Curiosity Killed the Cat Read Online Free PDF Page B

eye out for him. I’m sure he’ll turn up. You know cats — they’ve got nine lives!!!
    guitargirl: ha ha. they also say that curiosity KILLS them.
    Litprof43: Hannah, don’t be so morbid. Think positively!
    guitargirl: [sigh] u aren’t the one living next to a cemetery.
    Litprof43: Don’t be so dramatic! And give the positive energy a try. It will help — I promise!
    guitargirl: yeah yeah, i’ll try. miss u.
    Litprof43: Miss you too, sweetie. Now go do your homework!
    Hannah logged off of the chat window and turned back to her biology assignment. She tapped her pencil against the desk softly as she tried to recall the correct placement of the cell membrane and the cell wall.
    Scratch, scratch, scratch.
    Hannah leaped out of her chair, her heart pounding. Her pencil flew out of her hand and bounced off the windowpane. The scratching was even louder than it had been the other night, and it had come from right outside the window over her desk.
    Hannah glanced out into the yard and saw a flash of black fur streak across the backyard. It looked just like a cat —
her
cat!
    “Icky?” she gasped. Could it really be him? What was he doing all the way over on this side of town? Had he followed her to her dad’s? Animalsalways seemed to do that sort of thing in Disney movies.
    It seemed so unlikely, though. Hannah’s mom’s house was at least three miles away. She shook her head in disbelief. It was probably just a stray — maybe even one from the cat lady’s house that Jordan Saks had mentioned in English class. Still, Hannah had to be sure. If there was even a chance it was Icky out there, she had to go after him.
    Hannah grabbed her jacket off the back of her desk chair and dashed down the stairs and out the kitchen door into the backyard.
    “Icky?” she called out tentatively as she ventured toward the back of the yard. She felt foolish as she repeated his name over and over again. There was no sign of a cat anywhere. A soft breeze rustled the leaves of the trees, and Hannah pulled her jacket tighter around her. When she got to the fence at the edge of the yard, she could see the first row of tombstones about fifteen feet away, just inside the cemetery.
    Scratch, scratch, scratch.
    Hannah whirled around, her heart leaping into her throat. Not the scratching sound again!
    “Who’s there?” she squeaked, terrified. “Madison? Is that you? This isn’t funny!”
    The sound had come from behind her, but the whisper of the wind in the trees was the only reply.
    Hannah turned to head back to the house. The sun was beginning to slip behind the trees, and she could feel the temperature dropping.
    Scratch, scratch, scratch.
    “Ack!” Hannah choked, her knees turning to jelly. She was afraid she was about to pass out.
    Get ahold of yourself!
Hannah thought. This time, the sound had come from beyond the fence, and Hannah was sure she hadn’t imagined it. Instinctively, Hannah turned toward the noise and caught a glimpse of a black shadow moving between two of the tombstones. She was sure the shadow had a white-tipped tail, just like Icky.
    Hannah took a step closer to the fence that encircled the backyard. She noticed a small latch in the fence. It was a gate! A gate that led into the cemetery.
    As scared as she was, Hannah forced herself to take another step forward, closer to the gate. She knew she should have been heading in the opposite direction, back toward the warm and cozy house. After all, didn’t something terrible always happen to girls who wandered into cemeteries alone in horror films?
    Still, if there was even a chance that Icky was in the cemetery, lost and alone, Hannah had to find him. She tried to convince herself that the cemetery wasn’t any different than the backyard — there were just some stone monuments scattered around it.
    They’re only crumbling old sculptures
, Hannah told herself as she pushed the gate open and stepped into the graveyard, trembling with every step.
Just like the ones