When the Ghost Dog Howls Read online

Marnie dropped down beside me. “Andy, you got a nasty shock.”

  I stared hard at her. “Oh, my gosh! Marnie, how did you get here?” I cried.

  She frowned at me. “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “I — I totally forgot about you! I’m so sorry! I left you in that space capsule! I can’t believe I did that! How did you get back to the mall from outer space?”

  Her face went pale. “Uh-oh,” she whispered. “Outer space?”

  I nodded. Nodding made my head hurt.

  “Maybe you DO need a doctor,” Marnie said. “You’re not making any sense.”

  She started to stand up. “I’ll call your mom and dad. I’ll tell them what happened. It won’t take them long to get here.”

  “But, Marnie —” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back down beside me. “Remember? I was in bed? In a strange room. Not my own room. With people I’d never seen before. I made a wish. And we were in the space capsule. Then it began to fall to Earth. Then I was in a weird zoo. In a cage, like an animal. A huge ape came after me, and —”

  Marnie pulled my hand off her arm. She jumped up. “Andy, don’t move,” she said. She pointed a trembling finger down at me. “Don’t move.”

  “But, Marnie —”

  “I’ll get help,” she said. She looked around frantically. “Listen. You’re all mixed up. You’ve been here in the mall the whole time.”

  “Huh?” I gasped. “No way —”

  “Andy, you got a shock, and it knocked you out. You’ve been out for almost ten minutes.”

  I gasped. “Huh? Only ten minutes?”

  “Ten minutes,” she said. “I was so worried —”

  “But what about the space capsule?” I asked. “The ape in the zoo?”

  Marnie squinted at me. “You haven’t moved, Andy. You’ve been flat out on your back. You must have had weird dreams. From the shock.”

  My head was spinning. I felt totally confused.

  Of course. Those adventures had to be dreams. My brain going berserk while I was out cold.

  With a groan, I hoisted myself to my feet. I shook off my dizziness.

  A few worried adults were still there watching me. I told them I felt fine. I watched them stroll away down the wide aisles.

  I stretched my arms. “I feel a lot better,” I told Marnie. “I feel —”

  I stopped. My breath caught in my throat.

  I stared hard. And then I let out a cry: “Marnie — why are YOU wearing my tooth?”

  Marnie placed her hand over my forehead. After a few seconds, she said, “No. No fever.”

  I kept staring at the big tooth dangling from the cord around her neck. “My tooth —”

  “Your tooth?” Marnie said. “Oh, wow. Since when is it your tooth?”

  “But — but —” I sputtered.

  “You’re starting to scare me, Andy,” she said. “I mean, really. I’m really worried about you. You hit your head on the hard floor when you fell. Maybe you have a concussion or something.”

  “I — I don’t understand,” I stammered.

  “The tooth is mine,” Marnie said. She squeezed it between two fingers. “It’s never been yours.”

  “Not true!” I cried. “I bought it and —”

  She raised a finger to my lips to hush me up.

  “Don’t you remember, Andy? At HorrorLand? We were in that little shop, and you didn’t want the tooth. That weird shopkeeper offered it to you first. And you said you thought it was dumb.”

  I shook my head. “Wait. That’s not what I remember. I —”

  “So I bought it from the shopkeeper. Chiller, or whatever his name was. I thought it was cool looking, so I bought it. It’s my tooth. It’s always been my tooth.”

  I felt dizzy again. The store windows tilted and swayed. The bright lights flickered above me.

  I shut my eyes and waited for the dizziness to pass.

  Is my memory totally messed up? I asked myself.

  I thought I was the one who bought the tooth. Was that another one of my crazy dreams?

  It didn’t seem like a dream. Why did I remember so clearly that the wishing tooth belonged to me?

  I had to get it straight in my mind. I hated feeling so totally confused.

  I grabbed Marnie’s shoulder. “Marnie, remember? A few days after we got back from HorrorLand? You were at my house, and my parents were talking about dinner. I had the tooth, and I made a wish that we would go out for dinner. Then, instantly, my dad said, ‘Let’s go out for dinner.’ Remember?”

  “Excuse me?” Marnie said. “Don’t you remember? I made all the wishes, Andy. I wished that I could go with you? I wished your dad had a new car?”

  “But — but —” I sputtered.

  “Don’t you remember? I wished to get twice as many French fries as you? And my wish came true?”

  “Well … yes,” I said. “Yes, I remember that. But —”

  “And then I wished for a cow to appear in school so we’d get out for the day?”

  “Yes. I remember that, too,” I said.

  “I made all the wishes,” Marnie said, “because the tooth was mine. I was wearing it, Andy. So I made all those wishes.”

  I swallowed. I felt a shiver run down my back. “Do you think I’m going crazy?”

  “I think the shock messed up your memory,” Marnie said. “You had all those weird dreams while you were knocked out. And you imagined the tooth was yours.”

  “But it seems so real,” I said. “Me wearing the tooth to school and to the mall and —”

  “Andy, it’s been in my dresser drawer since last Monday, the day I wished for the cow in school. You never owned the tooth. It’s mine. Today is the first day I took it out of my drawer.”

  “Are you sure?” My voice came out high and tiny.

  She nodded. “Don’t you remember any of this? I brought the tooth to the mall. And I started to make a wish in front of the shoe store. But I dropped the tooth. You tried to pick it up for me — remember? And then you got that terrible shock?”

  I leaned against the wall. My brain was spinning in my head.

  I felt sick. My stomach lurched.

  I held my breath and pressed my hand over my mouth to keep from heaving.

  Marnie went pale. “Are you okay? Are you feeling sick?”

  “A … little,” I choked out.

  I couldn’t stop my brain from churning.

  How could my memory play such weird tricks on me?

  The tooth belongs to Marnie?

  Marnie bought the tooth necklace from Jonathan Chiller?

  For a moment, I had the strangest feeling. I’m still messed up! I thought.

  I’m confused because I’m in a dream.

  I’m going to wake up and remember it all just the way it really happened.

  But I knew that was wrong. I knew I was awake. No space capsule. No giant ape in a zoo cage.

  No dream. Just the real world.

  There was only one thing wrong. My brain was completely scrambled.

  “How did it go at the mall?” Mom asked.

  “Uh … not bad,” I said.

  I probably should have told the truth. But I wanted to go up to my room and think and be by myself. You know. Try to get my brain straight.

  Mom and Dad were on the den floor with a Scrabble board spread out on the coffee table. They play the slowest, most boring Scrabble games. It’s painful to play with them. They spend hours with their little dictionary, looking up words and then arguing about them.

  And Mom always wins. I don’t see the fun in it. But they love it.

  I said good night and hurried away. I was halfway up the stairs. But Mom’s voice stopped me. “Andy, let me see the sneakers you bought.”

  Sneakers?

  Uh-oh.

  “Uh … I didn’t buy any,” I said.

  “You’re kidding,” Mom said. “Why not?”

  “Just didn’t see any I liked,” I said. “Guess I’ll have to go back.”


  “What did you buy there?” Dad called.

  “Uh … well … nothing,” I said. “You see, I got a very bad shock that knocked me out and made me have all these crazy dreams. And now my memory is totally messed up. And I’m freaking out because my brain is fried.”

  “That’s nice,” Dad said. “See you in the morning.”

  “Good night, dear,” Mom added.

  I knew they weren’t listening!

  I climbed the rest of the way to my room. I could hear them arguing down there. “Fleg is not a word,” Mom said.

  “Sure, it is,” Dad said. “Look it up.”

  “No need. There’s no such word as fleg. What is a fleg, anyway? Use it in a sentence.”

  “Okay. We fly the fleg on the Fourth of July.”

  They both broke up laughing. I closed my bedroom door. I wasn’t in the mood for Dad’s horrible Scrabble jokes.

  My head felt like someone was pounding on it with a big wood mallet.

  I decided to go to bed early.

  When I wake up in the morning, the headache will be gone. And my memory will be back.

  That’s what I told myself.

  I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed. Then I pulled the covers up to my chin and shut my eyes.

  It felt really good to be back in my own bed in my own room.

  I settled my head deep into my pillow. I let out a long sigh and tried to relax.

  But the sound outside my open window made me sit up with a jerk.

  A long, low moan. Not a human sound.

  And then another. Higher. Closer.

  An animal howl. It rose and fell like an ambulance siren.

  And then another. A dog’s howl. An angry howl.

  The Blue Kerlew Hound.

  I knew it had to be that long-dead creature. The ghostly dog prowling right outside my house.

  Howling … howling up at my window.

  But — why?

  I didn’t have its tooth.

  Why was it coming after me?

  Another terrifying howl sent a chill down my back.

  I jumped out of bed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I hurried to my window and peered down at the front yard.

  No dog.

  Pale moonlight made the yard look silvery, eerie. The flowers in my mom’s flower bed swayed from side to side in a gusty breeze. A chipmunk scampered behind the big maple tree by the curb.

  Was the ghostly dog invisible?

  I hugged myself tightly, trying to stop my chills.

  The next long howl made me jump. It seemed to be coming from right inside my room.

  I spun around with a loud gasp.

  No. Calm down, Andy. Take a deep breath, dude.

  No way I could get to sleep. I clicked on my desk lamp and dropped down in front of my computer. I brought up Google and typed in Blue Kerlew Hound.

  After a few seconds, the screen changed. I blinked. Only one entry came up. It had the headline: CREATURES OF LEGEND & MYTH.

  I clicked on it. It took me to a weird Web site about Scotland. A long article filled the screen.

  I scrolled down, searching for a picture. Something to show me what the hound looked like. But no. No picture or drawing.

  I went back up to the top and began to read.

  The whole story was there. The same story Jonathan Chiller told us in his shop at HorrorLand.

  My eyes scanned down the screen, and I read the story all over again. The tiny town in the Highlands of Scotland … the mysterious blue dog … the bad luck it brought the town … the sorcerer who cursed the dog’s teeth to drive it away … the sorcerer discovering the one tooth could grant wishes … the night the dog returned and the sorcerer was found torn to pieces.

  It was all there. But then there was more.

  My mouth dropped open as I read the bottom of the article. The part Jonathan Chiller didn’t tell us … It said:

  “The tooth has been missing for three hundred years. No one knows if it is owned by anyone, or if it has disappeared for all time.

  “Over time, the legend of the Kerlew Hound’s tooth grew. It was said that the ghost dog roams the earth, looking for its missing tooth. And that each wish made with the tooth sends a signal. The hound follows the signals. And when the dog finally finds its tooth, the owner will share the same horrifying fate as the sorcerer.”

  My heart thundered in my chest as I read the last sentences:

  “Of course, the story of the Blue Kerlew Hound is only legend, a tale made up in the Highlands of Scotland. But those people who know the legend admit they would not keep the tooth if they found it. No one wants to come face-to-face with the deadly hound.”

  It was late. Nearly one o’clock in the morning. But I didn’t care.

  I had to warn Marnie. I had to warn her that every wish she made on the tooth was dangerous.

  I picked up my jeans from where I’d tossed them on the floor. I dug my cell phone out of the pocket and punched in Marnie’s number. I listened to it ring … two times … three … four …

  Finally, Marnie answered. “Andy? What do you want?” Her voice was hoarse.

  “I know I woke you up,” I said. “But this is important.”

  “It better be,” she snapped. “What do you want?” She’s a total grouch when you wake her up.

  “Don’t use the tooth anymore,” I said. “Every wish is dangerous. No more wishes, Marnie. Every wish brings the blue hound closer.”

  Silence for a long moment.

  Then Marnie burst out laughing.

  “Nice try, Andy,” she said. “Did you think that up all by yourself?”

  “No. Really —” I said.

  She laughed some more. “That’s how jealous you are? You’d try a cheap trick like that to stop me from using my tooth?”

  “Marnie, listen to me. You can look it up yourself. I’m not making it up —”

  She groaned. “Andy, you tried to convince me we were in outer space — remember? Why should I believe a word you say?”

  “It’s true. It’s really dangerous,” I said. “Don’t use the tooth, Marnie.”

  “Well, you just watch me tomorrow, Andy. Stand back and watch me — because I’m going to have some fun!”

  I couldn’t get to sleep for hours. When my alarm went off, I yawned and squinted out my bedroom window.

  The sky was almost as dark as night, with storm clouds hanging low over the trees. I groaned and tried to sit up. I felt as if I had dark storm clouds fogging my brain.

  At breakfast, Mom gave me a hard time about not buying sneakers. “I can’t believe you wasted all that time yesterday, Andy. What did you do with the money I gave you?”

  “I still have it,” I said. “No problem. I was trying to be a good shopper.”

  “Good shopper?” Dad looked up from his laptop and laughed. “How can you be a good shopper if you don’t buy anything?”

  I wanted to tell them that I was serious about the electrical shock and everything. But then they would probably keep me out of school, ask me a million questions, and make me go see Dr. Hanson.

  I tilted the bowl to my mouth and slurped down the last drops of milk from my cornflakes. “I have to go,” I said.

  I rode my bike to school. I was half a block away when the rain started to come down. I tossed my bike at the bike rack and went running into the building.

  I strode down the hall, shaking off water. My jacket was soaked through. And my hair was matted flat against my head.

  I pulled open my locker. Marnie came running up. “Andy, you feeling okay?” she asked.

  She didn’t give me a chance to answer. She swung herself around. “Check out the new backpack. It’s Prada. Feel the leather.”

  I felt the leather. “Smooth,” I said. “Doesn’t that cost, like, a thousand dollars or something?”

  Her green eyes flashed. “I didn’t pay for it. I wished for it.”

  Then I saw the big tooth dangling on its cord around her neck.

 
“These new jeans, too,” Marnie said. “I never had straight-leg jeans that fit this well.” She wrapped her fingers around the tooth. “Think I’m going to wish for another pair.”

  She turned and started down the hall. I chased after her. “Listen, Marnie, I Googled the whole thing last night,” I said. “The tooth is more dangerous than Jonathan Chiller told us.”

  Marnie rolled her eyes. “We’ve been there, Andy,” she said. “Remember? You called me last night? I didn’t believe you then. Why should I believe you now?”

  “Because it’s true?” I said.

  She waved to a friend. “Got to go, dude.”

  “I — I heard the dog again last night,” I said. “Every wish brings it closer.”

  “If the big blue dog comes after me, I’ll wish it away!” Marnie said. Then she ran to catch up to her friend. I watched her showing off her new backpack.

  The hall was noisy with kids shouting and laughing and locker doors slamming. But in my mind, I kept hearing the eerie howls, the mournful cries that had kept me up most of the night.

  I half slept through class all morning. Luckily, Mrs. Parker didn’t call on me.

  When the bell rang for our mid-morning break, Marnie came running up to me with a big grin. She waved a paper in front of my face. “Andy, check it out.”

  I grabbed it and studied it. “Your math quiz? You got an A?”

  Marnie is a total moron in math.

  She nodded, giggling.

  I stared at her. “You … you wished it?”

  “Andy, I’m never going to get a bad grade in math again!” She raised the tooth to her mouth and kissed it. “I’m a genius now. I’m a math genius!”

  “Nice,” I said. My stomach suddenly felt as if I’d swallowed a big rock. “How many wishes are you going to make today?”

  She grinned. “Maybe a million.” She gave me a punch in the stomach and hurried away.

  I stood there, thinking hard. What if the story I read last night was true? What if every wish Marnie made brought the ghost hound closer?

  I felt totally tense. Every muscle in my body had a knot in it.

  Worst of all, my memory still wasn’t working. I didn’t remember anything correctly that happened before the electrical shock.

  I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Mrs. Parker gazing down at me.