Just tell us why.”
    “No color in the moon,” she replied. “No color in the stars.”
    “No color in my dreams,” a boy added sadly.
    “Please—make sense!” Ben pleaded. “I—I don’t understand!”
    I rubbed my sore leg. The pain had faded, but the muscle still ached.
    “Just help us get back to the school,” I pleaded.
    “We left the school!” a boy shouted. “No color in the school.”
    “No color anywhere,” a girl cried. “We’ll never go back to school.”
    “No school! No school! No school!” some kids chanted.
    “But we have to get back there!” I insisted.
    “No school! No school! No school!” they chanted again.
    “It’s no use,” Ben whispered in my ear. “They’re totally messed up! They
don’t make any sense at all.”
    I felt a chill. The air was turning colder.
    A wave of terror swept over me. I struggled to fight it back.
    Kids grabbed Ben and me. They pushed us roughly across the grass. They held
us tightly by the shoulders and forced us forward.
    “Where are you taking us?” I screamed.
    They didn’t answer.
    Ben and I struggled to break free. But there were too many of them. And they
were too strong.
    They pushed us up a dark hill. Wisps of fog swirled around our feet as we
climbed. The tall grass was wet and slippery.
    “Where are we going?” I cried. “Tell us! Where are you taking us?”
    “The Black Pit!” a girl exclaimed. She pressed her mouth close to my ear as
we walked. “Will you jump, or will we have to push you?”

 
 
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    “Pit? What kind of pit?” I screamed.
    No one answered.
    We stopped at the top of the hill. They kept their tight grip on Ben and me.
Over Ben’s shoulder, I saw four kids approaching. As they came nearer, I saw
that they were carrying four large buckets.
    They set the buckets down in a row. They shoved Ben and me toward them.
    Steam poured up from a dark, bubbling liquid inside. A sharp, sour aroma rose
up in the steam.
    A girl carried a stack of metal cups in her arms. She handed a cup to a boy.
He dipped it into the thick black liquid. It made a hissing sound as the cup
dipped low into the liquid.
    “Ohhh!” I gasped as the boy raised the steaming cup to his lips, tilted his
head back, and poured the disgusting liquid down his throat.
    “No color in the cup!” a boy shouted.
    “Drink the blackness!” a girl cried.
    “Drink! Drink! Drink!” Kids cheered and applauded.
    They lined up eagerly. And as Ben and I stared in horror, they each dipped a
cup into the smelly black gunk—and then drank it down.
    “No color in the drink! No color in the cup!”
    “Drink! Drink the blackness!”
    I tried once again to break free. But three boys held me now.