Chapter 1

In the good old days, after school, me and Buddy would take our bikes and try to race each other to the park or one of our houses. We'd make fun of the people we didn't like when we saw them and we'd watch movies on my VCR. Sometimes we'd stop on on our way for snacks and that stuff at Monster Burger or one of the Shake Places in town.

"Well, Charlie," Buddy said today as we were walking back from school and we came closer to my block. "I'm gonna have to say that I can't come over today. I've go plans that I would be well-advised not to miss."

It was a pretty sunny day. And a Wednesday. Wednesays were the day that our favorite comic book, Vampire-for-Hire (I'll tell you about that later) came in the mail. I made a mental note to check for it in the mailbox. As we turned a corner, I pretended to look at Buddy funny. "Aw, you mean like the dentist's?"

"Close," Buddy said. Buddy has spiky brown hair and always wears big glasses. He tells people he was named after the rock star Buddy Holly. This is a lie. Buddy's real name is Jackson Aelphinous Leflay. He had some ancestors who were Scandinavian.

We were on my steet now. Buddy's house was closer to school than mine was, so I didn't know why he hadn't told me he wouldn't be coming before. It was to bad because I knew mom and dad would be home late tonight. They usually work late and tonight they wold be having dinner with their new friend, Luner. Weird name, but that's dad and his friends for you. I thought this just as we were about to pass this old-looking house on a hill- the creepiest one on our street. Since it was on the hill, it looked much taller than it was. During Halloween, when we used to go trick-o'-treating, Buddy and I always avoided that house. A crow flew out of one of the trees around it.

""Jeez, that house gives me the creeps," I said. "I bet it's haunted."

"Yeah, Nosferatu? Who lives there?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. Now that I'd thought of it I'd never seen anyone go inside or outside of it. It was weird because I knew who lived in all the other houses next to me.

Buddy began to pedal up the path on the hill on his bike, so I had to follow him. He stopped halfway therr and pushed his thick black glasses up. "Why don't we go find out?"

"Maybe nobody lives there." I reminded him.

"That's not for sure. What about light and stuff? Ever seen a light come on in that house?"

"If I did, I can't remember it."

We trailed a little further up the hill for a few seconds until we were practically level with the house. Then we dismounted our bikes. Now I was really getting an ippurtunity to look at the building. I decided it was a pretty cool-looking one. It was four stories high and made of gray stone. Like a castle. Some of the walls were covered in vines and ivy. There were a couple of turrets and the roof was high and pointly, like a church roof. Twisted, snaking trees surrounded the house. It definitely looked like a place where a wizard or a vampire would live.

"You know, Halloween's coming up pretty soon," Buddy said, looking at me. He's about two feet taller than me, so this probably wasn't easy for him to do. If you don't know what I mean by that picture a giraffe looking a zebra in the eye. Buddy must be the tallest eigth-grader in Elfhill, New Jersey.

"That's your favorite subject." I said drily.

Buddy's eyes glinted in the sun.

"Well, imagine if no one lived there. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Picture if some old lady lived there. Anyway, what would we do in some old house?"

You know what? For a minute I really wanted to go inside that house. My own one was only two doors away and across the street.

Buddy said, "My friend, you're boring to an extreme. I'm seeing what's inside that house!''

In a jiffy, Buddy RAN to the house, knocked hard on the door, ran back to me and jumped right back on his bike.

"See? That was no big deal?"

Just as he said that, a flash of lightning erupted. The sky darkened.

Ding dong, zee vicked vitch is deyd.

"I'll see ya, Charlie!" Buddy said, and with that he quickly peddled down the hill and into the distance.

All I could do was grab my bike, speed down the hill and peddle like a madman until I'd reached my house. I dropped my bike in our front lawn and darted inside.

I didn't get to see if anyone answered the door over there.

Charlie and the Spooks should be an epic-length story. If Dr. Necronomicon had the choice, he'd turn it into a movie, but he doesn't.