The girls get away!

Oh, no! Not the boys! Susie's stomach filled with butterflies at the thought. She had to think fast!

"Eek!" she yelled. "What's that behind you?"

Anne rolled her eyes. "Come on," she said. "There's no way I'm falling for that."

"Boo," said the house, and the cheerleaders jumped a mile, swivelling this way and that, trying to figure out where the voice had come from. The grip on Susie's arms loosened. Only for a second, but that was all she needed to pull herself free and race for the door they'd come in by, Bonnie in tow. It was amazing how fast you could run when the alternative was boys seeing your underwear.

"After them!" she heard Anne cry. There was no time to grab their clothes, of course.

Bonnie and Susie raced through the corridors of the Haunted House in their underwear, turning left and right at random in their haste to get away. They heard the footsteps of cheerleaders fade away behind them, and heard the vanishing cry "We'll find you, freaks!" Then nothing.

They stopped to rest in a room full of old dusty furniture, lit by tall bay windows that invited in the light of the moon. Susie tried to pry a cushion off a tattered sofa, hoping she could make some kind of gown out of it, but she couldn't get it to budge. She sat down by the side of a capacious old wardrobe, breathing hard, heart still pounding.

"I can see you, you know," said the house.

"Leave us alone!"

"What's the matter, pets? Didn't you want me to make it scarier?"

"I didn't mean like this," protested Susie. "Can't you get us some clothes or something?"

"That doesn't seem very scary. I think being in your underwear is a lot scarier than having clothes on. Don't you, girls? You never know who's going to walk around the next corner. It might even be boys!"

"But how are we supposed to get out? We can't leave like this?"

"I know!"

Susie took a look around the room. There were quite a few exits, but she had absolutely no idea which one to take. She didn't want to accidentally find herself trapped outside the house, stranded in the carnival in her bra and panties, but she wasn't sure which way would take her to clothes. Still, at least she had time to think.

She was just thinking that when she heard the telltale giggle of approaching cheerleaders.