Serafina and the Black Cloak Read Free Page B

couldn’t find the courage. She pressed herself against the wall, certain that she
would be heard or seen. Her legs trembled, feeling as if they would crumble beneath her. She couldn’t see what happened next, but suddenly the girl let out a bloodcurdling scream. The
piercing sound caused Serafina to jump, and she had to stifle her own scream. Then she heard a struggle as the girl tore away from the man and fled down the corridor.
Run, girl! Run!
Serafina thought.
    The man’s steps faded into the distance as he went after her. Serafina could tell that he wasn’t running full-out but moving steadily, relentlessly, like he knew the girl
couldn’t escape him. Serafina’s pa had told her that’s how the red wolves chase down and kill deer in the mountains—with dogged stamina rather than bursts of speed.
    Serafina didn’t know what to do. Should she hide in a dark corner and hope he didn’t find her? Should she flee with the terror-stricken rats and spiders while she had the chance? She
wanted to run back to her father, but what about the child? The girl was so helpless, so slow and weak and frightened, and more than anything, she needed a friend to help her fight. Serafina wanted
to be that friend; she wanted to help her, but she couldn’t bring herself to move in that direction.
    Then she heard the girl scream again.
That dirty, rotten rat’s gonna kill her,
Serafina thought.
He’s gonna kill her.
    With a burst of anger and courage, she raced toward the sound. Her legs felt like explosions of speed. Her mind blazed with fear and exhilaration. She turned corner after corner. But when she
came to the mossy stone stairway that led down into the deepest bowels of the subbasement, she stopped, gasping for breath, and shook her head. It was a cold, wet, slimy, horrible place that she
had always done her best to avoid—especially in the winter. She’d heard stories that they stored dead bodies in the subbasement in the winter, when the ground was too frozen to dig a
grave. Why in the world had the girl gone down
there
?
    Serafina made her way haltingly down the wet, sticky stairs, lifting and shaking off her foot after each slimy step she took. When at last she reached the bottom, she followed a long, slanting
corridor where the ceiling dripped with brown sludge. The whole dank, disgusting place gave her the jitters something fierce, but she kept going.
You’ve got to help her,
she told
herself again.
You can’t turn back.
She wound her way through a labyrinth of twisting tunnels. She turned right, then left, then left, then right until she lost track of how far
she’d gone. Then she heard the sound of fighting and shouting just around the corner ahead of her. She was very close.
    She hesitated, frightened, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst. Her body shook all over. She didn’t want to go another step, but friends had to help friends. She
didn’t know much about life, but she did know that, knew that for sure, and she wasn’t going to run away like a scared-out-of-her-wits squirrel just when somebody needed her most.
Trembling all over, she steadied herself the best she could, sucked in a deep breath, and pushed herself around the corner.
    A broken lantern lay tipped on the stone floor, its glass shattered but the flame still burning. In its halo of faltering light, a girl in a yellow dress struggled for her life. A tall man in a
black cloak and hood, his hands stained with blood, grabbed the girl by the wrists. The girl tried to pull away. “No! Let me go!” she screamed.
    “Quiet down,” the man told her, his voice seething in a dark, unworldly tone. “I’m not going to hurt you, child…” he said for the second time.
    The girl had curly blond hair and pale white skin. She fought to escape, but the man in the black cloak pulled her toward him. He tangled her in his arms. She flailed and struck him in the face
with her tiny fists.
    “Just stay still, and it will