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me. “We
don’t want to get them worked up.”
    “But—but—” I sputtered. “I saw things—”
    “They saw you, Alex,” my aunt interrupted. “They saw you prowling
around their house late last night. They are very angry about it.”
    She poured herself a mug of coffee and came over to the table. She sat down
and swept a strand of gray hair off her forehead.
    “What were you doing outside last night?” my uncle asked.
    “I’m really sorry. But I had no choice. I left my camera out in the woods,” I
explained. “I had to run out and get it. I couldn’t leave it out all night—especially with the rain.”
    “But you didn’t have to go near the Marlings’ house—did you?” Aunt Marta
demanded.
    “I—I heard animal howls from inside their house!” I blurted out. “And I saw strange footprints going up to the bedroom
window at the side.”
    Uncle Colin nodded calmly. He took a long sip of coffee. “The footprints were
probably from their dogs,” he said, glancing at Aunt Marta.
    “Dogs?” I cried.
    They both nodded. “They have two huge German shepherds,” my aunt explained.
“Mean as they come.”
    “And as big as wolves,” Uncle Colin added, shaking his head. He reached for a
slice of toast and began to butter it.
    I sighed. I felt a little better.
    Two German shepherds. That explained the howls and the footprints in the wet
grass.
    “Are you ready for school?” Aunt Marta asked. “Hannah will be here any
minute.”
    “I’m almost ready,” I replied. I gulped down a glass of orange juice. “When I
was in the woods last night…” I started.
    They both stared at me.
    “I saw some animals that got ripped up. I mean, killed.”
    Uncle Colin nodded. “The woods are dangerous at night,” he said softly.
    “We really don’t want you out there at night, Alex,” Aunt Marta said. She
pulled a piece of lint off the shoulder of my T-shirt. Then she tenderly brushed my hair back with her hand. “Promise us you won’t go again.”
    “Promise,” I murmured.
    “And promise that you’ll stay away from the Marlings,” my uncle added.
    Before I could reply, the doorbell rang. Hannah came into the kitchen,
weighted down under a bulging backpack. “Ready?” she asked.
    I nodded and shoved my chair back from the table. “Yeah. I guess I’m ready,”
I told her. “This is so weird. Going to someone else’s school.”
    “You’ll like my teacher, Mr. Shein,” Hannah replied. “He’s very interesting.
And he’s really nice.”
    I grabbed my backpack and my jacket. We said good-bye to my aunt and uncle
and headed out the front door.
    I glanced at the Marlings’ house as we made our way to the street. The
bedroom window at the side had been closed, I saw. The house was dark as always.
    “Did you find your camera?” Hannah asked.
    I nodded. “Yeah. But it wasn’t easy.” I told her about my scary adventures.
    She tsk-tsked. “I warned you, Alex,” she said. “You wouldn’t catch me in the woods after dark.”
    A yellow school bus rumbled past. Some kids in the bus called out the window
to Hannah. She waved back to them.
    The morning sun still floated low in the sky. A silvery frost clung to the
lawns. The air felt crisp and cold.
    “One more block to school,” Hannah said. “Are you nervous?”
    I didn’t answer. I was thinking about the Marlings. I told Hannah about the
howls I’d heard inside their house. “Uncle Colin says they have two German
shepherds. Really big and really mean,” I told her.
    “No, they don’t,” Hannah replied sharply.
    I stopped walking. “Excuse me?” I cried.
    “The Marlings don’t have any dogs,” she repeated. “I’ve lived here as long as
they have, and I’ve never seen them.”
    “Then why did my uncle tell me that?” I demanded.
    “So you won’t be scared,” Hannah replied.
    “I—I don’t understand,” I stammered. “If the Marlings don’t have dogs, what
made those weird footprints outside their