Chase was tired so they sat down on a rock under a tree’ s shade. It was getting dark, and Zoe was running out of patience. She hopelessly got up again and looked around for any signs. Just when she turned her back to go sit down again, she saw something! She looked again, Chase followed her wondering what she was looking at. Zoe pointed at a tree with some letters on it, it said“ AE” which were her grandfather’ s initials, Albert Ellerby. Zoe carefully touched the letters and suddenly a bush behind them moved. Zoe didn’ t realize it, but Chase ran next to the bush and he started barking. She came near and said“ Wow! A secret passage …” Chase took position to go in but Zoe refused to go into the passage, she didn’ t want to get into any more trouble. She sat down and started crying, she didn’ t know what to do. But she still wanted to learn what was in that corridor, she got up and slowly walked through the darkness. After a couple minutes of walking, the corridor ended and led them to a large room. There were spider webs, old furniture and weird noises everywhere. There were two ways out of the room: The dark, spooky gate and the bright, clear gate. They picked the second one and kept on walking. At the end, the passage took them to a little shed in her grandmother’ s backyard. Zoe was shocked! Actually, she was quite happy to be back home, but was still thinking of the letters, the passage, and how all of this could somehow be related to her grandmother. She knocked on the door and waited. Her mom opened the door,“ Where were you? I’ ve been so worried!” she said. Zoe pretended like everything was normal, she thought about telling her mom what happened but changed her mind. She didn’ t tell anyone about anything that day. After dinner, they watched some TV and went to bed. Zoe was sleeping with Chase when she heard a creaking door open.“ It was a very weird day, all I wanted was to sleep a little.” she thought. She got out of bed and tiptoed to see what was making the noise, Chase followed her. She heard the same sound and quickly turned, it was coming from her grandfather’ s room. They slowly walked towards the room without trying to make any noise. Zoe turned the door handle, and realized that the door was locked. She heard a noise coming from another room, it was Mrs. Ellerby! Zoe and Chase quickly hid behind an old wardrobe and she made sure that Chase wouldn’ t bark. Mrs. Ellerby walked straight up to the wardrobe that they were hiding behind. She opened the second drawer, took out a tiny box and started to move the box in her hands, it was a puzzle box! After Mrs. Ellerby solved the puzzle, the box opened and she took out a mysterious looking key. She opened the door with the key, looked inside to check if anything was wrong and closed the door, she went back to bed. Zoe carefully watched every step. She and Chase came out of place they were hiding, this time they tried to make less noise. Zoe opened the second drawer, took out the puzzle box and stared at it. It was a little cube with weird letters and numbers on it that Zoe could not read. She didn’ t know what to do. She tried to remember what her grandmother did, but she couldn’ t recall. She was upset so Chase jumped and licked her to make her feel better, but Zoe couldn’ t tell it was him because of the dark and she dropped the box. The box opened and the mysterious key came in sight.“ I’ m so lucky, the box opened by coincidence.” Zoe thought. She took the key and slowly opened the door. Chase felt that she was scared so he quickly barked to protect her from whatever that was making her nervous.“ Shhhh …” she said,“ It’ s okay.” As soon as they went in, the door shut making a loud noise.“ Must be the wind.” Zoe whispered to herself. There wasn’ t much to see because of the dark, but she saw the envelope on the floor. She opened the envelope and read the note. It was one sentence:“ Come with me …” Suddenly she heard Chase squeak and she felt that something grabbed her hand and took her somewhere … The next thing, she woke up with Chase right next to her in a dark place, she couldn’ t see anything. But she could hear Chase still squeaking and could feel him on her lap. She slowly got up and looked around. Her sight got better and she realized that they were back in the room that the dark passage led them to in the morning. How did they get there? What happened? She didn’ t know, all she knew was that something was wrong. Maybe if they went through the bright and clear gate, it would take them to her grandmother’ s backyard. She went towards the gate, but saw that it was closed. Just then all the things in the room started moving by themselves. Zoe was terrified, and Chase could tell that they were not safe, he barked. The dark and spooky gate opened and some kind of voice told them to come in. Zoe felt that she was being grabbed by someone else again, but she couldn’ t see much. This time they found themselves in a tiny dark room, there was only a little bit light and it was near an empty chair. A voice coming from near the chair said:“ Well, well, who do I see here? My little granddaughter and her little doggy, probably terrified. Let me tell you little girl, I’ m here for revenge!” Zoe was shivering, she had no idea about what was happening, she wanted to escape.“ You’ re probably wondering revenge of what?” the voice said.“ Revenge of your grandmother for killing me!” Zoe started crying; so Chase barked.“ Or should I start with this little silly dog?” She cried harder. Suddenly she realized that Chase disappeared and she heard a howling noise!“ What did you do to him?” she shouted. No answer. The light disappeared and the door opened, she ran and ran till she got to their backyard, she was hardly breathing. There were no signs from Chase, but there was nothing she could do. She wanted to rescue him, but what if she could never return? She decided to go back to bed, she rang the doorbell, but no one opened the door. Now what was she going to do? She curled up on the bench on the deck and fell asleep hoping to see Chase again … In the morning Zoe found herself on the bench and Mrs. Ellerby next to her. She was shocked. She couldn’ t talk for a couple minutes, then she managed to say“ But …” and started crying.“ It was all a joke, calm down.” Mrs. Ellerby said.“ I wanted you to have fun, so I typed in HOW TO TRICK A TWELVE YEAR OLD to Google and made this whole thing up. I didn’ t know that you would be this scared …”“ What?” Zoe shouted!“ That was the worst day of my life, I’ ll probably never want to remember that again!” she said.“ By the way, where’ s Chase?”“ He’ s okay, don’ t worry. Come on, let’ s go inside and have breakfast …” Mrs. Ellerby said. They didn’ t tell anyone about the little joke again. Everything was back to normal, or was it?...
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