The cloud darkened. It was taking shape.
A picture was forming in the mirror!
It was a room. I almost recognized it. Almost—then the cloud dissolved into mist again, swirling and plucking at me.
I sat up, moving like a zombie.
The mist in the mirror came together. It formed the image of a bedroom. A room right here in the house.
My sister must be in danger!
I tried getting up—I wanted to run in and check on her—but suddenly I couldn’t move a muscle. I could only stare into the mirror as the picture became clearer and more detailed.
Slowly a bed swam into view, then a long black shape. The shape grew darker and sharper.
It was the old lady, the skeleton thing shrouded in black.
And it wasn’t Sally’s bedroom, it was Katie’s! I recognized her four-poster bed and the flowered wallpaper and could even see a dark blob that must be her head on the pillow.
In the mirror the old witch-thing was bending over Katie.
I watched helplessly as a long bony claw reached out, sharp bony fingers stretching toward Katie’s sleeping head.
Then suddenly there was a popping sound and the mirror flashed and went blank.
My room was plunged into total darkness.
From somewhere in the house came a long, piercing shriek of terror.
“Aaahhhheeeee!”
The scream was cut off.
But the house was not quiet. No, the house wasn’t quiet at all.
19
There was a charge in the air. As if the house was getting ready for something big.
Like anything could happen.
Doors creaked. Floorboards moaned. Shadows flitted like tiny bats, just out of sight. There were little whispery noises in the walls, like scratchy fingernails inside the plaster.
Suddenly I could move again.
I wanted to grab my blanket, wake Sally, and get out of here. But first I had to help Katie. I had to.
I could hear her—or someone—thrashing around in her room.
And then another scream ripped the air.
I was out of my room and running down the hall. Running in the dark, my heart pounding in my chest.
I threw open Katie’s door.
She had the light on and she was stamping and hopping as if something was biting her ankles. She was tearing at her hair and making high-pitched, yipping noises.
But there was no sign of the old lady ghoul. Just Katie tearing wildly at herself.
“Katie!” I shouted. “What’s wrong?”
She whipped her head toward me. Her eyes were rolling with fright.
“Get them out of here,” she screamed. “They’re in my hair! All over the bed!”
I looked past her at the bed. There was a small box lying open on her pillow. Little brown dots were climbing out of the box and lots more of them were scurrying in every direction, all over Katie’s bed and pillow.
I moved a little closer to see what they were.
Spiders! Hundreds of tiny brown spiders. Someone had dumped them all over Katie and her bed. Was it the old witch ghost I’d seen in the mirror?
“Get them out of here!” screamed Katie again, slapping at her ankles and arms and pawing at her head.
I grabbed up the box and started trying to brush the spiders back into it. But there were too many. They kept running out and crawling over my hands and up my arms.
“Kill them!” yelled Katie. She yanked the pillow off the bed and threw it on the floor.
It wasn’t the spiders’ fault, I thought. But Katie was in no condition to listen to reason.
So I opened her window, took off the screen, and then bundled up her sheets and blanket and threw them out to the grass below.
“The pillow,” she insisted, so I tossed that out and then the little box, too, although I didn’t think any spiders were left in it.
Then, it couldn’t be helped, any spiders that weren’t quick enough to scurry into a crack got stomped. Good-bye little bugs, see you in spider heaven.
After I got rid of all the spiders, Katie snatched up a hairbrush and began brushing her hair so hard I thought she’d pull it all out.
“How could you do such a horrible thing?” she demanded, shuddering.
“Me?” I squeaked, totally caught off balance.
“Who else? You’re not going to try to blame Sally are you?” Her eyes narrowed. “I suppose you’re going to tell me it was Bobby the ghost.”
“Well—” I stopped, remembering what I’d seen in the mirror. “Actually, I think it was the old lady ghost. I saw her bending over you while you were sleeping—”
“Whaaat?” Katie’s head whipped around so fast I thought she would hurt her neck.
“In my mirror. The one on my closet door. It started to glow and then your room appeared and—”
“That’s it!” Katie threw the brush and I ducked just in time. It skittered across the floor and I saw a little brown spider scurry out from under it. “This is the last straw,” Katie said. “I’ll be calling your parents tomorrow, young man. Until then, get out of my sight!”
I knew it was no use trying to talk to her when she was like that so I checked on Sally, who had slept through the whole thing, and then went back to my room.
I sat on the side of the bed thinking.
Why did the Bobby ghost want to frighten Katie away? She didn’t even believe in ghosts, so she was no danger to him. But then again, it wasn’t just Bobby who had it in for the baby-sitter: The mirror had shown that it was the old lady ghost who put the box on Katie’s pillow.
Were the little boy and the old witch acting together now?
The thought stuck in my chest like a sharp stone.
But what about the image in the mirror? Where had it come from? Somebody had wanted to help Katie.
One thing seemed clear. Ever since Katie arrived, the pressure was off me and Sally. It seemed like Katie was a magnet for all the angry feelings in the house.
What did it all mean? Who exactly was haunting this place and why?
My head was
