Free How I Got My Shrunken Head by R. L. Stine

gesturing with his flashlight. “It’s too dark to go back to the headquarters. We’ll have to spend the night here.”
    “How cozy,” Carolyn said, still smiling that cold smile at Aunt Benna.
    Aunt Benna scowled and looked away. “Carolyn, I thought you were my friend.”
    “We’re all good friends here,” Dr. Hawlings said. “And good friends like to share. That’s why you’re going to share the secret of Jungle Magic with us, Benna.”
    “Never!” my aunt declared, crossing her arms in front of her.
    “Never
isn’t a word for friends,” Dr. Hawlings scolded. “In the morning, we will go back to the headquarters. Then you will share everything, Benna. You will share all of your secrets. And you will give the Jungle Magic to Carolyn and me.”
    “Like a good friend,” Carolyn added.
    “Let’s go,” Dr. Hawlings said. He put a heavy hand on my back and shoved me toward the little shack. Kareen was sitting on the ground, her collar pulled up, her back leaning against one wall.
    “You and Benna — in the shack,” Dr. Hawlings ordered, giving me another rough shove. “That way, we can keep an eye on you.”
    “You’re wasting your time, Richard,” Aunt Benna told him. She was trying to sound tough, but her voice trembled as she said it.
    Dr. Hawlings forced us into the dark shack. Aunt Benna and I stretched out on the floor. Through the cracks in the wall, I could see the darting light of their flashlights.
    “Are they going to guard us all night?” I whispered.
    Aunt Benna nodded. “We’re their prisoners now,” she whispered back. She sighed. “But we can’t let them have the Jungle Magic. We can’t!”
    I slid closer to my aunt. “If we don’t give it to them,” I said softly, “what will they do to us?”
    Aunt Benna didn’t reply.
    “What will they do to us?” I repeated.
    She stared down at the floor and didn’t answer.

27
    A red ball of a sun was rising in the early morning sky when Dr. Hawlings poked his head into the shack and woke us up.
    I had slept only a few minutes. The shack had no floor, and the ground was hard.
    Whenever I closed my eyes, I dreamed about the shrunken head in my pocket. I dreamed that I held it in my hand. It blinked its eyes and its lips began to move.
    “You are doomed!”
it exclaimed in a horrifying, hoarse whisper.
“You are doomed. Doomed. Doomed!”
    Aunt Benna and I scrambled out of the shack, stretching and yawning. Even though the sun was still low over the trees, the air already felt hot and wet.
    My whole body ached from lying on the hard ground. My shirt was damp and smelly. My stomach growled. I scratched my neck and discovered it was covered with mosquito bites.
    Not one of the great mornings.
    And it wasn’t going to get any better.
    We walked for hours through the sweltering jungle. Carolyn and Kareen led the way. Dr. Hawlings walked behind Aunt Benna and me, making sure we didn’t try to escape.
    No one said a word. The only sounds were the cries of animals, the chirping of birds overhead, and the swish of the tall weeds and grass as we pushed through.
    Swarms of white gnats flew up off the path, swirling together like small tornadoes. The sun beamed down through the trees, burning the back of my neck.
    When we finally made it back to the row of cabins, I was hot, sweaty, starving, and dying of thirst.
    Dr. Hawlings shoved Aunt Benna and me into an empty cabin. He slammed the door behind us and locked it.
    The cabin had two folding chairs and a small bed without sheets or blankets. I dropped down wearily onto the bare mattress. “What is he going to do to us?”
    Aunt Benna bit her lip. “Don’t worry,” she said softly. “I’ll figure something out.” She crossed the small room and tried the window. It was either stuck or bolted from the outside.
    “Maybe we can break the glass,” I suggested.
    “No, he’ll hear it,” Aunt Benna replied.
    I rubbed the back of my neck. The mosquito bites were itching like crazy. I