Don't Stay Up Late (22 page)

Like Joy,
I thought. I pictured her—Harry's previous babysitter—locked away in that mental hospital in Martinsville. That hospital! I saw
myself
there, drugged, helpless, the crazy girl who sees monsters.…

A powerful chill rolled down my back.

“When you get out,” Dr. Shein continued, “no one will ever believe you. No one. And we can all get on with our mission and with our lives.”

“I-I don't understand,” I stammered. “You picked me to babysit Harry. Why? Why me?”

She pulled the chair out and sat back down at her desk. She picked up the pencil and rolled it between her fingers as she watched me.

“I picked you because you were so traumatized,” she said. “You had a severe concussion. You were having dark nightmares and hallucinations. You were a perfect choice.”

“Perfect?”

“Of course. I knew no one would believe you if you discovered the truth. The previous babysitter was trouble. She had to go. Your lucky car accident happened at just the right time.”

I gasped. “My
lucky
car accident?” I shrieked. “That accident
killed
my father!”

“But it brought you to me,” she said softly. “And I knew you were just right.”

“How can you do this?” I cried. “Harry is a killer. He killed two people, two kids from my school.”

“Your fault,” she said, sneering. “Your fault. You let him stay up late. Your fault entirely.” She banged her fist on the tabletop. “So far, Harry is perfect. We had three failures. But Harry is perfect. And I'm going to protect him by sending you away for a long time.”

“I don't think so,” I said quietly, calmly.

She blinked. She studied me. “
What
did you just say?”

“I said, I don't think so, Dr. Shein. I don't think I'll be going anywhere. I think
you'll
be going away. Not me.”

 

57.

“Have you lost your mind?” Dr. Shein snapped. Her face twisted into a mask of anger.

“Did you really think I didn't figure out the truth about you?” I said. “
You
got me the job with Brenda. You said you knew Brenda from before. You had to know what she was doing with Harry.”

“You don't know what you're saying, Lisa.”

I shook my head. “Dr. Shein, do you see this phone on my lap? It's connected to an app called FaceTime. Do you know what that is?”

She suddenly turned pale. She drew her lips into a tight thin line.

“Yes, I know what FaceTime is,” she muttered.

“Well … Captain Rivera and two other officers from the Shadyside police force are right outside that door.” I pointed. “They're in your waiting room, and they just watched our whole conversation.”

Dr. Shein murmured something under her breath. I couldn't hear it. But I could see the fear in her eyes.

“You just confessed,” I said. “Now they'll be able to round up Harry and Brenda and Alice and Nate and Saralynn—and the three other pitiful creatures in those cages. And they'll be able to stop the horrible killings in this town.”

That was quite a speech, and it left me breathless. I gripped the phone as if it were a life preserver.

I gasped as Dr. Shein let out a shrill, angry cry. She leaped up from her desk and bolted forward. She gave me a hard shove that almost sent me flying off the chair. Then she spun away from me, and her shoes thudded over the carpet as she ran out the office door—right into the arms of Captain Rivera and the other officers.

“Yesss!” I shouted, pumping my fists in the air. “Yes! Yes!”

I ran outside where my mother was waiting for me. She had tears in her eyes, and her cheeks were flushed. She tried to speak but she was too emotional to get any words out. Finally, she draped her good arm around my shoulders and whispered, “Let's go home.”

 

EPILOGUE

I don't know how the police kept the real story out of the news.

Sure, everyone reported on the two murders. The story of the “Cannibal Killings” was all over town. And of course, people were horrified.

But they'd be even more horrified if they knew the murderer was a child-demon—that people were secretly raising a dangerous inhuman creature on Fear Street.

That story never made the news.

I guessed the police and the reporters decided it was better not to frighten the people of Shadyside. And maybe they didn't want any more scary stories about Fear Street going around.

Or perhaps they thought no one would believe them. After all, no one believed
me
 … till the very end.

I could only guess the reason the story was hushed up. But I do know that Nate and Saralynn disappeared from school the day after I brought the police to Dr. Shein's office. They were never seen again. No school announcement was made about them. The principal … the teachers … no one said a word.

A week later, I drove past Brenda's house on Fear Street. The house was dark. No sign of anyone inside. And Alice's house had a
FOR SALE
sign in the middle of the front lawn.

It felt strange to lose so many people who were in my life. I felt this weird combination of sadness and loss—and relief—at the same time.

I actually tried to phone Nate once. Yes, I knew he was part of a very evil conspiracy to raise a demon. I knew he had lied to me right from the start. I knew he wasn't who he pretended to be.

But Nate had saved my life. He had a last-minute change of heart and he stopped Brenda from killing me. He let me escape. So I had this crazy idea that I should call him and thank him for that.

But when I punched in the number, his phone didn't even ring. Just silence at the other end. “Dead silence,” I murmured to myself. “Dead silence.” I tried his number three times. Then I gave up.

“That's all over,” I told myself. “I'm fine now. I'm putting that all behind me.”

Yes, my life was definitely in a good zone. For one thing, I was enjoying my new after-school job.

I was lucky to get be hired as an assistant to the three full-time caregivers at the Wee Winners Daycare Center. Most days after school we have fifteen to twenty kids with us. They're from four years old to ten, and we try to give each one a lot of attention.

“This is a better job for you,” Mom said, the master of understatement.

“Mom,
any
job would be better than babysitting a demon!” I exclaimed.

“That's not what I meant,” she insisted. “It's a good job for you because you're with other people. You're not sitting alone in a house, totally in charge of everything all by yourself.”

I had to agree with her about that.

It was a good job for me, even on days like today when dealing with the kids was a challenge. I had to stop Jeremy's nosebleed, and two girls were having an angry tug-of-war over the same Dr. Seuss book, and Ivan (We call him Ivan the Terrible) refused to let anyone else have the iPad.

Mindy, the boss, had a dentist appointment. So it was just Carol and Audra and me, and even they were a little frantic since the kids all seemed to be having a very bad day.

I spotted a boy sitting by himself on the window seat in a corner. He held a large poster in front of him, and I couldn't see his face. “Roger? Is that you?” I called, making my way past the crafts table to him.

“Roger? Why are you all alone back here?” I asked.

He slowly lowered the poster. I stopped with a short intake of breath. And stared at the curly blond hair, the pink cheeks, the angelic round face, the adorable smile …

“Oh.”

Stunned, I raised my hand to my mouth. “H-Harry!” I stammered. “Harry! What are you
doing
here?”

His smile grew wider. “I'm not Harry,” he said softly. “My name is Sam.”

He shot a hand out and wrapped it around my wrist. “My name is Sam,” he repeated, tightening his grip until his fingers dug into my skin. “Will you be my friend?
Will
you? We can stay up late together.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. L. STINE
is one of the bestselling children's authors in history. His Goosebumps and Fear Street series for young people have more than 400 million books in print and have been translated into thirty-five languages. Other popular children's book series of his include Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room, and Rotten School.

Stine's anthology TV series,
R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour
, has won two Emmy Awards as Best Children's TV Show. A Goosebumps feature film is currently in production, with Jack Black starring as R. L. Stine. Stine says that he is proud to have frightened several generations of young people, and he is delighted to be back on Fear Street to deliver even more scares.

R. L. Stine lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, an editor and publisher.

Please visit his website at
www.rlstine.com
or sign up for email updates
here
.

    

 

Also by
R. L. Stine

SERIES

Goosebumps

Fear Street

Mostly Ghostly

The Nightmare Room

Rotten School

INDIVIDUAL TITLES

It's the First Day of School … Forever!

A Midsummer Night's Scream

Red Rain

Eye Candy

The Sitter

 

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