Switched Read Online Free PDF Page B

who might be following me. Alert to every sound, every movement.
    Lucy, I have to find you, I thought.
    Lucy, I have such terrible news.
    Without realizing it, I had returned to my house. I slipped across the driveway and clung to the wide trunk of the old sassafras tree near the walk.
    The tree was an old friend. How many hours had I spent reading in its shade or playing around it with the neighborhood kids?
    Holding on to the trunk, I gazed up at the house. Still dark and empty.
    Lucy, where are you? Lucy, I need you.
    I scratched my knee. Realized the tights were completely ripped. I swept my hair off my forehead. It felt wet and tangled.
    I must look like a horror, I realized.
    I heard voices. The neighbors stepping out of their house. I pressed against the tree, trying to hide myself.
    I can’t stay here, I realized. I can’t stand here staring up at an empty house.
    My mind whirred and spun, like a cyclone. Ipressed both hands against my temples, trying to force my thoughts to calm.
    I’ll go back to Lucy’s house, I decided.
    The neighbors’ car started up. The sound made me jump. I pressed myself tighter against the friendly, old tree trunk. And waited for them to leave.
    Their headlights swept over my yard, rolled down the tree trunk. Can they see me here? I wondered.
    They didn’t stop. I watched the car roll down the dark street.
    Back to Lucy’s house, I told myself. To change into fresh clothes. And fix my hair. And make myself look more together.
    I’ll rush past the living room.
    I won’t look in there again.
    I don’t need to see the Kramers’ bodies again. I see them every time I shut my eyes.
    I’ll clean myself up. It’ll make me feel a little better. And then I’ll phone my house. I’ll phone my house, and keep phoning until I reach Lucy.
    I won’t tell her the awful news over the phone. That would be too cruel, I decided. I can’t do that to poor Lucy.
    I’ll tell her to meet me in the Fear Street woods. I’ll tell her we have to switch back into our own bodies right way. Then when we’ve switched back, I’ll tell her what has happened.
    And I’ll help her. I’ll be there for her.
    She’s always been there for me.
    Having a plan helped to calm me down a little. My heart still thudded in my chest. But the spinning, whirring cyclone of my thoughts slowed. And the ground stopped tilting as I walked.
    As I turned the corner onto Canyon Drive, I heard the wail of sirens. Distant sirens. I stopped and listened. Were they coming this way? Were they coming for me?
    The sound faded. Replaced by the soft whisper of the trees.
    I ran the rest of the way to Lucy’s house. Let myself in through the back door so I wouldn’t have to go past the living room.
    I clicked on the kitchen light and glanced around. The kitchen gleamed, clean and orderly. No sign that two horrible murders had taken place in the next room.
    I shuddered and made my way to Lucy’s room. It was at the end of a short hall on the first floor.
    The hallway was dark. I fumbled along the wall, but couldn’t find the light switch.
    I bumped hard into something solid against the wall. It took me a few seconds to realize it was a wicker clothes hamper.
    I stepped around it, rubbing my knee, and pushed open the door to Lucy’s room. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the dim light from the window. Then I clicked on a small nightstand lamp.
    It cast pale yellow light over the bed. My eyes swept over the smooth bedspread. To the closet.
    I came back here to change, I remembered. I edged around the bed to the closet. Lucy’s closet. Lucy’s clothes.
    The sliding door caught. It seemed to be off its track. I needed both hands to slide it open.
    â€œOh!” I uttered a cry as I stared into the closet.
    Empty.
    No clothes.
    Two large cardboard cartons on the floor.
    How can the closet be empty? Where are Lucy’s clothes?
    My heart