Another dead end.
There was no way out.
“We’re trapped!” Kelsey shrieked. “We’re trapped!”
4
Kelsey and Drew pressed their backs against the building. Waiting. Waiting for the vicious dog to appear.
Kelsey held her breath and listened.
No barking. No snarling.
“Maybe we lost him,” she whispered.
“I don’t think so,” Drew whispered back.
Kelsey silently agreed. The alley went only one way. That dog would have to be pretty stupid to lose track of us, she thought.
“But why isn’t he attacking?” she asked Drew.
“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head.
The two waited in silence. The blood pounded in Kelsey’s head.
Another minute passed – the longest minute in Kelsey’s life – with no sign of the dog. “We can’t just stand here, Drew,” Kelsey said, finally breaking the quiet. “I’m going to check.”
Kelsey tiptoed to the curve in the alley. She peeked around the corner. Slowly.
The alley stood deserted.
No dog.
“It’s gone!” Kelsey gasped.
“This is so weird,” Drew replied, making his way to her side. “How could it just disappear like that?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t care. Let’s get out of here. Now,” Kelsey answered. “Um, you go first.”
“Gee, thanks a lot,” Drew said as he started down the alley.
They walked quickly but carefully.
Listening.
Listening for any sign of the deadly beast. But the only sound they heard was the soft thumping of their own feet.
The alley seemed even darker than before. And for the first time Kelsey noticed how sour it smelled. The stench flooded her nostrils and made her sick.
“Look!” Drew exclaimed. He stopped short, and Kelsey slammed into him.
“What?” she asked. Her heart skipped a beat. She was afraid to hear the answer.
“I can’t believe it!” Drew shouted. “Look where we are!”
Kelsey inched alongside Drew and peered out of the dark alleyway – into bright sunlight.
She knew immediately where she was. But she glanced up at the street sign for proof.
Thirteenth Street.
Less than a block away from their house.
“I thought we were totally lost,” Drew said as he started toward their street. He let out a long sigh. “And all the time we were less than a block away from home. That’s the last time I follow you,” he added.
Kelsey was about to shoot back a smart remark of her own when she remembered something strange. Really strange.
“Drew, do you remember what the fortuneteller told you? You know, about getting into trouble if you follow me all the time? You don’t think…”
A shiver of fear crept down Kelsey’s spine. She stopped to glance back at the alleyway.
But it was gone!
You will believe. You will know fear. The fortuneteller’s words echoed in Kelsey’s mind.
I’m going crazy, Kelsey thought. The alley is there. It must be there. I probably can’t see it from this angle – that’s all.
“Come on, Kelsey,” Drew called. “We’re really late!”
Kelsey broke into a run. The two raced the rest of the way home. As they neared their house, they spotted their parents sitting outside on the front porch.
“Where have you been?” Kelsey’s mother asked.
“Do you know how late it is?” Drew’s mother added.
“Sorry,” Kelsey apologized. “We got…” She was about to say lost, but she stopped herself. If she told them they were lost, she knew what would happen. Their parents would never allow them to go out by themselves anymore. “We were having so much fun on the boardwalk, we lost track of the time.”
“We won’t do it again,” Drew added. “We promise.”
“All right.” Her mother forgave her more quickly than she ever did at home.
That was one of the best things about being on vacation. Parents were so much easier to get along with.
“Come inside and wash your hands for dinner,” Drew’s mother instructed. Then their parents led the way inside.
As Kelsey climbed the porch steps, she thought about the old fortuneteller again. Now that she was safe at home, the whole thing seemed pretty dumb.
“Fool!” Kelsey heard the echo of the old gypsy woman’s voice. Only this time she started to laugh at herself – for acting like one.
Kelsey was about to step through the front door when something caught her eye. Something falling from the sky. Fluttering. Fluttering. Down. Down. Down.
Drew spotted it, too. “What is that?” he asked, squinting as he gazed up.
“I can’t tell,” Kelsey replied, watching the object float down on a breeze.
And then it landed right at Kelsey’s feet.
She gasped.
It was the card.
The card that the old gypsy woman had tossed into the air.
Kelsey trembled as she stared at it. As she stared down into the face of the Fool.
5
That night Kelsey sat on her bed, alone in her room, staring at the Fool card.
“You are the Fool, Madame Whatever-your-name-is,” Kelsey muttered. “And you are not going to scare me. No way.”
Kelsey turned the card over and over in her hand. Then she ripped it in half. Then ripped it in half again. And again. “So there!” she declared when she was through.
She scooped up every last bit of paper and dumped it all into the wastepaper basket near her dresser.
“Tomorrow will be a much better day,” she promised herself as she slipped between the sheets. Then she closed her eyes.
She pictured herself at the beach with Drew. They would spend the whole day there, she decided. Swimming in the ocean. Collecting shells. Playing volleyball. Lying in the sun.
Kelsey could imagine the warmth of the sun on her skin as she snuggled into her pillow. It felt good – even in her imagination.
Then she started to drift off to sleep – pretending that she was already on the beach.
But something tickled her left foot. She rubbed at it with her right one.
But the tickle returned.
Now it moved up the back of her leg.
Kelsey brushed her leg against the sheet. But it didn’t work. The tickle kept moving – moving up her leg.
Only now it wasn’t a tickle. It felt prickly.
Kelsey brushed her leg with her foot. But the prickly feeling didn’t go away.
It started to spread.
Over her legs. Her arms. Her whole body.
She tried to ignore it.
She fluffed her pillow and rolled over on her side. But that didn’t work, either.
Now it felt as though her whole bed had come alive. With tiny little legs.
Millions of them.
Skittering across her body.
Crawling into her hair. Stinging her skin.
She shot up in bed. She stared at the sheets. At her body. But it was too dark to see.
And then she felt it.
A tiny set of legs creeping across her cheek.
And she knew what it was.
Sand crabs! Even in the dark, she knew. She hated sand crabs – they terrified her!
She shrieked with horror.
Her hands flew to her legs. Her arms. Her face. Frantically trying to brush the creatures away.
“Get off!” she cried. “Get off!”
But within seconds they swarmed over her entire body.
Kelsey grew frightened. So frightened that she couldn’t breathe.
She tried to scream. But all that came out was a choked whimper – as she felt one of the disgusting little creatures start to crawl inside her ear.
6