Read Online The Haunting by Rodman Philbrick - Free Book Online

up and swung my feet to the floor. I didn’t want to go down the hall. No way.
    But I had to check on my kid sister.
    She was probably having a bad dream, I told myself. I’d look in on her and then come back and finish my book.
    I cracked open my bedroom door and shivered in the suddenly cold air.
    I started to go through the door and something bounced me right back. I landed on my butt and stared up at the doorway in disbelief.
    There was nothing there. Nothing to stop me from leaving. And yet it had.
    I got up and slowly walked forward again.
    SLAP! I was sproinged back into the room. This time I managed to keep my balance and not fall down. I approached the doorway more slowly, reaching out. My hand came up against an icy-cold barrier. It felt rubbery, like some kind of weird, invisible Jell-O. It yielded a little but I couldn’t push through. And it felt completely creepy—clammy and slippery and unlike anything I’d ever felt before. Just touching it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
    â€œ Jay-son !”
    That was Sally, calling me. And I couldn’t get out of my own bedroom. Something wanted to keep me from helping Sally!
    I couldn’t let that happen. I was getting through that icky stuff one way or another.
    I got down in a three-point stance, tensed myself, and then charged full blast at the door. I sank to my waist in the invisible, icy goo. I started punching at it as hard as I could, desperate to get through.
    The slimy, Jell-O-like stuff tightened around my head, slowed my fists until I couldn’t move at all, forward or backwards. It seeped into my ears and nose, squeezing my head.
    The invisible stuff was sucking me in, digesting me slowly, cell by cell. It felt as if my skin was dissolving.
    It was eating me!
    I opened my mouth to scream and the gelatinous mass swam over my tongue and flowed down my throat. I was suffocating.
    I struggled and wriggled, pulled with all my might. My chest was burning with effort and lack of air. I heard pounding footsteps on the stairs—somebody was coming, but who?
    Suddenly there was a loud sucking noise and the goo let go. I fell back on the floor with a crash. What breath I had left was knocked out of me.
    As I lay there gasping like a fish, my dad appeared in the doorway. His face was white with shock and alarm.
    â€œJason! What happened? Are you all right?”
    Mom’s face appeared behind Dad’s shoulder. She, too, was pale, her eyes wide.
    â€œSally,” I croaked.
    Mom dashed down the hall to Sally’s room while Dad came in and helped me up. I blurted out everything that had happened, how the house seemed to be after me and Sally, and how the invisible goo had blocked the doorway and prevented me from helping her.
    Dad went to the doorway and ran his hand up and down in the empty space. “There’s nothing here, Jason,” he said, his eyes troubled. He walked into the hall and then back into the room to demonstrate. “Nothing at all.”
    Mom came running back. “Sally’s fine. She’s sound asleep,” she said, looking anxiously at me. “What’s going on?”
    Dad shook his head and picked up my book off the bed. “Apparently Jay had a nightmare,” he said, showing the cover to Mom. It showed fighting monsters with blood that looked a lot like green Jell-O.
    â€œYou sure gave us a scare,” said Mom, rearranging my covers.”
    I stopped shaking after a while. It was easier to let my parents believe I’d just had a vivid nightmare, but I knew it was no dream.
    There was something evil in this house.
    Something that was careful to hide itself from my parents.
    Something that wanted me and Sally dead.

18
    I woke up dreaming that something was screaming at me. It turned out to be a bird on the windowsill, cheeping and peeping like crazy.
    Just what I needed, an alarm clock with wings.
    But when I’d had a chance to shake the sleep out of my