It's All Downhill from Here by P.J. Night Page A

her boots.
    Mr. and Mrs. Kim looked like stuffed dolls. Each wore pajamas, a bathrobe, a sweater, and a winter coat, all in various stages of zipped, incorrectly buttoned, or not buttoned at all. Mr. Kim had decided to use the terry-cloth belt from his bathrobe to secure his winter coat. They both wore big snow boots on their feet.
    Maggie grabbed the knob on the front door. “Okay, here it is. Proof that I’m not crazy. I’m not selfish. I’m not just making all this up because I don’t want to live here. Ready?”
    â€œTo go out into the wind and snow at two thirty in the morning?” Mrs. Kim asked. “I don’t imagine I’ll ever be ready for that.”
    Maggie flung the front door open, and the whole crew stepped outside.
    They were immediately assaulted by wind-drivensnow, which stung the inadequately protected areas of their exposed skin.
    â€œThere!” Maggie shouted triumphantly, pointing at the spot where she had seen the message scrawled into the snow. “Now do you believe me? Now that you see it for yourself?”
    â€œSee what ?” Mr. Kim asked. “What are we supposed to be seeing?”
    Glancing down at the snowy ground, Maggie realized that the message she had seen scratched into the snow had vanished—covered over or blown away by the wind and drifting snow.
    â€œNO! It was just here. A message from him. From Old Man Wharton, telling us to leave.” Maggie swept the flashlight across the snow-covered ground, desperately searching for the message, but it was gone—completely vanished. The wind—or someone—had wiped it out, replacing it with new snow.
    â€œSophie saw it too!” Maggie cried.
    â€œIs this true, Sophie?”
    â€œYes, Mrs. Kim,” Sophie replied as stunned as Maggie that the writing that had been there moments earlier was now gone without a trace. “We saw it beingwritten, but there was no writer that we could see.”
    â€œWell, then you’re both crazy,” Simon said. “Way to go, Mags. Wake everyone up because you had a bad dream. I’m going back to bed. I hope Old Man Wharton hasn’t stolen my blanket.”
    He hurried back into the house, followed by the others.
    â€œI’ve tried to be tolerant, Maggie, I really have,” Mrs. Kim said, once inside. She shook the snow off her coat, hair, and boots. “But I am so very disappointed in this blatantly selfish behavior. We all know you don’t want to move here, but to wake everyone up for nothing? This has gone too far. It’s time you think of someone else in this family besides just yourself.”
    â€œBut Sophie saw—”
    Mrs. Kim hurried up the stairs without saying another word.
    â€œThis was a real bonehead stunt, Maggie,” her dad said. “I don’t even know what to say, so I’ll go upstairs too. Good night.”
    Maggie flopped down into a chair, feeling defeated.
    â€œI saw it, Mags,” Sophie said. “I believe you. And I’m starting to think I believe in Old Man Wharton’s ghost, too.”
    â€œThanks, Soph,” Maggie said softly. “I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe I’m going to be living here.”
    â€œI’ll visit,” Sophie promised.
    Maggie smiled, then the two girls trudged up the stairs. They slipped into the room and back into bed. Tossing and turning, Maggie tried to push everything that had happened out of her mind. Eventually she fell asleep.
    She was startled awake by a voice shouting at her.
    â€œLeave this place!”
    â€œLeave this place!” she heard the voice repeat, shouting so loudly Maggie was certain that whoever it was had to be right there in the room. And also certain that now, finally, everyone else had heard it as well.
    She leaped from her bed and looked around. There was no one else in the room, not even Sophie. Sophie’s bed looked as if it had not even been slept in.
    Maggie ran