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Authors: Sierra Harimann

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BOOK: Curiosity Killed the Cat
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Chapter Three

Hannah’s stepmom, Allison, greeted them at the door and made a big fuss as she grabbed the purple sleeping bag in Hannah’s arms.

“I’ve got this!” Allison chirped as she headed up the stairs. “Follow me! I’ll show you to your new digs.”

Digs?
Hannah rolled her eyes. Adults could be so ridiculous when they tried to sound young and cool.

When Hannah got to the top of the stairs, she saw that there were two doors in front of her — one door to the left and the other to the right. As Allison flung open the door on the right, a blast of hot air enveloped Hannah.

“Well, it’s nothing fancy, but this is it,” Allison said almost apologetically.

Hannah looked around. The sloping ceiling and walls were covered with posters and photos of basketball, baseball, hockey, and football players. The room obviously belonged to a boy.

Allison noticed Hannah silently taking in the sports paraphernalia.

“This is usually my son Greg’s room, but he just left for college last month,” she explained. “I’m sorry your dad and I haven’t had a chance to take down all these posters and repaint the walls yet. We’ve just been so busy with the renovations downstairs. But feel free to do whatever you like — I’m sure Greg won’t mind if you store his posters in the closet, as long as you don’t tear them.”

Right
, Hannah thought.
The renovations.
It figured that in the three weeks since they’d all found out Hannah was going to be moving in, no one had even taken the time to take down a few posters in the room where she’d be staying.

“It’s fine,” Hannah said glumly. “It’s really hot in here, though.” She reached up and tugged on the cord hanging from the antique ceiling fan. Nothing happened.

“Oh, that’s not going to work,” Allison said. She crossed the room and pushed open one of the
windows. “The ceiling fans in this house have been broken for years. I keep forgetting to ask the electrician to take a look at the wiring.”

There was an awkward silence as Hannah tried to think of something to say. Thankfully, she heard her dad’s footsteps coming up the stairs. A few seconds later, he appeared in the doorway.

Hannah grabbed a box out of his arms.

“Thanks, Dad,” she said, relieved to no longer be alone in the stuffy room with Allison. “Why don’t I come downstairs and help you bring in the rest of the boxes?”

Allison seemed relieved as well.

“Perfect,” she said, a bit too brightly. “And I’ll go check on the contractors. They should be about done for the day, and I want to make sure they’ve made some progress since I last checked in. Sometimes they just work so slowly!”

An hour later, Hannah was alone in her new room, unpacking her things. She had just finished arranging her shoes in the closet when she felt a sudden chill. Goose bumps swept up her arms, and the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She was certain
someone was watching her. Hannah whipped around. Sure enough, Madison stood in the doorway, arms crossed, with a nasty scowl on her face.

“Dinner’s ready,” she snapped at Hannah. Then she sauntered casually into the room. She picked up a black cat figurine Hannah had placed on the dresser. Madison turned it over in her hand and gave it a tiny toss into the air. Hannah gasped as Madison caught the figurine easily and let out a mean little laugh. She placed it back on the dresser, not very gently.

Madison took a step closer.

“Let’s get a few things straight around here,” she said menacingly. “See that door over there?” She gestured over her shoulder.

Hannah nodded.

“That’s the door to
my
bathroom,” Madison explained. “My mom said I have to let you use it, too.” She rolled her eyes dramatically.

“But since the only way in is through this room or my bedroom, you’d better remember to unlock my door when you’re done in there,” Madison continued. “Because if you lock me out of my own bathroom, I will
not
be happy.”

“Okay, fine,” Hannah squeaked softly. “Can we go eat dinner now?”

“One more thing,” Madison said. “If you ever touch even a drop of my shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, or anything else in there, you will be sorry. See you later,
sis
.”

And with that, Madison turned and strode out of the room.
Talk about an evil stepsister!
Hannah thought. It was as if Madison had been taking lessons from Cinderella’s tormentors.

Things didn’t get much better at dinner. Allison served meat loaf with mushroom gravy and green bean casserole. Hannah didn’t want to be rude, but there was nothing she hated more than mushrooms, and green beans weren’t exactly her favorite, so she barely ate anything. And Madison spent half the dinner chattering on and on about her trip to the mall with her friends that afternoon. Then Allison and Hannah’s dad spent the rest of the meal rehashing the plot of a movie they had seen the previous night. No one made any effort to include Hannah in either conversation, so she just sat there, silently swirling mushrooms around on her plate.

By the time dinner was over, Hannah was eager to just go to bed. She didn’t think the day could get any worse, and the sooner she fell asleep, the sooner it would be over.

Even though it was only 8:30, Hannah pulled on her pajamas, grabbed her toothbrush, and headed for the bathroom. She jiggled the doorknob but it didn’t budge, so she tried knocking. No answer. Hannah flopped down on her bed to wait. As soon as she did, her phone chimed. It was a text from Paisley.

wanna skype?

OMG! yes! logging on now.

Hannah quickly booted up her computer and opened the video chat program. She accepted the incoming call from Paisley, and her best friend’s face filled the computer screen.

“Hey!” Paisley waved at her friend. “How’s the new place?”

Hannah moved her head so Paisley could see the room behind her. “See for yourself.”

“Um, nice posters,” Paisley joked. “I didn’t realize you were so into basketball. Are you going out for the team?”

“Ha-ha.” Hannah stuck out her tongue at Paisley. “Today hasn’t been the best day of my life, that’s for sure.”

“Oh no! What happened?” Paisley asked, her brow furrowed with concern.

“Well, first Icky ran out of the house while my mom and I were trying to get him into his crate.”

Paisley gasped. “That is totally tragic! But you got him back, right?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah replied glumly. “Hopefully he’s back at my mom’s by now, but he was still missing when I left. He runs off every now and then, but he never stays out overnight. My mom’s going to bring him here tomorrow on her way to the airport.”

“I’m so sorry, Hannah.” Paisley spread her arms out wide. “Virtual hug!”

“Thanks,” Hannah replied softly. “Things didn’t get much better after that. Madison’s been, well, Madison. And you probably can’t see out the window behind me, but you’ll never guess what you can see from my bedroom.”

Paisley shook her head. “You’re right — I have no idea.”

Hannah lowered her voice. “It’s the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery!”

“Oh, that is
creepy
!” Paisley replied with a shudder. “You’ve heard the stories they tell about that place, right?”

Hannah nodded. “Yeah, but they’re all pretty silly. And it’s not like I actually know anyone who’s
ever been haunted, and I’ve lived around here my whole life.”

“Well …” Paisley began hesitantly and then paused. “There is
one
story about a ghost cat. I don’t want to freak you out, though.”

Hannah had heard of the ghost cat before, but she couldn’t remember the details. It was clear that Paisley knew the story and wanted to tell her, though. Paisley tended to believe in all of the Sleepy Hollow legends way more than Hannah did.

“No, it’s okay,” Hannah replied gamely. “You’d better tell me. I’d rather be prepared when a ghost shows up on the front porch.”

“Okay, you asked for it,” Paisley warned, but Hannah could tell her friend was thrilled to be playing the role of storyteller. “So the legend is that there was a little girl who lived in Sleepy Hollow in, like, the 1800s. She had this little black cat that followed her around every where. Then one day, she and the cat both disappeared. It was, like, poof, they were gone!

“They were missing for days, until some townspeople found the girl’s dead body in the Hudson River. No one ever saw the cat again, though — well, at least not alive.”

Paisley shuddered and lowered her voice dramatically. Even though Hannah wasn’t even sure the story was true, she felt chills shoot up her spine. The wind outside rustled the leaves of the trees in the yard, and a cool breeze wafted through the window. Hannah glanced involuntarily over her shoulder at the window, but there was nothing there.

“You sure are good at telling ghost stories, Pais,” Hannah said with a ner vous laugh.

“And I’m not even done yet!” Paisley continued, her voice a hushed whisper. “The little girl was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Supposedly, the ghost of the cat still haunts the cemetery. Some of the towns people think the cat had something to do with the little girl’s drowning. And this is the craziest part — you know my aunt Suzie and my cousin Clark, who live in Stamford?”

Hannah nodded.

“Well, before I was born, they lived in Sleepy Hollow, probably pretty close to your dad’s house. I know it was near the cemetery. Anyway, one day the basement of their house totally flooded —
and there hadn’t even been a rainstorm
!”

Paisley paused dramatically again, and Hannah laughed.

“Maybe one of the pipes burst,” Hannah suggested. “That happened in my mom’s house a few years ago, and it definitely wasn’t because of a ghost.”

“Well, that’s what they thought at first,” Paisley said ominously. “But you’ll never guess what they found floating in the water in the basement.”

Hannah felt her heartbeat quicken. “What?” she squeaked.

Paisley’s voice was deadly serious.

“A drowned black cat.”

Chapter Four

After listening to Paisley’s ghost story, Hannah had trouble falling asleep. She told herself it wasn’t because of the scary story; it was because she was sleeping in a new house and had had a long, stressful day. But she couldn’t seem to get the image of the dead cat floating in a pool of water out of her mind. For some reason, Hannah kept imagining Icky as the cat. Finally, after a lot of tossing and turning, she fell into a restless sleep.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Suddenly, Hannah sat up in bed. There had been a sound at her bedroom door. The room was pitch-black, and the clock on her bedside table read 2:44.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Hannah heard the sound again. It was definitely
coming from the door.
Of course!
Hannah thought.
It must be Icky, scratching to get in!
He often clawed at her door at night when he wanted to curl up on her bed.

Hannah jumped out of bed and crossed the room. She pulled the door open and gasped. The hallway was empty.

Suddenly, her surroundings came into focus, and memories of the previous day came flooding back to her. She was in her dad’s house, not her mom’s! The scratching at her bedroom door couldn’t have been Icky, because he wasn’t here. In her sleepy state, she’d thought she was in her old bedroom.

Hannah’s palms were cold and clammy, and she started to shiver uncontrollably. She quickly slammed the door shut and sat against it, breathing heavily. For a second, she felt as if turning her back to the noise and closing the door would keep whatever was out in the hallway from getting her.

That’s ridiculous
, Hannah thought.
There’s nothing out there. I must have just imagined the noise. It was probably part of a dream.
She stood up and headed back to her bed.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

“Ahhh!” Hannah yelped. This time, the scratching sound had come from the window near her bed. Hannah rushed over and peered outside. Maybe it had been a tree branch scraping against the glass. Sure enough, the moon lit up a tree about seven feet from her window. But Hannah quickly realized that none of the branches came close enough to touch the window. In fact, the closest branch ended about three feet from the house.

It’s got to be the other window!
Hannah ran across the room to the window over the desk. But there weren’t any trees anywhere near it.

Hannah wasn’t sure what to do next. Should she go downstairs and wake her dad? What would she tell him? That she heard a scary noise and couldn’t sleep? That seemed so babyish. After a few minutes, Hannah decided she would just have to go back to bed. Before she did, though, she dragged the desk chair over to the door to the hallway and lodged it firmly under the doorknob.
Better safe than sorry
, she thought as she climbed back under the covers.

She pulled the sheet up over her head the way she would have when she was a little kid. She used to believe that as long as one of the blankets covered
her ears, no monsters could get her in the night. Hannah knew it was a silly little game invented by her five-year-old self, but she did it anyway, just in case. Finally, after a long time, she fell back to sleep.

Hannah spent the next morning unpacking the rest of her boxes and trying to put the weird scratching sound she had heard the night before out of her mind. It wasn’t hard to stay shut up in her room for most of the day, since the rain that had been threatening the previous afternoon had finally started, and it was grim and damp outside.

By four o’clock, Hannah’s mom still hadn’t showed up. Finally, just before five, Hannah heard a car pull into the driveway.

She dashed downstairs and threw open the front door. Her mom stood on the porch empty-handed, her hair dripping. Hannah’s face fell.

“Where’s Icky?” she asked, her lower lip trembling.

“Oh, sweetie,” her mom said softly. “He never came home last night. I waited until the last minute to come by today, but if I wait any longer I’ll miss my
flight. I was sure the rain would drive Icky home, but he just hasn’t reappeared yet.”

Hannah felt like she had been punched in the stomach. That morning had been the first in Hannah’s life when Icky hadn’t woken her up with his meows. And now all she had to look forward to this week were more mornings without him. He was gone — and worse, what if he never came back?

Hannah pushed the thought from her mind, but another alarming idea occurred to her instead. “What happens if he comes home tonight?” she asked desperately. “No one will be there to meet him!”

“The renters are moving in tomorrow, and I left them detailed instructions on what to do when he does come home,” Hannah’s mom explained. “There’s extra cat food there for him, and they’re supposed to call you right away so you and your dad can go over there to pick him up.”

Hannah couldn’t stop the tears that began to slip down her cheeks. She stifled a sob, and her mom pulled her in for a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Hannah,” she whispered. “This certainly isn’t the way I wanted to leave for Chicago. But I’m sure Icky will be home soon, and the Hendersons
are a lovely family. They’ll call you as soon as they see him. Plus, you can ask Paisley to keep an eye out for him as well.”

Hannah’s mom wiped Hannah’s cheeks and smoothed back her hair. It was the type of gesture that Hannah would have found incredibly embarrassing under other circumstances, but she was so upset about Icky and about her mom leaving that she didn’t even protest.

“I’ll call you as soon as I can to see how you’re doing, I promise,” her mom said. “And I’m always just a text, e-mail, or phone call away if you need me.”

“I know,” Hannah said between sniffles. “I’ll miss you, but I’ll be okay.”

“I know you will,” her mom replied firmly. “You’re a tough cookie. And Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. When you come visit, we’ll eat lots of deep-dish pizza and go to the aquarium, and we’ll ride the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. It will be terrific! And Icky will be home safe and sound well before then, I just know it.”

“Bye, Mom,” Hannah said after another hug. “Have a good flight.”

Hannah watched her mom dash back out in the rain to her car. As soon as she had pulled out of
the driveway, Hannah headed back upstairs to her room. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of Madison in her hot-pink tank top, rounding the corner at the top of the stairs. Hannah’s heart sank as she realized that Madison had watched the entire scene between Hannah and her mom, tears and all.

BOOK: Curiosity Killed the Cat
13.18Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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