The Black Heart Crypt

“Watch out!” Judy screamed.

Aunts Sophie and Hannah were just about to climb out of a taxi when the black stallion came charging around the bus.

Jack the Lantern had Azalea Torres in front of him on the saddle, so even though all the cops had their weapons trained on him, no one dared shoot at the moving target, for fear they’d accidentally hit the girl.

“Look at him!” shouted Stephen Snertz. “Hiding behind a girl! I told you—the guy’s a wuss!”

Suddenly, Jack pulled up on the reins and wheeled his snorting horse to the right. The stallion made a sharply angled turn, mirroring the move a knight makes in chess.

“Oh, crap!” screamed Stephen Snertz when he realized that the masked demon had an arm over Azalea’s shoulder. In his hand was a pistol aimed straight at the hardware-store clerk.

Snertz turned and made a mad dash for the door.

He almost made it, too.

But Jack the Lantern let loose with a cannon blast from his raised pistol.

The bullet smacked Snertz in the butt and sent him sailing forward through the hardware-store window. Glass shattered and Snertz landed with a belly flop on all the carved jack-o’-lanterns in the window display, many of which were already wilting after sitting in the sun so long. When the mounted maniac saw Snertz sprawled out in the rotting pumpkin patch, he started laughing insanely. All the police officers lowered their weapons an inch or two to marvel at his madness.

“Away, Satan! Fly like the wind!”

With a snick of his tongue and a click of his heels, Jack was once again racing away from the school bus and the hardware store.

“He’s heading for the clock tower!” someone shouted.

“Get the kids off the bus!” yelled the sheriff.

Azalea Torres was Jack’s only remaining hostage.

A pair of police officers dashed up the street after him while Sheriff Hargrove and his deputies secured the other children.

Jack leapt from his horse and yanked Azalea out of the saddle. With his modern-looking pistol aimed at her head, they backed toward the doorway of the clock tower.

“My son and Malik Sherman are in there!” Judy shouted to the police.

“Keep away, fools!” cried Jack the Lantern. “If any of you dare come in after me, this young lass dies!”

Judy watched as the demon pulled Azalea into the dark tower and slammed the door shut.

Now Jack the Lantern held three children hostage: Azalea, Malik, and Zack!