Amulet of Doom Read Online Free PDF

amulet was gone.

4
    THE TOUCH OF DEATH
    Marilyn sat in the small pool of light cast by her bed lamp, body rigid with fright.
    Zenobia , she thought, when the fear released its grip on her brain enough for her to think at all. I’ve got to get Aunt Zenobia .
    Yet for a moment she was unable to climb out of bed. The nightmare was too fresh in her memory, the fear too strong. The bed itself seemed like the only island of safety in a dark world of hidden horrors.
    Brick jumped to the floor. The thump of his landing sent her heart leaping into her throat, and she let out a gasp of fear. The cat looked up at her. She could have sworn he was afraid, too. She cursed herself for being overimaginative.
    Overimaginative or not, the amulet was gone. She had been trusted with it, and now it was missing.
    Taking a deep breath, she climbed out of her bed. But when she reached the door, she stopped. Before she went to get Zenobia, she should make sure the thing was really missing. She’d look like a real jerk rousing her aunt and then finding that the amulet had only slipped to the floor while she was sleeping.
    She shook herself and smiled. Of course that was what had happened! The amulet was still under her pillow, just in a slightly different place. That nightmare must have really rattled her brains, for her to panic this way.
    Though it was a wonderful solution, unfortunately it turned out to be wrong. When Marilyn returned to her bed and pulled aside her pillow, she found nothing but an expanse of white linen.
    Frantic again, she dropped to the floor and reached under her bed, hoping perhaps the amulet had slid over the top of the mattress and landed among the dust kitties.
    As she groped in the darkness she felt something grab her hand. Her heart, already in her throat and with no place left to go, seemed to stop for a moment. Then she felt the familiar jab of a sharp little tooth and crumpled against the bed in relief.
    â€œBrick! Get out of there, you idiot!”
    She dragged the cat, who went limp in protest, from under the bed. Then she lifted the edge of the sheet and looked into the darkness where he had been lurking.
    The bed lamp wasn’t bright enough. She needed more light.
    Sliding open the drawer in her nightstand, she fumbled around for the little flashlight she kept there. It was a habit she had developed more than ten years ago, to help her through her occasional bouts of fear of the dark. They didn’t come often, but when they did they were overwhelming.
    Right now she was too worried about the missing amulet to be afraid. She simply needed the flashlight to see better.
    Lying flat on her stomach, she cast its beam under her bed and looked anxiously for the dull gleam of gold.
    She saw three socks and a great deal of dust, but no amulet.
    Cursing to herself, she got back to her knees. She looked at the bed. Maybe the amulet had gotten caught in the sheets, or between the top of the mattress and the headboard.
    Five minutes later the bed had been stripped to the mattress pad, and the mattress itself pulled a half foot back from the headboard.
    The amulet was nowhere to be found.
    Which left her right back where she had started. She had to get Zenobia.
    Marilyn hesitated. How could she tell her aunt she had lost the amulet?
    â€œBut I didn’t lose it,” she protested out loud, causing Brick, who had been playing in the pile of sheets, to skittle under a chair. “I couldn’t have lost it. It was there when I went to sleep.”
    That was when she realized that the alternative was just as bad: If she hadn’t lost it, someone must have taken it. Someone had come into her room while she slept, reached under her pillow, and stolen the amulet.
    She shivered, thinking of what else the unknown thief could have done.
    But who was it? Who besides Zenobia even knew she had the thing?
    She had to get her aunt.
    Marilyn took a moment to brace herself. She was not looking forward to breaking the