The House Next Door Read online

  I didn’t think I’d fainted, not exactly. The vision — that was the closest word for what I’d seen — was stronger, more real, than those I’d had before. I hoped I never had another.

  “Good news: my phone still works,” Sophie said. “I called 9–1–1 as soon as they pulled Clara off you and you didn’t wake up. They’ll be here soon.”

  “Best news I’ve heard all week,” I said, rubbing my pounding head. “Mind if I borrow your phone? I think it’s time we tell Mom and Dad what’s happened.”

  “Everything?”

  “Everything.”

  “Even that we’ve decided to move to Florida when they die?”

  “Maybe not everything.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Are you two excited for your first day at your new school tomorrow?” Mom asked from across the breakfast table.

  “Does a one-legged duck swim in circles?” Sophie asked.

  We’d spent far more time inside our house than outside during the remainder of March break. Mom had been too frightened to let us out of her sight, and the truth was I didn’t mind. Neither did Sophie. The first few days in our new home had exhausted us, especially the final confrontation with Clara, Ernest and Shade. But now we were both itching to get out and do something, anything. School included. I’d take a full day of math classes over another day spent cooped up inside, plus I was looking forward to seeing Nick and Chris again. Their parents had also kept them in their house for the rest of the week. We’d been texting each other on our new phones.

  “Hot stuff coming through!” Dad shouted. He crossed the kitchen carrying a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. “And no, I’m not just talking about your breakfast.” He looked at us for a moment, and when no one replied he added, “I’m referring to me. I’m the hot stuff.”

  “Yeah, we get it,” Mom said with a smile.

  But Dad wasn’t the type to let jokes that had fallen flat get him down. He flipped a couple of pancakes out of the pan and onto our plates.

  I stared down at the pancakes. Dad had shaped them to look like Slimer from Ghostbusters.

  “Too soon?” Dad asked.

  Whether or not Dad had intended it as a joke, I couldn’t stop laughing. He smiled in relief and ruffled my hair.

  “Don’t encourage him, honey,” Mom told Dad. “He’ll grow up to be some sort of ghost hunter or something.”

  “Don’t worry,” Sophie said through a mouth packed with pancakes. “When I grow up I want to be an auditor.”

  This time, Mom was the one who couldn’t stop laughing.

  “You don’t want to be a horse trainer?” Dad asked sarcastically.

  “Nope,” Sophie said. “I wonder why?” she added with a smile.

  I was happy right then. Really happy. We’d been through a lot but we could already laugh about it. I still missed my hometown, but as long as we had each other we’d be okay no matter what life threw at us.

  After all, Sophie and I had beaten a ghost, a ghost horse and a woman who wanted us dead. After they’d arrived and arrested Clara, we’d told the police everything, even about the ghosts. Who knows if they’d believed us. But they’d recorded our statements and told us they’d investigate whether Clara had had anything to do with killing Danny and Jack. Two days later there was an article in the paper that said Clara had confessed and would be tried for their murders in addition to what she had done to us.

  I finished eating my Slimer pancakes and cleared my plate and cutlery, leaving Sophie, Mom and Dad at the table. The Sunday newspaper was on the counter beside the sink. A headline caught my eye and I froze. My plate nearly slipped out of my fingers. I hurriedly put my dishes away, grabbed the newspaper off the counter, tucked it into the back of my pants and concealed it with my shirt. No one had noticed what I’d done.

  “Hey, um, Sophie?” I said. “Do you still have that Batman comic of mine?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I have it back?”

  “Sure.”

  “Now?”

  Sophie sighed and stood from her chair. “Fine.”

  Mom stared at me with a raised eyebrow and then looked at Dad.

  He shrugged and said, “When a boy’s gotta read Batman, a boy’s gotta read Batman.”

  I led Sophie upstairs, my feet heavy and my head spinning. She tried to go to her room to get the comic but I guided her into mine.

  “The comic’s in—”

  “I don’t need the comic,” I said. I peeked at my closet. All week I’d been casting nervous glances at it even though I knew Danny had gone to the Netherrealm and wouldn’t be back.

  “What’s wrong?” Sophie asked.

  I pulled the newspaper from behind my shirt. “Remember how Clara said Shade and her father died with unfinished business and came back for revenge?”

  Sophie nodded slowly, her eyes widening.

  I pointed to the article that had caught my eye in the kitchen.

  The headline read: “Courtice Murder Suspect Clara Creighton Dies of Heart Attack.”

  “If she doesn’t have unfinished business and a thirst for revenge,” I said as a chill nearly as cold as Ernest’s death touch spread through my body, “I don’t know who does.”

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Joel A. Sutherland is the author of Be a Writing Superstar, numerous volumes of the Haunted Canada series (which have received the Silver Birch Award and the Hackmatack Award) and Frozen Blood, a horror novel that was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. His short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Blood Lite II & III and Cemetery Dance magazine, alongside the likes of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. He has been a juror for the John Spray Mystery Award and the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy.

  He is a children’s & youth services librarian and appeared as “The Barbarian Librarian” on the Canadian edition of the hit television show Wipeout, making it all the way to the third round and proving that librarians can be just as tough and crazy as anyone else.

  Joel lives with his family in southeastern Ontario, where he is always on the lookout for ghosts.

  Scholastic Canada Ltd.

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  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Sutherland, Joel A., 1980-, author

  The house next door / Joel A. Sutherland.

  (Haunted)

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-4431-5709-4 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-4431-5710-0

  (HTML)

  I. Title.

  PS8637.U845H68 2017 jC813’.6 C2017-901444-7

  C2017-901445-5

  Photo credits:

  Cover photos ©: iStockphoto: red background (Stephanie_Zieber); Shutterstock: house (peter jensen), monster claw and throughout interior (ra2studio), snow (Tobyphotos).

  Illustrations by Norman Lanting.

  Text copyright © 2017 by Joel A. Sutherland.

  Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Scholastic Canada Ltd.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read this e-book on-screen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 604 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1E1, Canada.

  First e-book edition: September 2017