R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 06 by Let's Get This Party Haunted!

could see the boy in black. He sat on the ground, leaning against a tree trunk. His face was raised to my house. He was staring up at my bedroom window.
    Watching. Watching.
    I wanted to open the window and scream at the top of my lungs for him to go away. Get lost — and never come back.
    No time for that. I could hear the kids clappingslowly downstairs. Clapping for the show to start.
    I spun away from the window. Glanced at Quentin's note one more time. Then turned and headed down to the living room to start my show.

19
    “H ERE HE IS, THE Amazing Max!” Mom shouted as I stepped into the living room.
    A duckpin fell out of my arm and hit me on the foot. “Ow!” I cried out in pain and dropped the other two duckpins.
    Everyone laughed.
    Good start, huh?
    “My partner has vanished into thin air,” I announced. “But the show will go on without him.”
    I placed my magic kit on the card table I'd set up in front of the fireplace. I pulled out the magic wand and some other supplies.
    I had a trick top hat on the table with a live rabbit hidden inside its secret compartment. And a milk bottle that appeared to empty when you poured it, even though it stayed full.
    I was just about ready to start. The room grew quiet.
    Most of the kids sat on the floor in front of the card table. The Wilbur brothers were squeezedinto an armchair. Willy bumped Billy off, onto the floor. Billy got back into the chair and tried to bump his brother off. Marci and Ashley stood against the far wall, whispering to each other.
    “Good evening, everyone. Prepare to be amazed!” I shouted in my deep magician's voice. “First I will show you the magic of the juggler's art.”
    I cranked up my juggling music on the CD player. Then I took two duckpins, waited for the rhythm to kick in, and started to toss them from hand to hand.
    “It's all in the wrist!” I declared. I tossed the pins higher. I had the rhythm. It felt good.
    The kids were watching intently now. Even Marci and Ashley had stopped talking and were watching the show.
    “And now let's make it a little harder!” I exclaimed. I picked up the third duckpin and added it to the mix.
    Three is a lot trickier than two. It means you have to keep one in the air at all times. Your hands have to move really fast. There's no time for any kind of slipup.
    But today I was really in the zone! The pins were moving just where I wanted them. Grab and toss. Grab and toss. I grooved with the music and kept the three pins spinning in front of me.
    And then it all went crazy.
    The pins flew out of my hands. Flew out over the audience as if I had flung them.
    “Ohh!” Billy Wilbur uttered a cry as one of the pins thudded into his chest.
    I stood and watched in horror as another pin soared across the room. It made a horrible
thunk
as it crashed into Marci's forehead.
    She let out a groan, raised her hand to her head, and collapsed to the floor.
    “You killed her! You
killed
her!” Ashley screamed.

20
    “M Y HEAD. OHH, MY head,” Marci groaned from the floor.
    Ashley dropped beside her. “Okay. Erase that. You
didn't
kill her,” she shouted. “But she's going to have a big bump on her head.”
    “I'll sue you!” Marci croaked. “I'll sue!”
    I let out a sigh.
    Billy Wilbur was holding his chest and gasping for breath. The pin had knocked the wind out of him.
    “You did that deliberately!” Willy Wilbur shouted. He ran across the room and dove over the card table. He grabbed me around the waist and tackled me to the floor.
    “Get off me!” I shouted, trying to squirm away. “Get off!”
    He landed several gut punches before a bunch of kids pulled him away.
    “I'll sue!” Marci screamed. She was standing up now and rubbing her forehead. A red lump had swollen to about the size of a tennis ball.
    “I'll sue!” She shook her fist at me.
    Ashley started to help her out of the house.
    “No, wait!” I cried. “Don't miss the best part of the show! I have some great tricks.