“Death is only a bend in the path for someone as powerful as Madame Valda,” Gregor told him.

“A what?” Kelsey’s eyes opened wide.

“A bend in the path,” Zandra repeated. “It means that death can’t stop Madame Valda. It just slows her down for a while.”

Kelsey turned to Drew in time to see his jaw drop.

“I told you Madame Valda was the most powerful gypsy who ever lived,” Zandra said, as if Kelsey needed to be reminded.

“Yes,” Gregor agreed. “She was the most powerful gypsy who ever lived. Only she was evil to the bone. And she used her powers in ways that were unthinkable.”

“Like how unthinkable?” Kelsey asked, not really wanting to know.

Gregor just shook his head. He didn’t answer Kelsey’s question. But he continued with his story.

“Madame Valda was so evil that the other gypsies feared her. They feared her for her power. But they also feared that her evil would cause terrible misfortune for all the other gypsies.

“So, secretly, the other gypsies – her own people – decided to kill her. They selected a young boy and a young girl to sneak into her tent and poison her wine.”

“Oh, wow!” Zandra exclaimed. Then she sat down and began fanning herself with her fashion magazine.

Gregor went on.

“How the boy and girl managed to trick her – no one knows. But Valda died. Her dead body was thrown into the sea.

“But Valda did not stay in the sea. She has been seen many times and in many places for over one hundred years. And each time she comes back, it is with evil in her heart.”

Neither Kelsey nor Drew could speak after Gregor finished his story. But finally Kelsey managed to break the thick silence. “What happened to the boy and girl who poisoned her?”

“Madame Valda cursed them and eventually they went crazy.”

“So do you know how to break Madame Valda’s curse?” Zandra asked.

Kelsey held her breath, waiting for the answer.

Gregor nodded yes. “But I must warn you, it will not be easy. It will not be easy at all.”

Gregor inched closer to Kelsey. She stared at the blue eye dangling from his neck as he spoke in a deep whisper.

“I can remove the curse,” he stated. “But removing it will be terrifying – so terrifying that you may think it is worse than the curse itself!”

Kelsey shivered. She tried to speak in a normal tone, but her voice came out in a squeak. “I have no choice. I want to break the curse.”

“Then you must do exactly as I tell you,” Gregor said.

“Fine,” Kelsey agreed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Gregor’s wrinkly old face finally cracked into a smile. In fact, he started to laugh. “But you are not ready yet,” he told her.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she insisted.

“No,” Gregor said. “You are not. There are many things you must do before we can begin. And we can not begin until midnight.”

“How come we can’t begin right away?” Kelsey asked.

“You must not ask any questions,” Gregor told her. “To remove the curse, I must have your trust.”

Trust? I don’t trust you at all, Kelsey thought. But she knew there was no point in arguing. “Okay,” she said. “No questions.”

“Good,” Gregor declared. “Now listen to me carefully. The first thing you must do is gather up your fears.”

“Ask him what that’s supposed to mean,” Kelsey whispered to Drew – so she wouldn’t break Gregor’s rules.

“What exactly does that mean?” Drew asked.

Gregor ignored him. “You will bring me a map,” he told Kelsey. “And on it you will circle the street where your beach house is located. Understand?”

Kelsey nodded. At least she really did understand that part, even though she had no idea why Gregor needed a map.

“And you will bring me a sand crab,” Gregor continued. “One that is still alive.”

“Ewwww, gross,” Zandra chimed in.

“Hush, Zandra,” Gregor scolded. “You must also bring me a big, buzzing horsefly,” he continued. “And a lumpy, fat jellyfish. The boy may assist you in finding these things. But you alone must be the one to catch them.”

Thinking about touching the crabs and the jellyfish made Kelsey itch all over.

“When you have everything you need, you will come to the gypsy camp. It is under the boardwalk. You must be there by the stroke of midnight,” Gregor instructed.

“Don’t worry,” Kelsey assured him. “We’ll be there.”

“Good,” Gregor said, standing up. “Oh, yes,” he added, “there is just one more thing you will need to bring.”

“What?” Drew asked.

This time Gregor didn’t seem to mind answering Drew’s question. “Twenty dollars,” he told Drew. “The cost of removing the curse.”

And with that, Gregor and Zandra disappeared behind the beads.

Later that afternoon Kelsey started step one of removing the curse: gathering her fears.

The map was easy. She found it in the glove compartment of her mother’s car.

Finding a sand crab. That was no problem, either. There were dozens of them crawling around the beach.

But Kelsey couldn’t stand to actually touch them. The thought of those creepy, pinchy legs made her skin crawl. So she found a jar in the kitchen and used it to scoop up the icky creature.

Next came the horsefly. She got a second jar for that. Catching that was harder. It wasn’t that she couldn’t find one. The problem was that there were too many! They swarmed the beach.

Kelsey took a deep breath and ran right into a horde of them.

They landed on her skin. They buzzed in her ears. And they stung her.

When she finally clamped the lid on her jar, she had managed to trap three horseflies.

That left only one more fear.

A jellyfish.

Yuck.

Kelsey swam in the ocean searching for a jellyfish until her lips turned purple and her skin shriveled like a raisin.

But she still didn’t have one when her parents called her in for dinner.

By the time she and Drew finished eating and headed back out, the sun was going down. And the beach was totally deserted.

“It’s pretty weird being out here all alone,” Kelsey commented. Then she thought about how weird it would be going out at midnight – when it was totally black outside. And a shiver ran down her spine.

“Yeah, it is creepy,” Drew agreed. “Let’s just hope our parents don’t catch us down here. If they do, Madame Valda’s curse is going to be the last thing we have to worry about.”

But Madame Valda’s curse was the only thing that Kelsey was worried about. And if she didn’t find a jellyfish, she was going to have to worry about it for the rest of her life.

Kelsey headed into the water.

Drew started to follow.

“You stay on the beach,” she ordered. “Where you can see me.”

“I think I should go with you,” Drew argued.

“You can’t,” Kelsey reminded him. “I have to get the jellyfish myself.”

s Kelsey started walking out into the ocean. She scanned every inch of the water around her.

No jellyfish – anywhere.

She waded in farther and farther. The water grew deeper. And darker. And colder.

It’s really scary out here, she thought as the water rose up to her shoulders.

She turned around to look for Drew. But she couldn’t spot him.

She took a few more steps into the ocean – and suddenly the ocean floor dropped beneath her feet.

She plunged down. Down. Down.

Her arms shot up, out of the water. But her head remained beneath the surface.

The current pulled her down – deeper and deeper.

Kelsey struggled to break the water’s surface. Struggled to breathe.

She kicked as hard as she could.

Her legs ached. Her lungs burned.

She needed air. She desperately needed air.

Coughing, gasping for breath, she finally burst free.

She gulped the cool night air, filling her lungs. Then she began to swim to shore.