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Maybe she was unpacking, and the two of us could have a midnight snack. Maybe we could even discuss the vampire legends of her town. I was curious to learn more. For someone who enjoyed horror stories, I knew very little about vampires.
    I tiptoed into the hallway. A window was open somewhere in the apartment, and I shivered in my thin pajamas. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw that Bram was back on his pillow, fast asleep, and that the door to my parents’ bedroom was closed. But the door to the guest room was ajar.
    Moving as silently as possible, I crept over and paused on the threshold. The long, narrow room was blanketed in darkness, and the one window at its far end was open. The damp breeze lifted the gauzy white curtains, making them dance like restless ghosts. Piles of fancy-looking luggage were in the indent of the room, and the scent of Great-aunt Margo’s perfume filled the air. But Margo herself was nowhere to be found. The bed was still neatly made, and the room was empty.
    Except for the cages and cages full of bats.
    Stuffed bats,
I reminded myself as I stepped inside. I held my breath, spooked by the sight of the dark, silent creatures. They all hung upside down from the bars of the cages, their leathery wings tucked against their furry bodies and their beady eyes shut tight.
Like they’re sleeping,
I thought, shuddering.
    Great-aunt Margo was even weirder than I’d thought! Did she put her stuffed bats into these poses every night, as if they were her dolls or pets or something? And where
was
she? She couldn’t have gone outside in the rain. Was she in the kitchen?
    Before I could turn to leave the room, lightning flashed outside, and I gave a start. For a second, the bat cage nearest me was lit up, and I saw that the cage door was swinging wide open. That must have been the bang I’d heard earlier: the wind blowing open the cage. I leaned over to close the small door.
    Suddenly, one of the bats inside opened its eyes.
    Its tiny, bright red eyes.
    My knees turned to jelly, and I tripped backward. Before I could think, I dashed out of the room and into the hall, pressing my back against the wall and breathing hard.
    Calm down, Emma-Rose.
    I thought about what practical Gabby would say if she were there.
It’s just your overactive imagination,
she’d tell me, chuckling. She’d probably say that the moonlight had been playing tricks on me. That my mind was still full of the vampires and bats I’d been reading about on the Internet. That I should go back to bed, because there was absolutely no way that any of those bats were alive.
    But then why were they in cages?
    My curiosity took hold of me and didn’t let go.Sliding my back along the wall, I turned my head and peeked into the guest room, not wanting to go inside again.
    My heart stopped.
    A glossy black bat with long, graceful wings flew in through the open window and balanced on the sill. The bat’s eyes were trained on the other bats in their cages. Like clockwork, all the bats in the room began unfolding their wings and opening their eyes, waking up. They even yawned, revealing pointy fangs.
    And then —
    The bat on the windowsill began to transform. The wings disappeared and were replaced by long, graceful arms. The squat, furry body lengthened out and began to take on a human form. As I stared, my eyes growing wider, my pulse pounding at my throat, the big bat ears shrunk. Then the tiny bat head began to morph into a human face. A
familiar
human face.
    The face of Great-aunt Margo.
    I clapped my hand over my mouth to silence my scream. All I wanted to do was run, but my legs wouldn’t work.
    Please let this be one of those nightmares,
I prayed over and over.
Please let Mom call my name. Please let me wake up in my bed.
    But I didn’t wake up. I stood there, trembling from head to toe, and staring at my great-aunt, who was no longer a bat. She now stood regally in front of the window, still watching the cages. She looked exactly