Read Online Nightmare Hour by R. L. Stine - Free Book Online Page B

through the eyeholes--and gasped in shock.
    My friends! Where were my three friends? They had vanished.
    I stared through the mask at four other kids . They sat in a circle on the floor. Two girls and two boys, dressed in dark, old-fashioned clothes.
    They were playing one of the board games. I couldn’t see their faces clearly. Their features were hidden behind a glow of bright light.
    One of the boys wore a black suit. The boy across from him had on a stiff-collared white shirt and tweedy brown pants that stopped just below his knees. His shoes were brown leather, big and clunky. His shoulders sagged sadly.
    Everyone else seemed cheerful. The two girls had dark hair tied in tight buns on top of their heads. One wore a long black jumper over a lacy white blouse. The other wore a gray pleated dress. She seemed to be telling a joke, waving her hands in the air and laughing.
    â€œHey! What’s going on?” I cried. “Who are you?”
    The four old-fashioned kids didn’t turn around or look up. I couldn’t hear the girl’s story. The boy in the black suit reached for the dice on the game board.
    â€œHey!” I shouted to them again. “Can you hear me? Hey! Can you see me?”
    They didn’t turn around. Just sat there in those stiff old clothes, talking and playing.
    Breathing hard, my heart pounding, I ripped the black mask off my face.
    â€œIt--it’s impossible! ” I cried.
    â€œRobb, what’s your problem?” Bill asked. He was shaking me by the shoulders. “What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”
    I blinked several times. And gazed at my three friends--Julie, Valerie, and Bill, back in the basement, back from wherever they had vanished.
    â€œYou just froze and started yelling,” Valerie said. “What were you looking at?”
    I swallowed hard. “Try on this mask,” I told Bill. “I just saw something…totally weird.”
    â€œWere you looking in a mirror?” he joked. He punched me in the stomach, so hard I doubled over. He never knows his own strength.
    He frowned at the mask. “It’ll make me sneeze.”
    I shoved the mask into his hands. “Please. Just try it on.”
    He stretched the cloth mask between his hands and lowered it over his face. I saw the twin eyeholes slide over his eyes.
    He gazed out at us through the mask. “Hey--whoa!” he cried. “Who are you? How did you get here?”
    I dropped down beside Bill. “Do you see those strange kids too?” I asked. “Do you?”
    Bill didn’t reply. I don’t think he could hear me. His mouth dropped open and he stared wide-eyed through the mask.
    â€œWho are you?” Bill demanded again, shouting now.“Who are you? Answer me!”
    He tugged off the mask. His face was bright red. He shook his head hard as if trying to clear it.
    I grabbed him by the shoulder. “Did you see four kids? Four old-fashioned-looking kids?”
    Bill nodded, his mouth still hanging open. “Yeah,” he said finally. “Kids who looked like they were from another century. I--I couldn’t see their faces clearly….”
    Julie studied us silently, her expression thoughtful, a little frightened.
    Valerie rolled her eyes. “And just when did you two plan this little joke?” she asked. “Do you really think Julie and I are going to fall for something this lame?”
    â€œNo. It…it’s real,” Bill said. “When you look through the mask, you see four other kids.”
    Valerie groaned. “Yeah. Sure.”
    I grabbed the mask from Bill and shoved it onto her head. “Go ahead. Put it on.”
    She hesitated, her dark eyes studying me from behind her glasses.
    â€œGo ahead,” I insisted. “It’s no joke.”
    Valerie tried on the mask. Then Julie took a turn.
    They both saw the same kids in the old-fashioned clothes, sitting in a circle where we sat, talking to each