Ghost Car

by R.L. Stine and Riley Hamilton

Ghost Car was written as part of R.L. Stine’s Nightmare Room writing program. R.L. Stine
provided the first section and then allowed aspiring writers to continue the story. The part that
was contributed by me is clearly marked.

R.L. Stine’s Introduction

I poked my head into the old car. The dashboard was covered with dust, and the back of
the passenger seat was ripped and stained.
“Why does Grandpa Ed keep this old wreck behind the garage?” I asked my sister
Ashley.
“Ben, you know why,” she replied. “Grandpa thinks the car is haunted. He won’t go near
it.”
“Haunted? Cool,” I said. I climbed behind the steering wheel.
“I’m outta here,” Ashley said. “I don’t like smelly, old cars especially if they’re haunted.”
She disappeared around the side of the garage.
As soon as she was gone, I heard a soft whisper. “Ben. . . let’s go. Take me for a drive.”
“Huh?” I gasped in surprise. I checked to make sure Ashley wasn’t playing a joke on me.
But my sister had left.
“Take me for a drive, Ben. I’m so lonely behind the garage.”
The voice seemed to be coming from the radio. But the radio was turned off. I let out a
startled cry as the engine started up. The car rattled and clanked, and then the engine hummed
smoothly.
“Step on the gas, Ben,” the voice whispered. “Don’t be afraid. Let’s GO!”
My heart started to pound. I grabbed the door handle. Should I jump out of the car? I
asked myself. Should I tell Ashley what’s happening? Or should I take the wheel? Step on the
gas? Take a chance?

Riley Hamilton’s contribution to the story begins here

Dedicated to my mother

No, fuck Ashley, I thought. She has been totally lame lately. She cries about everything
stupid. I hate baby sisters and I hate ugly grandpas.
“Hurry Ben! Drive me around!” The car radio screamed. ”I’ll take you away from ugly
grandpas. Step on the gas and we can start having adult fun.”
Could he hear my thoughts? The engine was humming like a newborn kitten. My mother
had never even let me sit on her lap while she was driving let alone me being in complete
control.
“What are you? I’ve never known a car that has spoke before. I’m young though.” I said.
The voice in the radio sounded like it belonged to a sleazy DJ who comes on late at night.
“My name is Steven Reynolds. I’m a ghost trapped in a car body. Just give that old gas
pedal a little push and I’ll keep telling you all about me. It’ll be very cool. I promise.” Steven
said.
My hands were shaking. A ghost named Steven trapped in a car? Maybe I should tell
someone. Who would I tell though? Ashley, the little baby? Suddenly, the rumbling of the old
car made the leather seats vibrate. I started feeling good all over.
“Which one is the gas pedal?” I said.
“Oh, Jesus. Go run inside and get somebody else out here. ‘Which one is the gas pedal?’
Are you retarded? It’s the big pedal on the right.”
“Watch your manners.” I lowered my foot onto the gas and stepped on it.
The car sped forward and I grabbed the woodgrain steering wheel just before we hit a
hedge that bordered Grandpa’s house. I was being bounced all around the front seat while we
went through huge holes in the dirt. We made it out onto the street.
“Push harder on the gas, Ben. We have to get away from that house. I really hate your
Grandpa,” Steven hissed. “Oh, this feels good. I miss the road on my tires. You don’t need to
push anything anymore. I’ve got it from here.”
The car began to accelerate. I fastened my seat belt. Down the road, the lights had
changed to red. We were approaching an intersection packed with cars. He wasn’t slowing down
even the slightest.
“I don’t want to go faster. I’m scared. There are tons of cars up ahead.”
Steven, the car ghost, laughed loudly and then started racing down the street. I tried
stepping on the brakes but nothing happened. The ghost inside the car had complete control!
Even the steering wheel wasn’t working. I looked out the windshield. The speed limit said 40 on
this road. I checked our speed. We were going 60 miles per hour! That’s nearly 20 miles faster!
On a road like this! The light turned greener than a booger at the intersection so the cars started
to speed up. A car in front of us wasn’t picking up speed fast enough and Steven tried getting to
the right of it.
“Stop the car, Steven!” I said. “You’ll kill us.”
“That doesn’t bother me. I’m already dead, Ben. I told you I was a ghost, right?”
“What do you mean you’re dead?” My voice was cracking like dry wood.
“I’ve been dead for a long time, Ben. When someone says they’re a ghost it means
they’re dead. Sheesh, I don’t remember being this dumb when I was seven years old.”
“I’m twelve.” I corrected.
Cars were blaring their horns as we swerved into the left lane to pass a truck in front of
us. All of a sudden I heard a police siren. Yes! They would save me from this terrible ghost.
The police car drove up right behind us and the siren was blaring. Steven wouldn’t slow down.
I waved my arms inside the car to alert the police officer that I wasn’t in control. The seat belt
started to constrict me. I could feel my waist being pinched and it started to affect my breathing.
Steven was tightening the belt around me like a snake of some sort!
“Stop, Steven. That’s the police. My mother always says, ‘If a cop is behind you with his
lights on, you need to pull over’. That’s what you need to do.”
“That’s some solid advice, Ben. I think I will stop.”
The car immediately braked and the tires squealed to a stop. The police officer behind
us had to swerve to the right to avoid crashing into the back of us. The police officer got out
immediately and slammed his door. He was a thin man with a wispy moustache. He walked
behind our car and approached my window. The cop looked puzzled when he saw me behind the
wheel and then motioned for me to roll down my window. I tried grabbing onto the roller but it
wouldn’t budge. The cop was frustrated already and this refusal to obey a command added to his
annoyance.
“Open up that window immediately,” he said, knocking on the glass with dirty knuckles.
“I can’t,” I said loudly, so that he could hear me outside of the car.
“Open it up now!” The cop grabbed a baton from his hip and tapped the window.
“It’s not working!” I tried to illustrate to him that the roller wouldn’t budge but this time
the window went down half way.
“What the hell are you doing, son? You look about nine years old. How old are you?”
“I’m twelve, sir. I’m not in control of the car,” I said.
“You’re godamned right you are not in control of this car. I need you to step out here
immediately,” he said. He began to inspect the car. The radio started to crackle.
“You’re a big asshole.”
I was shocked. The voice had come out of the radio. Steven was mimicking my voice
perfectly. The cop looked directly at me.
“Excuse me? What did you say?” he said.
“Help me, Help me.” This time the voice was coming from behind me. It sounded like
it was in the trunk. “Help. Get me out of here!” The voice was screaming, sounding like a
distressed child.
“Who is that?” The officer asked. He started to walk towards the voice in the trunk. There
couldn’t have been anyone in there though. The car had been parked in the back of Grandpa’s
house for years. The cop went completely behind the car to investigate the crying voice in the
trunk.
“No, wait!” I screamed. It was too late. The engine shot to a start and my head lurched
forward. I tried pushing on the brake with all of my strength but it wouldn’t budge. I heard the
officer scream, completely taken by surprise. I heard his body crunch under the weight of this
massive ghost inhabited vehicle. My head hit the steering wheel as we had crashed into the
police car leaving the police officer’s body between the front and back tires. Steven brought the
car forward so the tires crunched down on the officer again. A bone snapped like a bone being
picked up between two hands and snapped in half. We pulled away and I looked out the back
window. The cop’s body was completely destroyed. His face had sunken in on itself. His fingers
were flattened into the pavement. I threw up onto the dashboard.
“Sick, Ben.” Steven said. “You’re going to clean that up.”
We were back to full speed again. Some witnesses had gotten out of their cars and were
running towards the body. I saw some of them grab their cell phones to dial for help. This
couldn’t last much longer. But how could I explain myself?
“Steve, you need to stop! Those people saw the whole thing. Any second now there will
be more police and they’ll stop you.” I tried to sound brave. I had given up trying to hold onto
the steering wheel. There was nothing I could do to get control of the car. I grabbed at the keys in
the ignition. They wouldn’t budge.
“Steve, there’s a car right in front of us!”
He kept speeding and swerved to the right to miss a car. How could I get Steven to stop
this hell ride? It didn’t seem like he ever wanted to stop his fun. The car had no air conditioning
and the windows were rolled up. I bet Grandpa and Ashley were worried. And my mother, my
poor mother? What will she think if she finds out I died in a car wreck after killing a police
officer? She wouldn’t believe that her son had done something like this. But eventually she
would. There was no other explanation. No one believes in ghosts named Steven that live in cars.
Even my sister Ashley would probably cry when she found out that her older brother would be
rotting in a grave for the rest of eternity.
I remember one time when I had punched Ashley in her fat mouth for pulling my hair, my
mother came in and asked us both to stop. She said politely, ‘Ben, please don’t punch your sister
in her mouth. She’s a little girl.’ It was that ‘please’ that stuck with me. She had tried to be polite
even when my sister’s lip was bleeding from my cereal box ring I was wearing on my index
finger at the time. I remember I let go of my sister’s shirt immediately and apologized. I even did
chores to pay for the dentist work that my sister needed done on her teeth after the fight. Could
something like that work again?
Steven was pretending this was a chariot race now and was swiping the side of a green
van. The driver of the van looked into my eyes with the most puzzled, fearful look, wondering
why a little boy was crashing into the side of him while he was trying to drive. I raised my hands
and shrugged. What can I do, you idiot? There’s a ghost in the car.
Now, police had entered the mix. I could hear far off sirens. They were tearing through
the road to get to us. Understandably furious at the cop killing incident I would imagine. I
probably had one last chance before the cops started taking aim at my head with guns and pulling
out all those stunts to immobilize the vehicle.
“Steven,” I said slowly. “Is there anyway we could stop this car?”
“Are you joking with me, Ben? First, I’m going to crash into a car and kill you. Then I’m
going to lose these cops and find a hitchhiker. Then, I’ll get in another crash and kill him.”
“Steven,” I said, calmly. ”Could you please pull over and stop the car?”
“What did you say?” Steven said, incredulous.
“I said could you please pull over this car, and I really would like you to do it.” I
told him. I thought about how my mother would slow her words down to give them all their
impact. “Pretty please.”
“Why?” Steven said.
“I just really want you to. Is there anyway you could? You know I would appreciate it.
C’mon, please Steven.”
“And you don’t want to be killed first, right?”
“Steven, you know I wouldn’t. I’d just like this ride to stop. You can do whatever you’d
like once I’m out of the car. Just return yourself to Grandpa’s house later.”
 “I don’t want to go back there.”
“Steven….”
“Fine.” The seat belt relaxed around my chest and waist. Steven pulled the car away from
the side of the van and slowed down to get on the shoulder of the road. “Are you mad at me?”
“No, Steven, I’m not. Open this door.” The lock flipped up. I grabbed the handle like
it was an ice cream cone drizzled in chocolate and covered in rainbow sprinkles with brownie
pieces inside, dripping down all over my hand because it was a warm day. Fresh air zoomed
into my nostrils like a witch flying through the window of her home after a day full of flying in
the fresh air. I stepped around behind the car and went towards grass to distance myself in case
Steven decided to kill me just for shits. I nodded at the car once I was safely away and Steven
continued on his trip.
I had called my mom a bitch countless times before but I couldn’t imagine what I would
have done without her advice. Three squad cars continued their pursuit after that crazy ghost but
one was slowing down to approach me on the shoulder. For some reason, he seemed angry. He
got out of the car with a gun in his right hand aimed at me. This must have been his first day. I
had to calm this jitterbug down.
“His name is Steven, the ghost that was inside the car. He did everything and killed that
other dude. Case closed. Can you stop standing there with a gun and take me home please?” I
said.
I knew the magic word and nothing would ever be the same for the rest of my life. All
I wanted now was to get home, cuddle next to the tender Grandpa, and give a certain mother a
much needed ‘thank you’ with a kiss. Now that I think about it, I might even give Ashley a hug.
A really tiny one.

THE END