Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow

Pete was looking, too. “Are these yours, Mr. Tanner?” he asked.

Miles lifted his gaze to Pete’s eyes. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. After a few seconds of shocked silence, he ran up the stairs, sending Chester and me into a tailspin as he whizzed past. The guest room door slammed shut with a resounding bang!

Chester and I made our way quickly down the stairs to see what all the fuss was about. Everyone was looking down at the mess on the floor now: the cheese and crackers, the cookies and trays . . . and the contents of the black bag. I could hardly believe what I saw.

The floor was covered with stuffed animals.

Pete was the first one to speak. “You guys,” he said to Kyle and Toby between clenched teeth, “if either of you tells anybody at school that M. T. Graves travels with a bag full of stuffed animals—”

“Why would we do that?” Kyle interrupted. “Hey, I used to have stuffed animals.”

“I still do,” Toby piped up.

“Okay, admittedly it’s a little weird for an old guy to have stuffed animals,” Kyle went on, “but what’s the big deal, right? To each his own, right? Besides, we have bigger worries right now. Those birds are sounding pretty mean. We’d better get some plywood and—”