Read Online Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts by R.L. Stine - Free Book Online Page A

happened here? His brain felt slow and sticky.
    â€œShawn?” Oliver called. Where was Shawn?
    He stared at the coffee table.
    His stomach clenched.
    A foggy wisp of white showed above the bottom of the upside-down table.
    Oliver swallowed.
    The wisp drifted higher. It solidified into the top of someone’s head.
    White-blond hair.
    The head rose slowly out of the wood of the table.
    Pale blue eyes behind red-framed glasses stared right at Oliver.
    Oliver clutched his stomach with both hands.
    Oh, no. This was bad.
    The head rose even higher, followed by shoulders . . . and arms . . . and a torso . . . and the rest of a body.
    Oliver bit his lip. He couldn’t look away.
    This was really bad!
    Shawn sat there on the upside-down table, his legs crossed, his hands gripping his knees. He gazed at Oliver.
    Oliver stared back. Speechless.
    Whoa. No question about it.
    Shawn was a ghost.

18

    â€œY ou—you’re a ghost,” Oliver whispered, staring at Shawn.
    Robbie grabbed Dora’s shoulders and shook her. “See what you did?” he screamed. “See what you did?”
    She looked dazed. Stunned. No smart comebacks this time!
    She killed a kid!
    Ghosts weren’t supposed to kill anybody. They were just supposed to scare people!
    What would happen to them now?
    â€œThat’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for days,” Shawn told Oliver.
    Shawn became more and more solid as he sat there.
    â€œWhat?” Oliver asked in a faint voice.
    â€œI’m a ghost!”
    â€œWhat?” Oliver repeated in a louder voice.
    â€œWhat?” Robbie cried.
    â€œWhat!” Dora screamed.
    â€œI’m a ghost,” Shawn said very calmly. “I’ve been a ghost for a couple of years.”
    A couple of years!
    Robbie and Dora stared at each other.
    So Dora didn’t kill Shawn after all! He was a ghost already. Long before Robbie and Dora haunted Oliver.
    The table didn’t kill Shawn, Robbie realized. You can’t kill someone who is already dead!
    What a relief!
    Wait a second. Robbie’s eyes widened. If Shawn was a ghost, then he could see them. All the time. Even when they were invisible to humans.
    Robbie remembered Shawn snapping the comic book shut just when Robbie wanted to take a look at it.
    What a jerk!
    All this time Shawn had known exactly when they were around! And where they were!
    â€œPsssst!” Dora hissed. She beckoned to Robbie.
    He followed her into the wall. He edged up inside the wall until he was right behind a portrait of an old man. He peered out the picture’s eyes.
    Dora eased away. Probably to find her own peephole.Now they could listen without that ghost-intruder seeing them.
    â€œHow can you be a ghost?” Oliver demanded. “I can see you. I can touch you. And you aren’t even a tiny bit scary.”
    Robbie held back a laugh.
    At least he and Dora weren’t the only ghosts having trouble with Oliver!
    â€œWatch this!” Shawn instructed Oliver. He winked out, then reappeared. He held up his hands, raised his eyebrows. “Should I do it again?”
    Oliver just sat there with a confused look on his face.
    Is he buying it? Robbie wondered. Is he starting to believe at last?
    â€œOr—how about this one?” Shawn rose and walked around behind the TV set. He bent over and disappeared.
    Suddenly his face was on the screen!
    He opened his mouth.
    Wide.
    Wider!
    So wide, it took up the whole screen, and Oliver was staring right down his throat!
    Shawn laughed!
    His spooky, echoing voice was so big, it filled up the whole living room.
    Inside the wall, Robbie shivered. He had never even tried laughing like that. It was pretty scary! Boy,those new ghosts knew how to do stuff old ghosts like Robbie never dreamed of.
    Then Shawn stuck his head right out of the TV and made a horrible face.
    His nose melted.
    His eyes dripped out of their sockets and oozed down his