Curiosity Killed the Cat (9 page)

There was a long pause before Ryan replied. Hannah realized she was holding her breath. Was he going to laugh at her?

“Um, yeah, who doesn’t?” Ryan finally replied, his eyes wide. “There’s a reason ghost stories exist, right? It’s not like people had a lot of free time on their hands in olden times, you know? They had a lot of farm work and cooking and stuff to do. So if they were telling stories about ghosts and hauntings, there must have been a reason why.”

Hannah had never really thought of it that way before. “Well, it also could have been because they didn’t have TVs and movies for entertainment,” she said with a shrug.

Ryan laughed. “Or that,” he agreed. “So what about ghosts?”

Hannah couldn’t believe she’d finally found someone to confide in. But of course, by then, the bus was already pulling up in front of the school.

“I’ll tell you every thing at lunch, okay?” Hannah replied.

“That’s a real cliffhanger!” Ryan teased. Then, seeing the look on Hannah’s face, he became serious. “Something tells me it’s one heck of a story.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Hannah agreed, a grim look on her face. “See you at lunch.”

“See ya!” Ryan replied, flashing Hannah a smile and a wave before dashing off to his homeroom.

The entire morning seemed to crawl by. Hannah couldn’t wait until lunch so she could talk to Ryan, but every class seemed twice as long as usual. When Hannah got to math class, she was almost relieved that there was a pop quiz because it forced her to focus on something other than the clock.

Finally, the bell rang at the end of Hannah’s last class before lunch. She hurried to the cafeteria as
quickly as she could without sprinting through the halls. Ryan was already there, and he had saved her a seat. He seemed as happy to see Hannah as she was to see him. Hannah felt an unexpected warmth fill her chest as he smiled at her and gestured to the empty seat.

“Okay,” he said ur gently as soon as she sat down. “Spill it.”

Hannah told him every thing — from the scratching sound she heard at night to the black cat she followed into the cemetery, to the overflowing bathtub, to her suspicions that Madison knew something was up but didn’t want to admit it.

Ryan listened so closely to the entire story that both his and Hannah’s grilled cheese sandwiches sat completely untouched. By the time Hannah picked up her sandwich and took a bite, it was ice-cold.

“Whew,” Ryan whistled softly. He took a bite of his sandwich as well. “That’s really intense.”

Hannah nodded. As scared as she still was about every thing, she suddenly felt a million times lighter. For the past few weeks, she had felt an enormous weight on her shoulders, not unlike the time a few years ago at the beach when she had insisted that Paisley bury her up to her chin in the sand. Now she
felt as though she had broken through the mound of sand and was finally free to splash in the waves again.

“It feels better just to talk to someone about it,” Hannah admitted, amazed at how true it was. “But I’m still not sure what to do. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Ryan had a thoughtful look on his face. “I suppose you
could
just wait and see,” he agreed somewhat reluctantly. He leaned forward eagerly, his eyes bright with excitement. “Or you could take matters into your own hands.”

“What do you mean?” asked Hannah, alarmed. “It’s not like I’m some sort of ghostbuster or something.”

“No, but I’ve heard there are some things you can do to ward off ghosts,” he continued enthusiastically. “You know how vampires hate garlic? Well, I’m sure there’s some stuff ghosts hate, too. I have computer class this afternoon and we’ve had a sub all week. I’ll bet I can do some research to find out what kinds of things ghosts are afraid of.”

“That would be great,” Hannah said. She was so tired of being scared all the time that trying a few superstitious tricks didn’t seem like a bad idea. If
nothing worked, she would be no worse off than she was now.

“I’ll write down whatever I find out and I’ll give it to you when I see you before my guitar lesson tonight,” Ryan said. “And speaking of guitar, what do you think about the party on Saturday? Are you going to play with us?”

For a second, the fear moved in and threatened to take over, but something made Hannah stop herself from saying no. If she could handle a ghost, she could handle a little stage fright. She took a deep breath.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Hannah said. She smiled. Just saying the words aloud made her feel more confident that she truly
could
do it. Even if she froze for a second onstage, she would get over it. She knew she could.

“Great!” Ryan said as the bell rang for the end of lunch. “I’ll see you later at Mr. G.’s.”

Hannah’s guitar lesson that afternoon was the best one she’d ever had. All of the time she’d spent practicing “Skeleton Riot” that week had really paid off.

“Wow, Hannah,” Mr. G. gushed. “That sounded fantastic!”

“Thanks,” Hannah replied. “I’ve been feeling a lot more confident about my playing lately.”

“Does that mean you’re ready to try playing in my recital?” Mr. G. asked.

Hannah had forgotten all about the recital. But now that she had agreed to play with The Headless Horsemen, it seemed silly not to agree to the recital, too.

“Can I choose the song?” Hannah asked hesitantly.

“Yes, as long as I approve it,” Mr. G. said.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Hannah said for the second time that day.

“Fantastic!” Mr. G. exclaimed. “In that case, you’re free to go a bit early. I’m sure you’re excited to get home to prepare for Halloween tomorrow.”

Hannah’s smile dissolved. In her excitement over her lunch with Ryan and her guitar lesson, she had completely forgotten about the following day. “Right, Halloween,” she said tersely.

Mr. G. looked perplexed, but there was no way Hannah could explain every thing to him. Instead, she packed up as quickly as she could and headed out into the waiting room.

Luckily, Ryan was there early, and he handed Hannah a piece of paper that had been folded into an origami star.

“Good luck!” he told Hannah encouragingly before he went into the studio for his lesson.

“Thanks,” she whispered as she took the star and slipped it into her pocket. “See you in school tomorrow.” Then she headed outside to wait for her dad to pick her up.

As soon as Hannah got home, she unwrapped the star to read Ryan’s note.

Hannah —

Okay, here’s what I found out. There are a few things you can do to keep a ghost away:

1. Put salt in your pocket. I don’t know how much this will help, but it can’t hurt. The worst thing is you’ll have salty jeans.

2. Mint keeps bad spirits away. I guess this means you should eat a lot of Altoids or peppermints?

3. Burning a bunch of pine needles and sage is supposed to clear your home of ghosts and bad luck. This doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, though,
because it involves open flames, and I got in big trouble for something like that over the summer (don’t ask).

4. Charms. I don’t think these are the lucky cereal kind — I think they’re more like poems. If you write one that says something about keeping the ghost cat away and say it over and over again, that might work. Oh, and it should rhyme. You can also write it on a piece of paper and wear it in something around your neck to bring good fortune.

I guess that’s it. Good luck with the ghost, and see you in school tomorrow.

Your friend,
Ryan

Hannah wondered what it meant that Ryan had signed the note “your friend.” Was he trying to tell her that he only liked her as a friend? Or did it mean something else? Hannah wasn’t sure how she would have signed a note to him, but she thought she probably would have just written her name. She sighed. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about!

After dinner that night, Hannah managed to sneak the saltshaker and some mint tea bags upstairs to her room. First she cut open the tea bags and
sprinkled the leaves across each windowsill. Then she put the salt in the pockets of her pajama pants. She felt silly as she sprinkled the tea and salt on her things, but she also felt strangely confident and brave. For the first time, Hannah felt like she was taking charge of the ghost situation and doing something to try to prevent something bad from happening. She was finally standing up for herself, and it felt good, even if she
was
just standing up to a ghost.

Since she didn’t have any sage or pine needles, Hannah skipped that one. She also agreed with Ryan that burning stuff probably wasn’t the best idea. Finally, there was the charm. Hannah pulled out a piece of paper and tried to come up with something to recite, but nothing came to her. After thirty minutes of staring at the blank sheet of paper, she gave up and climbed into bed.

She crossed her fingers that the salt and mint alone would do the trick.

On Friday morning, Hannah woke up to find that she had slept through the entire night without waking up once. It had worked! The salt and mint tea had kept the ghost cat away! There had been no scratching sound to wake her. Hannah couldn’t believe her good luck. Now all she had to do was get through Halloween, and maybe, just maybe, this entire haunting ordeal would be behind her.

Hannah pulled on her favorite jeans, T-shirt, and hooded cardigan. Even though it was Halloween, no one was allowed to wear costumes to school because the teachers thought it was too distracting.

When Hannah got to homeroom, she was thrilled to see Paisley was back.

“Hey!” Hannah said as she slid into her seat. “Welcome back. Feeling better?”

Paisley smiled. “Mostly,” she said. “My mom told me if I was feeling well enough to consider playing in my soccer game tomorrow and going to Taylor and Ryan’s party, I was well enough to go to school. So here I am.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re back,” Hannah said. “And I’m glad you’re going to come to the party tomorrow, too.”

“Ms. Lingren! Ms. Malloy!” their homeroom teacher, Mr. Jaffe, barked at them. “Do you mind if I continue to take attendance?”

“Sorry, Mr. Jaffe,” Hannah squeaked. There was only one rule about talking in homeroom — it wasn’t allowed during attendance. As soon as Mr. Jaffe had finished the roll call, Hannah turned back to talk to Paisley about the party. But Paisley was engrossed in her vocabulary notebook.

“Sorry, Hannah,” Paisley said apologetically. “I have to study these vocab words. I’ve got a ton of catching up to do. Can we talk more tonight? I’ll be home — that’s another condition my mom placed on me.”

“Okay,” Hannah agreed. “We can talk later.”

Paisley smiled. “Thanks. You’re the best.”

For the rest of the morning, whenever a little wave of worry swept over Hannah, she patted her jeans pocket, which she had filled with salt that morning before school. She felt silly about the whole thing, but it
did
make her feel better.

At lunch, Ryan and Taylor invited Hannah to sit at their table with a bunch of their friends.

“This is Hannah,” Taylor told the table. “She’s joining our band. You can hear her play guitar tomorrow at our Halloween party!”

Hannah felt herself freeze up just looking at the sea of faces at the lunch table, and she wasn’t even on a stage
or
holding her guitar!
Just breathe
, she reminded herself.
Just relax and take a deep breath. They’ll all be wearing costumes tomorrow, so you’ll hardly recognize them.

Hannah forced herself to smile at everyone before she sat down.

“Hi,” a few of the kids at the table said before returning to their lunches and conversations.

Ryan sat down next to Hannah.

“Hey,” he whispered. “How did it go last night? Did you try the mints and salt?”

Hannah patted her pocket and nodded. “Yup, I’ve got the salt right here,” she whispered back as she ate a bite of her salad. “And the mint seemed to help, too — I didn’t hear anything last night! Maybe the worst of it is over.”

A few hours later, Hannah was sitting in her bedroom, hoping she had been right. Was the worst of it over? Would she make it through Halloween unscathed, or would the ghost cat strike again? There was only one way to find out — she had to wait.

Hannah passed the time by practicing her guitar and chatting online with Paisley about the party the next day. She and Paisley had decided that they were a little too old to trick-or-treat this year, even though Hannah knew plenty of kids in her class would be out around the neighborhood. Plus, Hannah figured she’d be too jumpy to enjoy the trick-or-treating, anyway.

So instead, Hannah told Paisley all about the band and about the song she had been practicing with them. She still didn’t have the courage to tell her friend about the ghost, though. Even though Ryan had believed her, Hannah still worried that Paisley might not. And where would Hannah be without her best friend? She wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.

By eight o’clock, the few trick-or-treaters who
had braved the house next to the cemetery had come and gone, and Hannah was in her room. There was a soft knock on her door. Hannah was surprised to find Madison standing on the other side. Their parents had gone out to an adults-only Halloween party, and they weren’t going to be back until after midnight, so she and Madison were home alone.

Madison looked annoyed, but she also looked anxious.

“You want to watch a movie in my room?” she asked in a bored tone. “
I’m
fine by myself, but I thought
you
might want some company since you seemed so worried about there being a ghost in the house.”

Madison laughed. Hannah was pretty sure she was trying to sound cool, but instead she just sounded really scared and ner vous. Hannah wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t exactly want to be alone either, but Madison certainly wasn’t at the top of the list of people Hannah wanted to hang out with.

“Um, sure,” Hannah agreed reluctantly. “A movie sounds good. What do you want to watch?”

Madison’s shoulders relaxed and she seemed relieved. Hannah followed her into her bedroom, which was so pink it hurt Hannah’s eyes. Madison picked a romantic comedy and Hannah didn’t argue —
there was no way she wanted to watch a serious or scary movie tonight.

Neither of them talked during the movie, but that was also fine with Hannah. She wasn’t sure what she would have said, anyway. When the credits began to roll, it was just after ten o’clock, and Hannah yawned loudly.

“Well, uh, thanks for the movie,” Hannah said awkwardly. “I should probably go to bed. See you in the morning.”

“Fine,” Madison snapped.

Back to her usual nasty self
, Hannah thought as she returned to her own room and climbed into bed. Almost as soon as her head hit the pillow she was fast asleep.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Hannah jolted awake at the sound. She glanced at her clock and saw that it was almost midnight. The scratching was louder than ever, and it sounded like it was right under her window. And then Hannah heard something else — a plaintive meow.

She jumped out of bed and dashed to the window. She peered out and saw the dark shape of a cat illuminated by the moonlight. The cat meowed again, more loudly this time.

“Shoo!” Hannah called out. “Go away!”

The cat turned and took a few steps away from the house. Hannah gasped. In the moonlight, she could see a small patch of white on the tip of the tail. It was Icky!

“Icky!” Hannah called out desperately. “Wait! I’m coming!”

Hannah grabbed a sweatshirt from the back of her desk chair and pulled it on over her pajamas. Then she rummaged frantically in her closet until she found her big camping flashlight. She couldn’t believe Icky had found her after all these weeks … it was incredible!

She ran down the stairs and quickly peeked out the front window to see if her dad was home yet, but the driveway was empty.
I guess I’ll have to go after Icky by myself
, Hannah thought. She wasn’t thrilled about heading outside alone so late at night, but there was also no way she was letting Icky get away again. Hannah hurried through the kitchen and out the back door. When she got outside, though, she didn’t see Icky anywhere.

“Icky?” she called out. “Where are you, boy? Come on out.”

A second later, she saw a movement toward the
back of the yard, near the cemetery gate. Hannah’s heart quickened.
Not the cemetery!
she thought.
Please, Icky, please, please, please don’t make me follow you into the cemetery on Halloween night!

For a second, Hannah was frozen in place, terrified. If she didn’t follow Icky, he might never return, and she didn’t think she could bear that. But on the other hand, following him meant going into the cemetery in the dark — on Halloween. It only took Hannah a second to make up her mind. She took a deep breath and hurried after her cat.

Hannah paused when she reached the cemetery gate. Her heart was clamoring against her chest, but she forced herself to take a few deep, calming breaths. Then she gathered her courage and lifted her hand to the latch. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound behind her.

Hannah whirled around. As she turned, a light caught her full in the face, temporarily blinding her.

“Ahhhh!” Hannah yelped, her hands shielding her eyes. “Who is it? Who’s there?”

The light shifted and Hannah saw that it was Madison, holding a flashlight of her own. She was trembling. “It’s just me,” she squeaked softly. She looked
absolutely terrified. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to shine the light right in your face. I just panicked.”

Hannah was astounded. “What are you doing out here?” she asked Madison. She had no idea why Madison would have followed her, not after all of her efforts to keep Hannah away from the cemetery.

“I heard the scratching and the meowing,” Madison admitted softly. “You were right — I’ve heard it all along, I just didn’t want to believe it.”

Hannah didn’t know what to say.

“I saw you head out into the backyard, and I was so scared!” Madison continued. “I mean, I’m not thrilled that I have to share my bathroom, but I don’t want you to, like, die or something. What if there really is a ghost? I could never forgive myself if something terrible happened to you.”

Hannah was shocked. “Thanks,” she said, still astounded by Madison’s change of heart. “But I’m not following a ghost — I’m following my cat, Icky. I saw him under my window, and I know it was definitely him. The cat was black with a white patch on his tail. That’s exactly what Icky looks like.”

Madison was trembling so much her flashlight was shaking. Hannah couldn’t tell if it was because she was cold or afraid.

“Well, I’m still coming,” Madison said stubbornly.

“Then let’s go,” Hannah said with a nod toward the gate. She pushed it open with a loud
creak
, and Madison followed her hesitantly into the cemetery.

“Icky?” Hannah called. “Where are you?”

The girls heard a loud
meow
just a few feet ahead of them. Madison jumped, startled, but she quickly regained her composure. The girls moved purposefully toward the sound.

Hannah was trying her best not to think of the dark shadows the trees were casting all around her as she and Madison moved deeper and deeper into the cemetery. They were surrounded by ancient, crumbling tombstones, and Hannah could only see a foot or so in front of her because that was as far as the beam of her flashlight reached. Suddenly, the light flickered. In an instant, the bulb darkened considerably.

Madison gasped. “Did you bring extra batteries?” she whispered.

Hannah shook her head. She tried to think back to the last time she had gone camping and put fresh batteries in her flashlight, but she couldn’t remember. It had been at least a year. The light flickered again, and Hannah grabbed Madison’s arm.

“I guess it’s a good thing you brought your own flashlight,” she joked with a ner vous laugh.

“That’s not funny,” Madison snapped back, annoyed. “For someone who sneaks into graveyards at night, you’re not very prepared.”

“Well, it’s not like I do this on a regular basis,” Hannah replied sharply. She took another step forward and stumbled on something. “Ouch!”

Madison aimed her flashlight at Hannah’s foot as Hannah rubbed her sore toe. Looking up, Hannah realized that they were standing right in front of a huge mausoleum and gasped.

“I — I’ve seen this before,” she said hoarsely, her voice choked with fear. “It was in a dream I had.”

Madison paled. “Hannah, let’s get out of here,” she said suddenly, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice. “This place is really giving me the creeps. We can come find Icky in the morning. I’m sure he’ll still be here —”

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

The girls clutched each other and screamed. The sound had come from
inside the mausoleum
. Hannah’s stomach lurched. She thought she was going to be sick.

“This is exactly how it happened in my dream,” she whispered. She glanced up at the tomb and saw that there was one word carved into the stone above the door.

STRAUB

The bell at the top of the cemetery’s ancient clock tower began to toll for midnight.

“Hannah, let’s go!” Madison started to pull Hannah desperately back toward the backyard and the house as the bell chimed.

A wave of courage swept over Hannah, and she shook off Madison’s arm.

“No,” Hannah said. Her voice wavered a bit, and she clenched her jaw stubbornly. “NO,” she repeated more confidently. “I’m getting to the bottom of this tonight. No more hauntings and no more ghosts. I don’t want to live in fear anymore. And it might be Icky trapped inside that tomb!”

Before she could reconsider what she was about to do, Hannah stepped forward and grabbed the cold, metal door handle.

With a tug, she slowly pulled it open. As she did, the clock chimed for a twelfth time and then fell silent.