Free Who Let the Ghosts Out? by R.L. Stine Page A

back and saw him floating in place, watching me escape. “Trade places with me!” he called.
    I turned and ran. The solid black wall stood up ahead. Still no opening back to my room.
    Gripping the box, I stopped running. Panting hard, I stood and stared at the wall. I had Nicky's box. But now I seemed to be stuck here. No escape from the tunnel.
    With a groan, I sank to the floor. I sat down cross-legged with the box between my knees.
    “Hey—!” I cried out when I felt the pull. A strong force, pulling me
into
the black wall.
    I grabbed the shoe box. I tried to stand up. But the force was too powerful. I felt like a tiny tack being pulled by a powerful magnet.
    Phears!
    The thought of his name sent a shiver down my back.
    Somehow Phears had followed me. And now he was pulling me toward him, pulling me into the wall.
    The force tugged me by the feet. I struggled to stand up, but it was too powerful. I couldn't fight it.
    Flat on my back, gripping the box in both hands, I slid feetfirst toward the opening. Desperate to pull free, I dug my sneakers into the floor. I twisted my body and shoved one hand onto the floor.
    Gripping the floor, digging in my heels, I slowed my slide. But the force was too powerful to resist.
    I heard a
thud
. Felt a crushing blow at the back of my head.
    I remember the pain. I remember collapsing lifelessly to the tunnel floor. I remember the blackness sweeping over me.
    That's all I remember.

21
    I CAME BACK TO life slowly, blinking, my head aching. I struggled to focus my eyes.
    Where was I?
    The back of my head throbbed with pain. Lying flat on my back, I squinted across the room. I saw a dresser with a lamp on it, a Lara Croft poster on the wall behind it.
    I sat up with a groan. I slapped the mattress with both hands. I was in my own bed, in my bedroom. Or was this some kind of trick? Had Phears pulled me into a parallel universe? (I saw an episode of
Outer Limits
that was like that.)
    Leaning on my elbows, I pulled myself up higher.
    “Awesome. Check out Sleeping Beauty,” a girl's voice said. Tara popped into view beside the bed.
    “Our hero,” Nicky declared. He appeared on the other side of the bed.
    I blinked again. “Am I really home?”
    “Yeah, thanks to us,” Nicky said. “We pulledyou out of the tunnel. But it took all our strength away. After we got you in bed, we vaporized for hours.”
    “Why did you fight us like that?” Tara demanded. “We were trying to save your life. We were trying to pull you to safety, and you gave us such a hard time. What was up with that?”
    “I had to hit you on the head to make you stop battling us,” Nicky said.
    “I…I thought you were Phears,” I said. “I'm sorry, guys.”
    “No problem,” Nicky said. He held up the shoe box and grinned at me. “You the man, Max. You the man!”
    I climbed out of bed, grinning. “Yes. I found that box.”
    “I knew you were secretly brave,” Tara said.
    “Am I?” I asked weakly.
    Nicky slapped me a high five. “You the man!” he repeated. “This is so awesome! I know the box belongs to me, but I can't remember what's in it. Maybe it has some clues about Mom and Dad—or how we ended up as ghosts.”
    “You didn't open it?” I asked.
    “We were too weak,” Nicky said. “Besides, we wanted to wait for you. Let's open it now.” He pulled off the lid and dumped the contents onto my bed.
    “Wow! Look at all this stuff!” Nicky exclaimed.“Hey—I'm starting to remember some of it. It's a bunch of junk I collected.”
    I leaned forward to examine the contents of the box. I saw a small square mirror, two comic books, a sealed glass bottle that appeared to be empty, a red plastic ball, a wristwatch with a totally blank face, a framed photograph, a glowing red ring …
    “Wow! Check out that ring!” I said. I picked it up and studied it. “What makes it glow like that?”
    Nicky frowned at it. “I don't know. I don't remember that ring at all.”
    “It looks like a real