The Witch's Revenge (Spooksville)

The Witch's Revenge (Spooksville)

Encounter witchly wonders in this sixth book in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Pike’s Spooksville series—now on TV! The time has come for Adam and his friends to again face Spooksville’s most powerful citizen, Ms. Ann Templeton. Sally says the woman is definitely a witch, but Adam and Watch are not so certain. To find the truth, they visit her castle together. There they find both good and bad: creatures more horrible than anything they could imagine, but also magical tools that can create the most wonderful things. But will these tools help Adam and his friends? Or are they just instruments to trick them and make them slaves of the mysterious Ann Templeton? Christopher Pike is a bestselling young adult novelist and has published several adult books as well— Sati and The Season of Passage being the most popular. In YA, his Last Vampire series—often called Thirst—is a big favorite among his fans. Pike was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Los Angeles. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his longtime partner, Abir. Currently, several of Pike’s books are being turned into films, including The Midnight Club , which Netflix released as part of a ten-part series. The Midnight Club also draws from a half dozen of Pike’s earlier works. Presently, The Season of Passage is being adapted as a feature film by Universal Studios while Chain Letter— one of Pike all-time bestselling books—is also being adapted by Hollywood. At the moment, Pike is hard at work on a new YA series. The Witch’s Revenge 1 The argument was old. Was Ms. Ann Templeton, Spooksville’s most powerful and beautiful resident, a good witch or a bad witch? There was no question that she was a real witch. Adam Freeman and his friends had seen too many demonstrations of her power to doubt that. But whereas Adam and Watch liked to think she was a nice person, Sally Wilcox and Cindy Makey were certain she was dangerous. The argument started in the Frozen Cow, Spooksville’s best known ice-cream parlor. Because the owner would serve only vanilla ice-cream, they were each having a vanilla shake when the idea of visiting the witch’s castle came up. Of course later they would blame each other for the idea. Later, that is, when they couldn’t find their way out of the castle. It was a hot summer Wednesday, ten in the morning, a perfect time for a milk shake. School was still a few weeks away. As often was the case, they were trying to decide what to do with the day. “We can’t go to the beach because of the sharks,” Sally said as she listed the various possibilities. “We can’t go to the lighthouse because we burned that down. We can’t go to the reservoir because we burned that as well. And we can’t go to the Haunted Cave because it’s haunted.” She paused. “Maybe we should try to contact Ekweel2 and go for another ride on a flying saucer.” Watch shook his head. “We forgot to get a communication device from him. We have no way to contact him.” “But he promised to call us someday,” Adam said. “Yes,” Sally replied. “But he’s an alien. They have a different perspective on time. Someday might be ten thousand years from now for him.” “I thought you didn’t like Ekweel2,” Cindy said to Sally. “You kept calling him Fat Head.” “I called him that because he had a fat head,” Sally said. “That does not mean I disliked him. I call you plenty of names and I still like you.” Sally added, “Most of the time.” Cindy was not impressed. “I am so relieved.” “What if we didn’t do anything special today?” Adam suggested. “What if we just hung out and relaxed? We could play checkers or chess or something.” Sally stared at him as if he had lost his mind. “Are you all right, Adam?” “I’m fine,” he said. “Just because I want to have a relaxing day doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with me.” “But this is Spooksville,” Sally said. “We don’t relax here. That’s the best way to get yourself killed. You always have to be on your guard.” “I don’t see how playing chess could be dangerous,” Adam said. “Even in Spooksville.” “Ha,” Sally said, turning to Watch. “Tell him what happened to Sandy Stone.” Watch frowned. “We’re not sure if the game did it to her.” “Of course we are,” Sally said. “She was playing on the witch’s chess board when it happened.” “What happened to her?” Cindy asked. Sally shrugged. “She turned to stone. What would you expect with a name like Sandy Stone?” “Is that true?” Adam asked Watch. Watch appeared uncertain. “Well, we did find a stone statue of Sandy not far from the witch’s castle. And the statue was sitting in front of a mysterious-looking chessboard.” “I don’t understand,” Cindy said. “Chess was Sandy’s favorite game,” Sally explained. “She was a master at it. She could beat anyone in town. The trouble was, she boasted about the fact, and apparently Ms. Witch Ann Templeton heard about it and didn’t like it. The witch plays chess herself, and sent out a challenge to Sandy, which