Spell of the Screaming Jokers Read Online Free PDF Page B

to do?” I asked her now. “Mrs. Marder is behind all of this. I know it.”
    The color drained from Louisa’s face. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” she said. “It’s too creepy. Let’s look at my new Seventeen magazine instead.”
    Louisa ran upstairs to her room to get the magazine.
    I peeled the foil off the top of a container of yogurt. I took a spoonful—and froze.
    Hsssss!
    I listened closely.
    Hsssss!
    There it was again.
    Coming from upstairs.
    Growing louder.
    I jumped up and ran for the steps.
    The hissing turned to rattling. Loud rattling.
    â€œLouisa!” I cried.
    Louisa answered—with a terrified scream!
    I bolted to the staircase.
    Started to run up the steps.
    But Louisa was rolling down them—headfirst.
    â€œLouisa!” I shrieked as she tumbled into me.
    Dizzy, I struggled to sit up—and saw the three short figures. Dressed all in black, except for their green hats.
    They zoomed down the steps. Leapt over us. Flung open the front door.
    And ran out into the night.

11

    â€œO hhhh!” Louisa moaned. “I—I hurt my ankle.”
    I helped her up. She hobbled into the family room and collapsed on the couch.
    I ran to the front door and slammed it shut. I made sure it was locked.
    â€œThose things—they appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly they were there—right next to me!”
    â€œI—I saw them too.” My voice shook.
    â€œThey lunged at me. They pushed me down the steps!” Louisa exclaimed.
    â€œIt’s Mrs. Marder,” I whispered. “It’s Mrs. Marder’s magic. Just like in the story Mrs. Davidson told us. It’s just like what happened to those little kids! This is horrible!”
    â€œIt’s worse than horrible,” Louisa wailed. “One of those—those things said something to me.”
    â€œWhat? Louisa, what did it say?” I asked.
    Louisa closed her eyes. Then she repeated what she had heard. “ ‘Her army strengthens day by day.’ That’s it.”
    Her army strengthens day by day. I repeated the words in my mind. What did it mean?
    â€œBrittany, I’m scared!” Louisa hid her face in her hands.
    I gasped.
    â€œLouisa! Your arm!”
    Louisa stared down at her left arm. “No!” she screamed. “No!”
    On her arm was a bruise. A bruise in the shape of a black club.
    She began rubbing it furiously, trying to make the mark disappear. But the club stayed—as if permanently printed on her skin.
    I ran into the kitchen for a pencil and piece of paper. I wrote down what Frankie’s attackers had said to him. Then I wrote down what Louisa had heard.
    â€œListen to this,” I told Louisa. I read:
    â€œWe shake the skull with eyes that gleam
    We make our marks, we laugh and scream
    Her army strengthens day by day
    â€œIt’s part of the rhyme!” I decided.
    Louisa shrugged. “I don’t get what it means.”
    â€œMe either,” I confessed. “But it must mean something!”
    I stared down at what I had written. “Let’s see—the skull. There’s a skull in the base of Mrs. Marder’s birdbath. Did you see it?”
    Louisa shook her head.
    â€œWell, it’s there. Maybe at night its eyes gleam.”
    â€œWait.” Louisa gazed off into the distance. Trying to remember something. “The joker card. It had a stick—and on top was a skull!”
    â€œThat’s right!” I snapped my fingers. “And the skull had weird, glowing eyes!”
    Now we were getting somewhere!
    I read the next line. “We make our marks. We laugh and scream. The marks—they must be the club and diamond shapes,” I said.
    The pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together.
    â€œThe first time we went to Max’s, Frankie was dealt a joker,” I murmured, thinking back. “Then, on the way home, we heard hissing and rattling—