Chapter Eight: Old Man Wylie Revealed

Eugene ran into the living room where they started from and straight for the now open window. He didn't even pause to climb over it, he actually made a leap to jump straight out of it, when his foot caught on the bottom of the window and he tripped and did a complete flip before landing hard on the rotten wood planking of the porch. He saw starts dance before his eyes. "I'm OK," he muttered in a daze before he passed out.

Gerald and Phoebe meanwhile ran into the dining room across from the living room and looked around frantically for a hiding place. There was only a long table, which was as old as the house and had several things spray-painted and carved all over it. The walls had more cobwebs and old pealing wallpaper on it. There was another doorway on the other side of the room, probably leading to the kitchen. Gerald grabbed Phoebe's hand, "This way!" Then he led her inside. The room was bare except for a couple of rotten counters and an old sink. There was a door on the other side of the room that was closed. The missing glass in the frame showed more boards.

"We're trapped!" Phoebe squealed anxiously. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Gerald looked around and saw another door in the back. "Come on!" Still holding her hand he led her to the door and opened it. Inside was an empty pantry with empty shelves on both sides and a generous amount of mouse droppings on the floor.

There was a lot of thumping above them, like heavy footsteps. Both of them hid in the pantry and shut the door, trembling in terror.

Meanwhile upstairs, Arnold and Helga ran down another small hallway trying every door. There were two doors on either side. The one on the front right was locked and the another on the left was boarded up. The third door at the end on the left was open and they ran inside, closing the door behind them. The room was another bedroom with a missing bed, but a huge wardrobe to the left of the doorway and a small night stand sitting to the right. There was an open window on the side. While Arnold did his best to move the old night stand in front of the door. Helga ran straight for it and looked outside. Just outside of it was the top of the porch with the roof slanted down and dripping with rain water. The rain had slackened up a little.

"Arnold, we can get out this way!"

Arnold looked out of it and said, "Helga, it's too dangerous!" Then there was a pounding on the door, like someone was hitting it with something hard – like a hook.

Helga screamed. She looked at Arnold in total panic. "We're trapped!"

Arnold looked around and saw the wardrobe. "In there!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her over to it. She didn't protest, being too scared to think straight. He opened the wardrobe and saw it was empty except for a couple of clothes hangers hanging on the metal bar and an extra hanger on the back. Together both of them jumped inside of it and closed the doors.

Outside the pounding continued. Helga whimpered and leaned over burying her face into Arnold's neck. Arnold put his arms around her and held her tightly, shaking with fear. Arnold knew that once the ghost broke through the doorway, it would find them in the wardrobe and finish them off.

Helga apparently knew that too and she said to Arnold in the darkness, "Arnold, before we die, I just – I wanted you to know that –"

Arnold just nodded, knowing what she was going to say and answered, "I know, Helga. I – I feel the same way."

They both just held each other a moment and they both kissed each other. Then they pulled back and blinked in the darkness, and ironically had to fight the urge to laugh a moment. Here they were about to die and they pick now to be truthful about their feelings.

There was a loud splintery crack and both of them tensed up, knowing that Old Man Wylie's ghost was now in the room. They could hear his footsteps. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Helga realized that this was it. After everything she'd done in her brief life, and all the things she had yet to do, that this was really how it all ended. She felt at least some comfort in the fact that she would die in Arnold's arms, not a whole lot of comfort, but enough to make it not feel like a total loss.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The footsteps moved closer to where they were. Both of them leaned back against the wardrobe, still hold onto one another tightly, and then . . .

Suddenly, they fell over as the wall behind them gave way and flipped around. They both landed on the floor beyond with Helga on top of Arnold. Dust kicked up everywhere. From beyond the wall was the sound of the wardrobe's doors opening and then more thumps could be heard.

Both Arnold and Helga remained in that position, not speaking but listening tensely as the footsteps went away. "I think he's moved on," Arnold whispered. Helga paused listening and nodded, then looked down at Arnold, who looked up at her then. Both of them blushed at the same instant as they realized how they were laying. Helga sat up and Arnold slid out from under her, both of them blushing.

"Are you all right?" Arnold asked her, offering a hand.

Helga took it and nodded at him, "I think so . . . where the heck are we anyway?"

Arnold looked around at the plaster walls and the cobwebs. "I think this is some sort-of secret passage way."

"Hey, I can see you," Helga said, looking right at him.

Arnold blinked and just then realized that he could indeed see Helga clearly. There was some light ahead of them that appeared to be coming from an open doorway close by. "Come on," he said, walking ahead to the light. Helga followed close behind fearfully.

The open doorway turned out to be a large piece of glass, which Arnold found out the hard way when he ran face-first into it. He staggered back and Helga stop him from falling over. "Be careful, football-head," she told him quietly, though with more affection that she normally used when calling him that.

Beyond the glass was another bedroom a lot like the one that they were just in. It was empty except for some holes in the wallpaper and a broken chair in the corner. There was also something else on the other side. The lightning flash showed the figure of Old Man Wylie clearly. Helga was about to scream, but Arnold pushed her back against the wall and covered her mouth with his left hand. He brought his finger up to his lips and gestured for her to be quiet. Both of them shook in fright. What if the ghost found them? What if he already knew where they were?

He turned their way and seemed to look at them, but he turned away, apparently not able to see them. Arnold blinked and then realized that they must be behind a one-way-mirror.

Suddenly the sound of laughter could be heard on the other side of the glass.

It wasn't the sound of the deep, maniacal laugher from the ghostly voice that they heard before. Instead, this was the laugher of someone who was highly amused.

Three highly amused laughs to be exact.

Old Man Wylie removed his coat to reveal someone tall standing inside of it. Not a vengeful spirit, or an un-dead zombie risen from a watery grave, but a tall boy with a large beak-like nose and spiky hair. It was Stinky!

Two other figures suddenly appeared in the sight of the glass. Arnold didn't need the next flash of lightning to know who it was. He and Helga both could clearly hear Harold and Sid's laughter from where they were.

"How did it go, Stinky?" Sid asked, eyes watery from mirth.

Stinky was doubled over, almost laughing too hard to answer. He took a breath as he answered, "Y'all should have seen em run!" He laughed harder now.

Harold laughed also as he pretended to run around mocking their fear, "Oh no, it's Old Man Wylie's ghost! Run for your lives! AH-HAHAHA!"

Sid smirked and said, "I have to tell you, this idea of mine was genius!"

"Hey, it was my idea!" Harold said. "I'm the one who thought up this whole prank to play on them."

"Yeah, well I was the one who came up with the whole moving chandelier and the red eyeballs on the painting," Sid said smugly. Then he added, "Plus I was the one who found the passageway from this room to the peep holes behind the painting, not to mention the voice." He turned and reached out of view and pulled back a megaphone to deepen his voice. "YE WILL NEVER MAKE IT OUT OF ME HOUSE ALIVE!"

"Y'all should have seen Helga screaming, on account of her being so scared," Stinky added.

All three of the pranksters laughed then.

Both Arnold and Helga looked at them astonished and angry. Helga actually growled a little through Arnold's hand. He had to fight very hard to keep her from shouting out angrily. As it was the three of them did hear the noise.

"W-what was that?" Stinky said, sounding a bit nervous.

"Oh, um, it must have been the wind outside, yeah that's it, the wind," Sid suggested, though his facial expressions suggested that he was just trying to convince himself of that.

Harold looked very scared and said, "M-maybe we should get out of here?"

Sid quickly got over his fear and said, "Come on, guys, we spent all day setting up these pranks and we know that there's no ghost in here." He went over to the discarded coat and smirked. "I think Gerald and Phoebe are in the pantry downstairs in the kitchen. Let's get in a few more good scares."

"Yeah!" The other two said as they both dressed up in rain coats and hats. Harold looked at himself in the glass that Arnold and Helga were looking through. Arnold realized that it must be a one-way mirror, because Harold didn't notice them. What he did do was pick his nose like a doofus before he left the room with the others.

Arnold let go of Helga's mouth then and she was angry. "Those jerks! What a rotten trick! When I get my hands on them, I'll ring their necks!" She made a gesture with both of her fists together which looked a lot like someone getting their neck twisted.

Arnold agreed with her, though his mind was not on what she was saying, but on the fact that the three boys had been really scared for a moment there. He suddenly smiled widely and then turned to Helga and put a hand on her arm. "Wait, I have a better idea."

Helga smiled, both from the fact that Arnold was touching her, and because of the devious way he smiled, which said that his cleaver little mind (which she loved just as much as the football-shaped head it was in) just came up with a good idea. "What did you have in mind?"

Arnold smiled at her and then whispered in her ear (which gave her goosebumps). She smirked more as she heard his brilliant plan, and soon had a smile as devious as his own had been.

To Be Concluded . . .

What does Arnold have in mind? What happened to the others? Will Curly and Wilson escape the island? Find out these things and more when I post the last chapter! Read and Review! -D.R.