Once Upon a Midnight Eerie: Book #2 (Misadventures of Edgar/Allan) Read Free

turning away from Aunt Judith who didn’t like him to eat sweets. “Who’s up for breakfast?”

WHAT THE POE TWINS DID NOT KNOW .  .  .
    A LETTER DATED ONE WEEK BEFORE:

    NOTE:
The text of the preceding letter is written in a replacement code intended to disguise the communication as mere gibberish to prison guards or any other reader except its intended recipient. The decoded translation is as follows:
    Dear Cassandra,
    As your grandmother, I’m proud that you’ve become one of the most accomplished con artists in the entire southern United States. Your violent streak is a credit to the family. And now you’ve been presented with an opportunity to put your talents to great personal use!
    Surely you’ve read in the newspaper about your father’s recent failure in Kansas and his subsequent escape from authorities. You and I have something to gain from these events, my dear. Namely, revenge.
    Wasn’t it he who long ago put me behind bars for a crime he committed? His own mother, who taught him everything he knew! And wasn’t it he who abandoned you as a girl, ignoring your offers these past years to aid him in his criminal enterprises? What kind of a father is that? But now you have a chance to destroy the project to which he’s dedicated himself for more than a decade, his Edgar and Allan Poe quantum physics experiment. It is simple. All you need do is kill
both
of the twins before he finds a way back to this country. That’ll teach him to underestimate you, my dear!
    Can it be coincidence that the Poe twins are coming to New Orleans, your home? No, it is fate! I trust you can find a way to get hired onto that movie crew. You must act now. Time is short.
    Grandmother

2

    “THE STUFFED CAT”
    WITH the boys’ first scene not scheduled to start shooting until seven p.m., the Poe family bought tickets for a late morning tour of New Orleans on a red double-decker bus that would have looked more at home in London.

    “That’s strange,” Allan said. “Look at the license plate.”

    “Seems more appropriate for a fire truck or police car than a tour bus,” Edgar observed.
    Allan nodded. “Unless it’s not meant for everybody.”
    “Yeah, another warning for us.”
    It wasn’t the first.
    Since crossing into Louisiana, the boys had noticed license plates on passing cars that read:

    They had kept an eye out for unusual occurrences. Still, nothing bad had happened.
    At least not yet.
    “Everybody on board,” called the driver.
    The twins left Aunt Judith and Uncle Jack on the lower level and took seats on top in the open air. On an empty seat between them, they unzipped their backpack. Out popped the curious head of their beloved black cat, Roderick Usher.
    “Hey, you can’t have a cat up here,” said the driver when he came to check on the upstairs guests before embarking on the tour. “This is a bus, not a circus train!”
    Edgar and Allan not only disliked what the driver had to say, but also the way he said it.
    He stared the boys down, his hands on his hips. “No pets allowed.”
    “That’s cold as ice,” Edgar said. “
Downright frozen.
”
    The driver waved his hand in front of his face as if to disperse a bad smell. “I just want that pet off my bus. Now.”
    The twins weren’t going to leave Roderick alone all day in the hotel room.
    “This isn’t a pet,” Allan said.
    “I don’t care what you call it,” the driver snapped. “It’s a cat.”
    “No, it’s not,” Edgar insisted.
    “You think I’m blind?”
    The boys shook their heads. “It used to be a cat, but it’s not anymore.”
    Their parents had brought Roderick home as a kitten just one week before the rocket launch that took their lives. Naturally, Allan and Edgar would have loved him even if he’d been ordinary. But Roderick was not ordinary. With a figure eight of white fur against the pure black of his chest, he was very stylish. And he happened to be among the smartest cats in the world.
    “He used to be a