The Haunted Car (book)

***The Haunted Car*** is the 21st book in the Goosebumps Series 2000 series.

## Plot

Mitchell Moinian
 is a car fanatic. The shelves of his bedroom hold multiple model cars,
racing posters adorn his wall, and he even once mistakenly rented *Separate Tables*.
 Mitchell is such a natural when it comes to the automobiles that he
claims he can identify any car just by closing his eyes and listening, a
 skill he brags about picking up from reading a lot of car magazines.
Unfortunately, all the car knowledge fails to prepare Mitchell for the
trick his younger brother, Todd plays on him. Todd makes him believe
that a bag of laundry is a ghost. Todd is convinced that ghosts exist.

Suddenly, the two boys hear a crash from the basement. It does not
sound like any car Mitchell's ever read about, so the two go down to
investigate. The origin of the noise in the basement was indeed not
car-related, but a poorly-constructed bookcase their amateur handyman
father built that collapsed. Todd insists ghosts were behind the damage,
 but their father disagrees, as he knows it is the poor craftsman who
blames his ghouls. He then announces a trip to the hardware store and
that means that Mitchell and his brother get to ride in one of the
"flyest" vehicles on the block. A "puke green" '85 LaBaron. They do not
seem to pay much attention to the dark, stormy clouds hovering over
them. Not until the brakes go out and the car rams into a tree!

The crash has made Mitchell's father a bit ill and he goes to
vomit, while Mitchell waits a few minutes to mention the brakes.
Sometime later, Mitchell spots a totally awesome classified ad for a car
 with no model or manufacturer name. He thinks it sounds great, even
though it is literally the only car in the entire book to not be
labeled. However, they go to look at the car. The seller, Mr. Douglas,
who is dressed like a train conductor, interrupts his breakfast to show
his visitors the car. The amazing white sports car is locked in the
garage behind six padlocks. Mr. Douglas claims the extra precautions are
 due to the bad neighborhood.

Mr. Douglas giddily shows off the sports car.
 Mitchell thinks the blue automobile looks like a Corvette, only with
twice as many seats and without the hassle of being a totally awesome
Corvette. Father and son admire the car, which appears flawless. The
vehicle has less than a thousand miles. Surely there must be something
wrong with the car, for this shifty man to be so insistent on selling
it. But since Mr. Douglas tells them there is nothing wrong with it,
they believe him despite the initial concern. Mr. Douglas insists the
two go for a test drive. But he refuses to ride along, claiming it is
because he has yet to finish his breakfast.

They do not even grow suspicious as the old man stands right
there watching them drive around. As they finish, he also reveals the
catch: If they buy the car, they have to take it with them right away.
He then reveals the price to be five thousand dollars. But they consider
 it a good price and Mr. Douglas goes inside to get the bill of sale and
 title ready.

That night, Mitchell can barely get through dinner without
talking about the car. His parents bar him from even mentioning the car
due to the fact that he has homework due, nor do they buy his excuses to
 not do the homework. They will not even let him go to the car to DO the
 homework. But nevertheless, Mitchell decides to sneak out to the car
anyways. He figures no harm can come from sitting in a motionless car
but he accidentally gets himself locked inside!

A mysterious girl happens along and lets Mitchell out of the
locked car. Marissa Medding, the girl, claims she just moved in the
neighborhood and ominously points to the requisite Old Abandoned House
as her new home. Todd then comes out and having caught them, he
blackmails Mitchell into letting him try out the car. They argue and
Marissa mysteriously vanishes, so the both of them head back inside.
Accidentally mistaking their electrocuted father for a ghost...

That night, Mitchell dreams about the car. He then takes a quick
break to wake up, then goes right back to sleep. Dreaming that Marissa
goaded him into crashing the new car! Todd believes the dream to be a
sign the following day however. But despite that, Mitchell is not the
least bit afraid of the car. He goads his father into going for another
nighttime ride, this time to buy some milk. But this brief trip does not
 do anybody good. On the way back, torrential rain begins to fall.
Unfortunately Mitchell's father cannot find the button to turn on the
windshield wipers. He directs his son to look for the car's manual in
the glove compartment. But the glove compartment is empty except for a
single sheet of paper with two words written on it: I'M EVIL. Mitchell
is terrified by the turn of events and the following night, his two
friends, Steve and Allan come to visit. The two convince Mitchell to
show them the new car. Todd tags along and all four pile into the car,
shut the doors behind them, and once again the doors lock on them!
Suddenly the interior of the car gets colder. The boys can see their
breath and the windows begin to frost.

Marissa, exhibiting the most convenient of timings yet again,
pops up and opens the car door, but not before Mitchell believes to have
 heard a faint sound of a girl giggling. Todd runs inside to warm up,
while Mitchell's friends leave, convinced that Mitchell was playing a
mean trick on them. Marissa expresses exaggerated concern over the
danger of faulty car locks.

Todd wakes Mitchell up from a dream to tell him that the car is
haunted and possessed. Mitchell tells him he is crazy and to go back to
bed. Giving it some thought, Mitchell then goes down to investigate if
the car is haunted and discovers that it is, indeed haunted! Mitchell
shows little apparition, as when a girl's voice tells him to climb
inside the car yet again, he does. In a familiar act, the car locks and
drives off with him inside. There is little joy to be found in this
ride, as the ghostly car with a girl's voice drives poor Mitchell onto
the railroad tracks.

The train narrowly misses hitting the car and the girl's voice
laughs menacingly. Mitchell continues to go where the spirit moves him,
all the while pleading for her to stop.

Mitchell's father is furious when he sees his son pull into the
driveway and he grabs him by the arm and violently pulls him inside. He
then proceeds to lay into him the dangers that came with what he did, as
 well as the fact that theft isn't good. Before he can face more of his
father's wraith, Marissa pops up *again* and tries to smooth things
 over with Mitchell's parents. He tries to tell them that the car is
haunted but they do not believe him. Marissa meanwhile, believes him a
little too well...

Mitchell gets grounded for life and mopes around the house for a
while until Todd admits that he does believe Mitchell about the ghost
car, and he knows who the ghost is: *Marissa*...

Mitchell thinks Todd is crazy and to prove it he calls Marissa's
house. But the operator can find no listing for Marissa or her family!

Mitchell and Todd sneak across the street to peek into the Old
Abandoned House and discover it is old and abandoned. But there are not
any ghosts hanging around. Mitchell decides he'll pay Mr. Douglas, the
car's original owner, a visit. Upon seeing the boy at his door, Mr.
Douglas insists that he is very busy doing nothing and can't be
interrupted. Before he can close the door though, Mitchell sees a
picture in his living room..

It is of Marissa, with the words "In Loving Memory" written on the frame!

Mitchell chooses dinner time to tell his parents the big news.
But they're more interested in pizza than the ghosts their son has
apparently seen. Mitchell gets sent up to his room to eat his pizza
alone. But suddenly, the telephone rings. It is Marissa! Mitchell tells
her he knows her big secret and she demands to know what he is going to
do with it. He then hangs up, having no idea what to do about the
problem soon after.

Soon after, Mitchell's entire family informs him that they're
getting picked up to enchant sick Cousin Ella with a visit and he's not
invited. The moment his family leaves, Mitchell climbs into the haunted
car and the doors lock behind him yet again. The interior light turns on
 and he realizes he isn't alone...

A blonde girl is in the passenger seat, wearing all black. He
assumes it is Marissa. The blonde figure has taken the form of a rapidly
 decaying ghost and she begins to tell him she is evil once more, then
sends the car rapidly careening down the city streets!

The ghost transforms into a vapor and wafts into the car,
speaking to Mitchell from the speakers. She tells him that she died in
this car and now it was his turn. She was only fourteen, when she took
the car on a joyride and died in a crash. Ever since, she has been
lonely and desperately wants some company. Mitchell, far from being
flattered, continues to plead with her to take him home. She agrees, as
he can just as easily die in front of his house. She causes the engine
to rev up and the car careens forward. Mitchell can tell that she
intends to crash the car through the living room. As the car gets closer
 though, both can tell something is happening in front of the house and
the car slows down.

Orange flames have engulfed the house! Mitchell gleefully tells
the ghost that if it had not been for her kidnapping him, he would have
died in the fire. This however makes Marissa very angry and she howls in
 anger. Now she will be punished in the afterworld and rips herself
apart.

His parents run up to the car and pluck him from the vehicle and
he tries to tell them how a ghost saved him but they do not believe
him. They are just happy that Mitchell did not listen to them!

Todd asks Mitchell if the ghost was Marissa and he tells her that
 of course it was. Then he sees Marissa, standing on the front lawn. He
yells at her for being evil and a ghost until she grabs him by the arm
and forces him to follow her away from everyone else. It dawns on
Mitchell that perhaps ghosts can't grab humans, which Marissa reveals
that the ghost was her evil twin sister, Becka.

Marissa's father, Mr. Douglas, went sick with grief and wanted to
 be rid of the car his daughter died in as soon as possible. One
afternoon while hanging around the empty car in the garage, the decaying
 ghost of her sister appeared to her and laid out the whole scheme.
Marissa tells the hurt Mitchell that she tried to figure out how to tell
 him and that once he said on the telephone that he knew what was going
on, she thought he actually did know already, so she did not have to say
 it.

She then begins to cry and Mitchell tells her how her sister
accidentally saved his life. She smiles a little and he tells her he has
 lost interest in cars. The next morning at the O'Conners' house,
Micthell and his mother are auguring about the car when Mr. Moinian
comes in saying the car won't start. A mechanic comes by and examines
the engine.

The mechanic points out that the car has no battery. Mr. Moinian
looks under the hood and wonders how did it run without a car battery.
Hearing about the car having no battery, a grin spreads over Mitchell's
face as he tells himself that it will take his parents a while but he's
think they'll finally believed him.