Seventeen shook his head. “I dunno, mister. We all heard the howling. Grendel knows; I know he does.”

Three pairs of eyes glowed in the darkness beneath the deck, and then Possum, Panda, and Buddha crept out into the daylight. Possum’s tail snapped back and forth.

“These dogs are our friends, Grendel,” Possum meowed up at the fat cat. “They need to know what’s out there and why we stay on the beach.”

With a sigh, Grendel rose to all fours and stretched. “Fine,” he said. “I suppose I can take a break from sunning to tell you what I’ve heard. But I’m telling it only once, so listen close.

“After the hat lady left,” Grendel began, “most of us at the beach did our own thing, but there was one animal who kept us working. He was a great big beast of a canine who slobbered endlessly, so large he would tower over Max.”

Grendel paced as he spoke. Above him, the morning sky darkened as gray clouds swirled in from the ocean.

“The dog’s name was Georgie,” he went on. “Before the people disappeared, he lived at the inn up the road. He taught everyone to share the food that the hat lady left behind, and he figured out how we could flip the levers in the bathrooms to drink, what with the ocean water being so salty. He led expeditions to the boardwalk to find toys for everyone.

“After a time, though, Georgie got fed up with taking care of everyone else. He decided he’d follow the hat woman and try to make his way back to where he lived before his pack leaders moved to the inn. He walked right up to the swamp road that leads to the mall… and disappeared.”

Grendel paused, and the dogs huddled close together, silent and listening.

“That night, we all heard it,” Grendel continued. “A loud, anguished howl from the woods that echoed throughout the beach, lasting a minute or more.” Grendel’s whiskers twitched. “And then Georgie went silent, and we never heard from him again.”

Max studied the trees on the other side of the road, past the resort. It couldn’t be later than midmorning, and yet the shadows there were long and dark. Was it a trick of the leaves, or was there some animal in the depths of the forest, watching them?

Rocky chuckled nervously. “Okay, so a dog ran away. That doesn’t mean anything bad happened to him.” He shivered. “Does it?”

“Maybe not,” Grendel went on. “But it wasn’t long after Georgie disappeared that we lost the bunnies.”

“Oh, no,” Gizmo gasped. “There were bunnies here?”

“There still are,” Grendel said. “But a couple of them were lost. Some of the cats and dogs goaded them into exploring the trees near the inn. But there was something in those woods, and the bunnies never came back. All we remember is those cats and dogs running back to the beach, yowling and barking in terror.”

“Wh-what did they see?” Rocky asked.

“It was dark, so they couldn’t be sure. But they thought they saw giant beasts covered in dark, hard ridges. And their eyes were black hollow things. Blacker than the night and evil.”

“One of the cats told me they had millions of teeth,” Seventeen said. “Teeth like steel daggers.”

“And I heard they move fast,” Twelve said. “They can lunge from the trees and then sink into the waters.”

“And you can’t see them until it’s too late,” Seventeen added.

Gizmo shook her head. “That sounds incredible. I mean, superscary and all, but I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Oh, and I wish I never had,” Rocky said. “Snatching up bunnies is one thing, but taking a dog even bigger than Max here? They must be as big as trucks!”

Max suddenly felt small and insignificant beneath the swirling gray sky, a speck on the endless beach.

“Anyway,” Grendel said as he lay down once more on the railing. “So far we’ve been safe in large groups. None of you will end up like Georgie as long as you stick together, so I don’t see why these puppies are raising a fuss.” His whiskers twitched again. “Though I have to say, that’s only as long as you get through the forest and to the mall before it’s night out.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Rocky yipped as he jumped to his feet. “Let’s get on our way before night monsters come to eat us up!”

Max stood and shook the sand from his fur. “Thanks for the warning,” he said to the puppies and the cats.

The two cat sisters and Buddha sauntered back to the safety of their home beneath the deck.

“It was nice seeing you again,” Panda whispered over her shoulder. “Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Max said.

Briefly meeting Max’s eyes, Possum said, “I won’t forget what you said. I hope we’ll see you again soon.”

Then the gray-and-white cat was gone.

The puppies started back toward the beach to resume playing with the other dogs. As Twelve passed, she lowered her head. “Please be careful, all right?”

“I promise I’ll be safe,” Max told her. “Nothing is going to stop me from finding Belle and my family. Not even a monster.”

Max watched the puppies bound through the shifting sand, then looked once more at the swampy woods, now darker than ever under the suddenly overcast sky. Surely all that lurked out there were more animals. And Max could handle most animals.

Unless they had iron scales and teeth as sharp as razors.