The Haunting Hour Read Free Page A

idea.
    An idea about the Halloween Dance. About time. About the one moment of the year when the living and the dead are together as one.
    My eyes darted around the circle of ghouls. Time will freeze, I thought. When we all freeze, time will stop. And when the ghouls start to dance, time will move once again.
    Well…what if we all dance backward? What if the circle moves counterclockwise? What if we dance to reverse time?
    Could it work? Could we move time back to before the truck accident? Could Jake and I use the Halloween Dance to return us to our lives?
    It was a crazy, desperate idea. But I knew I had to try it.
    No time to explain to Jake. The ghouls were standing stiffly now, gripping bony, frozen hands, locking into place.
    The Dance was about to begin.
    Silence fell over the graveyard hill. A deeper silence than I had ever heard or felt.
    No one moved. The wind stopped. The grass stood straight and still. Not a sound now…not a flicker of a shadow…not a creak of a tree…not a breath.
    Time stopped.
    Midnight on Halloween. And time stopped.
    We were all alive. And we were all dead.
    And then I felt the circle start to move. I heard the hiss of motion. The creak of bones. A breath…a sigh.
    I moved quickly.
    The circle started to the left. But I bumped Jake the other way. I lurched to the right. I pulled the ghoul at my side with me.
    I took a big step to the right. Would the circle follow?
    Yes!
    We were all moving now, moving to a silent rhythm. Moving counterclockwise. Backward!
    To the right. A step. A step. A step.
    And the wind started up again, howling around our strange circle. The trees shifted and creaked. The tall weeds whistled as they whipped low in the wind.
    A step. And another. Another.
    The Halloween Dance.
    The Dance of the Dead. Going in reverse…
    And I could feel it pulling us back, pulling us back through time.
    We were in the abandoned caretaker’s mansion.
    Step…step…step…
    And then we were back down the hill, stopping at the graveyard gate.
    Step…step…step…
    And then…then…
    Jake and I were standing in the light. The bright, hot light that ended our lives.
    Caught in the truck headlights. The light so blinding…and now dimming…darker…darker…
    Moving back…back in time…
    I knew the Dance was working. I knew that each step was leading us back to our lives.
    Round and round I tugged the ghoulish circle. Keep moving. Keep stepping. Got to get back. Got to be alive again!
    And then I could see Jake and me at home at the Halloween party. Surrounded by Madison and her princess pals.
    Yes! Back home! Back home, warm and alive.
    I stopped dancing. I tried to drop the bony hand that held mine. But the ghoul wouldn’t let go. He tightened his grip around my fingers. He pulled me along.
    Step…step…step…
    â€œStop,” I cried. “Let me go!”
    The circle moved faster…faster…and then…
    In school. And back at summer camp. And everything moving so quickly now. Step…step…the ghoulish circle turned again….
    Faster…faster…
    In school again. What class was this? What year?
    I tried to break free. Tried to break the circle. But the ghoul wouldn’t release his icy grip.
    â€œWait!” I screamed. “Stop! Stop!”
    And then on the living-room floor. Isn’t that our old house? Before Madison was born and we moved?
    Another step…the circle finally slowing…slowing.
    And I opened my mouth and started to cry.
    â€œWAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAH!”
    Finally, Mommy comes to pick me up. She raises me up over the crib. “What is wrong, Marky?” she asks softly. “Are you well? Do you need to be changed again?”
    â€œWAAAAAAH.”
    Doesn’t she understand? Doesn’t she know why I’m crying? The Dance went on too long! Too long!
    â€œWhat is he crying about?” Daddy says, coming up beside Mommy. He