it’S our
turN!
“Ugh! It’s that
dreadful Creepella!”
groaned Tilly.
“Grandfather told
us —” Lilly began.
“— that you ruined his
exhibit!” finished Milly.
“It was an accident!” Creepella protested.
“It’s true,” confirmed Geronimo. “I
stumbled and fell on your grandfather’s flea
theater, but I didn’t do it on purpose. You
see, I am an extremely clumsy rodent. I
apologized profusely.”
“But . . . aren’t you the one —” said Lilly,
dumbfounded.
“— who went to climb —” continued
Milly.
“— Scream Peak?” asked Tilly.
Geronimo blushed from the tip of his
ZIGSLURP!
tail to the tips of his whiskers.
Creepella cut them short. “I absolutely
must ride this roller coaster to figure out
what happened to Mimi. Let me pass!”
The triplets blocked the entrance.
“Don't even think about it!"
“How dare you cut in front of us!"
“It's our turn!"
Stop right there!
It’s an emergency!
An empty coffin pulled up in front of
them. The Rattenbaums scurried onboard
with a triumphant
yelp
. Ziggy tried to
drag his feet, but the triplets yanked him in.
They buckled their seat belts, and the coffin
shot off like a
rocket
, zipping toward
the big skull.
First the coffin zoomed
into the skull. It disappeared into the right
eye, then came through the nose.
Creepella kept her eyes locked on her
three archenemies as they screamed with
delight.
In the coffin’s backseat, Ziggy had many
of his little feet over his eyes. “my poor
little bug bite!
” said Shivereen, shaking
her snout.
The last part of the ride was invisible
from the ground. The little coffin entered
h
i
g
h
u
p
d
o
w
n
the left eye, did t
h
r
ee very fast loops,
and began the
toward the
exit.
Creepella waited patiently for the coffin
to reemerge from the tunnel.
“Ghastly gravestones!” she exclaimed as
soon as it appeared. “It’s just as I feared. . . .”
Inside the coffin was only poor Ziggy the
millipede, his trembling feet still over
his eyes.
Lilly, Milly, and Tilly had disappeared!
* Translation:
Where’d they go?
Whee! We’re flying!
Ziggi zigigi?!?
*
Creepella helped Ziggy scramble
out of the coffin. The little
millipede had a bad case of
the shakes, and Shivereen
stroked his head to calm him.
Creepella wanted to know
more, so she talked to Ziggy in Millipedese.
Ziggy replied,
,” concluded Creepella.
Geronimo looked at them impatiently.
tWiStS aNd
turNS
“So, what did he say?”
“It’s past time you learned to squeak
Millipedese!” Creepella scolded him.
“Ziggy said that he didn’t see anything
because his eyes were shut tight. But when
they entered the skull’s left eye, he felt a
freezing gust, like the breath of a phantom.”
“A phantom?” whispered Geronimo. “Are
you saying there’s a phantom inside the eye
of the roller coaster?”
“I don’t know,” replied Creepella. “But I
intend to FIND OUT!”
Creepella leaped into the coffin, and
Shivereen jumped in beside her.
“No! Creepella, you and Shivereen can’t go
in there alone, it’s far too dangerous!”
Geronimo cried.
He Pulled her by the paw, trying to make
her climb out.
“You’re right, you rotten little pumpkin,”
Creepella agreed. “We shouldn’t go in there
alone.” Faster than the smell of rancid
stew travels, she pulled out a short rope
and tied his paw to her own.
“Creepella? What are you doing?”
sputtered Geronimo.
“We’ll be safe as long as you’re with us!”
Now let’s go!
Creepella said sweetly. “Now LET’S GO!”
The coffin was just starting to move when
Shamley made his way through the crowd,
shrieking like a vampire who’s just
met his first garlic clove.
“You!” he squeaked at Creepella. “Tell
me what happened to my adorable
granddaughters
!”
Creepella looked up at him calmly. “I
don’t know, but I’m about
to find out!”
At that moment,
the coffin
like a hyperactive
hamster on a treadmill.
Shivereen clapped her
paws in excitement.
zoomed
away
she cried as the coffin zigzagged down the
tracks at a supersonic speed.
“Wow! This is better than a trip to the
cemetery!” squealed Creepella. “Don’t
you just love it?”
Geronimo didn’t respond. He had fainted
again.
Shivereen quickly brought him
around with some smelling
salts from her purse. “Look,
Auntie,” she said. “Geronimo
changed colors again.
First he was green, now he’s
YELLOW
!”
“Just like Chef Stewrat’s
famouse Moldy Cheddar
Surprise!” laughed Creepella.
But a moment later, she was serious again.
“We must pay attention! In a couple
seconds, we’ll enter the skull’s
left eye.”
As the coffin whizzed into
the dark tunnel, Geronimo
exclaimed, “It’s so dark in
here, I can hardly see my whiskers
in front of my snout!”
Suddenly, Shivereen and Creepella felt
an icy gust pulling on their fur. A
moment later, they’d been sucked into
an enormouse vortex!
And because Creepella and Geronimo
were attached at the wrist, he was Pulled
into the darkness along with her!
trapped!
Creepella, Geronimo, and Shivereen were
suspended in midair for a moment. Then
they fell into something soft.
“But where are we?” asked Shivereen,
trying to scramble up but
slipping
back down.
“I don’t know. It seems to be . . . a net.
Like the kind trapeze mice use,” exclaimed
Creepella, peering into the darkness around
the
m.
“How is Geronimo?” asked Shivereen.
She began to bounce up and down in
the net.
“He
fainted
. . . again. But I know just
how to wake him up!”
Creepella leaned over her
unconscious friend and untied
the little rope from their paws.
Then she stuck Grandpa
Frankenstein’s box under his snout.
A moment later, Geronimo woke
up with a series of sneezes. Little
colored clouds lit up the space
around them.
In the light of the clouds, Creepella and
Shivereen could see where they’d landed.
There was a net strung in the center of
the structure supporting the roller
coaster’s gigantic skull.
After Geronimo’s fifth and final
sneeze, darkness fell once
more. It was so still, the only
sound was Geronimo’s teeth
chattering in fear.
“H-how do we get down from
here?” he stammered.
Before Creepella could respond, they
heard a loud
C
LICK
, and the net closed
around them!
“
ACHOO!
ACHOO!
ACHOO!”
“Tattered tarantulas, now we’re really
trapped
!” exclaimed Shivereen. She
sounded rather excited about it.
“Shh!” said Creepella. They fell silent,
and then they all heard it: a soft, rhythmic
flutter. The noise seemed to be getting
closer and closer, until it was right next to
the net.
“Wh-who’s there?” squeaked Geronimo.
“Oh, I’d recognize the beat of those wings
anywhere. It’s Bitewing!” said Creepella.
“Hi, Creepella! Hi, Shivereen!” their pet
bat
greeted them.
“Bitewing, how did you find us?” asked
Shivereen.
Bitewing fluttered around the net.
Flap!
Flap!
Flap!
“I didn’t see you come out of the skull, so I
came to find you. I flew into the left eye,
and then I heard your squeaking and saw
the bright clouds. . . .”
“What a good little batty-watty you are!”
cooed Creepella.
But Bitewing wasn’t finished yet. “I have a
surprise for you.”
Creepella reached through the net’s
webbing, and Bitewing dropped something
into her paw.
“Aha! It’s Gasher, the scorpion who
can cut through anything!”
she exclaimed. “He’s one
of Grandpa Frankenstein’s
pesky little monsters.
Gasher can slice through
any cord,” she explained
to Geronimo.
The little monster quickly snipped
through the links of the net. A minute later,
Creepella, Shivereen, and Geronimo landed
on the ground with a thud. Creepella stored
Gasher in her pocket.
While Creepella was brushing off her
dress, Bitewing screeched, “Don’t you have
something for me, Creepella?”
“Of course I do, my darling! I always have
some of your favorite spicy worm candies
with me,” said Creepella, tossing them
into the air. “Here’s a reward for a
job well done.”
Bitewing caught them in
midair.
“
Y
u
m
!
M
y
f
a
v
o
r
i
t
e
!
”
Creepella, Geronimo, Shivereen, and
Bitewing inspected every inch of the
black tent that covered the skull’s base,
looking for a way out.
After a few minutes, Shivereen
said, “Auntie, look! There’s a
rip
here!”
The little group scurried
through the hole till they
reached the outside of the tent.
“Finally!” sighed Geronimo.
“But . . . where are we?”
“At the back of the Misguided
the SearCh
for
ClueS
Ride,” replied Creepella. “Let’s take a look.”
“OUCHIE!” Geronimo cried,
hopping on one paw. “Something
poked me!”
Creepella hurried over to
him. Stuck in her friend’s
paw was a
fur-pin
engraved with a cockroach
and the initials
T
.R.
“Wh-what?” asked Geronimo.
“We’ve found traces of the triplets!”
Creepella said triumphantly.
“What does this have to do with the
triplets?” Geronimo asked.
Creepella rolled her eyes. “Geronimo-mo!
These
initials
don’t tell you anything?”
Geronimo tugged at his whiskers.
“Hmm. ‘T.R.’ Does it mean Thomas
Rattola, the famouse poet?”
Creepella shook her snout.
“Hmmmm . . . how about Theodora
Rattolucci, the great film director?
“Try again, you silly scatterbrain!”
snickered Bitewing.
“I’ve got it
!
” said Geronimo. “Timothy
Ratting, the notorious horror novelist!”
“Geronimo, you’re more clueless than a
baby kitten! It stands for Tilly Rattenbaum,
of course!” Shivereen yelled in exasperation.
“Of course! Why didn’t I think of it
before?” Geronimo said, smacking his
snout. “But what in the name of string cheese
is Tilly’s
fur-pin
doing here?”
“The triplets must have passed through
here,” said Creepella. “We must scour this
area for clues!”
They turned their snouts to the ground
around them. A few feet away, Creepella
spotted a shiny object. It was a barrette with
the initials L.R. “Lily Rattenbaum! We
are on the right track!”
“Look there! Near the
mousehole
!”
Creepella picked up a ribbon labeled M.R.
“It’s Milly's. Very good. Let’s go down!
“Go down? In what sense?” asked
Geronimo, looking worried.
“In the sense of underground,” replied
Creepella decisively. “We all have to go
down this mousehole!”
On the mousehole were the words
DO
NOT OPEN!
“The triplets must have gone down
here. We have to follow them,” exclaimed
Creepella. “Bitewing, you go
first
. You
can lead us through the dark .”
Bitewing zoomed into the hole. “Come
on! There’s a !”
Creepella and Shivereen descended one
after the other. Geronimo glanced at the
dark passage and gulped. He was afraid
to follow, but on the other paw, he didn’t
want to be left alone.
ladder
a trim?
Geronimo finally followed them into the
mousehole.
The ladder led to a damp and narrow
corridor. The three rodents groped their
way along it, following a faint light in the
distance. It was coming from a door that
stood ajar. Without any hesitation, Creepella
threw it open wide.
“Where are we?” asked Geronimo.
The walls of the room were covered with
mirrors of every size and shape.
It looked like an abandoned
funhouse.
“Wow! This is
fabumouse!” exclaimed
Shivereen, admiring
herself in a mirror
that warped her
reflection.
While she and Geronimo had fun
MAKING FACES at each other,
Creepella inspected their surroundings
more closely.
She picked up a bottle of fur
dye and a curler from the ground.
“Hmm . . . interesting.”
At that moment Geronimo, who
was hopping up and
down in front of a
mirror
, lost his balance
and bumped into the wall.
“Yee-ouch!” he
exclaimed.
The mirror covering
that part of the wall
turned with a click,
revealing a
hi
d
d
e
n
door.
“Well done! You did something right
for a change!” cheered Creepella, hurrying
to open the door.
Behind it, they found a
room
full of boxes,
mannequins, armchairs, and newspapers. In
the center, on a pile of magazines, stood an
enormouse glass jar.
“Hey, there’s something inside it!”
Shivereen pointed out.
Lying on a bed of algae inside of the jar
was a mysterious crab with big red claws,
sleeping soundly.
“But why is there a crab in a jar in this
abandoned storeroom?” asked Geronimo.
Creepella Von Cacklefur #6: Ride for Your Life! Page 3