You run home just as it starts to rain. Jake and Emma argue over the plastic ring--and whose fault it was for taking it--but you still think about the sad little ghost. Maybe you'll know someday, but today is...
THE END
100
You step up to the lattice and grab the wood, giving it a cautious tug. It seems sturdy enough.
"Hurry up!" Emma cries.
You take a deep breath and step up into the first opening. Reaching above you, you pull yourself one foot into the air. Nothing bad happens. Hey, this might work! you think to yourself. You begin to climb in earnest, one hand or foot at a time. It's just like climbing a rock wall at the gym, except for the twisted, curving vines that scrape against your fingers. You pick up speed, rushed by the sound of Mrs. Hollencamp's Yorkie on the side of the house, evidence that she draws near.
As you near the top you see a balcony to your right. There's a flowerpot with something shiny on it. Stopping for just a breath, you squint in its direction.
"What are you waiting for?" Emma demands. She's right below your feet on the lattice.
You continue climbing, reaching the window. Not wanting Emma to scold you again, you swiftly open the window and jump into the dark room.
Hide ON PAGE 105
101
Not caring how disgusting it might be, you reach into the toilet and wrap your fingers around the object. Its glowing subsides as you remove it from the water and you discover that it's a pearl, perfectly round and beautiful.
"Ohhh!" Emma coos.
"Holy potatoes," Jake says. "It's bigger than my baseball!"
You rotate it on your fingertips, admiring the pink luster.
A noise in the hall jerks you all back to attention. The monster had been long forgotten while you'd examined your treasure. Behind you the window is only one foot wide, not large enough to squeeze through. You're trapped!
The sound draws closer. Jake begins to shake. Emma looks to you but you're all out of ideas. The shape slides into view.
"Oh hello, kids!"
"Mr. Goosen!" Emma cries. "Thank goodness!"
He chuckles. "Sorry to sneak up on you, just wanted to make sure you were okay. Have you--ohh, the Queensland Pearl."
"The what?"
"I found that scuba diving in the great barrier reef in 1972, off the coast of Australia. Ran into some trouble along the way. You should have seen the octopus that tried to stop me!"
The three of you look at one another, eyes wide.
"Well, remember my rule: just one item from the house. But that's an excellent choice for a prize. Very well done! It's getting late, you had better get back to your homes."
None of you argue; your small taste of adventure was enough. You follow Mr. Goosen out of the house--thankfully without seeing any sign of the monster--and back outside.
You might have found better treasure, but you're happy to be safely away. For now, this is...
THE END
102
You point to the crates. "Those are far more exciting."
The three of you approach. The crates are enormous, about three feet tall and just as wide. They're made of old wooden boards nailed together. Like something out of Indiana Jones.
Jake bends down and runs a hand over the surface of the first crate. Underneath the layer of dust are printed letters in black ink:
- T - R - E - A -
"Aww, the rest is faded," Jake says. "But it looks like 'TREASURE'." He slides over to the second crate and does the same thing:
- S - T - R - I - C -
"Why didn't they use better paint?" Jake asks stubbornly.
"That just means they're old," you tell him. "That's a good thing. Older means more valuable!"
"Oh, yeah!" Jake realizes.
Emma moves her flashlight from one crate to the other. "So which one do we choose?"
To open the first crate, HEAD TO PAGE 96
To open the second crate, TURN TO PAGE 72
103
"I do not want to see what's in the fridge," you say, walking toward the pantry. The door creaks as you open it. You flick the lightswitch on the outside but nothing happens. Thankfully the window in the kitchen provides some light for you to see.
It's large enough to walk inside, so that's exactly what you do. Shelves line three walls, filled with sacks and boxes of food. Jake and Emma enter behind you.
You reach for a sack of rice when one of the boxes begins to shake. You hear the rattle of food inside, when suddenly a white mist forms behind it. The mist coalesces together and moves into the middle of the pantry...
...and forms into the shape of a floating little girl.
"HI!" she says with a strange, echoing voice. "MY NAME'S ELIZABETH!"
You stifle a scream as the ghost floats in front of you. Emma's eyes are wide, like she doesn't believe what she sees either.
"Tell me my birthday!" the ghost demands. "You'd better know it..."
To guess a random date, GO TO PAGE 49
If you have the pool cue, you can try to hit her ON PAGE 104
To run away, FLEE TO PAGE 118
104
You still have the pool cue from the billiards room. You grip it like a baseball bat and swing at the apparition.
It passes right through her.
"I'm a ghost," the little girl explains. "You can't hit a ghost."
Her mood changes from playful to angry. "You three are mean. I don't want to play with you. I want you to go."
"Okay!" Jake sputters. "We'll go! We promise!"
But the door slams closed behind you. You're in nearly total darkness now, with only a sliver of light showing underneath the door. The ghost girl begins to moan sorrowfully.
Something heavy hits you in the back of the neck. More things fall to the ground and you realize it's the bags and boxes of food, tumbling off the shelves. Jake cries out as something strikes him.
What are you going to go? GO TO PAGE 114
105
Your eyes are still adjusting to the dim light when Emma falls into the room behind you, followed by Jake. Emma closes the window speedily but softly, making as little noise as possible.
The three of you crowd your faces around the window.
After a few moments Mrs. Hollencamp appears. Her little Yorkie, named Princess, is almost invisible, with the leash disappearing into the tall grass. The old woman looks around the back yard as if second guessing what she'd heard. She leads the Yorkie onto the deck, too close to the house for you to see. But you can hear her footsteps on the hollow wood dwindle as she goes around the other side of the house.
"Nice thinking, Emma," Jake says. "I didn't take you for an acrobat, climbing walls!"
Emma smiles but looks embarrassed.
Jake turns his gaze to the room, eyes wide and excited. "Let's start this treasure hunt!" he says, rubbing his hands together.
Something brushes against your back, even though both of your friends are in front of you. For a second you think you hear something whisper birthday in your ear. You spin around, pulling your arms close to your body protectively.
Emma and Jake swivel their heads toward you. "What's wrong, Mike?"
"You guys didn't hear that?" you ask.
Emma says, "No..."
A shiver goes down your spine. Your friends are looking at you like you're crazy. "Nevermind," you say. "Let's just look around."
Explore the room ON PAGE 47
106
"...yeah, let's take a look at the piggy bank," you agree.
You cross the room, pointedly ignoring the cradle that continues moving at the edge of your vision. The piggy seems unremarkable, made of smooth porcelain and with a slot on the top. "Give it a shake," Jake suggests.
You oblige him. Hundreds of tiny objects, presumably coins, clink around inside.
To smash the piggy bank, FLIP TO PAGE 134
If you've changed your mind, try a different room ON PAGE 117
107
You climb
the vines and lattice, ignoring that you're now two-and-a-half stories off the ground. Darkness has fully fallen, leaving each grasp and step dangerously blind. The wind is whipping your jeans around your ankles and your shirt around your waist. You feel around for each hand-hold, praying that it doesn't send you to your doom.
Finally your hand runs out of room to grab as you reach the attic window. It's slightly larger than a pizza, without any glass. It's completely open to the elements, but dark and foreboding inside. Distant lightning illuminates the inside for brief photographs of time.
"What do you see?" Jake calls from below. "Can you fit?"
Honestly? You're not sure. The only way to find out is to climb a little farther and give it a try.
You take another step up, reaching inside the window. Your shoulders press against the frame. You place your hands on the inside wall and give a burst of strength. Your shoulders squeeze through and you rocket into the room.
Your eyes take a few moments to adjust in the near-perfect darkness. There are large objects all around, looming over you. What could they be?
"Mike?" you hear Emma's voice drift up. "Mike? What is it?"
You don't want to be alone. "Come on up," you call down to them.
Wait for your friends ON PAGE 132
108
"The birthday card under the bed was to Mary," you say. "So your birthday must be May 14."
"Everyone always guesses her birthday," she says sadly. "Nobody ever remembers mine."
"I remembered," you say with a smile, although you wouldn't have known it if she hadn't give you two choices.
She smiles back up at you. "Yes! You did!" Without warning she shoots out of the fur coat and spreads her arms in a big hug. You feel a tingling, cold feeling as she passes through you. "Oh well. Maybe I'll hug you some other time. See you in another life, buddy!" she says before disappearing through the ceiling of the closet.
Whew, well at least that was over. You turn to leave when you see one of the shoe boxes on the ground glowing again, the same yellow light as before.
"Hmm."
Find out what's in the box ON PAGE 109
109
You bend down to slide the shoe box away from the wall, to get a better look before you do anything. It's beige colored and has no markings on the outside. The kind of box you'd find in your mom's closet.
Fearlessly, you pull the lid off the top.
A rectangular shape sits inside, about as long as a paperback book, but thinner. It's like a three-dimensional trapezoid, with diagonal sides instead of vertical.
And it's gold. Solid, glowing, gold. You pick it up. It's heavy, far heavier than you would expect of an object that size.
"Dude, what are you--" Jake says as he comes down the stairs with Emma, but he cuts off as you turn around with the gold in your hand. "DUDE."
"Ahh, the Bodyguard Bar," comes a voice from behind you.
"Mr. Goosen!" Emma exclaims.
His eyes are focused on the gold bar. He steps forward and reaches for it, but then draws back his hand. "President Eisenhower let me take a bar of gold out of Fort Knox."
"Why would he let you do that?" Jake asked.
"It was the least he could do after I saved his life!" Mr. Goosen says. "That was during my four years as a member of the Secret Service. I was much quicker back then!"
You want to ask Mr. Goosen more, but it's getting late and he ushers you all outside, though he never actually touches you. He disappears back inside and the three of you run home before it starts to rain.
Your parents don't believe where you got the bar, though the serial number on the side checks out. It's worth thousands of dollars! It's a pretty good haul, and better than you expected when you went inside the House on Hollow Hill. Unfortunately, that means it's now...
THE END
110
You sprint across the room, pulling Emma behind you. Multi-colored balls whip just above your head, forcing you to duck to avoid being struck. The ghost--what else could it be?--continues screaming as you dart through the doorway and into the hall. Jake tosses his cue on the ground as he follows.
"This way!" you say, picking a direction at random. You run to the end of the hall and stop at a door, practically throwing your body through as you turn the knob. When Jake and Emma are inside you slam it behind you.
Your ears perk up. The sound of screaming slowly diminishes, as if its disappearing into the distance. After a few moments it's completely silent.
Emma looks at you. "What was that?"
"It sounded like a little girl," Jake says. "An angry little girl."
"Whatever it was, it sounds like it didn't follow us," you say. You turn away from the door. "It looks like we're in the kitchen."
Explore the kitchen ON PAGE 56
111
She opens the box and starts digging through, pulling out what look like pieces of paper. You reach inside and grab a stack. "Oh, they're letters," you say, noticing the mailing addresses on the front.
"Not just any letters," Emma says. "Old letters. See the stamps on the corner? They say 1942."
You open one, removing the note inside. It's written on faded yellow paper, in a long, cursive hand. The writing takes up the entire page and the back side.
"They're all addressed to the same person," Jake says. "Who is Olivia Helmsworth?"
A deep, foreboding voice answers you: "My wife." The sound echoes throughout the attic.
"Who... who's there?" Emma asks.
You sense a trembling in the floor.
Uh oh. This is probably the end. GO TO PAGE 125
112
You wrap both hands around the bundled doll and gently begin to lift it.
Your heart stops as the crib stops rocking, and there's a sudden noise:
"Ma-ma! Ma-ma!"
The three of you jump, but then it becomes obvious that you squeezed too hard and activated the doll. At least your friends jumped too!
Holding the doll over your shoulder with both hands, you look back inside the crib. It's completely empty.
"Where is it?" you ask. "I thought for sure the baby was the right answer!"
"Dude," Jake says, pointing at the doll.
You turn it around. On the back of the doll is a paper note, pinned to the blue blanket.
"CODE: 1 - 4 - 2"
Emma cries, "It's the safe code!"
Gently placing the doll back where you found it, you rush back into the office and approach the safe. Like before, you carefully hug the wall to slide around the gaping hole in the floor, where you can see the smashed piano from earlier. "Be careful," Emma says. "Don't screw it up!"
What a note of confidence, huh?
Try the safe ON PAGE 62
113
"I'm not sure what the riddle means," you say, "but my dad keeps all his valuables in his bedroom. Let's go check there."
You walk down the hall and into the Master Bedroom. A king sized four-post bed occupies the entire far wall. An antique dresser is to the left, with a mirror resting against the wall on top. There's a pile of clothes in the corner between two windows.
"So... where'd your dad keep his valuables?" Jake asks.
You go to the dresser and check in the top drawer, ignoring the puff of dust that kicks up. Completely empty. "This is usually where he hides stuff."
Jake walks over and peers inside, giving you a face.
"What about the bed?" Emma asks.
"What about it?"
"Well, you rest your head on the pillow," she says. "The riddle was: 'The path to what you THINK is most precious, is underneath what is TRULY most precious.' Your head is the most important part of your body, so underneath would be under your pillow..."
Since you don't have a better idea, look under the pillow ON PAGE 116
114
Desperately, you throw your shoulder against the pantry door. The wood creaks but does not budge.
You try a second time, and then a third. Your shoulder ache
s and you eventually give up.
"Mike, I'm scared!" Emma calls. The heavy bags and boxes continue raining down on them. Although you cannot see, you can feel the items flying in the room. It's like you're in a tornado of grocery items!
You huddle on the ground and cover your head protectively. Eventually the torrent might end, but for now you're in a whirlwind nightmare that signals...
THE END
115
The girl begins to weep, a soft, pitiful sound.
"Aww, there there," you say, trying to sound comforting. "I'd like to get to know you. What is your birthday?"
She ignores you and the wailing increases. You still can't see, but you feel the coats whipping around you violently.
"Mary, please!"
The closet feels like the inside of a tornado, zippers and fur slapping at your face. You crouch down on the ground and cover your head and ears. Soon you begin to scream, joining your voice to Mary's.
Your friends find you like that some time later.
"Dude, calm down," Jake says.
You open your eyes to the dim light of the hallway. You scramble out of the closet and look back, but everything appears normal now.
The House on Hollow Hill Page 7