Free The Final Nightmare by Rodman Philbrick Page B

laughter made my blood boil. I saw her black form melt into the shadows and suddenly I couldn’t stand to let her get away.
    I fumbled at the knotted rope around my waist. I had to get free so I could go after her.
    â€œJason, don’t!” cried Lucy, helping Steve up. “She’ll get you. We have to stay together!”
    I didn’t answer. The knot slipped free and the rope dropped to the floor. I aimed my flashlight into the shadows and moved slowly toward the spot where I had last seen her.
    There! A black form detached from the wall and darted sideways.
    â€œNo, you don’t!” I shouted, and brought up the nozzle of the fire extinguisher. I pressed the trigger and foam jetted out.
    Yes! Right on target!
    â€œ AAAAAEEEEEEEEEEE! ”
    The witch writhed and howled and seemed to shrivel under the black cape.
    I dropped the fire extinguisher and, without thinking, I leaped right on her.
    I expected her bones to dissolve under my fingers, the ghost to slip away and leave me holding air. But my hands gripped bony shoulders. Real shoulders. Solid bones.
    I was so surprised I almost jerked away. But I held on tight.
    Slowly her head turned toward me. She hissed through her broken teeth like a snake. “ SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS .”
    Her awful smell filled my nostrils.
    â€œ Unhand me, brat, or I’ll turn your innards to soup and eat them myself, ” she rasped from inside the black cape, sending stink waves over me with every word.
    She writhed and squirmed. I clenched my teeth and held on.
    Black spots began to appear before my eyes. The putrid fumes of her breath were getting to me. I was growing weaker.
    I tried to call out to Steve and Lucy but the words gurgled in my throat.
    The witch chuckled softly in my ear. “ Now I’ve got you, boy, ” she hissed.
    I felt one of her sharp claws pierce my side.

32
    Upstairs, the basement door opened.
    â€œWhat’s going on down there?” a voice demanded.
    It was my dad.
    The witch snarled. The pain in my side was so sharp one of my hands let loose.
    â€œJason’s captured the witch, Mr. Winter!” Steve cried excitedly.
    The witch jerked away but I held on. She was dragging me slowly into the shadows.
    We heard my dad coming cautiously down the dark stairway. I wanted to scream at him to hurry, but the words stuck in my throat. I felt my heels dragging along the dirt floor as she struggled to escape.
    Dad hesitated, squinting when Steve’s flashlight beam caught him in the face.
    â€œI can’t see,” he protested.
    As Steve lowered the beam, the witch blasted me with her breath and slipped out of my grasp.
    â€œStop her!” Lucy shouted.
    I grabbed the witch’s cape but the oily material slipped through my hands.
    I couldn’t let her get away now! I couldn’t! Where was Dad?
    I launched myself into the air. My arms closed around the foul thing in an awful bear hug as we crashed to the floor.
    The witch screamed with fury but this time I held on.
    Suddenly a bright light fell over us. My dad had screwed in a new bulb, flooding the cellar with light.
    Dad gasped. “Who is this?” he asked in a horrified voice.
    â€œIt’s the ghost of the nanny,” Lucy explained. “She’s an evil witch.”
    Dad grasped her arm and helped the old witch gently to her feet. Carefully he lifted the hood of the cape. Light spilled onto the witch’s ancient, wrinkled face. Her beady eyes blazed with spite and evil. She flinched away from the brightness, spitting and moaning.
    â€œThis is no ghost,” Dad said sternly. “This woman is as flesh and blood as you or me.” He turned to the witch. “Who are you? What are you doing in our basement?”
    Baring her stumps of teeth, she snarled and shook off my hand. Squaring her shoulders, she rose in height and became the black-shrouded creature that roamed our house at night, destroying anything—and