I Come From Your Basement

I Come From Your Basement is the 1st book in the Goosebumps Gold series. The cover shows Keith in a dark room full of junk and bits of metal (presumably a basement). The tag-line on the back of the book was "I Come In Peace... From Your Basement".

Plot
Joshua Puglamb, a chubby 13-year-old basically scared of his own shadow, goes to check out the basement of his new house. In the basement, he is scared half to death when he finds a bat! The bat flies off through the open basement window. In the corner of his eyes, he notices a small door. He opens the door and finds a small, creepy-looking room. He crawls inside, and meets a group of kids hanging out in there. William, the kids' leader, tells Joshua that they thought the house was still empty after the last kid who lived there mysteriously died. Josh asks who the previous kid was and how he died. William tells Josh that the previous owner was a kid named Keith, who was found decapitated in a river outside of town. Josh starts to freak out, but the kids, William, Tony, James, Marcus, and Miranda, calm him down. When the kids hear Josh's mom, they leave the room through the window. The next day, Josh meets the kids once more at the school at recess. Josh asks William if he wants to play a game of soccer, but William tells Josh that his name is Keith. Josh is confused, and asks "Keith" what he means.

Suddenly, the other kids starts chanting "Keith; Keith; He lives in your basement; Keith; Keith; He'll punch your face in!" The kids join hands and start dancing in a circle around Keith. Then, Keith pulls his head off and throws it right at Josh. Josh screams as a yellow, vein-covered blob oozes out of Keith's neck and tells Josh that he lives in a basement. The blob laughs and yells "YOUR BASEMENT!" in a demonic voice. Suddeny, Josh wakes up and realizes it was just a nightmare. Josh, while eating breakfast, tells his sister, Danny, about the dream. Josh's mom tells him to stop scaring Danny, even though Danny claims that it doesn't scare her one bit and she knows Josh is lying. Josh sighs in frustration and finishes his breakfast. Then, he and Danny get their backpacks and get on the bus. On the bus, Danny sits next to her new friend, Tanya, and Josh sits next to William. Josh tells William about the dream, and William laughs and tells Josh he's crazy. Later, at reccess, Josh tells the rest of the kids in William's little group about the dream. Suddenly, they join hands and dance in a circle around Josh chanting "Keith is real; Keith ain't dead; Keith will rip off your stupid head!" Josh screams as William walks up to thim through the circle and laughs evilly. Suddenly, Josh realizes they're all fake. That this is all a dream, too. But Josh can't wake up, so he just decides to go on with the whole nightmare, because he knows that he'll wake up soon. But thats when all of them stop and burst into laughter. William tells Josh that it was all a joke. Josh is fed up with it all, so, enraged, he tackles William and begins fighting him.

William proves to be an ultimate match for Josh, as they are equally strong. The fight is broken up by Danny and Tanya. Danny asks Josh what he was thinking. Josh tells Danny about their mean prank. William gets up and starts telling Danny how Josh "viciously attacked him all because of a friendly joke". Josh growls with rage at Danny, and storms off to plan his revenge. The next day, on the bus, Josh sits next to Miranda, who tells him "how sorry William is". Josh tells her that the dream really freaked him out. She tries to cheer him up by telling him about her nightmare, where the ghost of Albert Einstein showed up and challenged her to a quiz, where whoever gets the most questions right wins. Josh starts telling Miranda that his dream was way different and way scarier, when the bus stops to pick up William. William sits down in his normal seat, which is the seat behind Josh and Miranda. William apologizes for what he did, but it's too late. Josh's revenge is ready. A bucket of yellow goop, resembling Keith the Blob, is tipped over under William's seat. William raises his legs into the air, horrified, and screams that a blob is attacking him. People on the bus laugh, and Josh can tell he's got his revenge.

Twist Ending
Josh tells William he set it all up to scare him, and that it isn't Keith the Blob. William asks what Josh is talking about. Josh sighs and says "Geez, William". William looks at him in a strange way, and says that he doens't know a person named William. Josh is confused, and then William reveals his name is Keith, not William. The book ends as Josh screams in horror.

Trivia

 * First edition copies have a different cover where Joshua is staring down at the bottom of the basement staircase. This was changed for unknown reasons.