“Time to dance,” Goldie instructed.
They twirled and stomped across the dining room.
“I don’t see anything,” Val said.
“You will with this.” Goldie pulled a battery-operated lantern out of her bag. She switched the regular lightbulb for a special black-light one. She flicked the lantern on. “Ta-da. Whitening toothpaste plus a black light and you get…”
“Glowing footprints. That’s cool,” Val said.
“Just one more little touch.” Goldie used the brush to write a secret message on the wall.
“What’s next?” Val asked.
“The doors.” Goldie walked to the entrance of the dining room. “These doors were once considered magical because if you opened one, they’d both open. They’re attached with chains and pulleys under the floor.” Goldie demonstrated for Val.
“What do you have planned?” Val asked.
“We’re going to do something like this. We’re going to connect the front door to the back door.” Goldie smiled.
“I think ghosts can float through doors,” Val said. “I know they can go through walls.”
As they stood in the foyer, Goldie took out a spool of fishing line. A breeze blew through the large fireplace, and something rattled inside the chimney. A chill ran down Goldie’s back, but she shook it off.
Goldie and Val ran the fishing line from the top of the front door, across the chandelier, around the grandfather clock, and down the hall to the back door.
“Fishing line is hard to see, especially when it’s dark. That way Zeek won’t know what’s happening when both the doors open at once,” she explained to Val.
Val and Goldie peered inside the kitchen. Ruby nodded as Zeek rattled on about all of his accomplishments. Li looked to be almost asleep.
“Then when I was in second grade, I won first place in a national calculator championship.” That was all Goldie heard Zeek say before she and Val tiptoed away.
Val checked that the fishing line was tight.
“Looks good,” Goldie said. “Now time for ghosts.”
They ran upstairs to the second floor. Goldie opened her bag. She grabbed doll heads, sheets, string, handheld fans, and pulleys.
“These are creepier than ghosts.” Val held up one of the heads.
“Just wait until we’re done.” Goldie showed Val how to create a ghost with her supplies. Then they hung their ghosts with string, which they ran over the pulleys and to the floor.
“Are these trip wires?” Val asked as Goldie zigzagged string across the floor.
“Yep. When Zeek walks down the hall, all these ghosts will drop from the ceiling. It’s going to be great.” She clasped her hands together.
“Goldie!” Ruby called from downstairs.
Goldie and Val rushed to the stairs.
“Hurry up,” Ruby whisper-yelled. “We can’t keep Zeek distracted much longer. And Li is getting hungry. Every five seconds his stomach growls.”
“Almost done.” Goldie gave her a salute.Then she dug through her bag again. “Val, you mix the vampire slime while I place the spooky eyes in the windows.” She gave Val the directions.
“Who knew haunting an inn would be so much work,” Val complained. “Ghosts just have to show up. We have to mix slime, write spooky messages, and attach ghouls to string.”
Goldie used toilet paper rolls and glow sticks to create her creepy eyes. She set them in the cloudy windows on the third floor. The whole time, she felt like someone was watching her. But when she turned around, she was still alone.
When she got back to the second floor, the vampire slime was ready to go. But there was no Val. Goldie put the bucket of slime in a wall air vent on an inclined plane. It would slowly pour into the hallway during the night.
“Goldie.” Val snuck up from behind.
“Good job with the slime, Val. It’s perfect. Where did you go?”
“I think I saw the cat,” Val said, trying to catch her breath.
“You think?” Goldie asked.
“It was in the shadows. But something moved and meowed. I tried to catch it. But it disappeared.”
Goldie shook her head. “It’s an old building, Val. There are lots of creaking noises and drafts.” But no ghost cat. Goldie didn’t say the last part. Her friend looked so hopeful.
“It wasn’t a draft,” Val said. “Why won’t you believe me?”
Goldie ignored the question. “Come on. Let’s get back to the kitchen. Zeek may have bored our friends into a coma by now.” She put an arm around Val’s shoulder. “And if the ghost cat is here, we’ll catch him with the cameras.”
Goldie picked up her duffel bag. She tried to cheer Val up with a joke. “What did the ghost eat for dessert?” she asked.
Val stayed quiet.
“I scream.” Goldie chuckled. “Get it? I scream?”
Val didn’t laugh.
But someone—or something—did.
It came from a guest room. The hairs on Goldie’s arms stood up.
“It’s the comedian! It’s Funny Fred!” Val cheered.
Goldie swallowed hard to keep terror from rising into her throat.
“It’s not the comedian!” Goldie rubbed her arms to get rid of the goose bumps that had sprung up.
Usually, Val ran away from strange noises or any kind of danger, but now she ran toward the room where they heard the laughter.
Val flung open the door to room twenty-seven. Goldie walked up behind her.
The room was empty. Val checked under the bed and in the closet. No ghosts.
“Fred?” she called out. “Where did you go?”
“Look.” Goldie pointed to a large air vent in the wall. A decorative metal grate covered it.
“You think he’s in there?” Val asked. Her face wrinkled.
“No, I think sound is traveling through the air vent. It was probably the gang in the kitchen. Come on, let’s go. There’s no ghost here.”
When they got downstairs to the kitchen, Zeek was still talking, and no one seemed to be laughing.
“By the end of third grade, I’d written two award-winning papers on the effects of electromagnetic waves on fruit flies, then—”
“We’re back,” Goldie interrupted.
“The torture is over!” Ruby jumped up and hugged Val and Goldie like they’d just rescued her from a toxic desert island.
“I’m starving,” Li said. “What kind of kitchen doesn’t have food?” He opened and closed all the cupboards.
“The kind that’s been out of business for years,” Val said.
“Let’s order pizza,” Goldie suggested. She’d packed twenty pounds of gear in her duffel bag but no snacks.
“Butler Phone, you heard her,” Zeek said. “Get me some pizza.”
“Yes, Master Zeek.”
“And some for us, too, please,” Goldie added.
While they waited for the pizza to be delivered, Goldie suggested they check out the dining room.
“Obviously, that would be a good place to eat.” She nodded knowingly to Val.
The Gearheads and Zeek walked down the hall. Ruby turned on the camera that they’d placed by the door. Goldie flicked on the black-light lantern.
“Oh my!” Goldie shrieked, trying her best to sound stunned.
The footprints glowed and so did her secret message on the wall: Get Out! While You Still Can.
“Awesome,” Li said. He tried retracing the steps.
“What?” Zeek spun around and then laughed. “Do you really expect me to believe a ghost wrote that message? And the shoeprints? Ghosts don’t walk.”
“Good point, Master Zeek,” Butler Phone said.
“You can’t scare me. I know ghosts aren’t real. And my dad owes me big-time for w
asting my Saturday with you Gunkheads.”
“It’s Gearheads,” Val corrected him.
“Whatever.”
Goldie sighed. Her first haunting hadn’t gone well. But she still had plenty more.
“I like the footprints, Goldie,” Ruby whispered. “Will you help me put them in my room?”
“Sure.”
A minute later, a car horn blared.
“Must be the pizza,” Goldie said. “That was super quick.”
“They know I get angry if they take too long. I am the son of the mayor.” Zeek and Butler Phone headed to the front door.
Goldie smiled. She just knew this setup would scare them.
Zeek yanked the door open. At nearly the same instant, the back door groaned open, too. Everyone jumped, except Zeek.
“I noticed the fishing line. Who wouldn’t,” he sneered.
Goldie’s heart sank. Maybe she couldn’t convince him the place was haunted.
Zeek stepped out onto the porch to get their dinner, but the pizza delivery guy stood at the road.
“What are you doing?” Zeek asked. “Bring me my pizza.”
“No way. I’m not going near that place.” The delivery guy motioned with his chin at the upper floors of the inn.
The Gearheads rushed out onto the sidewalk to get a better look. They turned to see the glowing eyes that Goldie had placed in the windows.
“That’s cool, too,” Li whispered. “How did you do it?”
“Um…” She hesitated. “Glow sticks and toilet paper rolls. But…um…I only put them on the third floor.” She pointed at the white eyes that came from the middle rooms. They moved and then disappeared.
Zeek, who was still on the porch, continued yelling at the pizza delivery guy. “No tip if you don’t bring me my pizza. And I’m telling my dad.”
“Don’t care!” The delivery guy put the pizza down on the sidewalk.
“I’ll get it,” Li said. He grabbed the box and flipped it open. He pulled out a slice and started eating as he carried it to the porch.
Goldie took a breath. She had goose bumps again, and it wasn’t because of the cool evening air.
“You saw the eyes, didn’t you?” Val said.
Goldie nodded. “There must be an explanation.”
“There is. And it’s simple. Five letters. Begins with a G,” Val said.
“Germs?” Goldie asked.
Val groaned.
“Girls. Glass, like a reflection. You don’t think it was a gator, do you?”
“What is it going to take for you to believe me?” Val huffed. Then she turned and walked back inside.
* * *
After they finished their pizza, they decided it was time to set up their sleeping bags.
“We should split up and cover as much of the inn as possible. We don’t want to miss anything,” Goldie said.
“That’s always a bad idea,” Ruby warned. “Don’t you watch scary movies?”
“I’ll sleep down here with Nacho.” Val unrolled her sleeping bag in the middle of the foyer. “Zeek and Li can bunk on the second floor.”
“Then Ruby and I will stay on the third floor,” Goldie said. She needed the boys to be in a separate room so she could scare Zeek.
“Val, you don’t want to stay with us?” Ruby asked, her voice shaking.
“Nope, Nacho and I will be fine.”
“Okay. If you’re sure.” Goldie gave Nacho a hug, and then tried to give Val one, too. But Val turned away from her.
“Good night,” Ruby said.
Goldie followed Ruby, Li, and Zeek upstairs. She smiled. She still had a couple of things set to scare Zeek.
“Don’t step on the trip wires.” Zeek pointed to the string on the ground. “We don’t want to set off any more of Goldie’s dorky haunted-house contraptions.”
She sighed. Zeek had figured out her ghost puppets.
“We’ll sleep in here,” Li said. “It belonged to Funny Fred. Right?”
Goldie nodded. She didn’t tell them she’d heard laughing from this room earlier. She hoped the mysterious laughter would sound again.
Li and Zeek rolled out their sleeping bags on top of the rug in the comedian’s room. Dust flew through the air. Butler Phone settled onto the nightstand.
“See you in the morning,” Ruby said. She turned on the camera.
Goldie and Ruby left the boys. They carefully stepped over the trip wires and around the vampire slime. It slowly oozed from the air vent.
On the third floor, Ruby turned on another camera. Then they settled into the room supposedly haunted by the Lady in Pink.
“I don’t really want to see a ghost,” Ruby said. “But I’m super curious about the Lady in Pink’s dress. To wear the same thing for all eternity is a commitment. The outfit must be something special.”
Goldie just shook her head.
Goldie and Ruby sat on their sleeping bags. They each held a flashlight. Goldie had to admit, the place was a little spooky at night. But not haunted.
“This inn gives me the creeps.” Ruby hugged her minicomputer to her chest like it was a teddy bear.
“You don’t believe in ghosts, do you?” Goldie asked. Ruby had been quiet on the subject. She knew Val believed in ghosts, and Li wanted ghosts to be real. But Ruby had not taken a side.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Val seems certain, and she doesn’t lie. She might over-react, but she’s always honest.”
“I know.” Goldie frowned. She could engineer contraptions and machines, but she didn’t know what to do when she didn’t believe in the same things as her friends. This was different from an argument. They’d had plenty of arguments. Just last week, Val had said maple syrup and butter were the best toppings for waffles. Goldie had said peanut butter, jalapeños, marshmallow fluff, and sprinkles were the best.
They’d agreed to disagree.
“I guess I’m keeping an open mind about ghosts. Mark me down as a maybe.” Ruby made a check mark in the air with her finger.
“The real problem is that Zeek doesn’t think ghosts are real,” Goldie said. “I can’t believe I have something in common with Zeek Zander!”
“You have something else in common,” Ruby said. “You both know who is haunting the inn. You! He’s on to us.”
“I’m not giving up yet.” Goldie searched through her duffel bag and found a plastic cup, string, a paper clip, and wax.
“What’s this for?” Ruby asked.
“We’re going to make a screaming cup.” She assembled her project and told Ruby to pinch her thumb and index finger together and slide them down the string. It made an awful noise.
Ruby grabbed her ears. “I don’t know if it sounds like a ghost. More like something being strangled and tickled at the same time.”
Goldie dug through her duffel bag again. She grabbed a rubber eraser and a little robot with a one-armed vise that went up and down. She poked a hole in the tip of the eraser, then threaded it through the string. “The eraser will act like our fingers,” she explained to Ruby. Then she used her screwdriver to open the air vent that led to the comedian’s room. Ten minutes later, she had installed an automatic screaming machine. The robot’s vise clamped down on the eraser, moving it back and forth.
Goldie and Ruby tiptoed down the stairs and through the halls, avoiding the trip wires. The door to the comedian’s room was closed. Goldie used her screwdriver again to open an air vent in the hall.
“Be right back,” she said to Ruby. Goldie crawled inside and placed her machine close to the comedian’s room.
Then she wiggled her way back to Ruby.
“I set a timer on the robot. T-minus ten seconds until we scare Zeek into believing in ghosts.”
They counted down in a whisper. The machine a
ctivated. The awful scream echoed through the entire floor of the inn. A chill ran down Goldie’s back. It was worse than nails on a chalkboard.
A moment later, Li ran out of the room.
“What is that?” He looked around with wide eyes.
The screaming machine quieted after a few seconds.
“It was us,” Goldie whispered. She explained what they had done.
“Was Zeek scared?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know.” Li shrugged.
“I bet he’s hiding in his sleeping bag,” Goldie said. “Let’s check.”
Goldie pushed the door open and ran into the room. She did her best to look terrified.
“What was that? Zeek, are you okay? I think we’ve made the ghosts mad by being here.” Goldie spoke quickly.
“Maybe we should leave this haunted inn. I’m too scared,” Ruby added and winked.
But Zeek wasn’t in his sleeping bag. Goldie yanked a small flashlight from her hair and shined it around the room.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Li checked under the beds.
Zeek had disappeared.
A second later, Nacho and Val ran into the room. Nacho went straight to Goldie. She swept him up into a hug.
“What’s going on? Did you see a ghost?” Val asked with a smile.
“No, but Zeek is missing,” Goldie explained.
“He was here a minute ago,” Li said. “Before the scream machine went off.”
“He didn’t run into the hallway,” Ruby added. “We would have seen him.”
There was only one other way out of the room. Li went to the window. It was jammed shut.
“No way he opened this,” Li said.
“Well, he didn’t just disappear,” Goldie said. “We’ll find him.”
“We better or the mayor is going to be really upset,” Val added. “He’ll probably kick us out of Bloxtown.”
“Wait!” An idea popped into Goldie’s head. “We have video.” She pointed to the camera they’d set up in the corner of the room.
Goldie Blox and the Haunted Hacks!_A Stepping Stone Book Page 3