The Revenge

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"The Revenge" is the second story in Goosebumps Triple Header: Book Two.

Plot

Friends Amelia and Isaac are hanging out. Isaac tells Amelia how he went to a fortune teller named Madame Margo, who told him all about astral projection. Isaac, a skeptic, dismisses the claims as bogus, but Amelia wonders if it's real. The duo is approached by Cory Calder, a local bully. He accuses Amelia of reporting one of his school pranks to the principal. Cory sees that Amelia's dog, Fluffy, is playing with a ball, so he takes it and throws it into a trafficked street. The dog chases partway, narrowly avoiding a dump truck.

The next day, Amelia empties her savings account without telling her parents, retrieving $100. She uses the money to gain an appointment with Madame Margo, hoping to acquire the power of astral projection. Margo explains to Amelia that if she is granted the power of astral projection, she will only be able to project for one hour total. Going over this limit is described as dangerous. Amelia accepts this, and Margo chants a few words, supposedly giving Amelia the power she desires. Margo tells Amelia to leave without answering any more questions. Later, when Amelia is walking with Isaac, Cory hits her with his bike.

During school the following day, Amelia sees Cory in science class, dissecting a frog. She decides it is time to test out her alleged powers. Amelia sneaks into the janitor's closet and begins projecting. She finds herself able to fly outside of her own body. She can go through objects or interact with them if she wants to. She floats into the science room and grabs Cory's frog. She throws it at the teacher, and Cory is blamed. When Cory gets the frog back, Amelia takes it and shoves it down his shirt. Cory's sent to the principal's office. Amelia goes back into her body. According to her watch, she has forty-six minutes of projection time left. Later in the day, Amelia sees Cory bullying Isaac again. When Cory goes to basketball team tryouts, Amelia uses her astral projection to make him fail. Amelia notices that her watch has stopped, so she rushes back to her body. When she checks a wall clock, she finds that she has ten minutes remaining. Having not learned his lesson, Cory punches Isaac in the gut later in the day.

Amelia decides upon one final revenge scheme. She is going to act like a ghost and scare Cory. Amelia sits down near Cory's house and prepares to project, but she notices that her dog Fluffy has followed her. Amelia tells Fluffy to sit on her lap, and Amelia proceeds to project. Soon, she enters Cory's house and sees him sleeping. She throws objects off of his shelf, trying to wake him up, but he doesn't move. Suddenly, someone grabs her shoulder. It's Cory.

Cory reveals that his aunt is Madame Margo, and she gave him the power of astral projection, too. Cory grabs Amelia, and he is intent on preventing her from going back to her body until it's too late. Cory suddenly cries out in pain. Fluffy, in astral form, bit Cory. Amelia flies back to her body, taking Fluffy with her. Amelia returns to her body, but she can't find Fluffy's body. Cory, in his physical form, storms outside. He's about to hit Amelia, but Fluffy, still in astral projection form, bites him again. Cory flees, and Amelia grabs onto her invisible pet. She spends the next hour hopelessly searching for her dog's body, but she can't find it.

In the end, Fluffy doesn't get her body back. While her pet is invisible forever, Amelia isn't too upset. Fluffy gets to accompany her everywhere she goes, and the invisible dog has been keeping Cory in line.

Trivia

• The protagonists mention a film called Ghost Patrol. There is a real film from 1936 with this name, but this appears to be coincidental. The film mentioned in this story is about the supernatural, while the 1936 film is not.
• This story references Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• The concept of someone whom the protagonist enlists to get revenge on eventually being revealed to be working with the person they plotted revenge on would later be used in Revenge R Us.
• Issac mentions having a cousin named Rachael. There was a character named Rachel in the preceding story, Ghoul School.