by R. L. Stine
Huh? A new foe?
I took a deep breath and held it. Calm down, Skipper, I urged myself. It’s only a comic book.
But would this new issue help to solve the mystery for me?
Would it tell me anything about the strange, pink-and-green headquarters building? Would it help solve any of the puzzles from this afternoon?
I turned to the first page. It showed the headquarters building from above. The next drawing showed the building at street level. In the deep shadows, someone was approaching the glass doors.
Someone was sneaking into the headquarters building.
I turned the page.
And shrieked at the top of my lungs: “I don’t believe it!”
Yes. You probably guessed it. It was ME sneaking into The Masked Mutant’s headquarters building.
I stared at the page so hard, I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.
I was so excited — and so shocked — I couldn’t read the words. They became a gray blur.
I turned the pages with shaking hands. I don’t think I took a breath. I studied each picture, holding the comic book about an inch from my face.
The Galloping Gazelle sat in a tiny room. The room grew hotter and hotter. In minutes, The Galloping Gazelle would become The Boiled Gazelle!
The Masked Mutant had trapped The Galloping Gazelle in his headquarters. And now he planned to leave The Gazelle there to boil.
I turned the page. My hand shook so hard, I nearly tore the page off.
There I was, creeping through the dark hallway. In the comic, I wore the same T-shirt and baggy jeans I had on right now.
The next drawing showed a close-up of my face. Big balls of sweat rolled down my pink face. I guess that meant I was scared.
I’m a little too chubby in that drawing, I thought.
But it was me. It was definitely ME!
“Mom!” I screamed, closing the comic and jumping off the bed. “Mom! Dad! You have to see this!”
I tore out of my room and hurtled down the stairs. I don’t think my feet touched the floor!
“Mom! Dad! Where are you?”
I found them in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Dad was chopping onions by the sink. His eyes were filled with tears. Mom was bent over the stove. As usual, she was having trouble getting the oven lit.
“I’m in this comic book!” I cried, bursting into the room.
“Not now!” they both replied in unison.
“No. You have to see this!” I insisted, waving it in front of Dad.
Dad didn’t stop chopping. “You had a letter to the editor published?” he asked through his tears.
“No! I’m in the comic!” I told him breathlessly. I waved it closer to him.
“I can’t see a thing!” Dad exclaimed. “Get that away from me. Can’t you see what this onion is doing to my eyes?”
“There’s a trick to chopping onions,” Mom said, bent over the stove. “But I don’t know what it is.”
I ran over to Mom. “You have to check this out, Mom. I’m in here. Look. It’s really me!”
Mom shook her head, frowning. “I can’t get it to light,” she said, sighing. “I think the pilot is out again.”
“I’ll check it if I ever stop crying,” Dad told her.
“Will you look at this?!” I screamed, totally losing it.
Mom gave a quick glance to the page I was holding in front of her. “Yes, yes. That does look a little like you, Skipper,” she said, waving me away. She turned back to the oven. “We really need a new stove, dear.”
“Dad — take a look,” I pleaded.
I ran back to him, but he had shoved a towel up to his face and was crying into the towel. “I guess you can’t look now, huh?” I said softly.
He didn’t answer. He just cried into the towel.
I let out a long, exasperated moan. What was their problem, anyway?
This was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. And they couldn’t be bothered to take one look.
Angrily, I closed the comic and stomped out of the room.
“Skipper, set the table,” Mom shouted after me.
Set the table? I’m starring in a famous comic book, and she’s asking me to set the table?
“Why can’t Mitzi do it?” I asked.
“Set the table, Skipper,” Mom repeated sternly.
“Okay, okay. In a few minutes,” I called back. I dropped down onto the living room couch and turned to the back of the comic. I had been too excited to read it to the end. Now I wanted to read the part where it tells you what to expect in the next comic book.
My eyes swept over the page. There was The Galloping Gazelle, still trapped in the boiling hot room. And there stood The Masked Mutant outside the door, about to declare his victory.
I squinted at the white thought balloon over The Galloping Gazelle’s head. What was he saying?
“Only the boy can save me now,” The Galloping Gazelle was thinking. “Only the boy can save the world from The Masked Mutant’s evil. But where is he?”
I read it again. And again.
Was it true? Was I the only one who could save The Galloping Gazelle?
Did I really have to go back there?
After school the next day, I hurried to the bus stop. It was a clear, cold day. The ground beneath my sneakers was frozen hard. The sky above looked like a broad sheet of cold blue ice.
Leaning into the sharp wind, I wondered if Libby would be on the bus. I was dying to tell her about the comic book. I wanted to tell her I was going back into the strange building.
Would she go back with me?
No way, I decided. Libby had been frightened after our first visit, I could never drag her back there.
I jogged past the playground, my eyes on the street, watching for a bus.
“Hey, Skipper!” a familiar voice called. I turned to see Wilson running after me, his coat unzipped and flapping up behind him like wings. “Skipper — what’s up? You going home?”
Two blocks up, the blue-and-white bus turned the corner.
“No. I’m going someplace,” I told Wilson. “I can’t look at your rubber stamp collection now.”
His expression turned serious. “I’m not collecting rubber stamps anymore,” he said. “I gave it up.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “Huh? How come?”
“They took up too much of my time,” he replied.
The bus pulled up to the curb. The door opened. “See you later,” I told Wilson.
As I stepped onto the bus, I remembered where I was going. And I suddenly wondered if I would see Wilson later. I wondered if I would ever see him again!
* * *
Libby wasn’t on the bus. In a way, I was glad. It meant I wouldn’t have to explain to her what I was doing.
She would have laughed at me for believing what I read in a comic book.
But the comic book had told the truth about the Invisibility Curtain. And now it had said that I was the only one who could save The Galloping Gazelle and stop The Masked Mutant’s evil.
“But it’s just a comic book!” Libby would have said. “How can you be such a jerk to believe a comic book?”
That’s what she would have said. And I don’t know how I could have answered.
So I was glad she wasn’t on the bus.
I climbed off the bus in front of the empty lot. I gazed at it from across the street. I knew it wasn’t really an empty lot. I knew the pink-and-green building was there, hidden behind the Invisibility Curtain.
As I crossed the street, I felt a wave of fear sweep down over me. My mouth suddenly got dry. I tried to swallow, but nearly choked. My throat felt as if someone had tied a knot in it. My stomach felt kind of fluttery. And my knees got sweaty and refused to bend.
I stopped on the sidewalk and struggled to calm myself down.
It’s just a comic book. Just a comic book. That’s what I told myself, repeating the words over and over.
Finally, staring
straight ahead at the empty lot, I worked up my courage enough to move forward. One step. Another. Another.
Suddenly, the building popped into view.
I gasped. Even though I had crossed through the Invisibility Curtain before, it was still amazing to see a building suddenly appear before my eyes.
Swallowing hard, I pulled open one of the glass entrance doors and stepped into the bright, pink-and-yellow lobby.
Staying near the door, I turned to the left, then the right.
Still empty. Not a person in sight.
I coughed. My cough sounded tiny in the huge lobby. My sneakers squeaked over the marble floor as I started to the elevators on the far wall.
Where is everyone? I asked myself. It’s the middle of the afternoon. How can I be the only one in this huge lobby?
I stopped in front of the elevators. I raised my finger to the elevator button — but I didn’t push it.
I wish Libby had come along, I decided. If Libby were here, at least I’d have someone to be terrifed with!
I pushed the elevator button.
“Well … here goes,” I murmured, waiting for the door to open.
And then someone laughed. A cold, evil laugh.
Right behind me.
I let out a low cry and spun around.
No one there.
The laughter repeated. Soft, but cruel.
My eyes darted around the lobby. I couldn’t see anyone.
“Wh-who’s there?” I choked out.
The laughter stopped.
I continued to search. My eyes went up to the wall above the elevator. A small, black loudspeaker poked out from the yellow wall.
The laughter must have come from there, I decided. I stared up at it as if I expected to see someone in there.
Get out of here! a voice inside me begged. My sensible voice. Just turn around, Skipper, and run out of this building as fast as your rubbery, shaky legs will take you!
I ignored it and pressed the elevator button. The elevator door on the left slid open silently, and I stepped inside.
The door closed. I stared at the control panel. Should I push up or down?
The last visit, I had pushed up, the top floor — and the elevator had taken Libby and me down to the basement.
My finger hesitated in front of the buttons. What would happen if this time I pushed down?
I didn’t get a chance to find out. The elevator started with a jolt before I pushed any button at all.
I grabbed on to the railing. My hand was cold and wet. The elevator hummed as it rose.
I’m going up, I realized. Up to where?
The ride seemed to take forever. I watched the floor numbers whir by on top of the control panel. Forty … forty-one … forty-two … The elevator beeped each time it passed a floor.
It came to a stop at forty-six. Was this the top floor?
The door slid open. I let go of the railing and stepped out.
I glanced down a long gray hallway. I blinked once. Twice. It looked as if I had stepped into a black-and-white movie. The walls were gray. The ceiling was gray. The floor was gray. The doors on both sides of the hall were gray.
It feels like I’m standing in a thick gray fog, I thought, peering one way, then the other. Or in a dark cloud.
No one in sight. Nothing moving.
I listened hard. Listened for voices, for laughter, for the click and hum of office machinery.
Silence — except for the thudding of my heart.
I shoved my cold, clammy hands into the pockets of my jeans and began to walk, slowly following the hallway.
I turned a corner and stared down another endless gray hallway. The end of the hall seemed to fade away, to fade into a gray blur.
I suddenly remembered the drawings in the newest issue of The Masked Mutant. A big, two-page drawing had shown the long hallways of The Masked Mutant’s secret headquarters.
The long, twisting hallway in the comic book looked just like this hallway — except that the comic book hallway had bright green walls and a yellow ceiling. And the rooms were filled with costumed supervillains who worked for The Masked Mutant.
As I slowly made my way through this gray, empty hallway, I had a weird thought. Everything looked so gray and washed out, I had the feeling that I was in a sketch of a hallway. A black-and-white pencil drawing that hadn’t been filled in yet.
But, of course, that didn’t make any sense at all.
You’re just thinking crazy thoughts because you’re so scared, I told myself.
And then I heard a noise.
A hard, thumping sound. A bump.
“Whoa!” I whispered. My heart leaped up to my throat. I stopped in the middle of the hall. And listened.
Bump. Thump.
Coming from up ahead. From around the next corner?
I forced myself to walk. I turned the corner. And gasped at the bright colors.
The walls down this hallway were bright green. The ceiling was yellow. The thick carpet under my sneakers was a dark wine-red.
Bump. Bump. Thump.
The colors were so bright, I had to shield my eyes with one hand.
I squinted to the end of the hall. The green walls led to a closed yellow door. The door had a metal bolt against the front.
Thump. Thump.
The sounds were coming from behind the bolted doorway.
I made my way slowly down the hall to the doorway.
I stopped outside the bolted door. “Anyone in there?” I tried to call into the room. But my voice came out in a choked whisper.
I coughed and tried again. “Anyone in there?”
No reply.
Then, another loud bumping sound. Like wood thumping against wood.
“Anyone in there?” I called, my voice a little stronger.
The thumping sounds stopped. “Can you help me?” a man’s voice called from inside the room.
I froze.
“Can you help me?” the man pleaded.
I hesitated for a second. Should I try to help him?
Yes.
I raised both hands to the metal bolt. I took a deep breath and shoved the bolt with all my strength.
To my surprise, it slid easily.
The door was unlocked. I turned the handle and pushed the door open.
I stumbled off-balance into the room and stared in amazement at the figure staring back at me.
“You — you’re real?” I cried.
His cape was twisted, and his mask had rolled down over one eye. But I knew I was staring at The Galloping Gazelle.
“You’re really alive?” I blurted out.
“Of course,” he replied impatiently. “Untie me, kid.” He gazed toward the open door. “You’d better hurry.”
I realized that his powerful arms and legs were tied to the chair. The thumping and bumping had been the sounds of his chair banging against the floor as he had tried to escape.
“I — I can’t believe that you’re here!” I cried. I was so amazed — and so frightened — I didn’t know what I was saying!
“I’ll give you my autograph later,” he said, his eyes still on the doorway. “Just hurry, okay? We’ve got to get out of here. I don’t think we have much time.”
“T-time?” I stammered.
“He’ll be back,” The Galloping Gazelle murmured. “We want to get to him before he gets to us, right, kid?”
“Us??” I cried.
“Just untie me,” The Galloping Gazelle instructed. “I can handle him.” He shook his head. “I wish I could contact my buddies at the League. They’re probably all searching the universe for me.”
Still half dazed, I stumbled across the tiny room to the chair and began working at the ropes. The knots were big and tight and hard to untie. The coarse rope scraped my hands as I struggled to loosen them.
“Hurry, kid,” The Galloping Gazelle urged. “Hey, how did you find the secret headquarters, anyway?”
“I … just found it,” I replied, tugging at
the knots.
“Don’t be modest, kid,” the superhero said in his flat, low voice. “You used your secret cyber-radar powers, right? Or did you use ultra-mind control to read my thoughts and hurry to my rescue?”
“No. I just took the bus,” I replied.
I didn’t really know how to answer him. Did he have me confused with someone else?
Why was I here? What was going to happen to us? To me?
Questions, questions. They flew through my mind as I frantically worked at the heavy ropes. I tried to ignore the pain from the cuts and scrapes to my hands. But it hurt a lot.
Finally, one of the knots slid open. The Galloping Gazelle flexed his muscles and stretched out his powerful chest — and the ropes popped away easily.
“Thanks, kid,” he boomed, jumping to his feet. He adjusted his mask so that he could see through both eyeholes. Then he swept his long cape behind him and straightened his tights.
“Okay. Let’s go pay him a surprise visit,” he said, pulling up the ends of his gloves. He started toward the door, taking long, heavy strides. His boots thundered loudly as he walked.
“Uh … do you really want me to come, too?” I asked, lingering behind the chair.
He nodded. “I know what you’re worried about, kid. You’re worried that you won’t be able to keep up with me because I have dyno-legs and I’m the fastest living mutant in the known universe.”
“Well …” I hesitated.
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “I’ll go slow.” He motioned impatiently. “Let’s get moving.”
I tripped over the tangle of ropes on the floor. Grabbed the chair to catch my balance. Then followed him out into the green-and-yellow hallway.
He turned and began running down the hall. As I started to follow, he became a blue-and-red blur of light — and then vanished.
A few seconds later, he came jogging back. “Sorry. Too fast for you?” he called.
I nodded. “A little.”
He rested a gloved hand heavily on my shoulder. His gray eyes peered at me solemnly through the slits in his mask. “Do you have wall-climbing abilities?” he demanded.
I shook my head. “No. Sorry.”