Never Bowl the Tenth Frame

Every strike knocks down ten pins - and one memory he'll never get back.

Beto Salinas has six unbreakable rules for winning. Lucky socks, unwashed. Left shoe on first. Never say the S-word out loud. And never, ever step on the foul line.

He should have written down a seventh rule: never bowl on lane thirteen.

Starlite Lanes is closing forever. The shooting-star sign is half burned out, the shag carpet is worn down to nothing, and Marisol's birthday party is the very last game anybody will ever play there. Then Beto rolls a strike on the lane at the end - the one nobody uses, the one where the ancient pinsetter machine clanks like something waking up from a fifty-one year nap.

He rolls another strike. And another. He has never bowled this good in his life.

But between frames, things start going missing. Not shoes. Not scorecards. His grandmother's name. His dog. The reason his best friend Nadia is glaring at him from behind her score sheet. Nadia writes everything down - and her list is getting longer while Beto's is getting shorter.

Down at the pin deck, in the acid-green glow of the pit, ten white pins are whispering his memories back to him. In his own voice.

The tenth frame is coming. Beto has one throw left, and no idea what it's going to cost him.

What's waiting on lane thirteen:

• A 1970s bowling alley on its very last night open
• A pinsetter machine that resets more than pins
• Ten pins with faces - and mouths that move
• A best friend who keeps score of every lie you tell
• One perfect game you should never have started

Perfect for readers ages 8-12 who love spooky chills, short chapters, and cliffhangers that make them beg for one more. Creep Street books are standalone scary stories written for reluctant readers, classroom shelves, sleepover flashlights, and any kid who likes to be a little bit terrified before bed. Read them in any order - just don't read them alone.

Beto's on a perfect streak. Perfect streaks always end.

Would you take the strike, if you knew what it took?