31

I dove for Sally. I yanked at the clown but the toy dragged Sally after it.

I wedged my fingers under the rubber clown fingers and pried at them. Sally’s neck felt so small and fragile, I was afraid of hurting her myself.

I had to get her free or she’d die.

The clown squeezed harder. It grinned an evil smile at me. I was frantic. I forced myself to calm down and concentrate all my strength on my fingers.

Finally I broke the puppet’s grip and smashed it against the wall. As it hit the wall all the laughter abruptly stopped.

It wasn’t over.

The room suddenly got cold. The temperature dropped swiftly and Sally’s teeth were soon chattering. It was like the North Pole in there! I grabbed the blanket off her bed and wrapped us both in it. I was shivering, too, fighting off the incredible cold.

Ice formed on the window and our breath filled the room with fog. I felt around under the bed for Sally’s sweater and brought it under the blanket.

“Here, Sally, let’s get this on you.” She was already stiff with cold and I had to lift each of her arms to get the sweater on.

The instant I let go of the blanket it flew off. The blanket fluttered about the room. As it settled, a small form took shape under it.

I could make out a head, shoulders—it was a child!

Noises started to come from under the blanket as if whoever was huddled under it was trying to speak.

“Can you hear what he’s saying, Sally?” I asked. “Is that Bobby?”

But Sally was shivering too much to pay attention to anything.

The little figure continued to move around under the blanket, struggling to make itself heard. But I couldn’t make out a word.

It was Bobby—who else could it be? And this was my chance to catch him and find out what he wanted. Find out why he was haunting the house.

I waited until the shape came close to Sally’s bed, then pounced, arms outstretched.

I landed on the floor on an empty blanket. The apparition had vanished.

I lay there for a second, feeling totally defeated.

Until Sally shouted excitedly. “Look! The doors!”