The Haunting Hour Read Free

the mirror.
    I gasped as I realized the dead girl was crossing the room to Jake and me. And suddenly I knew what she was doing.
    It wasn’t a party game—it was a trap!
    Ghouls made no reflection. They were dead. Their bodies didn’t appear in the glass.
    But a living person—someone who didn’t belong at this party—would make a reflection.
    Jake and I were about to be caught!
    I grabbed the door handle and twisted it. The door wouldn’t budge.
    The girl raised the mirror in front of us.
    â€œUh…I can explain,” I said. “We didn’t mean any harm. We’ll go now. We—”
    I stared into the mirror.
    And let out a soft cry of surprise.
    No reflection.
    I leaned closer to the glass. No reflection.
    I brought my face an inch from the mirror. I pressed my nose against the glass.
    No reflection. No face staring back at me…
    Jake’s mouth hung open. His eyes bulged as he gaped into the glass. “Wh-where are we?” he said. “Why—?”
    The girl turned, swinging the mirror in front of her. She carried it over to a group of ghouls against the back wall.
    I felt dazed. The room tilted in front of me. I fell back against the door, gasping for breath. “I—I don’t understand,” I muttered.
    I turned to see Ray standing beside us. Standing so close, I could see that his right cheek was ripped open. I could see his cheekbone poking out.
    â€œRay—the mirror,” I said. “Jake and I had no reflections.”
    He nodded.
    â€œBut why?” Jake asked. “We’re not dead. We’re alive! ”
    Ray scratched his open cheek. “No, you’re not,” he said softly. “I saw you—remember? I saw you get hit by that truck.”
    â€œNO!” I screamed. “No—you’re WRONG!”
    â€œYou started across the street,” Ray said. “You weren’t watching. You didn’t see it coming down the hill.”
    â€œNO! NO!” I yelled.
    â€œIt hit you both,” Ray said. “It threw you across the street. You landed right in front of me.”
    â€œNO!” I screamed. “NO—YOU’RE LYING! YOU’RE LYING!”
    The front door swung open. A blast of cold wind swept in over me. So cold, I thought. From now on, will I feel only cold? Will I never feel warm again?
    My whole body shivered. I turned and saw Jake shivering too. His eyes were shut, his teeth chattering.
    Someone pushed me, hard, away from the doorway. The ghouls were limping, staggering, groaning, making their way out of the house. The dead girl flashed me her crinkly smile as she floated past.
    â€œIs the party over?” I asked Ray. “Where are they going?”
    â€œIt’s nearly midnight,” he replied, pulling a fat bug from his hair and tossing it to the floor. “It’s time to go outside and dance the Halloween Dance.”
    Ray guided Jake and me outdoors. The full moon floated high in the night sky now. The wind whistled and howled between the crooked gravestones.
    â€œAt midnight on Halloween the dead do their dance under the full moon,” Ray explained, leading us up the graveyard hill. “For one moment—one terrifying moment—we all freeze. And time stops. Time stands still. And then, when we begin to dance, when our circle moves forward, time moves forward once again.”
    He sighed. “It’s a secret moment. The only time during the year when the living and the dead are one.”
    Jake and I joined the others at the top of the hill. The wind blew hard, fluttering the ragged, decayed clothes, making the frail, skeletal ghouls shudder and shake.
    I heard bones rattle, and the snap of toothless, fleshless jaws. We formed a circle and held hands. Bony, cold hands with icicle fingers.
    I’ll never feel warm again. The thought kept repeating in my mind.
    I gazed up at the moon, the pale, cold moon so high above us now. And I had an