Speaker 1: Monster Mash Bash The Monster Mash Bash began every Halloween
Speaker 1: when the moon touched the Spooksville clock tower. Lily arrived
Speaker 1: dressed as a ghost. Leah wore a pirate coat and
Speaker 1: carried a wooden sword that squeaked. On stage, skeletons tuned
Speaker 1: their ribs. Werewolves hummed. The Pumpkin King raised both leafy hands.
Speaker 1: The moon touched the clock. The band played One Note. Boing!
Speaker 1: Something purple bounced from the drummer's instrument and vanished beneath
Speaker 1: the crowd. Every trumpet, fiddle, and bone went silent. The
Speaker 1: bead escaped, groaned the bandleader. Without it, skeletons tangled their feet.
Speaker 1: Mummies unwrapped in the wrong direction. The werewolves could sing
Speaker 1: only very slowly. The band tried borrowing a tick from
Speaker 1: the clock, but it was too small. They tried the
Speaker 1: Pumpkin King's marching step, but he had two left boots.
Speaker 1: A vampire counted everyone in, reached seven, and forgot what
Speaker 1: came next. The escape beat did not remain quiet. It
Speaker 1: made the candy apples hop from their tray in perfect rows.
Speaker 1: It sent a witch's hat tapping across the square. For
Speaker 1: ten seconds, it hid inside the Pumpkin King's cape. causing
Speaker 1: him to dance while insisting he was standing still. Lily
Speaker 1: saw a purple bounce beneath the candy apple stall. Leo
Speaker 1: heard a faint thump inside an empty barrel. They followed
Speaker 1: it through the party. Each time they drew close, Leo's
Speaker 1: squeaky sword frightened it away. It bounced through the storytelling
Speaker 1: tent and made every ghost hiccup at once. It rolled
Speaker 1: beneath the pumpkin carving table where twelve carved faces began
Speaker 1: chomping in rhythm. Then it sprang into the costume parade
Speaker 1: and set a row of capes flapping like wings. Lily
Speaker 1: and Leo cornered it beside the werewolf choir, but the
Speaker 1: singers tried to help by howling. The beat shot from
Speaker 1: voice to voice until every werewolf was singing at a
Speaker 1: different speed. Leo climbed onto a hay bale to watch
Speaker 1: the movement below, while Lily listened for the one rhythm
Speaker 1: that stayed the same. There, she cried, as three empty
Speaker 1: broomsticks began tapping against a wall. They followed the tapping
Speaker 1: into the dance tent. The beat bounced beneath shoes, between
Speaker 1: chair legs, and through a line of skeletons whose knees
Speaker 1: clicked whenever it had passed. He tucked the sword into
Speaker 1: his belt, Lily spread her ghost costume across the mouth
Speaker 1: of the next alley like a soft net. The beat
Speaker 1: bounced toward her, thump, thump, thump, then changed direction and
Speaker 1: sprang onto the costume contest stage. There it hid among
Speaker 1: tap-dancing vampire shoes. Lily watched carefully. The beat was invisible
Speaker 1: except when it made something move. Don't chase it, she
Speaker 1: told Leo. Match it. Their first rhythm was too fast.
Speaker 1: The beat shot beneath the stage. Their second was too slow,
Speaker 1: and it fell asleep inside a tuba. Lily remembered the
Speaker 1: exact three bumps it had made when it escaped. She
Speaker 1: tapped it again, softly this time. Leo answered on the
Speaker 1: wooden stage. The hidden beat paused. They repeated the pattern
Speaker 1: without moving closer, and it began bouncing toward them on
Speaker 1: its own. Leo tapped the stage. Thump! Thump! Thump! The
Speaker 1: vampire shoes answered. The skeletons clicked the same rhythm. Werewolves clapped.
Speaker 1: Soon the entire square repeated it. The purple beat bounced
Speaker 1: into the middle of the stage, delighted to hear itself everywhere.
Speaker 1: The bandleader lowered an open drum over it. Boom! Music
Speaker 1: rushed back into every instrument. The monster mash began at
Speaker 1: twice its usual speed. Mummies spun, skeletons rattled. The Pumpkin
Speaker 1: King danced so hard that his crown rolled into the
Speaker 1: punch bowl. At the final note, the beat stayed safely
Speaker 1: inside the drum. Will it escape next year? Lily asked.
Speaker 1: The bandleader tightened the lid. From inside came a quiet thump, thump, thump.
Speaker 1: Leo's wooden sword squeaked the answer. The End As always,
Speaker 1: visit us at ReadTheTale.com for all your favorite tales and stories.