Goosebumps #40: Night of the Living Dummy III

Trina and her brother Dan have a ventriloquist obsessed dad. He had a dozen of the dummies stuck up in the attic, in a space he calls his own museum. He brings home a new dummy that he found in a dumpster and fixed up his head. Trina finds a slip of paper in its pocket and reads the funny words written on it. The dummy winks at her and then slaps her across the face, but no one believes her.

A few days later their cousin Zane comes to spend a week. When he visited the summer before, they scared the crap out of him with the dummies, so his dad makes them promise not to do it again. Of course weird crap starts happening right off the bat. One night they find a dummy sitting at the kitchen table and on another night, the same dummy seems to follow them around the house.

Zane takes a bunch of pictures and develops them in their dad’s darkroom in the basement. He gets pissed off when he finds that over half the photos are of the dummies. Trina and Dan start wondering if he did to scare them, but he swears he didn’t. After hearing sounds like footsteps coming from the attic, they sneak upstairs and hide. They find Zane sneaking up to move the dummies around. They confront him and both sides agree not to do it anymore.

Naturally weird things keep happening. They come home one day to find their rooms trashed, with a dummy sitting in the middle of the room. Their dad gets involved and makes both groups agree to stop messing with the dummies. One night they hear noises, run into the dining room and find the room a mess, with food everywhere and two dummies sitting at the table.

Trina and Dan sneak upstairs again and realize that one of the dummies has come to life. He tells them that his name is Slappy and that from now on, they are his slaves. The dummy attacks Trina, but she manages to grab him and drag him outside. They dump him in an old well in the yard, but the next day he comes back.

They go back upstairs and hide again. Trina thinks that if she says the words again, he’ll go back to being a dummy, but it doesn’t work. Suddenly the other dummies start advancing on them, but then Zane rushes upstairs. All of the dummies collapse on the floor. Zane tells them that he knew they were behind it all along and tells their dad the same thing, who flips out on them.

When Zane leaves, he tells their dad that he’s ready to stop taking pictures and wants to be a ventriloquist. He tells Trina to pick a dummy out for him. She gives him Slappy and right before Zane gets in the car, the dummy’s head turns and he gives her a wink.