Free 27 - A Night in Terror Tower by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page A

brought me to the Terror Tower.
    This is where Eddie and I had seen him for the first time. This is where the
Executioner had first chased after us.
    In the twentieth century. In my time. In the time where I belonged. Hundreds of years in the future.
    Somehow Eddie and I had been dragged back into the past, to a time where we
didn’t belong. And now Eddie was lost. And I was being led to the Terror Tower.
    The Executioner led the way. The soldiers gripped my arms firmly, pulling me
through the courtyard toward the castle entrance.
    The courtyard was jammed with silent, grim-looking people. Dressed in rags
and tattered, stained gowns, they stared at me as I was dragged past.
    Some of them stood hunched like scarecrows, their eyes vacant, their faces
blank, as if their minds were somewhere else. Some sat and wept, or stared at
the sky.
    A bare-chested old man sat under a tree frantically scratching his greasy
tangles of white hair with both hands. A young man pressed a filthy rag against
a deep cut in his dirt-caked foot.
    Babies cried and wailed. Men and women sat in the dirt, moaning and muttering
to themselves.
    These sad, filthy people were all prisoners, I realized. I remembered our
tour guide, Mr. Starkes, telling us that the castle had first been a fort, then
a prison.
    I shook my head sadly, wishing I were back on the tour. In the future, in the
time where I belonged.
    I didn’t have long to think about the prisoners. I was shoved into the
darkness of the castle. Dragged up the twisting stone steps.
    The air felt wet and cold as I climbed. A heavy chill seemed to rise up the
stairs with me.
    “Let me go!” I screamed. “Please—let me go!”
    The soldiers shoved me against the stone wall when I tried to pull free.
    I cried out helplessly and tried again to tug myself loose. But they were too
big, too strong.
    The stone stairs curved round and around. We passed the cell on the narrow
landing. Glancing toward it, I saw that it was jammed with prisoners. They stood
in silence against the bars, their faces yellow and expressionless. Many of them
didn’t even look up as I passed.
    Up the steep, slippery stairs.
    Up to the dark door at the top of the tower.
    “No—please!” I begged. “This is all wrong! All wrong!”
    But they slid the heavy metal bolt on the door and pulled the door open.
    A hard shove from behind sent me sprawling into the tiny tower room. I
stumbled to the floor, landing on my elbows and knees.
    I heard the heavy door slam behind me. Then I heard the bolt sliding back
into place.
    Locked in.
    I was locked in the tiny cell at the top of the Terror Tower.
    “Sue!” A familiar voice called my name.
    I raised myself to my knees. Glanced up. “Eddie!” I cried happily. “Eddie—how did you get here?”
    My little brother had been sitting on the floor against the wall. Now he
scrambled over to me and helped me to my feet. “Are you okay?” he asked.
    I nodded. “Are you okay?”
    “I guess,” he replied. He had a long dirt smear down one side of his face.
His dark hair was matted wetly against his forehead. His eyes were red-rimmed
and frightened.
    “The caped man grabbed me,” Eddie said. “Back in the town. In the street. You
know. When that oxcart came by.”
    I nodded. “I turned around, and you were gone.”
    “I tried to call to you,” Eddie replied. “But the caped man covered my mouth.
He handed me to his soldiers. And they pulled me behind one of the cottages.”
    “This is so awful!” I cried, struggling to hold my tears back.
    “One of the soldiers lifted me onto his horse,” Eddie said. “I tried to
squirm away. But I couldn’t. He brought me to the castle and dragged me up to
the Tower.”
    “The caped man—he’s the Lord High Executioner,” I told my brother. “That’s what I heard a woman call him.”
    The words made my brother gasp. His dark eyes locked onto mine.
“Executioner?”
    I nodded grimly.
    “But why does he want us ?”