Night Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Are you trying to scare the hell out of me?”
    I shook my head, pointing an insistent finger at the open window. Sasha’s lilac chiffon curtains fluttered dreamily in the wind.
    Someone had been there!
    â€œI saw some…thing,” I said.
    â€œLike Sasha?” Calvin asked, and anxiously moved himself forward to peer out over the sill.
    I couldn’t bring myself to get as close to that window as Calvin did. Something in my very core told me that whatever I had seen was dangerous.
    Evil.
    It sounded dramatic, but there was no other word to describe it.
    â€œDefinitely not Sasha,” I said, shuddering, and took a few steps closer to Calvin…and the window. “But it was holding her teddy bear, whatever it was.”
    â€œIt?” Calvin shook his head. “There’s no one out there, Sky. You sure you didn’t just see a shadow and get freaked?”
    I was sure. Wasn’t I? But the screen was in place. I frowned. “Well, I’m definitely freaked, Cal. I know that much.”
    I could hear Mom in the other room, still moving things around in her search for Sasha.
    Calvin nodded. “It’s freaking me out too,” he admitted, his tone grave. “All of this is.”
    I finally mustered enough confidence to walk toward the open window. Peering outside through the screen, I saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Hibiscus bushes lined the outside of the house, the red flowers dripping with rain. An old rope swing that Edmund had hung for Sasha a year ago creaked languidly in the breeze. The backyard was otherwise empty except for a few older sculptures that Edmund had decided didn’t make the cut for the front lawn.
    I shrugged, suddenly exhausted. “I’m seeing things, I guess.” But I didn’t believe that. I’d seen…something.
    â€œYou’re not covering your nose anymore,” Calvin noticed. “Did it finally stop smelling like dooky in here?”
    I sniffed. He was right. The terrible smell of sewage was gone… It didn’t make sense.
    Nothing about this made sense.
    â€œYou guys doing okay back there?” my mom called from down the hall.
    â€œJust fine,” I called back.
    â€œSo the it you thought you saw was holding a teddy bear?” Calvin continued, glancing around the bedroom.
    I nodded. “Sasha’s bear. The white one with the chewed-up nose.”
    Calvin looked skeptical. “You saw the state of the bear’s nose, but you don’t know if you saw a person or an it ?”
    â€œI don’t know, Calvin,” I said, giving in to my annoyance while trying to remember exactly what I’d seen. It had been just the flash of an image, like a low-res YouTube video, playing on an even worse Internet connection. “It was vaguely female. Kind of a she-ish, witchy it.” I started sifting through Sasha’s unmade bed, looking for the teddy bear in question. “What I do know is that Sasha doesn’t let go of that bear for a second when it’s dark outside.” I looked under the bed. “It’s not here.”
    Whoever had taken Sasha had snatched her up quick, stopping only to put the screen back in the window—if that was, in fact, the way they’d taken the little girl from the house. Not only was the bear missing, but her bed was a tangle of purple and pink sheets.
    If it were up to Sasha, she wouldn’t leave her bed unmade for more than thirty seconds upon awakening.
    â€œAnd look at her dolls,” I realized.
    â€œDo I have to?” Calvin shuddered as he glanced at the shelves where Sasha kept her collection. “I hate those things,” he said. “I wouldn’t sleep with them watching me. I’d spend the whole night making sure they weren’t gonna do some evil while my eyes were closed.”
    â€œI’m not asking for your opinion about them,” I said as patiently as I could. “I’m