Goosebumps

Chapter 5: One Seriously Messed Up Dummy

~ Scarlet's POV~

After running after Hannah, I followed them into the study." Oh no, not him" Stine muttered as he stared at a book that was open on the floor. "Hello Papa" A creepy voice greeted inside the room. We all looked at the chair, there sat Slappy, a ventriloquist dummy from Stine's older books, this guy creeped me out even worse than clowns. "How long has it been?" Slappy asked as he looked at Stine. "Feels like forever" Slappy said as Zach and Champ walked in. "Who are your new friends?" Slappy asked as he looked at my brother and I and Champ. "We're not" Zach said "Barely know him" Champ said and I just kept quiet. "Slappy, it's so nice to see you again" Stine lied as he got closer. "Did you miss me?" Slappy asked as his attention was turned back onto to Stine. "Of course I missed you" Stine said as thunder and lightning happened, the lights flickering off. "How cliché" I muttered as the lights flicked back on. "So whats the plan, friend?" Slappy questioned Stine, sitting in a new place. "You must've brought me out for something fun" Slappy said as he played with the keys. I'm serious, no one else thinks that this little piece of wood and paint isn't creepy? "Terrorize the locals? Destroy the town? Let's get silly! " Slappy said in his demonic little voice. "You guessed it, Slappy. I'm going to destroy Madison, and I--*looks at the book* couldn't do it without you" Stine lied as I got onto his idea. "Awe shucks. You're giving me-- Oh, what's the word? Goosebumps" Slappy said and laughed at the end. "Oh,my God. He's so creepy" Champ whispered. "Oh, he's suck a crack-up" Stine said as he looked at the book getting closer to it. "Such a clever dummy" Stine told Slappy. "You are you calling 'dummy', dummy?" Slappy asked angrily. Slappy looked at the book and then looked back at Stine. "You're trying to put me back in?" Slappy yelled. "No, no,no. Don't be silly" Stine lied, trying his best not to offend Slappy anymore. "I know when you're lying to me Papa" Slappy said and more lightning and thundering came out of no where as the lights flickered off. When the lights were back on there a lit match in the hands of a angry Slappy. "You've made Slappy very unhappy. He's not going back on the shelf ever again" Slappy told Stine as he put the match closer to his manuscript. "Slappy no wait!" Stine yelled as Slappy lit his manuscript on fire. "I think its time I started pulling the strings in this relationship" Slappy told Stine. "Tonight is gonna be the best story you've ever written. All of your children are coming out to play" Slappy said as the lights flickered off again. "Oh thank God he's gone" Champ breathed out. "Oh God, he's gone *looks at bookcase* and he's taken all the books" Stine said, his expression scared.

"Congratulations. You've just released a demon. A ventriloquist dummy with a serious Napoleonic complex" Stine sarcastically told my brother as we all headed down the stairs. "For the record, I opened one book. And now I see that it was a mistake" Zach explained. "The Snowman must've knocked Slappy's book down" Hannah told her father. "I still blame him. I don't like you boy" Stine argued. I tried to open the door but it was locked from the outside. Great. "It's locked from the outside" I breathed out and heard some clattering form under the stairs. "Out the kitchen door. Go now" Stine whispered as he ushered us out of the entrance. As we got into the kitchen I stopped immediately. There, in the doggy door, was a garden gnome."Why is that here?" I asked Zach. "I don't know" he replied. Then a few more popped out of nowhere until they all swarmed onto the kitchen floor. "Maybe they're friendly" my brother optimistically said. Then out of nowhere I felt a knife almost graze my cheek, stabbing the wall behind me. I breathed out heavily and yelled "Not friendly! Definitely not friendly". "Whooh?" a gnome chirped before its eyebrows went from happy arch to angry arched eyebrows. Then all of there eyebrows did that. All the gnomes started to move towards us. Some tried to climb my legs but I kept hitting them with the baseball bat. Some of the gnomes tied up Stine and was about to put him in the fiery oven, that was until my brother and i hit them away with out weapons, well one weapon and a swiffer wet jet. "I just wanted a quiet evening. No dance, no drama, just food and netflix. Was that really to hard to ask for?" I muttered to myself as I helped untie Stine. Then i heard the same laugh of those little gnomes and saw their debris turn into the gnomes again. "You've got to be kidding me" I groaned. "We need to get to the basement" Zach told everyone as we all stepped back. "It's locked" Stine said to my brother. "I picked it!" Zach quickly explained as he ran for it. I ran after him. "That's breaking and entering!" Stine yelled after Zach. "Watch out for the bear traps" Zach told everyone. "Why did it have to be bear traps?" Champ asked as we ran through the dark basement. "All right, come on. Hurry" my brother ushered as we got out. "Lock it, lock it, lock it" I said to the guys as they shut the door. "Why couldn't you have written storied about rainbows and unicorns?" Zach breathed out. "Because that doesn't sell 400 million copies" Stine said, also out of breath. "Whoa, domestic?" Champ asked him. "No, worldwide. Its still very impressive, shut up" Stine told Champ. I saw the ashes of something burning in the air and followed it. It was one of the manuscripts burning. "He's burning the books"Hannah stated. "Why's he doing that?" Zach asked her. "So there's no way to get the monsters back inside the book" I explained, it seems the most logical. "It's Slappy's revenge. Slappy's Revenge. That's a good title" Stine said to himself. We all stared at him in disbelief.