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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