Free Charlie Bumpers vs. the Squeaking Skull by Bill Harley

and my mouth was filled with the taste of soap, which I kept spitting out.
    “This glue is killing me,” Tommy said. “I’m itching to death and my face is paralyzed.”
    Buck Meson wasn’t shooting anyone with electron stares. Kyle was carrying the head with the hatchet in it under his arm.
    Hector still had his mask on. The chupacabra was enjoying himself.
    Alex’s dad was walking behind us.
    “I guess we didn’t need two bags,” Tommy said to me.
    “Barely one,” I answered.
    Kyle said, “Well, at least we’re going to watch a great movie. It’s awesome.”
    I looked at Alex, wondering if he’d told his parents about Kyle bringing
The Shrieking Skull.
I doubted it.
    “Are we really gonna watch the Shrieking Skull movie?” Tommy asked.
    “Sure,” said Kyle. “Why not? Right, Alex?”
    Alex didn’t say anything.
    “We
can
watch it, right?” Kyle said.
    “My mom got us a movie,” Alex said. “So I think we have to watch that one first.”
    “What is it?” Kyle asked.
    “
Space Gremlins
,” Alex said.
    “
Space Gremlins
?” Kyle made a face. “I saw that when I was seven! It’s stupid.”
    “I saw it, too,” Joey said.

    “So did I.” I’d seen it when I was in third grade, and I’d liked it. I was thinking that watching
Space Gremlins
was a very good idea.
    The chupacabra was silent.
    “Well, we have to watch the movie my mom got first,” Alex said.
    “All right,” said Kyle. “And we can watch
The Shrieking Skull
when your parents go to bed. It’ll be better to watch it later anyway.”
    “Okay,” said Alex.
    Boogers. It sounded like the Shrieking Skull was going to visit me whether I liked it or not.
    “Before we watch any more movies,” Tommy said, “Charlie should tell his story.”
    I looked at him. I was surprised he’d said that.
    “What story is that?” Alex asked.
    “It’s this really scary story and it’s true,” Tommy said. “He told me about it.”
    “Who cares?” Kyle said. “I don’t think Charlie even wants to see
The Shrieking Skull.
”
    “Yes, I do,” I said.
    “No, you don’t,” he said. “You’re afraid.”
    “I’m not afraid of your dumb Squeaking Skull!” I said by mistake. As soon as I said it, everybody laughed—Alex, Joey, Tommy, and even Hector, who still had his chupacabra mask on.
    Except for Kyle. “Well,” he said, “we’ll see which is scarier.
The Shrieking Skull
or your dumb story about whatever.”
    “The Long-Fingered Man,” I said.
    “Wow,” said Joey. “That sounds cool.”
    “And it’s true,” Tommy said.
    “Really?” Everyone looked at me.
    “My brother says it is,” I said.
    “Yeah, right,” said Kyle.
    We walked up the driveway to Alex’s house. Inside, we took off our costumes. Hector finallytook off his chupacabra mask. Tommy went into the bathroom and tried to get the hair off his face, but when he came back out, there were still big patches of hairy glue where he hadn’t been able to peel it off.
    “My face is killing me,” he said.
    “It’s killing me, too,” I said. Everyone laughed.
    We poured our candy out on the floor.
    It wasn’t very much.
    But Alex’s mom called us into the kitchen, where there were three whole pizzas waiting for us. We sat down at the table and started eating.
    “Now,” Hector said, “I am not the goatsucker. I am the pizza sucker.”
    “We’re all pizza suckers!” Tommy shouted. We all laughed and sucked pieces of pizza into our mouths. I wished we could just keep eating pizza until it was time to fall asleep.
    We went into the family room and rolled out our sleeping bags on the floor. I put my bag between Tommy’s and Hector’s. Alex’s mom started themovie. “I hope this isn’t too scary for you guys,” she said.
    “It’s fine,” Joey said. “I saw it before.”
    “It’s not scary at all,” Kyle said.
    “Okay,” she said. “Watch the movie, then brush your teeth. And don’t stay up too late.”
    We all said okay and watched her go