Chapter 5: On The Run

My mind played the dream over and over, bouncing around in my head. Why did I dream that? Why...? The question stuck in my head. Why in the dream would Zach and Hannah call me such...horrible names? They would never do that unless they are my friends. But I don't believe that they are, considering what I told Stine after I had that massive panic attack, who also returned that feeling towards me.

A tear came down my cheek, and luckily nobody saw it since it's on the other side of my face which is towards the window. I...actually wanted to get away from these people. Except, I can't do that at all. I have help stop these monsters. Even that wooden dummy that wanted me... to make me panic even more. To me, Slappy is the most evil monster in all the Goosebumps series, knowing what he's capable of.

I rested my head on my hand, closing my eyes. I didn't fall asleep this time in case the dream comes back. And if I told Stine about my dream... he'll just call me crazy. In fact, maybe I am crazy. No way nobody will call me cruel names, which are all lies. Lies!

Another tear. Don't cry, I ordered myself. Whatever you do not cry. Think happy things... Oh, what's the point? Nothing makes me happy anymore. All thanks to those who made it go away. I've been through so much that...there had been some days where I just wanted to...be gone, as in not being around anymore. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, think on what I just mentioned. What do people do most of the time when they think that they'll never be happy again? If you answered correctly...well...great job, because a lot of people in my shoes do it every, single year. And I might be next...

Inside the car, heading towards the high school had been pretty quiet. A couple of times, I thought I was the only one in the car, and when I opened my eyes, everyone was still there. Why can't I be at home sleeping? That's a thing I wanted to do. Plus, when we stop this monster invasion, I'll just...leave them and don't have to see them anymore.

I went to close my eyes, when Zach said something. "I'm going to call my mom and warn her about the monsters," he broke the silence, taking his phone out of his hoodie pocket. He was about to dial his mom's number when he realized something. "I don't know what's going on with my phone." He raised his phone as Champ rolled down his window since he's not in the middle of the backseat this time, getting some fresh air. "I can't get reception," Zach stated frustrated.

I looked at his phone, seeing that it has no bars. "Do you have it on data?" I asked.

"No. Why?" he replied, raising a brow at me, lowering his phone.

I held out my hand. "Give me your phone," I requested. He handed his phone to me. "If I put it on data, maybe it'll work," I told him. I went on his network settings and found the data. I turned it on, then raised it in front of me. Nope. No bars. "Sorry. Here." I handed his phone back to him. "I thought it'll work..."

"It's okay," he sighed, tucking his phone back in his pocket, knowing that his phone is now useless. "I just don't know why my phone isn't working."

"Slappy's taken down the cell-phone towers…that's what I do..." Stine spoke in a mysterious voice. "He's cutting us off... Isolating us..." That's when we heard thumping on the roof of the car, like someone is on it.

"W-What was that?" Champ stuttered. There was more thumping, until it stopped, and hand prints showed on the front window of the car.

There was also an annoying giggle and Stine groaned. "Ugh, it's the Invisible Boy, he's a menace," he griped as we heard the annoying thing crawling back onto the roof of the car.

Then there was a loud slap coming from Champ's face. "Ow!" He raised his hand to where he got slapped, and I knew how it felt to get...hit. Suddenly, to our horror, Champ was being pulled halfway out of the car. "Help! Help me! Help!" Zach and Hannah quickly grabbed him, trying to keep him in the car, and as I went to help, I saw that his tie was being pulled by the invisible monster. I tried to hit it, but with no success.

"Ha-ha, ha-ha." The Boy began laughing, and it was so annoying.

"Shove him out the window. Roll up the window," Stine ordered as he continued driving.

"He's got his tie!" Zach yelled back in a frantic voice.

"Help me, he won't let go of me," Champ continued to cry out. I kept trying to hit the monster, but it wasn't easy since he's, well...invisible. "Help me!" he cried, getting more panicky. I even tried to shove the thing off of him.

The Boy laughed. "Help me, he won't let go," he mimicked, mocking the teen's voice. God, not only that he has annoying laugh, but he also has annoying voice. "Let go, let go," he mocked again, thinking this whole scenario is a joke.

"Let go of him, you obnoxious thing!" I shrieked, starting to freak out since I'm having a hard time getting him off the awkward teen. I looked over at Stine. "Step on it!" I hollered.

Stine look over at us, seeing our struggle. "Hold on." He slammed on the gas pedal and all of us flung back into our seats, hearing the Boy fly off the car.

"Ahhh!" Then we heard him land on the ground. "Not cool!" he cried out from the distance.

Stine looked over at us. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Champ said.

"For sure," Zach nodded, panting.

"Yeah... " I then noticed something up ahead. "Wait… Wait, look out!" I warned, pointing up to what I was seeing.

"Whoa!" Stine immediately saw what I was pointing at just in time, which is a light pole on the road, swerving away from it, before hitting something with the front of his car, making us flung forward then back. He looked at his daugher. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" she answered, nodding her head.

Stine looked over at us again. "Everyone okay?" We all nodded. "It came out of nowhere…" He noticed his daughter looking up, and he did the same, with us looking up slowly as well. Something began to stand up. Something huge and tall and green. Once it stood all the way up, it peered its head in the car, and all of us let out terrified screams.

"I don't remember writing about a giant praying mantis!" Stine declared, realizing what it was now. The mantis reared back and spit on the car, the saliva getting all over the front window. "Right, now I remembered. Its from A Shocker On Shock Street…" he recalled.

"Get us out of here!" I cried. Stine turned on the car, shifted the gear, and turned on the windshield, cleaning the spit off the front window. "What are you doing?!" I exclaimed.

"Well, I can't drive if I can't see," he argued. Good point.

However, Zach didn't want to stand around. "Just go!" he yelled, hitting Stine's seat. "Forget about cleaning off the saliva off your car and just go!"

Right away, Stine back the car up, turning it around and started driving away as the mantis chased us into town.

Champ's mouth dropped open as we saw the giant bug going after us. "Oh, my God!" he declared as we saw it smash into a building, making it fall apart from the impack, flipping two cars out of the way, and that's when we all started yelling at Stine as it gained towards us.

"Watch out!"

"Turn left!"

"Stop driving straight!"

"He's catching up!"

"Step on it!"

"Turn right!"

"Does someone else want to drive?" Stine hollered over the commotion, getting fed up. "Cause I'll pull over right now." He turned to the left and we all screamed when we saw the praying mantis in front of us, raising its leg, and Stine quickly avoided it as it smash the road as we quickly turned to a Supermarket.

"Oh!" Zach hit his forehead on the car ceiling as we bumped over one of the things that cars parked in front of.

Stine parked the car. "Into the store, hurry," he urged, getting out of the car with us getting out as well, going inside the store just in time to see the praying mantis walked over to the car, picking it up and ripped open the roof, and not see us there anymore.

Champ looked over at Stine. "Why'd you have to come up with something so freaky?" he asked, watching the mantis.

Stine shrugged his shoulders, raising a brow. "I just have a knack for it, I guess..." The mantis dropped his car. "Oh no. My Wagoneer," he winced, seeing his car was now destroyed. "I have such low mileage on it..."

"And I bet it was a nice car, too," I added.

"It was," he replied.

"How far are we from the high school?" Zach asked.

"Not too far," Hannah replied, walking away with Zach right next to her, and I saw Stine raised his brow again, only suspiciously this time. "We can cut right through the cemetery," she told him.

"I'm sorry, a cemetery?" he questioned, not understanding what Hannah is saying.

"God, relax. The high school's just past the woods." Just as she took another step, her father stopped her, grabbing her shoulder.

"Wait, how do you know that?" he said, getting more suspicious.

"Uh, sometimes I get a little stir-crazy and go exploring..." Hannah explained timidly towards her dad, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

"When?" he questioned further, his attitude changing wanting to know more about her secret.

"At night… after you go to bed," she confessed.

Stine pointed at her. "You're grounded."

Hannah scoffed and rolled her eyes. "That is so unfair," she complained.

"No, it's fair."

"Guys, you're bringing good points…" Zach spoke up. "But let's keep moving while you argue." He then turned and walked away with Hannah right by his side.

I looked back at Stine, who is shaking his head in disappointment. "Sneaking off in the middle of the night with strange boys."

"Unbelievable," Champ agreed.

"Shut it." Stine began walking with us right behind him, almost passing by the sodas when Champ spoke up.

"Hey, hey, do you have a dollar I could borrow?" he asked.

"What? No," Stine returned, stopping at the sodas.

"Why?" I replied.

"I'm parched."

"Well, just take one. I'm sure they'll understand," Stine told him, gesturing his hands at the different types of sodas.

"Really? Ha!" Stine rolled eyes as Champ went over to the sodas, figuring out what to pick. "Let's see…" he began. "Lemonade... grape... or strawberry...?"

"Oh, good God, man." Stine grabbed one of the sodas, not wanting to waste any time waiting for the kid to pick out a drink. "Here. Orange." He shoved the bottled drink into the teen's hand, then walked away as Champ smiled. He walked with him and I was about to do the same when the voice began talking to me again.

Why are you still with them? it asked, sounding irritated. You have NO friends, so you should just go home now.

Why? I narrowed my eyebrows, staring down at the floor.

Because I said so. Do you remember what happened during your childhood? When those brats pretended to be your friends?

Yeah… And also, I thought about leaving them after the monster invasion in this town.

Well, get away from those fools, right now. Besides, your worthless and you're nothing, the voice insulted, getting angry. Just go home and never come back to them, since they're only PRETENDING to be your stupid friends, you fool.

Fine… I'll go.

Good, cause Slappy would have you in his wooden hands.

Gee, thanks for reminding me. I then went down the aisle.

What are you doing? the voice exclaimed.

Ignoring it, I caught up with Stine and Champ, hearing Zach talking to Hannah. "I don't know what I was thinking. There is more going on then in New York." He noticed her looking at him, but not into his eyes. "What?" he asked and they both stopped.

"Uh, you cut yourself," she answered.

He looked worried when she mentioned his injury. "Is it bad?"

"Uh, yeah." She kept on looking at him, licking her thumb. "It's really bad..."

He pointed at himself. "Is my face messed up?" Why would he asked that?

"Yeah. Big time." She smirked at him, cleaning his cut. "You look exactly the same," she said smiling up at Zach, who also returned the same feeling. I wanted to feel that way, too, but I can't. I can't smile anymore.

Then we heard something, and Zach and Hannah walked over to the source of the noise with the rest of us coming up to them. Once we got to where they were, Zach held out his hand as if to stop us.

Peering around the corner, all of us saw a wolf. No, a werewolf over at the meat section. It grabbed one of the frozen meats, gnawing on it, trying to eat it.

While all of us stayed quiet, not wanting the creature to see us, we then heard a fsst sound, breaking the silence, and we all turned our heads quickly to see Champ had opened up his soda that he was caring.

"Really?" I mouthed, not wanting the werewolf to see us. "You have to open it up just now?" I can't believe he did that.

Before he could answer, we quickly ran back to the other end as I was with Zach and Stine, while Champ is with Hannah. Zach gestured Hannah and Champ to go right, and we went in the opposite direction.

The three of us went to another aisle. "Why would Champ do that?" I whispered to Zach. "He totally blew our cover," I complained.

"I know," he answered. That's when we saw Stine pick up a can of body spray, and started spraying all over himself. "What are you doing?" Zach asked.

"Yeah, why are you putting on body spray?" I questioned.

"That's The Werewolf Of Fever Swamp, he can smell my scent," he explained. He continued to spray himself, even spraying the stuff in the air, walking through it, and did one more.

"Is it working?" I asked him once he stopped.

He sniffed under his arm. "No, it's not working." He tossed the can at Zach, who caught it in his hand. "I have to hide." He then ran somewhere to hide.

Zach put the can back on the shelf with the others. "Come on, Hazel." He began to walk away, only I didn't move, looking at the body sprays, wondering why it didn't cover up Stine's scent. "Hazel, let's go," he gestured, grabbing the sleeve of my shirt, remembering that I don't like to be touched.

We walked over to where the pet stuff are at with Hannah and Champ right behind us as we peaked around the aisle where the dog toys are at. There, we saw Stine underneath the table of oranges, being very still as possible, the werewolf just over his head.

It licked his face, drool dripping out of its mouth. The drool landed on Stine's forehead, slipping down on the side of his nose. He tried to shake it off, but it stuck there.

"Shh." Zach put his index finger to his lips. "No, no, no." He signaled him to stay quiet, only Stine shook his head, trying to get the drool off him.

Hannah looked down at Zach. "Do something," she urged, knowing her dad was at his limit.

Looking at the toys, I grabbed a rubber turkey leg. "Here," I whispered very softly. "Throw it and the werewolf will go after it," I instructed towards Zach, taking it out of the package.

Nodding his head at my idea, he took the rubber toy and, standing up slowly, he threw it as hard as he can. We heard it squeak on the floor and the werewolf went after it.

"Come on, come on." Zach waved his hand, motioning Stine to get out of his hiding spot. Stine spit out the drool that had got into his mouth, and crawled out from underneath the table of oranges, making is way towards us, standing back up. "Come on, go, go, go," Zach said, after seeing the werewolf looking at us and figured out the rubber turkey leg is a fake, and it began chasing after us.

"He's on our tail," Stine said. "Go," he commanded. I looked up to see the werewolf running on top of the freezer, and Champ let out a scream.

"Go! He's right behind us!" Zach cried out. I grabbed one of the tall carts, throwing it on the ground that was filled with food cans, making the werewolf trip over it, hitting his shoulder where the vegetables are at. "Come. Go, go!" he hollered as we all kept running.

Stine ran backwards, smiling. "Hahaha," he laughed, seeing that the werewolf had slowed down. "Haha- Oh." He fell right into the shopping cart filled with food and Zach grabbed the handle with both hands, looking back, and I saw the animal recover, shaking its body like a real dog would do. "I'm stuck," Stine grunted. "Help me get out." But Zach started pushing the cart, the author still in the basket. "What are you doing?"

"There's no time!" Zach answered.

"Just get me out of here."

"Gotta go. There's no time," he repeated, still pushing the cart.

"I said get me out-" Stine started to protest again and me and him saw the werewolf going after us. "Oh, no. Keep going. He's chasing us," he realized, understanding what Zach was telling him now, the werewolf barking at us.

"I'm going as fast as I can." Zach looked back with a frantic look on his face. Stine picked up a bag of marshmallows, whistled, and threw it the wild monster, only for it to throw it aside and continued to bark. The three of us saw Champ and Hannah over at the door, and Zach hollered towards them. "Just go. We're right behind you."

"Okay!" Champ responded as he and Hannah ran out the door. I grabbed a can of peas that was also in the shopping cart and threw it at the werewolf's nose. It yelped in pain, stopping for a second.

"Ahh! Oh!" I turned to see that the cart had tipped over to where the chips are at as he and Zach fell on the floor.

"Come on, we gotta go," I exclaimed, urging them to stand back up. "Get up. Get up." I looked back at the werewolf. Zach helped Stine off the floor as the three of us ran towards the door.

"Come on, come on." Hannah motioned her hands quickly.

"Let's go, guys." Champ also did the same, urging us towards the exit.

"Come on, come on, come on," Hannah continued to say, and we quickly got out of the store and Stine slammed the door shut, locking it up.

"Ha!" He walked towards with a victorious smile, proud of what he did. "Let's see him get through that," he declared. Then there was a loud bang sound coming from the door that he had locked. Then another one.

"Go, go! Run, run!" I yelled, knowing what's going to happen next, and we all ran down the ramp when we heard the door burst open, flying onto the pavement. I looked back to see the werewolf barking, jumping over the railing, going after us.

Running to the other side of the store, we saw another door. Champ grabbed it and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't. "It's lock," he told us.

"This way." Just as we were about to follow Stine, the werewolf was suddenly in front of us, growling, its claws scratching on the large trucks that bring food to the store. Stine held his arms out as we all backed up towards the wall of the building.

The werewolf stopped and let out a roar when a car came out of nowhere, hitting it and it sailed into the dumpster, whimpering as the lid fell and trapped the werewolf inside.

"I'm okay." The airbag flew out of the steering wheel at the person who ran into the monster. "I'm still okay!" As the person got out of the car, I saw a familiar woman that has white fur all over her shirt and in her hair.

"Who is that?" Hannah asked.

"That's my aunt Lorraine," Zach told her.

"Oh, my gosh." Lorraine went over to where she hit the creature. "I think I just killed that bear," she informed us with worry.

"It was actually a werewolf," I corrected her.

She gave me a confused look, squinting her eyes. "...what?"

"Aunt Lorraine, what are you doing here?" Zach walked up to his aunt as all of us came over to her.

"This is the back of my store," she explained, and I looked over to see a sign that has her name on it, indicating that she works here. "I couldn't get ahold of your mother or the cops or anyone..." Her voice trailed off when she saw Stine in front of her. "Hello," she greeted, her face turning pink.

"Uh, hi. Hello," Stine stuttered, his face doing the same color.

"Hi. I don't think we've been properly introduced..." She held out her hand, using the other one to flick her hair out of her face. "Um... I'm... I'm Lorraine," she told him, smiling her cheery smile that I had seen on her when I first met her in Zach's house.

"Hello. I'm R.L. Stine," he introduced back, placing his hand on hers. "We owe you a great debt of gratitude. Your reckless driving..." He looked down to see that she put her other hand on top of his and he did the same. "...saved our lives," he finished.

"Oh, that old thing?" she replied, feeling flattered at his comment.

"Lorraine. Lorraine," Zach spoke up.

"So..."

"Lorraine." He finally got her attention, Lorraine looking at her nephew camly, letting go of Stine's hands. "We don't have time," he told her as we all began walking away. "I need you to go to the police station and tell them to meet us at the high school," he instructed her. "Alright? Can you do that?" he asked, hoping it's not much of a big deal for her.

She nodded. "I can do that. Okay," she replied to his request. And as we ran, we heard her hollering out, "Oh, did you want to exchange numbers?"

Stine quickly replied with, "It's not a good time, but yes!"

We all hurried to the graveyard and I hope we don't meet anymore monsters. And boy was I wrong.