Chapter Four

Grabbing the flashlight, Jared shown the light in the dumbwaiter. The beam of light hit something shiny. He picked it up and found that it was a key embroidered with the letter "S".

The thing moved in the wall again. Jared looked up the elevator shaft to see if he could catch a glimpse of the thing, but it was hopeless.

The only way he was going to figure anything out was to go up the dumbwaiter. So he climbed in and began to hoist the dumbwaiter up.

Half a minute later, Jared came to the top of the elevator shaft. He got out of the dumbwaiter and looked around. He seemed to be in a secret room with no doors or windows.

It looked like a library. There were jars of different creatures sitting on every desk, and there was a filing drawer in one corner. Books were everywhere. And there were a lot of pictures on the wall.

Jared's flashlight beam rested on a picture of a middle-aged man with a skinny face and glasses. He recognized the man to be Arthur Spiderwick. Jared realized that this must have been his secret library.

Jared then found a trunk on the floor. He looked down at the key in his hand. On the trunk was the letter "S"-just like on the key.

He unlocked the trunk and threw open the lid. There wasn't much-just a bunch of old cloth. Just to be sure, though, he dug around in the trunk to see if there was anything else. And there was.

He found a square object wrapped in an old button-down shirt. He unfolded the shirt and inside was an old blue leather-bound book tied with ribbon and a red seal on the front. Under the ribbon was a note.

Jared was about to open the note when he heard the sound of scurrying feet. He looked around the room and saw…nothing.

But there was a note written in the dust on a desk. Jared read it out loud:

Jared Grace

Leave this place

Just as he read the note, his flashlight, which was lying on a stack of books, began to spin out of control. He grabbed it to stop the spinning, but it didn't seem to stop whatever had been moving it. Jared could hear the thing chasing him around the room until he made it to the dumbwaiter. He began to move it downward into the shaft. Whatever had been chasing him seemed to have given up.

Jared reached the bottom of the shaft and climbed out. He had to tell someone about this.

Someone had to believe him this time.

...

"Simon!" Jared cried, running into their bedroom. "Simon, wake up!"

He began to shake his twin awake. By doing this, he accidentally clunked his brother on the head with the flashlight. "Ow!" Simon said, jerking awake.

"I went up!" Jared said, out of breath and ignoring Simon's pain. "It's a room. A secret room. Upstairs. There's a desk and a chest. And I found this book!" He held up the book before saying, "Something was in there!"

"A red squirrel?" Simon asked hopefully.

"No, not a squirrel," Jared said. "Not unless squirrels can spell. It wrote in the dust on the desk 'Jared Grace, leave this place'."

"Wow," Simon said, and for a moment, Jared was sure his twin was on his side.

Until he heard what Simon said next. Which was: "That's really…impossible."

Simon shook his head. "It's late. Just go to sleep." He lay back down and closed his eyes.

But Jared just couldn't go to sleep. He had to find out what was in the book. He climbed into his bed, turned the flashlight back on and opened the note. On the front was the world WARNING! Inside it said:

Do not dare to read this book

For if you take one fateful look

You barter at your life's expense

And face a deadly consequence

Jared shrugged and opened the seal and the ribbon. As he did this, the book shook violently, and a jolt of energy was released. Jared swore he could have heard something roaring in the distance.

Despite all that, Jared still opened the book. On the first page was the title: Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You.

Before he could get any farther than that, Jared heard the scurrying feet of the thing again. He tried to follow it with his flashlight, but couldn't seem to find it.

He suddenly felt that something was on him. He looked down and saw two of Simon's mice. "What the…?"

Okay. Now that was weird.

He got up and put the mice back in their cage. He didn't realize that the thing was peering at him from behind some books.

Jared had had enough of all these sneak attacks, so he climbed into the empty trunk at the foot of his bed. If he couldn't read the book out in the open, then he'd have to compromise.

So Jared opened the book and, without knowing, sealed his fate.