“Hello, house. We meet again.”
That night, Eugene climbed the stairs to the porch of the abandoned house. Shadows from the overgrown trees made everything darker. And creepier.
SCRATCH!
Tree branches scraped across the windows. Eugene swallowed a lump that felt like a golf ball. He pushed open the front door and stepped inside the house.
CREEEEEEEEEAAKKK!
He was alone. At night. Inside the creepy old house.
Why am I here by myself? Eugene wondered.
The house was as dark as the inside of Captain Darkness’s all-powerful Midnight Helmet. A breeze chilled the air and Eugene shivered.
BRRRRR.
Eugene’s hand felt along the wall, trying to find a light switch. Got it!
CLICK!
CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK!
Still nothing.
Eugene smacked the wall with his hand.
WHAP!
Still no lights.
Good thing there’s a full moon, Eugene thought. The moonlight shone in through the dusty, broken windows, cutting long rectangles across the wooden floor.
Eugene suddenly felt nervous. He reminded himself that superheroes may get scared, but they’re still superheroes. He’d learned that from Super Dude No. 14, when Super Dude was afraid to enter Mr. Bones’s Zombie Cemetery.
Super Dude went in anyway. If Super Dude could do something like that, then Eugene knew he could too. He placed his right foot onto the first step of the staircase in front of him.
CREAK!
That was the problem with old stairs. They always creaked.
Eugene went for the second step.
A black cat jumped off the stairs. By the time Eugene turned to look, the cat was gone.
MEOW!
Eugene shivered and climbed the second step . . . then the third.
CREAK-CREAK!
And then he heard something else entirely.
What was that thump? Eugene froze on the stairs like he’d been hit with a blast of Frozen Freak’s Freeze Gas.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
Footsteps!
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
The footsteps were on the second floor. Running. And they were getting closer. Someone or something was coming toward him.
Eugene turned to run down the stairs. The footsteps were coming after him. Eugene’s legs felt like rubber. His feet were like concrete blocks. He had to get away.
Eugene fell down the stairs and crashed onto the floor.
OOF!
He held his breath and listened. Closer . . . closer . . . The footsteps were at the top of the stairs now. Eugene turned and saw a shadow looking down at him. He wanted to scream, but his mouth was locked tight.
“Eep” was all that came out. Eugene scrambled to his feet and ran toward the front door.
He crashed into the door and dropped to the floor.
