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HUGE HOTELS

The next ive up eas- ily and I wanted to keep an eye on her, so after breakfast I hung around the hall, pre- tending to count the spiders Everything (even Aunt Tabby) was suspiciously quiet-- until there was a knock on the door I rushed to open it, but Aunt Tabby, who had been lurking behind the clock, got there -21- first She elbowed me out of the way (Aunt Tabby has really sharp elbows) and opened the door Standing on the doorstep was a very styl- ish wo a briefcase I did not like the look of her one bit, so I did my best Fiendish Stare I could tell it worked--she suddenly went very pale and gulped a bit like Brian used to She opened and closed her otten how to talk, and then she said in a squeaky voice, "I--I’ve coe Hotels Incorporated " Aunt Tabby looked thrilled Drat, I thought It was just e Hotels person couldn’t read I ston, but it now said:

This House Is -- NOT For Sale H e Hotels around the hall when I clomped back inside "It’s very odd, dear, " Aunt Tabby said with a funny kind of sht I noticed it when Uncle Drac went to work I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of those estate agents Anyway, I’ve fixed it now, don’t you think?"

I didn’t reply--there was no tirabbed host sheet and e balloon and put in one of host squealers I held on to the neck of the balloon really tightly to stop the air escaping, then I put the floury sheet over my head so that it covered me and the balloon I was ready Soon I could hear Aunt Tabby clue Hotels’s scared little clip-clop sounds It was tio I openedI could see a s out I didn’t look as scary as I had hoped, but it was pretty good It was very difficult going down the attic stairs, but I ed to reach the bottoand hid behind the curtains Yes! The ae Hotels Incorporated just along the corridor Aunt Tabby was rattling on about how she personally liked the dripping taps in the bathroo stuff to herself: "Great potentialOld world charht I juo of the squealer Aiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It was great

Huge Hotels went totally pale I could tell that she knew she hadMistake She spun around and screa on to the curtains and waved my arms a lot so that the flour flew all over the place like a thick white reat--it kept on squealing and squealing--but just to roans, too Huge Hotels was not giving up easily Her screa-- and she didn’t stop, not even to breathe Aunt Tabby grabbed hold of Huge Hotels to try and cale Hotels didn’t want to calot stuck in my throat and made me choke a bit--well, quite a lot, actually--and that hen Huge Hotels stopped screah she still had her mouth open like she wanted to screa slowly backward along the corridor and went straight through one of the oldest cobwebs, where the biggest, hairiest spiders live--and I saw the biggest, hairiest spider of the shriek thatShe tore down the stairs and was out of the front door in two seconds flat I was i offa breath of flour-free air Aunt Tabby looked cross "Really, Ara?" she said "I don’t knohat’s gotten into you Is that ?" "Yes, " I told her "But it didn’t work My feet didn’t leave the ground once "

Aunt Tabby tut-tutted and scooped up the spiders that had fallen off their cobwebs and gotten covered with flour Then she carried Q them down to the kitchens to dust them off I sat by the moldy curtains in the s were going well, I thought, but I knew Aunt Tabby was not going to give up that easily

That evening, after Aunt Tabby had read me a story froone downstairs to feed the boiler, I got up I crept down the attic stairs and waited in the shadows outside Uncle Drac’s turret When the moon rose, the red door creaked open and Uncle Drac shuffled out I watched him walk slowly down the stairs to the hall, -29- where Aunt Tabby aiting with his ther- ood-bye and waved him off to work The front door closed quietly behind him, and Aunt Tabby dis- appeared back down to the baseain Now it said:This HAUNTED House Is -- NOT for Sale That was sure to do it Who would want to buy a haunted house?