“Who’s there?” Rufus interrupted. He glanced around, then turned to the others, shaking. “Did anyone else hear people calling out my name?”

“People?” asked Lou. “What people?”

“They … they sounded like the boys from my school,” he whispered. “The bullies.”

Barking filled the room.

Lou cringed. Nearby, the shadow-dog she’d seen lunge at her reappeared inside its crate. Its black body was transparent, but its teeth were as white as stars. They bit out at the wires, rattling them.

Slowly, dogs faded into the crates around the room—cages jammed with furious shadows whose gleaming canines chomped and dripped with shimmering saliva.

Thankfully, the doors were all still shut.

“Come on,” Lou shouted. “Everyone move.”

She grabbed Nina’s hand and made sure she went first this time. Nina didn’t argue as Cal boosted her up. Lou watched her feet disappear into the chute. The rest of them climbed onto the makeshift steps, the crates wobbling under their weight.

Sadie went up next. She used one hand to reach up into the shaft while the other pressed against her side, trapping the ukulele beneath it.

All at once, the cage doors around the room swung open. Silhouettes of a dozen black dogs leapt out. Lou groaned and hugged herself while Rufus kicked out at the leaping shadows. “Get away from me!” he shrieked. “Leave me alone!”

Cal and Marcus focused on lifting Sadie in to the ceiling.

One of the phantom dogs latched on to Rufus’s sneaker. Rufus howled as the shadow shook at his foot. The stacked crates wobbled even harder. As Rufus yanked his foot away, he rolled off the crate and hit the floor with a solid whump!

The room hushed as all the dogs zeroed in on him.

“No, no, no … ,” he groaned.

Voices whispered about the room, echoing off the stone walls. “Ruuufuuuussss … We’ve found you … Can’t sneak away now, can you?”

“Stop it,” Rufus choked out. “I-I never did anything to you.”

Lou called to him from atop the crate. “Don’t listen, Rufus. It’s only the house, trying to scare you. They can’t actually hurt you!”

“Ohhhh,” said the voices, rising in unison, becoming a growl, and then several sharp barks. “Yes! We! Can!” The shadow-dogs rushed him, and Rufus scrambled back, through the slime, and pressed himself against the wall. One of the shadows snagged Rufus’s calf. Another bit at his arm. He yelped, punching out at the shadows.

“No!” Lou shouted, leaping down. “Bad dogs!” She picked up one of the bones from the floor and threw it. It passed right through the shadow-dogs and smacked against the stone wall beside Rufus. And for a moment, the creatures paused their attack, fixating briefly on the bone.

Rufus crawled toward Lou. She helped him to his feet as the shadow-dogs focused on them both and then charged.