Free Tales from the Haunted Mansion Vol. 1: The Fearsome Foursome by Amicus Arcane Page B

terrible sister, and just as bad a friend. The next day she would apologize. She would make it up to all of them. Starting with Billy.
    She began dismantling the tent, yanking the first stake out of the ground.
    Rrrrreeeeech!
    It was that sound again.
Give it a rest, doofus!
    Willa removed the second stake.
    Quark! Quark!
That one sounded more like a bird. Courtesy of Billy’s sound effects, no doubt.
    She loosened the third stake. Suddenly, the noises converged, building to a crescendo of inhuman squeals, echoing from somewhere out there. Out where? Come now, you know where.
    And so did Willa. She dropped the stake and picked up the lantern. She had to check it out. To give Billy the satisfaction of giving her one last scare, if that was what he needed. She probably deserved it, too.
    She moved through the yard past the mangled veggies, the lantern illuminating her path. Willa arrived at the pet cemetery and tilted the light to get a better view. Chubs’s grave was exactly how Billy had left it. She swung around, bringing light to the three remaining graves.
Uh-oh.
Those were not how she last saw them. They had been excavated. That, in the cemetery trade, is the proper way of saying that they had been dug up and moved. Pretty low, even for Billy.
    Just then, a gentle breeze rattled Willa’s charms.
Clink.
Goldie the goldfish.
Clink.
Rudy the rabbit.
Clink.
Polly the parrot. They had all been Willa’s pets before Chubs arrived—on a Christmas morning as a gift for Billy.
    Wait a minute: Chubs was Billy’s pet!
    And then Willa thought back to the witch-bone. To the exact wording she’d used:
I wish my pets could be alive again.
My
pets.
    And just as Willa completed her thought, she turned to see them advancing toward her: the zombified remains of a ravenous rabbit, a petrified parrot, and a gruesome goldfish. Her undead pets swarmed her from head to half toe. Willa couldn’t fight them off. They were pecking! Chewing! Slurping!
    You see, Willa’s pets hadn’t eaten in years. Not since the last time she’d fed them, and they were very,
very
hungry….



W illa was still staring at her bracelet when the old librarian looked up from the page. “Hmmm. That one had
bite
. Critiques? Comments?”
    This time there were none. At least, none that were vocalized. But Willa didn’t like what she’d heard, not one bit. Or is it bitten?
    “I’m done,” she said. “I want to leave. Right now!” Usually, Tim would be the first to follow. But he’d been permanently…benched.
    Willa took the initiative, snatching the candelabrum from the mantel. She searched high and low for a way out, finding nothing but bookshelves. She craned her neck, looking up at the ceiling. There was a skylight. She could hear rain pitter-pattering against the glass.
    She slid the ladder underneath. “I’m a good climber. We can get out through there.”
    The librarian shook his head with mock despair. “Permanently sealed, I’m afraid, by Mistress Constance on her wedding night. The glass is reinforced. Unbreakable. Drafts, you know. They’re magic carpets for bacteria.”
    But there had to be a way out, and Willa was determined to find it. She carried the candelabrum into the shadows where they’d first arrived. “We were here,” she reasoned. Willa looked back at Noah and Steve for confirmation. As previously mentioned, Tim was still on the disabled list. But the other boys had nothing much to say, either. None of it made sense. Willa was pushing against a solid wall. “There’s a passageway, I know it.” She made a fist and gave the wall three good thumps.
    She waited a second. And wouldn’t you know it? Something
thump-thump-thump
ed back. “Who’s there?”
    “More like
what’s
there?” questioned Noah.
    The librarian expounded: “The foundation is constantly settling. Or is it
unsettling
? I never do get that right.”
    Willa was ready to explode! “That wasn’t the foundation and you know it! Somebody knocked. I know a