Spooky Skeleton Read online

  There was also no sign of my grandmother. I glanced down at Rose, who was making her way over to sniff the boards that had been nailed to the wall.

  “I thought you said she was here,” I said to the cat.

  “She’s right there,” said Rose, looking toward a corner where some drapes hung down from the ceiling. Meg had placed them there to hide the furniture she had stored behind them.

  When I started walking slowly in that direction, the drapes moved ever so slightly, but Cookie did not appear. “Grandmother?”

  “Are you all right?” Rose joined in and together we made a chorus.

  “Cookie?” I called out again. Without meaning it, I knew my footsteps had slowed. The curtain had stopped its gentle swaying. I couldn’t hear anyone else in the entire haunted house. This particular alcove was mostly in shadow.

  I was about to take one last step with my hand reaching out toward the curtain when the fabric flashed back and Cookie came barreling out.

  With a yell I nearly fell over backward.

  Cookie’s pace immediately slowed to a crawl.

  “What do you want?” she asked me. “Why were you sneaking up on me like that?”

  “I wasn’t sneaking up on you! I was yelling for you!” I scoffed.

  “You were just tiptoeing toward where I was hiding with an outstretched hand. What else would you call it?” she demanded.

  “A brief moment of insanity during which I tried to find my grandmother,” I suggested.

  “I suppose that’s another way of putting it,” said Cookie.

  “What are you doing back here, anyway?” I said.

  “I was waiting to see if whoever had created the secret entrance to our mansion returned. So far you are the most likely suspect,” she said.

  “I promise I will never come looking for you again,” I said.

  “I suppose that’s a benefit to being scared halfway out of my wits that I hadn’t foreseen,” she said.

  “The haunted house is about to start. We need your help. Do you think you can leave the curtain by itself for a while?” I said.

  “Of course I can. The curtain will be just fine. It’s only a curtain,” she said.

  As she brushed past me, I was nearly overwhelmed by the desire to rub my temples.

  The night was going very well. We had a good turnout for a Thursday evening. The good thing about having the haunted house up and running was that I was too busy to think about what Grant might have been up two these past couple of days.

  Now and then I left my post selling tickets to check on the supernaturals from Down Below. They were having a fabulously good time. They loved scaring people. I wondered if that had anything to do with their chosen professions. A thief could be quite scary, after all.

  I decided that at some point, I might tell Jefferson Judge that if he needed to give the supernaturals Down Below something to do, scaring people was definitely an option. Just as long as they didn’t break too many laws.

  It was nearing midnight, and I was so tired I was considering quitting early and just going up to bed. I’d have to get the extra supernaturals back Down Below first, but that wouldn’t take long. The stream of visitors had slowed, so if I left now I wouldn’t be missed. Lizzie was there, and she was determined not to leave. As usual, she wanted to be wherever Kip was, and he was still working.

  I was about to tell her that I was going to bed when I heard a strange noise outside. The fact that I thought it was outside was unusual in itself, since it had to be a pretty loud noise to be heard inside the walls of the mansion. We usually heard only thunder, and occasionally a car driving up or a horn blowing in the distance.

  I kept selling tickets for a few more minutes, telling myself I had just imagined whatever I had heard.

  No, there it was again. And again and again and again, until finally I stopped to listen. Luckily, at this point there was no one in line to see my confusion.

  When I asked Lizzie to cover for me, she rolled her eyes but agreed. I hurried to the gift shop and found that Pep had already closed down and was just cleaning up. I got her to come with me, and we tracked down Lark. The three of us grabbed some jackets and headed for the kitchen door, hoping to avoid running into any guests who might still be in the haunted house.

  As we neared the back door, I heard the noise again. It was definitely something howling.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked my cousins as we hurried out into the night.

  “Yes, what is that? It isn’t even the full moon,” said Lark. If she sounded worried, she had a right to be. I had never heard howling filled with such pain before.

  “Could it be coyotes?” Pep said.

  “It could be coyotes like I could actually be a swan,” said Lark. “Coyotes don’t sound like that. We have them all the time, and that definitely isn’t a coyote’s call.”

  “It was just an idea. I don’t see why you have to get all offended. If it isn’t a coyote, what could it possibly be?” Pep said.

  That was a question none of us could answer.

  It was dark outside, because except for the parking lot and the path for visitors, we liked to keep most of the lights off on nights when the haunted house was open.

  The three of us hurried along. A light was on in Evangeline’s cottage, tempting me to stop and speak with her. But now wasn’t the time. As we neared Grant’s cottage, I wondered if he was home. Given that he’d been gone all day, I didn’t think we’d find him there now. And indeed, there were no lights on.

  The howling stopped for a moment, but we kept going.

  “We aren’t actually going into the woods, are we?” Lark asked.

  “I think we have to. That’s where the noise is coming from,” I said.

  I rarely went into the woods around Haunted Bluff. First of all, they were far enough away from the mansion that I rarely wanted to bother walking that distance, all the more since I rarely had any reason to.

  The woods were behind the set of cottages, and once you ventured into the woods it could be difficult to find your way out again. You really had to know your way. The only one of us who had demonstrated a clear knowledge of that terrain was Cookie, who hadn’t been invited on this little excursion. If I knew my grandmother, she had probably found her way back to the drapes by now.

  Just as we reached the first trees, the howling started up again.

  “You guys, I do think that howling sounds like the same howling we heard around the time of the full moon,” said Pep.

  I hated to admit it, but I thought she was right. On the one hand, I was relieved that whatever had been howling at the full moon had started up again. Given that the howling from a few nights ago had been cut off so abruptly, I had worried that something had happened to whatever creature was making the noise.

  The upsetting puzzle now, though, was that the howling had never before happened when it wasn’t the full moon.

  “Are we sure we should be doing this?” Pep asked. She always got around to worrying about it whenever we were sneaking around at night.

  I couldn’t blame her.

  “We’re sure, but you may not be,” said Lark, who was in the lead as usual. I brought up the rear, with Pep tucked safely between us.

  Unlike the forest near Elton’s hidden home, the trees here were spaced far enough apart that we had plenty of room to maneuver. Even if it was very dark and the moon was barely visible, I was confident that we’d be able to move without a lot of difficulty toward whatever was howling.

  The noise ceased, but it had gone on long enough so that we had a good idea where to head.

  “Are we really trying to track down some sort of animal without any weapons?” Lark asked.

  “You could look at it that way, but since we can all perform enchantments on the fly, it shouldn’t be too difficult to perform something before we’re attacked,” said Pep.

  They seemed to have reversed their usual roles, and Lark noticed it too. “For someone who doesn’t think we sh
ould be doing this, you’re sounding awfully confident,” she said over her shoulder to her sister.

  There was a slight pause.

  “Remember that time we went searching for large spiders, and it turned out to be such a bad idea?” Pep asked. “This is reminding me of that time.”

  “I don’t see how you think it was a bad idea. We found out what we needed to know,” said Lark.

  “And got chased all the way back to the mansion in the process. And the gargoyles had to save us,” said Pep.

  “I’m sure we would have been fine,” said Lark. But she didn’t sound very confident about it.

  “We’d probably have an easier time sneaking up on an agile animal if you two weren’t arguing,” I said, trying to keep my voice low.

  They knew I was right, and they stopped.

  By this time we had moved well into the trees. I was pretty sure I’d be able to get us out again, but I continued to try and mark where we were. Two trees stood close together on my right, with a fallen log on the left. I told myself I had to go back between those two spots to get out.

  I kept repeating similar directions to myself over and over in case we had to move quickly. No way did I want to rely on Cookie or Grant to save us. Our excursion into the woods was dangerous, but it was necessary. Whatever was howling so loudly meant to be heard.

  Well, I had heard it, whatever it was, and we had come looking. Hopefully I wouldn’t regret it.

  But I had to be careful for another reason: tomorrow was my date. I didn’t want to fall on my face and scrape something. Maybe a silly thought, but one that I was definitely having. A few leaves in the hair would be fine; those could be showered away. Injuries would be a bigger problem.

  Maybe I was too lost in this reverie to notice the signs, or maybe the giant animal that leaped out at us was so silent there were no signs. I would never know.

  Without warning, something huge and dark emerged out of nowhere. The great beast barreled into us with a piercing scream, making Pep yell just as urgently and dive out of the way. I tried my best to perform an enchantment, but I didn’t have time. The beast was coming right at me.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The creature we have been looking for had found us. Huge haunches and fur sticking out at all angles slammed past me. I leaped sideways and fell into a tree. My hands scraped against the rough bark, and I breathed in the smell of earth and survival.

  I fought my way upright as quickly as possible, hoping to be ready to defend myself next time. I looked wildly in the direction where the animal had gone, but it took me only an instant to realize that it had already disappeared into the forest and the night.

  I heard scrambling behind me and turned around. Lark was trying to get to her feet. Pep was swearing.

  Such a streak of curse words was far from usual for my reserved cousin. She was disheveled, and her hair was sticking out at all angles. She had definitely gotten leaves on her jacket.

  “What on earth was that?” Lark bellowed.

  “I didn’t get a good enough look at it,” said Pep. “Probably because I was about to die.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’re fine,” said Lark. “I mean, it didn’t want to kill you. I’m pretty sure that if it had wanted to kill us, it would have.”

  “Do you think that’s what we heard howling?” Pep asked me.

  I nodded grimly. I couldn’t help but think that it was a good thing Rose hadn’t come with us. If she had, who could say what would have happened to her. The great beast might have thought small cats were quite tasty.

  “I don’t want to waste a moment. Let’s go,” I urged.

  My cousins hurried after me. Branches crackled around us and our footsteps echoed in the night.

  It was only now that I allowed myself to take stock. My heart was hammering in my chest and my hands were shaking. My knees were steady enough to support me, but barely.

  We crashed and ran through the woods. There was no point in being quiet now. Whatever had chased after us would know that we were coming for it. Given how quickly the thing moved, I didn’t have much hope that we’d catch it. My only hope was that it wasn’t about to terrorize the mansion. My family had enough to worry about.

  We reached the open lawn, from which I could see the cottages winking in the distance. There was no light on at Grant’s, and I wondered once again where he had gotten to. As we moved further toward the house, I noticed that Evangeline’s light was also out.

  I knew that by now the haunted house should have closed for the evening. This was not one of the nights when we stayed open late.

  “Should we check the grounds?” Pep asked.

  “Yes, we should definitely check them,” I said.

  Not wanting to split up, we stayed together and walked around the mansion. I tried to keep my breathing under control, but my heart continued to race. As I expected, we saw no great beasts.

  “I’m glad the three of us were together for that. Otherwise, I might think I imagined it,” whispered Lark.

  I couldn’t have agreed more.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I was eager to get out of bed the next morning, mostly because I wanted to go outside and see if there were any signs of whatever had been crashing through the woods. I was outside far earlier than usual, and thus had an unaccustomed view of seagulls circling overhead and mists rising off the ocean in clouds.

  Audrey was in the kitchen when I went through, but she hadn’t even finished making breakfast yet. She gave me a surprised look, but I just kept going, not even grabbing a cup of coffee, because obviously.

  After half an hour outside I had discovered no sign of the animal. I strolled around the side of the mansion to see if there were any fresh tracks near the house, especially in the spot where I had seen them the night I discovered the hole in the wall. There were none.

  I was just heading back inside when Evangeline’s door opened. She was dressed in a nightgown and had come out to pick up the paper. Usually we had several papers dropped off at the gates of the mansion each morning, and it was the job of one of the guys to distribute them.

  Evangeline saw me and quickly tried to close her door, but I wasn’t having it.

  “Good morning,” I called out.

  “Good morning,” she said curtly as I hurried over to her front step. She glared at me and stood in her doorway with the door half closed.

  “I don’t suppose you saw anything strange last night,” I said.

  “By my definition or normal people’s definition?” she said.

  “Either,” I said.

  “No, I can’t say I did. I went to bed after doing some reading. But right now I really must get my coffee. Have a good day.”

  Just as she’d done before, she closed the door in my face before I could argue. Frustrated, I was just turning back toward the house when I noticed her flowerbeds. There in the soft earth was a great big paw print.

  I nearly knocked on her door and demanded an explanation. After mulling it over, though, I decided that it was pointless to badger her. If she wasn’t going to tell me before, she certainly wasn’t going to tell me now. Anyhow, the fact that there was a paw print next to her house didn’t mean she knew anything about what had jumped out of the forest the night before.

  If she didn’t know anything about it, the discovery that there was something to fear would only make her edgy. On the other hand, if she did know what the beast was, she’d probably just dig her heels further in and refuse to admit it.

  With all of that in mind, I trudged back to the mansion. My stomach was grumbling and my coffee cup was waiting for me. It was definitely time for breakfast.

  After I finished eating, I told my cousins about my plan to head into Shimmerfield. They agreed to go with me, and we got ready to leave.

  Before we could get away, Jezebel and Erika came and found me, both of them looking unhappy. It was only then that I realized, with extreme dismay, that I had left the haunted house operation the night before
without returning the supernaturals Down Below.

  “You just left last night. Those were a bunch of criminals out there,” said Erika.

  “Did they do anything they weren’t supposed to?” I asked. I had images of them marching away with priceless crystal goblets, maybe a chandelier or two, and anything else they could find that looked expensive.

  “No. They behaved perfectly well. But that isn’t the point,” said Erika. She tended to get into a huff, while Jezebel was more measured.

  “We really appreciate that you went and found them. It’s just that we worry about what they’ll do without supervision,” Jezebel explained.

  “Like steal more stuff,” Erika supplied.

  “I understand your concern,” I assured them. “Next time they work in the haunted house, I’ll be sure to stay around the whole time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go into town.”

  I wasn’t going to tell them why I had rushed away last night, and there was no point in lingering. Hopefully next time the supernaturals from Down Below came to help, there wouldn’t be a monster howling in the woods.

  Just as I got to the car I heard Erika call after me, “You ran outside last night because of the werewolf.”

  I stopped dead and turned around very slowly. Apparently she already knew why I’d disappeared.

  “Did I hear what I think I just heard?” I asked.

  “Only if you heard me say the word werewolf.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  My mind was a total and utter blank. I wondered what kind of investigator I was, because in this instance I couldn’t even process what Erika was saying. Shock made my hands tingle and my eyes go out of focus. I took slow steps back to where the supernaturals were standing. Their expressions of irritation had changed to confusion.

  “Surely you knew what that noise was,” said Jezebel.

  “Why should it be obvious what that noise was?” I demanded.

  The ghost shrugged. “Because your family would have told you? Cookie certainly knows what it is.”