45 - Ghost Camp (9 page)

Poof! A puff of imagination.

I started to spin with Alex. Spinning and laughing.

We stopped when we realized we were no longer alone.

I let out a startled cry when I saw the faces all around us. The pale, pale
faces with their glowing eyes.

I recognized Sam, and Joe, and Lucy, and Elvis.

I moved close to Alex as the campers—the ghost campers—moved to form a
circle around us. To trap us.

Uncle Marv moved into the circle. His tiny eyes glowed red as fire. He
narrowed them angrily at Alex and me.

“Capture them!” he bellowed. “Take them back to camp. No one ever escapes
Camp Spirit Moon.”

Several counselors moved quickly to grab us.

We couldn’t move. There was nowhere to run.

“What are you going to
do
to us?” I cried.

“We need living kids,” Uncle Marv boomed. “We cannot allow living kids to
escape. Unless they carry one of us with them.”

“Noooo!” Alex wailed. “You can’t take over my mind! You can’t! I won’t let
you!”

The ghostly circle tightened. The ghost campers moved in on us.

I tried to stop my legs from shaking. Tried to slow my pounding heart.

“Alex—we don’t believe in
them,
either,” I whispered.

He stared at me, confused for a moment. Then he understood.

We made the monster vanish by not believing in him. We could do the same
thing to the ghost campers.

“Grab them. Take them back to camp,” Uncle Marv ordered the counselors.

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you,” Alex and I started to
chant.

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you.”

I stared hard at the circle of ghostly faces. Waited for them to disappear.

I chanted with my brother. Chanted faster. Chanted louder.

“We don’t believe in you. We don’t believe in you.”

I shut my eyes. Shut them tight.

And when I opened them…

The ghosts were still there.

“You can’t make us disappear, Harry,” Lucy said, stepping into the circle.
She narrowed her eyes at me. They glittered cold and silvery in the moonlight.

“You made the monster disappear because it wasn’t real, just one of our ghost
tricks,” Lucy explained. “We made you see it. But we’re all real! All of us! And
we’re not going to vanish in a puff of smoke.”

“We’re not going away,” Elvis added, moving close to my brother. “In fact,
we’re coming closer. A lot closer.”

“I’m taking over your mind,” Lucy whispered to me. “I’m going to escape Camp
Spirit Moon inside your mind and body.”

“Nooo! No—please!” I protested.

I tried to back up. But the other ghost campers had me trapped.

“You can’t! I won’t let you!” I shrieked to Lucy, frozen in terror.

“Go away!” Alex shouted at Elvis.

The woods darkened as clouds swept over the moon. All around me, the ghostly
eyes appeared to glow brighter.

I saw Elvis reach for my brother.

And then my view was blocked by Lucy. She floated up. Up off the ground. Up
over me.

“No! Stay away! Stay away!” I screamed.

But I felt my hair tingle.

I felt the cold sweep down over me. Down, down.

I felt Lucy’s ghostly cold. Felt her slipping into my mind.

Slipping down, down. Taking over.

And I knew I couldn’t escape.

“Get away, Lucy. I’m going first!” I heard a voice shout.

“No way!” a boy cried. “Move out of the way. Uncle Marv said I could be
first!”

I could feel the cold sweep up from my body. I opened my eyes—and saw Lucy
back on the ground.

Other kids tugged her away.

“Let go of me!” Lucy screamed, pulling back. “I saw him first!”

“Finders keepers!” another ghostly girl cried.

They are fighting over me, I realized.

They pulled Lucy away. And now they’re fighting to see who will take over my
mind.

“Hey—let go!” I heard a ghostly girl cry. I saw her wrestling with another
girl.

The ghosts were wrestling and fighting, shoving and clawing at each other. I
saw the counselors join the fight.

“Stop this! Stop this!” Uncle Marv bellowed.

He tried to pull the fighting campers apart.

But they ignored him and continued to battle.

And as I stared in horror, they began to spin around me. Faster and faster. A
ghostly circle of wrestling, fighting, shrieking campers. Boys and girls,
counselors and Uncle Marv, spinning, struggling, clawing.

Faster. Faster.

They spun around and around my brother and me.

Until they became a swirl of white light.

And then the light faded. Faded to gray smoke.

Wisps of smoke that floated to the trees. And disappeared in the trembling
branches.

Alex and I stood watching until the last wisp of smoke had floated away.

“They’re gone,” I choked out. “They fought each other. And they’re gone. All
of them.”

I shook my head. I drew in a deep breath of fresh air.

My heart was still pounding. My whole body trembled.

But I was okay. Alex and I were okay.

“Are they really gone?” Alex asked in a tiny voice.

“Yes. Let’s go,” I said, taking his arm. “Come on. Hurry. Let’s get away from
here.”

He followed me eagerly. “Where are we going?”

“To the highway,” I said. “We’ll walk past the camp to the highway. And we’ll
stop the first car that comes by. We’ll get to a phone. We’ll call Mom and Dad.”

I slapped my brother on the back. “We’ll be okay, Alex!” I cried happily.
“We’ll be home before you know it!”

We walked quickly through the woods. Pushing bushes and weeds out of the way.
Making our own path.

As we made our way to the highway, Alex started to hum a song to himself.

“Whoa!” I cried. “Alex, what’s wrong?”

“Huh?” He stared at me in surprise.

I stopped and held him in place. “Sing that again,” I ordered.

He sang a little more.

Horrible! His singing was horrible. Totally off-key and sour.

I stared hard into my brother’s eyes. “Elvis—is that
you
in there?”
I cried.

Elvis’ voice came out of Alex’s mouth. “Please, Harry, don’t tell,” he
begged. “I
swear
I’ll never sing again—if you promise not to tell!”

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