“It’s NOT a ghost,” said Zoe. “Ghosts aren’t real. And the Ghost King definitely isn’t real.”
Now that the candle had gone out, it was dark in the living room. I could barely see Zoe and Bernard.
“Weren’t you watching that episode? This is exactly what happened to the 
!” I said.
“Sam, it looks like a cool show, but . . . it’s just a show,” said Zoe. “You know it isn’t real, right? Just like ghosts aren’t real?”
My face felt hot. I was glad my friends couldn’t see me turning red. “I KNOW the show isn’t real,” I said. “But spaceships are real. And wormholes. And moons. And ghosts!”
Bernard got out his glasses. He doesn’t need glasses, but he likes to wear them when he’s thinking. He says they make him smarter.
“There has been substantial research into ghosts,” he said. “But we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.” Bernard is always saying things like that.
The noise happened again. This time it was even louder and sounded as if it was getting really close.
“Sam, are you sure it isn’t just your house making weird noises?” asked Bernard.
“Bernard, I’ve lived in this house my WHOLE life, and it has NEVER made that kind of noise.”
It was true.
“And what do you think made the lights go out? And then the candle?” I added.
“I still don’t think it’s a ghost,” said Zoe, but then, as if something was ANSWERING her, there was a
from inside the coat closet.
“What was that?” asked Zoe, sitting straight up.
“It’s OBVIOUSLY the GHOST KING!” I said. “I told you!”
“It is NOT!” said Zoe.
“Well if you are so sure it isn’t, why don’t you go and look inside the closet?” I asked.
Zoe didn’t move.
“That’s what I thought,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.
“You . . . you really think there is a ghost in the closet?” asked Zoe. She was starting to sound scared.
“Only one way to find out,” I said. I took a deep breath. “Let’s open the closet.” I couldn’t believe how brave I was being. Probably even braver than Spaceman Jack would be in this situation. Just thinking about how brave I was being made me a little nervous.
We crept up to the closet. My heart was beating so fast I was sure it was going to jump out of my chest.
“What are we going to do if we find the ghost?” asked Bernard.
I hadn’t thought that far.
“Zoe is super fast,” I said. “She can catch it.”
“With what?” asked Zoe. For someone who’d claimed she didn’t believe in ghosts she sounded pretty scared.
“With this!” I said, grabbing a basket that my mom kept blankets in. I dumped the blankets out.
“I don’t think we can catch a ghost with a basket,” said Zoe.
“This is all we’ve got! I don’t have a
like the , so this will have to do,” I said.
Zoe nodded. Bernard put his glasses back in his pocket.
“Okay,” I said, “here we go!”
I took a deep breath and pulled open the coat closet door. Then something FELL ON US.
“Arghhhh!”
I yelled.
“Arghhhh!” yelled Bernard.
“I’ve got it!” yelled Zoe, throwing the basket on me and Bernard.
“Ow! Zoe, that’s us, NOT the ghost!” said Bernard.
The lights flickered — once, twice — and then came back on.
Bernard and I were sitting under a pile of Na-Na’s old sweaters.
Bernard still had the basket on his head.
“So . . . no ghost?” said Zoe.
“But what knocked everything over?” asked Bernard. “The ghost must have gotten away before we could catch it!”
I was about to agree with him, when we heard the clanking sound again. The sound that I’d NEVER heard before. “And what is that sound?” I asked.
Bernard’s eyes were huge. “Sam . . .” he said in a small voice, “I don’t think that is the Ghost King . . . but I do think it might be a ghost.”
“What do you mean?” Zoe whispered back.
Bernard leaned toward us. “Haven’t you ever seen A Christmas Carol? The ghost ALWAYS shows up in chains! That’s why we’re hearing chains. It all adds up! I think there might actually be a ghost in the house. But maybe NOT the Ghost King.”
“But the Ghost King might have sent this ghost,” I said. Bernard had made a good point, but as relieved as I was that it wasn’t the Ghost King, I was sure that he was still involved. Somehow. He was tricky like that.
“What are we going to do?” Zoe whispered.
“Let’s go back to my room to make a plan,” I said.
“But . . . aren’t you . . .” Zoe paused and exchanged a look with Bernard. I knew what that look meant.
“I am NOT afraid!” I declared. They didn’t need to know how sweaty I was getting.
Back in my room, Bernard had gone into
and was on my computer looking up everything he could find about ghosts. “Okay, okay. If there really is a ghost in the house, our first step is to figure out what we want to do with it,” he said.
“What do you mean, ‘do with it?’” I asked.
“Do we want to chase it out of the house? Do we want to catch it?”
“Catch it? What would we do with it then?”
Bernard scrunched his eyebrows together as he leaned toward the computer.
“According to this website, apparently we can put it in a bottle or something.”
“A ghost isn’t a genie!” I said.
“Um, you guys . . . ?” Zoe was staring at Fang’s tank.
“And what would we do with it once it was in a bottle, anyway?” I went on. “I think we want to chase it out of the house. Or . . . make it evaporate or something. Like in Ghostbusters.”
“You can’t evaporate ghosts, Sam,” said Bernard in his kind-of-annoying-I’ve-won-the-science-fair-three-years-in-a-row-so-I-know-everything voice. Bernard is always an expert on everything. Even ghosts, apparently. But that’s one of the reasons I was glad he was on my side.
Bernard and I turned toward her at the same time. “What?”
She lifted a shaky hand and pointed at Fang’s tank.
“Fang’s tank is open, and he’s GONE!”
