Screem’s white hair fell over his forehead. He brushed it back with one sleeve. He tucked the mummy mask under his arm with the other two masks. Then he grinned at Bella.
“Surprise, Belladonna!” he cried. “I have the masks, and I’ve come back to destroy you!”
She gaped at him in horror. Her face was as pale as flour. Her chin trembled.
Above his square beard, Screem’s grin grew wider. “I forgot. You don’t like surprise guests — do you!” he boomed.
“I — I —” Bella seemed too upset to speak. “The boy —” she choked out.
“He believed me,” Screem replied. “The boy realized I was telling the truth. So down in my tunnel in the graveyard, he and I traded places.”
“I … told him you were a liar,” Bella said. She kept clenching and unclenching her gloved fists.
“It wasn’t hard to make the boy see who the real liar is,” Screem said.
Screem turned suddenly. Without warning, he grabbed my shoulders.
I gasped. “What are you doing?” I cried.
His hands moved to the masks over my face. Carefully, he slid them off one by one.
Now he grasped all five masks in his hands.
“The masks are mine,” Screem said. “Belladonna, the world is safe from your evil for another year.”
She scowled at me. Her eyes flamed with rage. “Monica, your brother betrayed me. Do you think I won’t punish you both?”
Screem stepped in front of me. “You won’t do any punishing this year,” he told her. “Did you really think you could confuse me by sending two children this time? You’re a bigger loser than I thought.”
“AAAAGGGGGGH!”
Belladonna opened her mouth in a scream of fury. A wild animal cry.
She leaped at Screem. Lowered her shoulder and shoved him back on the kitchen counter.
Then with another angry cry, she grabbed the masks from Screem’s hands.
He bounced up from the counter. He spread his arms like an attacking bear. He flung himself at Belladonna.
The masks fell from her hands.
They both dove for them at once.
“Mine! Mine! Mine!” she kept screeching.
But Screem came up with the masks.
As he tried to tuck them under the white karate uniform, Belladonna wrapped her arms around his middle. She struggled to wrestle him to the floor.
Screem staggered back, off balance.
“Mine! Mine! Mine!” Belladonna repeated.
They both dropped to the floor, wrestling, struggling, scratching at each other. They groaned and grunted and shouted as they fought.
They rolled across the kitchen floor. Toward the big window. Into a patch of morning sunlight.
Yes. The sun was high in the sky now.
And as Screem and Belladonna rolled into the bright sunlight, I saw a flash of white light.
Blinding white light. Like a powerful explosion.
I shut my eyes.
I could still see the light on my eyelids.
And when I finally opened my eyes, the two of them were gone. And the masks had vanished with them.
Screem and Belladonna — both disappeared into the sunlight. Their screams still rang in my ears.
I felt dazed. I struggled to clear my mind, to think straight. And as I did, a wave of cold fear ran down my body.
And a terrifying question pushed its way into my mind:
Where is Peter?
What became of my brother?
Would I ever see him again? Or had he vanished like Screem … like Belladonna? Like our parents?