Dudes, the School Is Haunted! by R. L. Stine Page A

They
were trying to help us, and—”
    “It’s too late to think about that,” I said sharply. “I have an idea. Let’s
try to find our way through the fog to one of the houses and spend the night there.”
    “You mean break in?” Ben demanded.
    “They seem to be empty,” I replied. The fog swirled thicker, wrapping us up
tightly. I tugged his arm. “Come on. We’ll find a place to wait until morning.
It’s better than standing out here all night.”
    “I guess…” he agreed.
    We turned and began walking up a sloping front yard. We had to move slowly
because we could barely see.
    We took six or seven steps—and then I let out a scream as someone knocked
me to the ground.

 
 
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    “Ohhhhhh!” A terrified moan escaped my throat.
    I rolled onto my back.
    A black cat tumbled beside me.
    A cat?
    It had jumped onto my shoulders from a tree limb.
    The cat stared up at me with gray eyes. Its black fur bristled. Its tail
stood straight up.
    And then it took off, vanishing into the fog.
    I pulled myself shakily to my feet.
    “Tommy, what happened?” Ben demanded.
    “Didn’t you see that cat?” I cried. “It jumped down on me. Knocked me to the
ground. I thought… I thought…” The words caught in my throat.
    “Are you okay? I couldn’t see it,” Ben replied. “The fog—it’s so thick. All
of a sudden, you screamed. You scared me to death!”
    I rubbed the back of my neck. Why did the cat jump on me like that? I
wondered.
    Maybe it’s lonely, I decided. With no other people around.
    And just as I thought that, I heard a girl’s voice. “Over here!” she called.
    And then a boy, very nearby, shouted: “Don’t let them get away! Grab them!”

 
 
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    Ben and I squinted into the fog. We heard shrill voices. And then the thump
of footsteps over the grass. But we couldn’t see anyone.
    We didn’t know which way to run.
    “This way! Over here!” the girl repeated breathlessly to her friend.
    “Stop them!” another girl chimed in.
    Ben and I spun around. “Who’s there?” I tried to shout. But my voice spilled
out weak and frightened. “Who is it?”
    And then, figures appeared in the swirling fog. Shadowy, gray figures.
Running toward us and then stopping just near enough to see through the curtain
of gray.
    Staring, surprised faces.
    Their arms out. Bodies tense. Hair blowing in the circling mist.
    I backed up to Ben. We stood back to back, gaping out at them as they formed
a tight circle around us.
    “They’re—kids!” Ben exclaimed. “More kids!”
    Are they the rest of the missing class? I wondered.
    “Hey—!” I called to them. “What are you doing out here?”
    They stared back at us in silence.
    The fog billowed and shifted. I saw a short, black-haired girl whispering to
a big kid in an old-fashioned-looking black jacket. And then the fog covered
them again, and they seemed to vanish before my eyes.
    Other kids appeared and disappeared. There must have been about twenty of
them.
    They spoke softly to one another, gazing out at us, keeping in a tight
circle.
    “What are you doing out here?” I repeated, trying not to sound as frightened
as I felt. “My friend and I—we’re lost. Can you help us?”
    “You still have color,” a girl murmured.
    “Color. Color. Color.” The word was repeated among the circle of gray kids.
    “They must be the other kids from the class,” Ben whispered. “The kids Seth
and the others warned us about.”
    Seth’s warning flashed back into my mind: “They’re crazy. They’ve all gone
crazy.”
    “We’re lost!” I cried. “Can you help us?”
    They didn’t reply. They whispered excitedly among themselves.
    “Turn, turn,” a boy called suddenly. So loud, I jumped back.
    “What did you say?” I demanded. “Can you help us?”
    “Turn, turn,” a girl repeated.
    “We don’t belong here!” Ben cried. “We’re trying to get away from here. But
we’re totally lost.”
    “Turn, turn,” a few