As she screamed, Becky whipped around and saw a human shape behind her. Not the dog, she thought, and her scream cut off even as another part of her mind wondered, despairingly, if maybe Dr. McNally had created some human zombies, too. Maybe the whole house was crawling with them. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest, so hard that she could hear its beat.

“Hey,” the shadowy figure said, coming forward. “Wow, what are you guys doing here?”

Paul, she realized, her heart calming, and she drew a deep breath.

“What are we doing here?” Nate said. “What are you doing here? You don’t even live on this street! And it’s raining out!” His normally laid-back voice was furious, and Becky could tell how scared he had been.

“I thought I’d check out the McNally house at night,” Paul said. “It’s only drizzling — I thought the rain would make an even cooler, spookier atmosphere. And I rode my bike over.” Even though Becky couldn’t really see his face, she thought he sounded embarrassed. He had something in his hands that reflected the little light there was, and Becky suddenly realized it was his camera. “I would have called you, but I didn’t think you’d be into it. When we were over at Becky’s house, you both seemed kind of irritated with the whole zombie thing.”

Nate gave a surprised half laugh, but before either of them could answer, Paul was looking past them. “Hey,” he said. “What’s that?”

Becky whipped around, hearing Nate gasp behind her.

Something was moving slowly across the pale stretch of driveway toward where they had left the ball. Becky could hear nails clicking against the concrete. She peered forward through the darkness. Was the zombie sniffing at the ball and paste? It was so still for a moment, a huddled shape in just the right place. Maybe it would take the ball and go away, go back to rest again.

Slowly, the figure seemed to stiffen, and its head came up. Green eyes flashed eerily and the creature’s thick wet growl filled the air. It charged past the ball, leaving it ignored — the paste untouched — and came toward them.

“Wow!” Paul said happily, raising his camera.

Nate and Becky each grabbed hold of one of Paul’s arms and ran, slipping in the wet grass, shoving evergreen branches out of the way, fumbling at the fence between the houses to find the loose board, and finally racing across Becky’s lawn toward her house. Her feet skidded on the grass and she almost fell, gripping Paul’s arm to pull herself up.

The whole way, Becky was sure she heard tiny footsteps racing behind her, felt cold and clammy breath at her back. At every moment, she expected to feel small, sharp teeth on her leg.

Finally, they got inside the house. Becky slammed the door behind them and locked both locks. She thought she heard the scrape of claws against the door and another low snarl as it closed, but it was hard to tell over the patter of the rain shower. Gasping, she looked around at the others, who were panting from the run and dripping water onto the floor. Nate was so pale that his freckles stood out clearly in little golden dots against his skin.

“That was amazing!” Paul said cheerfully. “Did you guys fix that up? What was it, like, some kind of motorized thing? Is it for Halloween?”

They both stared at him. Finally, Nate stretched what looked to Becky like a clearly false smile over his strained face. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, we’re working on it. It’s not ready yet.”

“So stay away from the McNally house, okay?” Becky added, her voice squeaky with nervousness. “Because it’s not ready.”

“Becky?” her dad called, coming down the stairs. He frowned when he saw Paul. “I didn’t realize you had another friend over. It’s almost dinnertime.”

“I know, Dad,” Becky said quickly. “Paul just came by to get Nate. They’re going now.” Nate and Paul, thankfully, nodded.

Her dad waited. After a moment, it was clear that he was waiting for the boys to leave. Becky hesitated. What if the zombie dog was out there? She was almost sure she had heard claws against the door.

But her dad was waiting. She and Nate stared at each other, frozen.

Finally, Paul reached out and unlocked the door before Becky could warn him. “See you later, Becky,” he said, swinging it open. “Bye, Mr. Nolan.”

A cold breeze swept in the door, bringing the sound of rustling leaves. There was nothing waiting on the porch. Nate followed Paul out, grimacing back at Becky. At least they were heading away from the McNally house, toward Nate’s end of the street.

Becky had dinner with her family, barely able to concentrate on what she was eating or to follow what her parents and Jake were talking about. She kept thinking of the zombie Chihuahua’s angry snarl and how it had charged toward them after sniffing the ball.

It must not have fallen for their trick, Becky thought, because that certainly hadn’t been anything like being put to rest. It was more like the zombie was angry they’d tried to fool it. Clearly the paste wasn’t going to work without the right ball.

She went up to her room, thinking hard about what they could do to stop the zombie. Later, once everyone had gone to sleep, she tiptoed down to sneak Bear upstairs. Poor Bear had been so nervous and agitated lately that she couldn’t stand to leave him alone downstairs. He stuck close to her, his fur brushing against her leg, while they were going upstairs, and then slunk under her bed when they got into her room.

Becky climbed back into bed and lay down, listening to Bear’s little whines slowly change to steady breathing. Her stomach hurt with anxiety, and she crossed her arms over it, clutching her elbows.

She only had one idea, and she hated it. She wasn’t the kind of person who stole and lied, but the only way she could see that they might get rid of the zombie was if they stole the ball — the other ball, the one that had belonged to ChiChi, Mimi’s sister — from Mrs. McNally’s shadow box.