Mean Ghouls by Stacia Deutsch Page A

koi pond. The students were all going to learn an “Aloha” song to greet their guests on Visitors’ Day. It was just the distraction Megan needed.
    She caught the first few notes from Mr. Jones’s ukulele as she entered the Bs’ room. She knew that song from her family trip to Hawaii. There were atleast three verses. Megan felt confident that she had plenty of time.
    Moving the crate was impossible. It was too heavy. So Megan had brought an empty backpack. It would be easier to simply take all the vials and put them in the pack. She’d seen Brooke carrying them out of the research center and she wasn’t hunched over, so the crate must have also stored the notebooks and research details the doctors had compiled.
    Megan didn’t need the notes. Not now. She’d send someone, the police maybe, to get the notes later. All she wanted was the cure.
    Everyone was going to be so proud that she’d solved the mystery. She was going to be a hero. It felt good to be right. She couldn’t wait to tell Sam.
    Just as she’d done before, Megan used her skeleton key to enter the room. She went straight to the crate. And …
    It was gone.
    Where the crate had once stood, a normal table now sat.
    For a long minute, Megan wondered if she’d imagined the whole thing. She’d been having so many new zombitus symptoms lately, her mind might be playing tricks on her. Then again … theutter humiliation of having her notebook read aloud had felt all too real.
    As Megan backed into the hall, her spirits dropped. She was back at the beginning of an unsolved mystery.
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    The night before Visitors’ Day, Megan had a dream.
    She was inside Mr. Jones’s bungalow, searching for the cure. Ever since the Bs’ room turned up empty, she’d been thinking that Mr. Jones might have come to claim the crate.
    So there she was, tiptoeing up to the coffin in the corner, when suddenly, Mr. Jones popped out.
    Megan screamed.
    â€œI saved you,” Mr. Jones said as he climbed out. Even though the coffin was child-size, he seemed to fit just fine. Blood dripped down his chin from sharp-fanged teeth. “I saved you, and still … you suspect me.”
    He reached out and grabbed Megan’s hand. She struggled, but he wouldn’t let go. His hand tightened around her wrist like a clamp. He circled around her, and Megan felt her heart begin to race. “When Brett was chasing you, I was the one who made him leaveyou alone. I am the one who makes sure you are safe.”
    Megan’s feet dragged along the carpet as her legs stiffened.
    She couldn’t bend.
    â€œUhhhh-uhhhh.” She couldn’t speak either. Her voice was stuck in a long groan.
    â€œYou have turned your back on your friends,” Mr. Jones told her. As he loomed over her, she backed closer and closer to the small black coffin.
    â€œUhhhh-uhhhh.” Megan was scared.
    Mr. Jones ripped the skeleton key from around Megan’s neck.
    â€œHandy little toy. It opens all locks,” he said. “Bolts them shut, too.”
    â€œUhhhh-uhhhh!” Megan called for help.
    â€œThey won’t come,” he told her. “They’ve saved you before. They won’t save you again.”
    Megan didn’t have zombie fog head. Her memories were crystal clear.
    Sam had pretended to be her boyfriend to get her away from Brett and the Bs outside the castle tower. He’d even tried to get Brett to chase him instead of her.
    And Happy had no reason to step in to get Megan’s private notebook back from the Bs. But she’d done it just the same.
    â€œNo one will save you this time,” Mr. Jones repeated as he shoved Megan backward. She struggled against him, but her feet slid across the bamboo rug. “You are alone.”
    â€œUhhhh-uhhhh,” Megan groaned.
    Inches from the coffin, Mr. Jones scooped Megan up like a child in his arms and dumped her into the box.
    â€œNo one will