“ | Frozen in silence, I squinted into the eerie, pale light. Hands popped up from beneath the ground. They shook off dirt and stretched. A dozen hands poked up, shimmering yellow and green in the moonlight. And then heads. Human heads. Hair caked with dirt. Skin loose, hanging from their skulls, They stared at me with pleading eyes, faces twisted, mouths hanging open in pain. "Take me with you," one of them called in a dry whisper. |
„ |
~ Brandon Plush describing what he finds. |
Brandon Plush is the protagonist of Headless Halloween, the tenth book in Goosebumps Series 2000.
History[]
Brandon is a prankster who likes to scare people, like his little sister, Maya, and his cousin, Vinnie. Brandon hopes to scare the neighborhood on Halloween, but his science teacher, Mr. Benson, becomes his main target after giving him a week of detention for a prank on Vinnie.
On Halloween, Brandon is forced to go trick-or-treating with Vinne, Maya, and her friends. He and his best friend, Cal, ditch the children behind to enact Brandon's revenge on Mr. Benson, planning to vandalize his house, which is is a creepy old place located on the edge of Raven's Ravine, a rock cliff with a steep drop.
When Mr. Benson leaves, Brandon and Cal go to the house, only to find two guard dogs waiting for them outside. Luckily, the dogs appear to be chained up. As he and Cal enter, Brandon, who is sick from Halloween candy, vomits all over Mr. Benson's kitchen table. Cal urges him to leave, but Brandon thinks they should do some more damage to his house. However, his plan is thwarted when Mr. Benson and his dogs arrive. The boys flee, but before they can escape, Cal gets stuck in a window and is abandoned by Brandon, who doesn't want to get caught. Out of options, Brandon tries to jump Raven's Ravine, but misses the other side by mere inches, falling into the jagged rocks below.
However, Brandon wakes up and is surprised to discover he's seemingly survived his jump. Now on the other side of the ravine, Brandon finds himself in unfamiliar territory. The houses are dark, and he sees not a single trick-or-treater in sight. Eventually, however he runs into a boy who is wearing a green monster mask identical to his. The boy introduces himself as Norband and invites Brandon to an ongoing Halloween party. While he is initially reluctant, Brandon agrees to it.
At the party, however, things quickly turn from normal to terrifying. Brandon is forced to eat a doughnut that is filled with worms, and later, bob for apples in a barrel that is full of cockroaches. The partygoers, who are a group of children in costumes, take delight in Brandon's suffering. When he tries to escape, the children all swarm him and begin to chant "Let's get scary!". The terrified Brandon makes it back to the ravine, only to find his own body lying at the bottom.
Norband then explains that Brandon didn't survive the jump and his spirit is now on the other side. He reveals that there is now only one way to get his body back: as penance for all those he's scared, he must help three frightened people. Norband gives Brandon his body back and tells him he has one hour to make things right. Getting a second chance at life, Brandon starts off his good deeds by saving Cal from Mr. Benson's dogs. Second, he rescues Vinnie from a haunted house. Lastly, he rescues his sister, Maya, from a group of bullies. With his hour now over, Brandon jumps to the other side of the ravine, to tell Norband he has accomplished the tasks.
However, Norband tells Brandon that all of the work he was forced to do was part of his Halloween prank, as Brandon is now one of them, and will be trapped on the other side forever. However, Brandon isn't bothered by this, and realizing that it's still Halloween, and that they're still all dead, he tells Norband and the other spirits that they should cross over to the other side so they can start some real scaring.
Personality[]
Brandon is a bully who likes scaring people. He has a cruel sense of humor like his father, and seems never to question if what he's doing is wrong. While he initially shows some regret once Norband and the other children scare him, it is shown at the end of the book that he hasn't truly learnt his lesson and will continue scaring people.
Trivia[]
- Brandon Plush is an anomaly among bullies in the Goosebumps franchise, in that he is the protagonist of the book in which he appears. Steve Boswell is another example, being the protagonist of The Haunted Mask II, although he was merely a side-character in the original book.
External Links[]
- Brandon Plush on the Goosebumps Wiki