Free Welcome to Dead House by R. L. Stine Page A

running, up the gravel driveway with its thick blanket of dead leaves and onto the front porch.
    I pushed open the door and both Josh and I started to scream. “Mom! Dad! Where are you?”
    Silence.
    We ran into the living room. The lights were all off.
    “Mom? Dad? Are you here?”
    Please be here,
I thought, my heart racing, the pain in my side still sharp.
Please be here.
    We searched the house. They weren’t home.
    “The party,” Josh suddenly remembered. “Can they still be at that party?”
    We were standing in the living room, both of us breathing hard. The pain in my side had let up just a bit. I had turned on all the lights, but the room still felt gloomy and menacing.
    I glanced at the clock on the mantel. Nearly two in the morning.
    “They should be home by now,” I said, my voice shaky and weak.
    “Where did they go? Did they leave a number?” Josh was already on his way to the kitchen.
    I followed him, turning on lights as we went. We went right to the memo pad on the counter where Mom and Dad always leave us notes.
    Nothing. The pad was blank.
    “We’ve
got
to find them!” Josh cried. He sounded very frightened. His wide eyes reflected his fear. “We have to get away from here.”
    What if something has happened to them?
    That’s what I started to say. But I caught myself just in time. I didn’t want to scare Josh any more than he was already.
    Besides, he’d probably thought of that, too.
    “Should we call the police?” he asked as we walked back to the living room and peered out the front window into the darkness.
    “I don’t know,” I said, pressing my hot forehead against the cool glass. “I just don’t know
what
todo. I want them to be home. I want them here so we can all leave.”
    “What’s your hurry?” a girl’s voice said from behind me.
    Josh and I both cried out and spun around.
    Karen Somerset was standing in the center of the room, her arms crossed over her chest.
    “But — you’re
dead
!” I blurted out.
    She smiled, a sad smile, a bitter smile.
    And then two more kids stepped in from the hallway. One of them clicked off the lights. “Too bright in here,” he said. They moved next to Karen.
    Then another dead kid, Jerry Franklin, appeared by the fireplace. And I saw the girl with short black hair, the one I had seen on the stairs, move beside me by the curtains.
    They were all smiling, their eyes glowing dully in the dim light, all moving in on Josh and me.
    “What do you
want
?” I screamed in a voice I didn’t even recognize. “What are you going to do?”
    “We used to live in your house,” Karen said softly.
    “Huh?” I cried.
    “We used to live in your house,” George said.
    “And now, guess what?” Jerry added. “
Now we’re dead in your house!”
    The others started to laugh, crackling, dry laughs, as they all closed in on Josh and me.

15
    “They’re going to kill us!” Josh cried.
    I watched them move forward in silence. Josh and I had backed up to the window. I looked around the dark room for an escape route.
    But there was nowhere to run.
    “Karen — you seemed so nice,” I said. The words just tumbled out. I hadn’t thought before I said them.
    Her eyes glowed a little brighter. “I
was
nice,” she said in a glum monotone, “until I moved here.”
    “We were all nice,” George Carpenter said in the same low monotone. “But now we’re dead.”
    “Let us go!” Josh cried, raising his hands in front of him as if to shield himself. “Please — let us go.”
    They laughed again, the dry, hoarse laughter. Dead laughter.
    “Don’t be scared, Amanda,” Karen said. “Soon you’ll be with us. That’s why they invited you to this house.”
    “Huh? I don’t understand,” I cried, my voice shaking.
    “This is the Dead House. This is where everyone lives when they first arrive in Dark Falls. When they’re still alive.”
    This seemed to strike the others as funny. They all snickered and laughed.
    “But our great-uncle