Chapter 3

Mommy hung up, still breathing hard with anger.

Suddenly, her eyes fell on the car in the yard.

I followed her gaze. A huge gray rat was slowly crawling into the car through an opening in the AC duct underneath it.

Mommy screamed loudly, her face turning pale. I remembered Mommy telling me that a rat had bitten her when she was little. She hated rats more than anything.

So Mommy rushed to the corner of the yard, grabbed a broom, and tried to chase it away.

"Get out! Get out of there! You're filthy!"

She jabbed the broom under the car.

The frightened rat squeaked, and instead of running away, it darted straight into the car.

Mommy watched the rat disappear inside and stamped her feet in anger.

"This car is ruined! First the vomit, now a rat! It's absolutely filthy!"

She threw the broom aside in disgust.

But I froze.

The rat…went into the car?

But my body was still in there!

"Mommy! Mommy, help me!" I desperately floated toward her. "Don't let the rat bite me. I'm so scared!"

Mommy was standing less than three feet from the car.

She fixed her hair and walked back inside the house.

She couldn't hear my cries.

I had no choice but to float back into the car. I saw that the rat had already crawled out of the AC vent.

It twitched its nose and circled my body twice.

Then it climbed on me.

"No! Don't touch me!" I reached my hands out to shield my body, but they passed right through it again and again.

The rat sat on my face and bared its sharp teeth. Then it bit down on my nose.

A large piece of my soft flesh was bitten off.

After that, it bit my ear, leaving a piece missing, too.

Dark red blood oozed from the wounds.

I floated in the air, screaming and crying in terror. "Mommy! It's biting me! It hurts so much, Mommy! Please come and save me!"

But inside the house, I heard Mommy laughing as she played with Timmy.

No one came for me.

Mommy had no idea that the rat she hated most was eating her daughter inside the car.

I cried for so long that I ran out of strength. All I could do was curl up in the air and tremble.

It wasn't until evening that Daddy came home from work.

He was carrying a box with a pink Barbie doll inside. It was the toy I had stared at longingly for ages the last time we went to the mall.

"Why did you buy that?" Mommy poked her head out of the kitchen.

Daddy changed his shoes and smiled. "Zoe is still young, after all. She's already been punished for what she did. I bought her a toy she liked to cheer her up."

Mommy paused, then said nothing.

I floated in the air and wiped the tears from my face.

I muttered, "Daddy, thank you for buying me a toy. But I don't think I'll ever get to play it."

"Oh, right." Mommy remembered something and frowned. "The car reeks, and a rat crawled inside this afternoon. Call someone over to clean it as soon as possible."

"Okay. I'll make an appointment," Daddy said.

He tapped his phone a few times, then told Mommy, "They'll send someone over to clean the car tomorrow morning."

I floated nearby and cried helplessly. "Daddy, by tomorrow morning, the rat will have eaten my body clean. You'll never see me again."

Just then, Timmy started crying again.

"Are you hungry? Timmy, I'll make you some milk," Mommy said.

She carried Timmy into the kitchen and took the formula canister out of the cupboard.

But when she opened the canister, her hand suddenly jerked.

"What is this?" she screamed.

Dad hurried over, and I floated over after him.

Mixed into the white formula were lots of tiny black balls, just like the ones I had made from modeling clay.

Mommy's face turned bright red with anger.

"Zoe! That little monster!" she blurted out my name.

"It's got to be her! She used to love rolling modeling clay into little balls. No wonder the box I bought her is missing. She must have done it because she's jealous of Timmy. She put them in the formula on purpose to kill him!"

Dad frowned at the black stuff in the formula.

After a long pause, he finally spoke. "When Zoe comes back, we need to teach her a serious lesson. Otherwise, she'll grow up to be a menace!"

I floated in the kitchen doorway, trembling all over.

It wasn't me!

I wanted to tell Mommy I hadn't done it. I had given my modeling clay to the little girl next door.

Mommy even said I could give it to her. How could she forget?

Mommy held Timmy as she cursed me and sobbed.

Just then, a familiar voice came from outside the yard's gate.

"Where's Zoe? Open the gate! I'm here to see her!"

It was Grandma!

My heart raced.

Was someone finally going to find my body?