My heart raced. Magnus was in danger. I
could feel it.
Snatching my sweater from the back of
my chair, I made up my mind to go to him.
Mom and Bat were fast asleep when I slipped
out of the house and hastened across the
road to where I saw him last. The night was
much colder than I imagined it, and I could
even see my breath as I stood staring into the
pitchy woods.
Without wasting another moment, I
plunged inside.
There was no trail this time. I had to
forge my way through the bramble and
dense undergrowth, stopping every now
and then to free my sleeve from a black-
berry thorn. I did a little dance as I walked
straight through a spider’s web, and scolded
myself afterward for being ridiculous. I was
about to face a much bigger antagonist, and
it wasn’t a spider.
The deeper I trekked inside the woods,
the steeper the ground became. I was feel-
ing winded and had no idea where I was.
Everything looked the same, especially in
the dark. I was completely disoriented. And
just as I wondered if I had made a mistake, I
detected a yelp in the near distance, accom-
panied by a terrible, panther-like scream. I
quickly pressed on, following the cries until,
at last, there sounded the unmistakable scuf-
fle of two large animals in combat.
They were about fifty feet away. I could
just make out their shadowy forms in the par-
tial moonlight. I concealed myself behind a
tree and watched in horror as the werecat had