8

Inside Locker 39

As soon as the locker slammed shut, many of the students started crying because they would never get to read Steven Kingsley’s stories again. Petunia was especially broken up. Steven’s stories made her feel better when the other students would tease her for being purple and swarming with bugs. She wanted to tell Steven how much his words meant to her, but she had been too scared. Now she would never get the chance.

Everyone, even Principal Headcrusher, tried to open the locker, but they couldn’t.

Nobody felt much in the mood to go visit the Monster King anymore.

Then, Locker 39 began shaking. Sounds of gurgling and bubbling echoed through the locker’s thin vents. Miraculously, the locker swung open with a loud bluuuuuuurp!

A slush of slime spilled out into the hallway. Steven Kingsley rode the slime like a wave crashing on the shore. Steven sucked in air as everyone looked at him in shock and relief. Then he said the last thing anybody expected him to say:

“What…what day is it?” Steven asked, wiping the yucky slime from his face.

Everyone looked at him, bewildered. Petunia answered, “It’s September fifth.”

“Is that the day we were supposed to visit the Monster King?”

“Yes. What day do you think it is?”

“I have no idea. But I was definitely inside that locker for over a year.”

“Over a year?” several kids exclaimed. “Are you crazy?”

“No!” Steven snapped back. “The depths of the locker must be a realm outside of our space-time continuum. What felt like a year to me passed instantaneously in this world.”

“Wow! Where were you?” Charles Nukid prodded, fueled by the excitement that he was in the middle of a real-life science fiction story.

“I was in the worst place imaginable,” said Steven, standing up and walking slowly toward the group. He even helped up Dr. Dragonbreath and Ms. Hydra, showing no fear whatsoever. “To put it simply, I was placed smack-dab in the middle of my deepest fears and my darkest nightmares.”

The kids’ jaws dropped and they gathered in a circle around Steven. Even Dr. Dragonbreath and Ms. Hydra listened intently.

“I found myself in a grand hotel. It was three times as big as this school. It was deserted and outside there was a great snowstorm. I was all alone, until a man appeared carrying an ax. At first I was glad to see someone else, but then the man started chasing me! He was trying to chop me into pieces!”

The students gasped, and Ms. Hydra squeezed Dr. Dragonbreath’s arm tightly. Dr. Dragonbreath turned and made eye contact with Ms. Hydra’s ninth head. The ninth head winked, and Dr. Dragonbreath flashed his toothy dragon grin. Ms. Hydra’s other eight heads became jealous and snipped to each other, “She was always the good-looking one.”

Steven continued, “Finally, after weeks of being chased, I locked the ax-wielding madman outside the hotel and he froze in the snow.”

The students let out a sigh of relief.

“But then came the worst part.”

Everyone braced themselves.

“I found myself in an abandoned city. The streetlights flickered on and off, and all the stores were deserted. A tennis ball sat on the street. For days all I did was throw the tennis ball against the walls of the buildings. Then, the ball got away from me and rolled into a gutter. I went to go fish it out, but inside the gutter was a smiling clown!”

Dr. Dragonbreath and three of Ms. Hydra’s heads fainted.

“It looked like Ronald McDonald, except when it smiled, I saw it had fangs. Either Ronald had a really bad dentist or this clown was evil. I wouldn’t have eaten its french fries if they were the last food on Earth. It gestured for me to crawl into the gutter with it to get my ball. I screamed, ‘No way!’ and started running. When I looked behind me, I saw the clown crawling out of the gutter. Then it turned into a giant spider and started chasing after me! That’s when I noticed a car with keys in the ignition. Luckily, I always paid close attention when my parents drove. I sped off in the car, but the spider was fast and remained on my tail. As I headed up a steep mountain, I decided to put the car in reverse. The spider was not expecting that. I hit it with the back of the car and it went tumbling down the mountain.”

Everyone cheered.

“Unfortunately, driving backward was harder than I thought, and I also went tumbling down the mountain. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a small room with nothing in it but a bed and desk. There was just one window, with a fifty-foot drop to the ground. A big, scary lady walked inside and dropped a whole stack of papers on the desk. ‘Do all your homework if you want your dinner!’ she yelled.

“With nothing else to do, I sat at the desk and did the homework. It was the worst kind of homework. Tedious and boring. It made the minutes feel like hours. When I was finished, she brought me a piece of moldy bread and some wilted spinach. The scary lady had rescued me from the car wreck, but only so she could lock me in a room and force me to do nothing but grueling homework the rest of my life!”

At the mention of that, every other student passed out.

Without an audience, Steven shrugged his shoulders and walked away. The only one who didn’t faint was me because I’m a ghost and don’t have any blood in my head.

I made myself visible and said, “Excuse me, do you mind telling me how you escaped? It’s for my book.”

“Oh, you’re a writer too?” Steven inquired.

“Yes. A ghostwriter actually.”

“Oh, cool. Here’s how I escaped: Each time I finished a homework assignment, I tore off the tiniest sliver of paper from the side of the page so it wasn’t even noticeable. As the months went by, I tied the slivers of paper into a sturdy rope and was able to climb out the window to the ground below. I ran to freedom alongside a creek of mucky, slimy water. I stopped when I saw something shining in the water. When I examined it closer, I realized it was the other side of Locker 39. I stomped on the locker door and fell through into the hallway along with all the muck and slime. That’s how I ended up here.”

“Wow,” I said. “All those scary things that happened to you would make great stories. You should write them down!”

“That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Steven replied, furrowing his brow. “I hate being scared. Why would I want to scare other people with my writing? I may become a writer, but I’m going to write nothing but happy stories about rainbows and kittens where nothing bad ever happens. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to meet the Monster King. Let’s go.”

As Steven walked away, he stepped right over Ms. Hydra and Dr. Dragonbreath without even flinching.

I guess after living in Locker 39 for all that time, nothing else was very scary to Steven.

Not even Scary School.