title: The Ghost in Hannah's Parlor
author:  Laima Vince 
description: Laima Vince lived for ten years on Peaks Island, a small island off the coast of Maine with a population of 900. During those years she listened to and read the stories and legends of the Casco Bay Islands.  Laima Vince is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award; two Fulbright grants; and a PEN International award. She is the author of <i>Lenin's Head on a Platter <i>, the diary of a American student living in the Baltic States during the final years of the Soviet Union.
zlib_text:   
  
  THE GHOST  
  NEXT DOOR
  
    
  
  Goosebumps - 10
  
  R.L. Stine
  
  (An Undead Scan v1.5)
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  1
  
    
    
  
  Hannah wasn’t sure which had awakened her—the brittle crackling sounds or the
  bright yellow flames.
  
  She sat straight up in bed and stared in wide-eyed horror at the fire that
  surrounded her.
  
  Flames rippled across her dresser. The burning wallpaper curled and then
  melted. The door of her closet had burned away, and she could see the fire
  leaping from shelf to shelf.
  
  Even the mirror was on fire. Hannah could see her reflection, dark behind the
  wall of flickering flames.
  
  The fire moved quickly to fill the room.
  
  Hannah began to choke on the thick, sour smoke.
  
  It was too late to scream.
  
  But she screamed anyway.
  
    
  
  * * *
  
    
  
  How nice to find out it was only a dream.
  
  Hannah sat up in bed, her heart pounding, her mouth as dry as cotton.
  
  No crackling flames. No leaping swirls of yellow and orange.
  
  No choking smoke.
  
  All a dream, a horrible dream. So real.
  
  But a dream.
  
  “Wow. 