R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 03 by One Night in Doom House Page B

dance and then jumped up and down again.
    Finally, we collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. “You’re alive! The ghosts are dead, and you’re alive!” I cried.
    “Well … we’re not exactly
alive,
” Tara said.
    “But we’re still here, thanks to you,” Nicky said, slapping me a high five.
    “We got out of there as soon as the snow started to fly,” Tara said. “We knew it would be a massacre. We ran like crazy!”
    “How did you figure it out, Max?” Nicky asked. “I guess they don’t call you Brainimon for nothing!”
    We slapped some more high fives. I was starting to come out of my shock.
    “I … I almost
killed
you,” I said, shaking my head.
    “Hey, no problem,” Nicky said. “It turned out okay—right?”
    “And we learned a lot,” Tara said. “Those silver pods. Our parents used them to imprison ghosts.”
    “Yeah. Ghosts can shrink and live inside those things,” Nicky said. “Mom and Dad used them to hold the evil ghosts prisoner.”
    “They almost put
us
in one,” Tara said. And then her mouth dropped open. “Hey!”
    Suddenly, Nicky and Tara were both staring hard at me.
    “Max, the pod you wear around your neck,” Tara said. “Your mother gave it to you—right?”
    I nodded. “Yeah. She found it on the floor the day we moved into this house. She put it on a chain and gave it to me for good luck.”
    Tara grabbed my arm. Her eyes were wide with excitement. “Don’t you see? The pod was in this house—by itself. Not with the others. Maybe Mom and Dad are inside it. Maybe we’ve
found
them!” Her voice broke.
    “You’re wearing the pod,” Nicky said. “Maybe that's the reason
you’re
the only one who can see and hear us.”
    “Let's see it, Max,” Tara cried. “Let's check it out!”
    Both ghosts were bursting with excitement.
    “Oh, I hope, I hope we’re right!” Tara cried, crossing her fingers and hopping up and down. “Hurry, Max!”
    I felt pretty excited too. I reached under my sweatshirt for the pendant.
    “Oh, wow!” I cried. “It … it's
gone
!”
    TO BE CONTINUED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Robert Lawrence Stine's scary stories have made him one of the bestselling children's authors in history. “Kids like to be scared!” he says, and he has proved it by selling more than 300 million books. R.L. teamed up with Parachute Press to create Fear Street, the first and number one bestselling young adult horror series. He then went on to launch Goosebumps, the creepy bestselling series that gave kids chills all over the world and made him the number one children's author of all time (
The Guinness Book of Records
).
    R.L. Stine lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jane, their son, Matthew, and their dog, Nadine. He says he has never seen a ghost—but he's still looking!

Check out this sneak preview of the fourth book in R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly:
    Little Camp of Horrors

    THIS SUMMER MAX IS going to Camp Snake Lake—where he will have to swim in a lake filled with poisonous snakes…
    where a Headless Ghost roams the fields…
    where he and his mostly ghostly friends, Nicky and Tara, will continue the dangerous search for Nicky and Tara's parents.
    But first Max will have to face the evil spirit Phears again. Can Max learn the secret that will destroy this most terrifying ghoul for good?

MOM STEPPED OVER THE clutter on the floor. “Max, please change your mind,” she said. “Go to summer camp with Colin. He's leaving in a few minutes on the counselors’ bus with the other junior counselors. Let me pack you up.”
    “No way,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I told you. I’m allergic to trees. I can’t help it. Even if I see a tree in a movie, I break out in spots.”
    “That can’t be true,” Colin said, bursting into my room. “Because you were
born
in a tree!”
    Dad came in right behind him. He laughed at Colin's stupid joke.
    “At least I was born, not dredged from a swamp,” I said to Colin.
    No one laughed at that.
    No one