Panic rolled over me. I struggled to breathe.

The Lerner twins stared blankly straight ahead. They didn’t move.

Their parents would be in the room in a few seconds.

I grabbed Jackson’s arm. “Hurry!” I cried in a harsh whisper. “You’ve got to wake them up!”

He stepped up close to Nina and Artie. He squinted hard at them. He concentrated so hard, his face turned bright red.

I didn’t know if my powers could help. But I concentrated, too. Wake up! Wake UP!

I uttered a cry as they started to move.

Artie let out a groan. His shoulders slumped. He blinked his eyes and took a staggering step forward.

Nina let out a long whoosh of air, like a balloon deflating. Her head rolled around on her shoulders. She stared at me as if she didn’t recognize me. “Jillian? When did you get here?”

I was so happy, my legs were trembling. My heart pounded like a bass drum.

“Jackson — you did it!” I cried.

“Did what?” Nina demanded.

Artie stared at the TV screen. Then he turned to Jackson. “Did we finish our boxing match?”

“Uh … yeah,” Jackson said. “You won. You knocked me out.”

Their mom called from the back of the house. “Artie? Nina? Come here and check out the birthday decorations we found at the mall.”

“We’ve got to go,” I said breathlessly. I grabbed Jackson and pulled him to the front door.

Nina frowned at me. “Don’t you want to see the decorations?”

“No,” I said. “I want it to be a surprise. Bye. Catch you guys later.”

They stared at my brother and me as we ran out the door. I left the soggy science notebook behind, but I didn’t care.

We were out of there. And the Lerner twins were no longer the Living Dead, or whatever we did to them.

It had begun to rain, and it was coming down pretty hard. I raised my face to the sky. The cold raindrops felt soothing on my hot forehead.

Jackson and I started to run, splashing up puddles. “That was close,” I said. “Too close.”

“We have to practice,” Jackson said. “We don’t really know our powers. We have to figure out what we can do and what we can’t do.”

We ran under some trees. Rain washed down on us like a waterfall.

“Should we tell Mom and Dad?” I asked.

Jackson shook his head. “We’d better keep it a secret.”

“Mom and Dad have that dinner party tomorrow night,” I said. “We could check out our powers then.”

“Tomorrow night,” Jackson repeated. “Yes. Tomorrow night. We’ll do it!”