Horror at the Haunted House by Peg Kehret Page B

vanished and she snapped into action. She dashed across the room, flung open the door, and rushed out. Prince ran ahead of her, barking frantically.
    “Corey!” Ellen yelled. “Get back here!”
    At the sound of Ellen’s voice, Lydia looked back and raised her arms. Her entire body glowed with an eerie green light.
    “Aahheenndd,” she called.
    Corey stopped walking. As Ellen approached him, she saw that her brother’s eyes were closed. Was he walking in his sleep? He had talked to Lydia, as if he were fully alert. Yet, now he seemed like a zombie, the way Ellen had felt the first time, when she followed Lydia from her bedroom to the front door. She had felt that way again just now, watching Corey with Lydia. Ifthe ghost had some power over Ellen, the power clearly worked on Corey, too.
    Prince stood protectively between Lydia and the children. A low growl rumbled deep in his throat and the fur along the ridge of his back stood straight up.
    Ellen gave Corey a gentle shove. “Get back in the house,” she said.
    “Aaa . . . end,” Lydia implored. She motioned for Ellen to go with her. The glowing green eyes were enormous. They pleaded silently for Ellen to obey.
    “No,” Ellen said. “We cannot go with you. Corey is too young to follow you around the streets in the middle of the night. And so am I.”
    Ellen grabbed Corey’s hand and pulled him toward the house. The porch light went on and Mr. Streater stepped out the door.
    “What’s going on?” he demanded.
    Ellen blinked in the sudden light. Prince trotted toward Mr. Streater and Ellen knew without looking that Lydia was gone. “Corey was walking in his sleep,” she said. “Prince woke me.”
    “We must have forgotten to put the chain lock on when we went to bed last night. Thank heaven you heard Prince.”
    Corey opened his eyes and looked around, as if wondering where he was.
    “It’s all right, son,” Mr. Streater said. “You were walking in your sleep.”
    “No, I wasn’t. I was following a ghost. She wanted me to go with her and then she was going to come to visit my school.”
    “You were dreaming,” Mr. Streater said. “Prince heard you moving around and woke Ellen up.”
    “It was only a dream?” Corey sounded disappointed. “I thought the ghost was here.”
    Ellen knew it was better for Corey to think he had dreamed the whole episode. Otherwise, there was no telling what he would do in an effort to take Lydia to school with him. He’d probably sit up tomorrow night, waiting for Lydia to appear so he could leave with her.
    When she was back in bed, Ellen lay awake for a long time. Why had Lydia chosen Corey this time? Had she given up haunting Ellen? Or had she hoped that if Corey followed her Ellen would, too?
    Was Ellen wrong to let her father believe that Corey had dreamed about the ghost? If she told her parents what was really happening, what would they do? What could they do?
    Ellen wished she had never agreed to help with the haunted house.

Chapter
10
    H ey, Ellen!” Corey waved from the sidewalk. “We got a video of you on fire.”
    “Is it X-rated?” asked a voice from the back of the school bus.
    Caitlin giggled but Ellen glared out the window. Moments earlier, she had been the center of attention as a group of boys who had gone through the haunted house asked her opinion about which scene was the fake one. Now Corey was spoiling it. She would have to ask her parents to keep Corey away from the bus stop until she was off the bus and it had left. The other kids must think she came from a family of circus freaks.
    She stepped off the bus but before she could speak Corey said, “The video shows all the scenes from the haunted house. It has me screaming and you getting burned at the stake.”
    “Whose video is it?”
    “Grandma brought it.”
    That surprised Ellen. Her grandparents had refused to cometo the haunted house because Grandma said she couldn’t bear to watch Ellen and Corey in such dangerous situations,