Read Claws! for Free Online

even opened the dresser drawers and peered inside.
    No cat.
    I was down on my hands and knees, searching under the bed again, when I remembered a totally scary horror movie Amanda and I had seen at the mall. It was about an evil cat that haunted a family
from inside the walls.
    I was so freaked out by that film, I made my dad move my bed away from the wall.
    Yeeeeoow.
    I heard the cat again. So close. It sounded close enough to reach out and touch.
    I spun all around. No cat.
    I walked to the wall. I pressed my ear against the red-and-white-striped wallpaper. “Are you in there?” I cried in a trembling voice. I listened. “Are you inside the wall?”
    Silence.
    Was I going CRAZY?
    No. No way I was imagining this.
    I couldn’t stop shivering. My eyes darted around the room as I made my way back to bed. I pulled the covers up again.
    I clicked off the bed table light. I scooted down low in the bed. I started to shut my eyes.
    Yeeeeeow.
    “Oh, no!” A cry escaped my throat. Right above me on the wall … a shadow … a shadow reflected from the streetlight on the curb.
    The shadow of a cat.

16
    I stared in horror. I don’t know how long I stared, not blinking, not moving. Finally, the cat shadow vanished.
    I stared at the wall where it had been. Chill after chill ran down my back.
    Then … I heard a soft splash.
    What could that be? The bathroom was across the hall. What could splash in my room?
    I reached for the lamp and clicked on the light. Across the room, I saw Zorro’s cage. Beside it—the fish tank.
    Even in the dim light, I could see the water in the tank washing against the sides. Tilting up and down.
    I squinted at it, trying to understand. Why was the water splashing in the tank?
    I took a deep, shuddering breath. Then I lowered my feet to the floor. I crossed the room and stepped up to the goldfish tank.
    Where were my fish?
    Too dark to see clearly. I moved to the door and clicked on the ceiling light. I returned to the fish tank …
    … and let out a cry of horror.
    The water washed from side to side. And floating on top of the water … floating on the top … pieces of orange and yellow.
    Little chunks of goldfish.
    “No!”
    I lowered my head over the tank and stared down in shock. I saw a goldfish head on its side with one black eye staring up at me.
    The head ended in a jagged yellow line. As if it had been
ripped
off its body.
    My three fish had been torn apart. Torn to little hunks.
    I saw slender pieces of fin. Tiny bones. Part of a tail. Chunks of yellow-orange washing back and forth in the tilting water.
    Yeeeeeow.
    The cat cry made me jerk straight up. I spun away from the fish tank. My eyes frantically swept over the room.
    “Where are you?” I screamed. “What’s going on?”
    I couldn’t see the cat. I could only hear it. And I could see what it had done to my goldfish.
    “Where are you?” I screamed again. “Show yourself. Show yourself! What are you doing in my room? What do you
want?”

17
    The next morning, Mom and Dad left for work early. So I couldn’t tell them about the cat cries and what had happened to my fish. Mom left a box of cereal and the milk at my place at the table. I choked some of it down. But I didn’t feel like eating.
    I felt groggy. My head weighed at least a hundred pounds. It nearly dropped into my cereal bowl. I kept shaking my head, trying to wake up.
    I’m the kind of kid who needs his sleep. Amanda is always bragging about how late she stays up. But if I don’t get seven or eight hours, I feel totally weird. Like I’ve been hit by a truck.
    I don’t think I had ten minutes of sleep. I was too afraid to close my eyes.
    I stayed awake and alert. Waiting for more cat cries. Waiting for the terrifying shadow to appear on my wall again.
    Amanda met me on my front stoop and westarted across the lawn to feed Bella. The sun hurt my red, tired eyes. I couldn’t stop yawning.
    “I—I have to tell you something,” I said. “Something