“Song?” Marcus asked, his expression turning grim. “What song?”

“It was something that just popped into my head.” Sadie kept her eye on the cage, as if seeking a weak spot. “When I first heard the tune, it was like there was music playing in another room. Coming to me through the walls.”

Marcus stepped between Sadie and the cage. “In another room?” he echoed.

“What’s wrong, Marcus?” Lou asked, taking his hand and tugging him aside. “You’re getting upset. Why?”

“I can hum it for you.” Sadie had a wild look in her eyes, as if she couldn’t stand to be apart from the ukulele for one second more.

“Don’t!” Marcus cried out.

But Sadie didn’t listen. She hummed softly, a gentle melody that struck Lou in her stomach like a fist.

“Stop,” Marcus said. “Please. You don’t know what you’re doing. It hates that tune. You’ll bring it straight to us!”

“It?” The word made Lou feel very small and useless. “What is it?” she asked, knowing exactly what her cousin had meant.

Sadie went on humming, as if she hadn’t heard a word of Marcus’s warning.

Cal tugged on the strap of her overalls. “Maybe you should listen to him,” he whispered. Sadie only made her voice louder.

Marcus was frantic now. “The creature! The monster that … You have no idea what I’ve seen.” He took her chin and looked into her eyes. “Stop, Sadie, please. I’m begging you.”

She looked at him as if he’d suddenly materialized before her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t—”

But it was too late.

The room shook, and a fissure raced up the wall from floor to ceiling, splitting the green wallpaper and knocking the bookcase forward.

CHAPTER 19

THE GROUP SCATTERED, shocked into silence. Leaves of sheet music spilled out across the floor, the papers lifting and swirling, propelled by the shaking.

Marcus faced the door of the music room and then waved for the others to follow him. “Go now! Quickly!”

Cal and Lou raced across the room, but Sadie stood still, staring at the cage. As Marcus ran back to get her, the crack widened farther. Smaller ruptures split off from the main fissure, and pieces of plaster pushed out from the edge and fell to the floor. Growls and groans spewed forth from inside. Something was trying to shove its way through.

Marcus grabbed at Sadie’s arm, but she wiggled away. “I need it,” she said, then leapt for the cage.

“Sadie, get back!” Lou yelled.

But Sadie did the opposite. She shoved her hands through the iron bars and seized the ukulele. She turned it around like a puzzle piece that might fit through one of the spaces.