27 - A Night in Terror Tower by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page B
Authors: R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead)
Ads: Link
said. My voice sounded tiny and shrill.
No one moved. No one replied.
I took a deep breath and tried one more time. “Can anyone help us?”
Silence.
Who are these strange people? I wondered. Why are they staring at us
like that? Why won’t they answer us?
Eddie and I took a step back as they began to move toward us. Some of them
were whispering excitedly, muttering to each other, gesturing with their hands.
“Eddie—we’d better get out of here!” I whispered.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying. But I didn’t like the excited
expressions on their faces.
And I didn’t like the way they were moving along the wall, moving to get
behind us, to surround us.
“Eddie—run!” I screamed.
Angry cries rang out as we both spun around and hurtled toward the open
doorway. Dogs barked. Children started to cry.
We darted back into the dark hallway and kept running.
I could still feel the heat of the fire on my face as we ran, still smell the
tangy aroma of the roasting deer.
Their excited, angry cries followed us through the long hall. Gasping for
breath, I glanced back, expecting to see them chasing after us.
But the hall was empty.
We turned a corner and kept going. Candles flickered on both sides of us. The
floorboards groaned under our shoes.
The eerie, dim light. The voices far behind us. The endless tunnel of a
hallway. All made me feel as if I were running through a dream.
We turned another corner and kept running.
The misty candlelight blurred as I ran. I’m floating through a dark orange
cloud, I thought.
Do these empty, candlelit halls ever end?
Eddie and I both cried out happily as a door appeared in front of us.
A door we had never seen before.
It has to lead to the outside! I told myself.
We raced to the door. We didn’t slow down as we reached it.
I stuck out both hands. Pushed hard.
The door flew open.
And we stepped out into bright sunlight.
Outside! We had escaped from the dark maze of the hotel corridors!
It took a few seconds for the harsh white glare to fade from my eyes.
I blinked several times. Then I gazed up and down the street.
“Oh, no!” I wailed, grabbing my brother’s arm. “No! Eddie—what has happened ?”
22
“It—it’s daytime!” Eddie stammered.
But the bright sunlight wasn’t the only shock.
Everything had changed.
I felt as if I were watching a movie, and the scene had changed. And suddenly
it was the next day—or the next week—and I was seeing an entirely different
place.
I knew that only a few seconds had passed since Eddie and I had burst out of
the hotel. But in that time, everything had changed.
We huddled close together and stared in one direction and then the next. We
saw no cars. No buses. The street had vanished, replaced by a lumpy dirt road.
The tall buildings had disappeared, too. The road was dotted with small,
white cottages with flat roofs and low, wooden shacks built without doors or
windows.
A tall mound of straw stood beside the nearest cottage. Chickens clucked and
strutted across the road or stood in front of cottages pecking in the dirt. A brown cow poked its
head out from behind the mound of straw.
“What’s going on?” Eddie asked. “Where are we?”
“It’s like we stepped back in time,” I said in a hushed voice. “Eddie—look
at the people.”
Two men walked by carrying lines of slender, silvery fish. The men had thick
beards and wild, unbrushed hair. They wore loose-fitting gray smocks that
dragged along the ground.
Two women in long, brown dresses were on their knees, pulling up root-type
vegetables with their hands. A man leading a scrawny horse, its bones sticking
out at its rib cage, stopped to say something to the two women.
“They look a lot like the people in the hotel,” I told Eddie.
Thinking about the hotel made me turn around. “Oh, no!” I grabbed Eddie and
made him turn around.
The hotel was gone.
In its place stood a long, low building built of
No one moved. No one replied.
I took a deep breath and tried one more time. “Can anyone help us?”
Silence.
Who are these strange people? I wondered. Why are they staring at us
like that? Why won’t they answer us?
Eddie and I took a step back as they began to move toward us. Some of them
were whispering excitedly, muttering to each other, gesturing with their hands.
“Eddie—we’d better get out of here!” I whispered.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying. But I didn’t like the excited
expressions on their faces.
And I didn’t like the way they were moving along the wall, moving to get
behind us, to surround us.
“Eddie—run!” I screamed.
Angry cries rang out as we both spun around and hurtled toward the open
doorway. Dogs barked. Children started to cry.
We darted back into the dark hallway and kept running.
I could still feel the heat of the fire on my face as we ran, still smell the
tangy aroma of the roasting deer.
Their excited, angry cries followed us through the long hall. Gasping for
breath, I glanced back, expecting to see them chasing after us.
But the hall was empty.
We turned a corner and kept going. Candles flickered on both sides of us. The
floorboards groaned under our shoes.
The eerie, dim light. The voices far behind us. The endless tunnel of a
hallway. All made me feel as if I were running through a dream.
We turned another corner and kept running.
The misty candlelight blurred as I ran. I’m floating through a dark orange
cloud, I thought.
Do these empty, candlelit halls ever end?
Eddie and I both cried out happily as a door appeared in front of us.
A door we had never seen before.
It has to lead to the outside! I told myself.
We raced to the door. We didn’t slow down as we reached it.
I stuck out both hands. Pushed hard.
The door flew open.
And we stepped out into bright sunlight.
Outside! We had escaped from the dark maze of the hotel corridors!
It took a few seconds for the harsh white glare to fade from my eyes.
I blinked several times. Then I gazed up and down the street.
“Oh, no!” I wailed, grabbing my brother’s arm. “No! Eddie—what has happened ?”
22
“It—it’s daytime!” Eddie stammered.
But the bright sunlight wasn’t the only shock.
Everything had changed.
I felt as if I were watching a movie, and the scene had changed. And suddenly
it was the next day—or the next week—and I was seeing an entirely different
place.
I knew that only a few seconds had passed since Eddie and I had burst out of
the hotel. But in that time, everything had changed.
We huddled close together and stared in one direction and then the next. We
saw no cars. No buses. The street had vanished, replaced by a lumpy dirt road.
The tall buildings had disappeared, too. The road was dotted with small,
white cottages with flat roofs and low, wooden shacks built without doors or
windows.
A tall mound of straw stood beside the nearest cottage. Chickens clucked and
strutted across the road or stood in front of cottages pecking in the dirt. A brown cow poked its
head out from behind the mound of straw.
“What’s going on?” Eddie asked. “Where are we?”
“It’s like we stepped back in time,” I said in a hushed voice. “Eddie—look
at the people.”
Two men walked by carrying lines of slender, silvery fish. The men had thick
beards and wild, unbrushed hair. They wore loose-fitting gray smocks that
dragged along the ground.
Two women in long, brown dresses were on their knees, pulling up root-type
vegetables with their hands. A man leading a scrawny horse, its bones sticking
out at its rib cage, stopped to say something to the two women.
“They look a lot like the people in the hotel,” I told Eddie.
Thinking about the hotel made me turn around. “Oh, no!” I grabbed Eddie and
made him turn around.
The hotel was gone.
In its place stood a long, low building built of
Similar Books
