5. The Crow

THE CROW 5 Sam and Lucy huddled together. The trees seemed to shake and the ground seemed to quake. Lucy gasped, then shouted, "It's Antonio!" Antonio raced out of the woods. His eyes lit up. "Guys! I found you!"

He fell at their feet. "I almost got eaten by a huge leaf! It was chomping at me like a mouth! Like CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! I told you we were crazy to come looking for that soccer ball! It's just a ball— it's not worth getting eaten!" "This shouldn't be happening! Not here!" Lucy exclaimed. "Orson Eerie's powers only work on school grounds." "Yeah!" Antonio said. "And we're definitely not on school grounds! What's the deal?" "It doesn't make any sense," Sam said. Had they been wrong about Orson Eerie? Did his strange powers work beyond the school? If they did, that meant the three of them would never be safe!

Sam looked around. The dark fog drifted between the trees. It was so thick that they couldn't even see the school. And the trees were the tallest Sam had ever seen. Vines and branches were twisted and tangled together. This isn't the small forest that's usually next to the school, Sam thought. It's a full-blown wild jungle! Orson Eerie must be to blame! And I don't see a way out... "Something's coming!" Antonio said. Sam saw a small creature shuffling through the fog. Its feathery body was dark as night.

"A crow," Lucy said. "It's one of those huge crows that are always on the school roof." The bird hopped toward them. Lucy and Antonio inched closer to Sam. The crow finally came to a stop at their feet. The dark black bird looked up at Sam. Its silvery eyes seemed to stare right at him. No one said a word. They hardly breathed. SQUAWK! The sound burst from the crow's lungs. The crow flapped its wings and shot into the air. It circled around them three times. Then it darted into the fog, farther into the jungle.

"We should go after it," Sam said. Antonio shook his head. "Not again! We should not follow anything farther into this creepy jungle!" "But maybe the crow knows a way out," Lucy said. Sam grinned. "Lucy's right. Come on!"