The Barking Ghost

23

I shut my eyes.

I had this crazy idea that if I made them disappear, I'd disappear, too.

Guess what? It didn't work.

I felt a sudden burst of hot, sour dog breath on my face.

Then I felt tugging. On my sweatpants.

I opened my eyes. The dog pulled furiously at my sweats. Not biting. Tugging.

Fergie appeared as confused as I was. The other dog tugged at the hem of her T-shirt.

"What do they want?" Fergie whispered.

"I… I… I don't know," I answered. "They — they're not biting or attacking!"

"Cooper, I think they want us to go with them," Fergie said.

"That's crazy!" I cried. The dog tugged harder on my sweatpants. "I saw this on a Lassie show once!"

"I don't think it's crazy, Cooper," Fergie said. "Watch." She stepped forward slowly, and the dog's tail began to wag. "See? They want us to go with them!"

I hesitated. It seemed ridiculous.

But when I edged forward, the dog that had been tugging on my pants began wagging his tail, too.

"See?" Fergie whispered.

Sorry, but I wasn't buying it. I turned and started to run.

"Cooper, don't!" Fergie cried.

Too late.

The big creature took off after me. Leaped high. And knocked me to the ground.

When I climbed to my feet, he started tugging again.

"Come on. Let's see what they want," Fergie pleaded with me. "We don't have much of a choice, anyway. They're not going to leave us alone."

We followed the dogs through the woods. They stayed close by, never getting too far ahead. And always glancing back.

I pointed my flashlight along the path. The dim light didn't help very much at all. I had no idea where we were going. All I knew was that it was very dark out — and we were headed deeper and deeper into the woods.

"I hope we can find our way back," I muttered to myself.

Then, without warning, the dogs sped up. Their big paws trod heavily on the soft ground.

A few seconds later, they began barking and scratching wildly at something between the trees.

I lifted my flashlight and aimed it in their direction.

In the center of a small clearing stood a broken-down wooden shack. The dogs clawed at the door. When they had pushed it open, they came back for us. They began tugging again, pulling us toward the shack.

"Wha — what is this place?" I cried. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Fergie whispered. "I've never seen this shack before."

The dogs tugged — furiously now. They really wanted us to go in there.

"What can be inside?" I whispered to Fergie.

Fergie swallowed hard. "I don't know," she whispered back. "But I think we're going to find out!"