You Can't Come in Here! by P.J. Night Read Free Book Online

doing that and I wish I had been there with you. Sounds like a cool adventure.”
    â€œOh,” Emily said, pleasantly surprised.
    â€œDid you see anything in the woods?” Drew asked.
    â€œNothing I could identify. I saw something big move very quickly past me. Then I heard the howling again. I got scared and ran from the woods. That’s when I saw something hanging from a tree.”
    â€œWhat?” Vicky asked.
    â€œFur from an animal. A wolf maybe. And it was covered in blood.”
    â€œYou’re not making this up to get back at us for making fun of your dream, are you?” Drew asked.
    â€œIf it really was a dream,” Emily said with renewed conviction that maybe she had seen a wolf that first night. “And no, I’m not making it up. In fact, I think we should go back out into those woods right now and find out once and for all if there is anything creepy and dangerous lurking in there.”
    Drew and Vicky looked at each other. They both shrugged.
    â€œLet’s do it,” Drew said, setting his guitar onto a stand and heading for the back door.
    Outside, the night was quiet. The three friends hurried across the unkempt lawn and paused at the edge of the woods. Emily nodded to the others, then continued ahead into the darkness.
    Leading the way, with Drew and Vicky close behind, Emily moved quickly but carefully through the thicket of trees and bushes. She shoved aside branches and squeezed her way around thick tree trunks.
    Emily stopped short in front of an old tree with sharp bare branches sticking out on all sides. “This is it,” she said. “I’m sure of it. This is where the bloody tuft of fur was.”
    A bright light suddenly blazed to life, sending Emily stumbling backward, crashing into a tree.
    â€œWho’s there?” she cried.
    â€œUm, sorry, it’s just me,” Vicky replied, waving a flashlight around. “I guess I should have warned you that I was turning on the flashlight, huh?”
    â€œYes! No surprises, please! We’re in the woods, in the dark, hunting a monster, remember?” Emily screamed in an adrenaline-fueled shriek. She had been keeping her composure pretty well considering all this wolf-and-blood-and-creepy-woods craziness—until that moment.
    She took a deep breath. “Okay, maybe I overreacted a bit. Anyway, now that you’ve got that thing on, shine it at the tree.”
    Vicky trained the flashlight’s beam on the bare tree. She lit up the branches, moving her light up and down. Emily examined each branch. She saw no sign of the fur she had seen the night before.
    Finding nothing on that particular tree, the trio moved deeper into the woods. The night was still. Even the usually fluttering leaves made no sound in the windless darkness.
    â€œSo what are we looking for now?” Drew asked, ducking under a branch.
    â€œI don’t know,” Emily replied. “Something. Anything. Whatever it was I saw last—”
    The sound of footsteps tearing through the woods stopped Emily short.
    â€œHere it comes!” she whispered. “It sounds like what I heard last night. But I don’t see anything.”
    The woods grew silent again for a moment, then the sound returned.
    â€œWhatever it is, it’s running through the dead leaves on the ground, kicking up a storm,” Drew said, staring into the darkness, trying to find the movement that went along with the rustling and running sounds.
    â€œThere!” Vicky said a few seconds later, aiming the flashlight at the ground. The brilliant beam picked up a scurrying movement.
    â€œThat’s it!” Emily cried, relieved to learn that she was not imagining things. There really was something out there.
    The creature froze in the intense circle of light, then turned and flashed its dark eyes right at Vicky.
    â€œUm, Emily, that’s a raccoon,” Drew said.
    The small creature stared up at the friends,