“Sorry,” Kelsey apologized. “We got…” She was about to say lost, but she stopped herself. If she told them they were lost, she knew what would happen. Their parents would never allow them to go out by themselves anymore. “We were having so much fun on the boardwalk, we lost track of the time.”
“We won’t do it again,” Drew added. “We promise.”
“All right.” Her mother forgave her more quickly than she ever did at home.
That was one of the best things about being on vacation. Parents were so much easier to get along with.
“Come inside and wash your hands for dinner,” Drew’s mother instructed. Then their parents led the way inside.
As Kelsey climbed the porch steps, she thought about the old fortuneteller again. Now that she was safe at home, the whole thing seemed pretty dumb.
“Fool!” Kelsey heard the echo of the old gypsy woman’s voice. Only this time she started to laugh at herself – for acting like one.
Kelsey was about to step through the front door when something caught her eye. Something falling from the sky. Fluttering. Fluttering. Down. Down. Down.
Drew spotted it, too. “What is that?” he asked, squinting as he gazed up.
“I can’t tell,” Kelsey replied, watching the object float down on a breeze.
And then it landed right at Kelsey’s feet.
She gasped.
It was the card.
The card that the old gypsy woman had tossed into the air.
Kelsey trembled as she stared at it. As she stared down into the face of the Fool.
5
That night Kelsey sat on her bed, alone in her room, staring at the Fool card.
Kelsey turned the card over and over in her hand. Then she ripped it in half. Then ripped it in half again. And again. “So there!” she declared when she was through.
She scooped up every last bit of paper and dumped it all into the wastepaper basket near her dresser.
“Tomorrow will be a much better day,” she promised herself as she slipped between the sheets. Then she closed her eyes.
She pictured herself at the beach with Drew. They would spend the whole day there, she decided. Swimming in the ocean. Collecting shells. Playing volleyball. Lying in the sun.
Kelsey could imagine the warmth of the sun on her skin as she snuggled into her pillow. It felt good – even in her imagination.
Then she started to drift off to sleep – pretending that she was already on the beach.
But something tickled her left foot. She rubbed at it with her right one.
But the tickle returned.
Now it moved up the back of her leg.
Kelsey brushed her leg against the sheet. But it didn’t work. The tickle kept moving – moving up her leg.
Only now it wasn’t a tickle. It felt prickly.
Kelsey brushed her leg with her foot. But the prickly feeling didn’t go away.
It started to spread.
Over her legs. Her arms. Her whole body.
She tried to ignore it.
She fluffed her pillow and rolled over on her side. But that didn’t work, either.
Now it felt as though her whole bed had come alive. With tiny little legs.
Millions of them.
Skittering across her body.
Crawling into her hair. Stinging her skin.
She shot up in bed. She stared at the sheets. At her body. But it was too dark to see.
And then she felt it.
A tiny set of legs creeping across her cheek.
And she knew what it was.
Sand crabs! Even in the dark, she knew. She hated sand crabs – they terrified her!
She shrieked with horror.
Her hands flew to her legs. Her arms. Her face. Frantically trying to brush the creatures away.
“Get off!” she cried. “Get off!”
But within seconds they swarmed over her entire body.
Kelsey grew frightened. So frightened that she couldn’t breathe.
She tried to scream. But all that came out was a choked whimper – as she felt one of the disgusting little creatures start to crawl inside her ear.
6
Kelsey leaped out of bed.
She threw her head from side to side. “Get out!” she screamed. “Get out!”
The stinging in her ear stopped. But her hair felt alive. Alive with the horrible creatures.
She scratched her head. Scratched until her scalp turned raw.
She had to look in the mirror. She had to see the crabs. To see where they were. To get them off.
She nipped on the light switch and headed for the mirror over her dresser. She didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to see those disgusting crabs – with their hideous pincers creeping on her skin.
But she forced herself to look.
And then she screamed.
No sand crabs.
Not in her hair. Not on her face.
Nowhere.
She spun around to face her bed – expecting to see it crawling with sand crabs.
Nothing there, either. Nothing but her clean blue sheets and plump white pillow.
Kelsey quickly pulled back the cover. No creatures hiding anywhere.
She checked her bed once more before dropping into it. But she couldn’t fall asleep. Her skin still felt tingly. Still felt as if thousands of tiny legs were creeping all over it.
She thought about the creatures. She pictured them swarming all over her body. A low groan escaped her lips.
She propped up her pillows and decided to stay up all night. But she was tired. So tired. And before she knew it, she drifted off to sleep.
The early dawn light fell upon Kelsey’s face and woke her up. She turned over her pillow and tried to fall back asleep – but she heard something. Something nearby.
Her eyes popped open and searched the room.
There it was.
On the floor.
A sand crab. A single sand crab.
Kelsey watched in horror as it skittered across her floor and darted under her bed.
Her heart pounded in her chest. Her temples throbbed. But she knew she had to look. She had to know.
Kelsey checked the floor carefully before she slid out of bed. Then she kneeled down and peered underneath the bed, into the darkness.
She spotted her slippers. An old
Then she saw it.
Not the sand crab. Not even a thousand sand crabs.
It was something much more horrible.
Kelsey’s lower lip trembled. Her hands began to shake.
She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that when she opened them, the terrible thing would be gone. Just the way all those sand crabs had disappeared.
But when she opened her eyes, it was still there.
The Fool card that she had ripped to shreds.
There it was.
Under her bed.
