Author R.L. Stine has been terrifying audiences for years with his Goosebumps and Fear Street novels, delivering fans all manner of monsters and mayhem, most of which keep their tone more aimed at younger audiences. While the author’s stories have been adapted into a number of different mediums, including movies and TV shows, Stine himself often sticks to literature to strike fear into the hearts of his fans. Despite Stine sticking to his traditional storytelling methods, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t still willing to experiment, as he recently took to Twitter to craft a horror story in real-time for all of his fans.
Hello, everyone. I hope you brought some kids around. I’m going to try to write a scary story– live– on Twitter now. Hope you enjoy it. My story is called “Cats in the Window.”…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
The story unfolded over the course of 14 tweets and, possibly as evidence of his detachment from the platform, the tweets weren’t threaded to one another, making it slightly more difficult to read the spooky story.
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Scroll down to read Stine’s “Cats in the Window” story!
Jake
I was excited when my friend Jake came to stay at our house for a week. Jake was a funny kid, and we always had fun together. (1)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
Jake had a face that made you want to laugh. For one thing, he had one blue eye and one brown eye. Weird? He had freckles around his nose. And one strand of blond hair that stood straight up on his head. (2)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
Didn’t Sleep Much
It was school break, so Jake and I had fun all day playing in the woods behind my house. At night, we slept side by side in the twin beds that faced my bedroom window. Except we didn’t sleep much. (3)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
We stayed up most of the night laughing and talking. I liked to watch the moon float by my bedroom window. Late one night, a shadow appeared in the window. We both sat up and stared. A black cat. (4)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
Green-Eyed Cat
The cat had green eyes that appeared to glow in the moonlight. It was a hot summer night, so the window was open. Jake and I both gasped as the cat jumped through the window and landed on my bed. (5)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
The cat pawed my arm and motioned with its head to the window. Jake laughed. “I think he wants you to go outside with him.” The cat meowed again. His green eyes glowed. He pawed Jake and motioned to the window. (6)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
A Visitor
“What’s going on in here?” My mom burst into the room. The black cat leaped out the window before she could see him. “We had a visitor,” I said. “A black cat jumped onto my bed.” “You were dreaming,” Mom said. (7)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
The next night, two black cats came into the room. They pawed us and pushed us with their heads toward the window. We picked them up and set them outside. I wanted to shut the window, but it was too hot. (8)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
“I’m going with them.”
Six cats came into the room the next night. They all jumped onto Jake’s bed. They meowed and clawed at Jake. They huddled behind him and pushed him toward the open window. (9)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
“I’m going with them,” Jake said. ”I want to see why they want us to come with them.” I tried to stop him. But he went with them. They circled him and guided him out the window. “Jake—come back!” I cried. (10)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
“We never saw Jake again.”
We never saw Jake again. His parents never found him. The police couldn’t find him. It was sad and horrible. I missed him so much. At night I watched for the black cats to return. But they never did. (11)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
Then the next summer, on a hot steamy night, a strange cat appeared. It jumped through the window onto my bed. The cat meowed at me. I gazed at it in shock. The cat looked so familiar to me. (12)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
“I could barely breathe.”
I could barely breathe. The cat stared at me with one blue eye and one brown eye. It had freckles around its nose. And a thick strand of blond hair standing straight up on its head. (13)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
It kept pawing me, motioning its head to the window. “What’s that? You want me to come with you?” I whispered. It meowed. I climbed out of bed and stood at the window. I grabbed the windowsill and leaned out into the night. I tried to decide: Should I go? THE END. (14)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020
