The hopes for escape looked grim. The only way out of Skylar's bedroom was the door, which led straight into the hallway, which in turn led to the entry room that Skylar had just entered. What choice did Zoe have? Could she duck into the hall bathroom? No, that wasn't possible. She'd have to run out into the hall, which would completely expose herself. But Skylar was already heading down the hall. Zoe would have to think of something.

Zoe dove into Skylar's closet and hid behind the dress Skylar had worn to prom in May. She shut the closet door right as Skylar came into her room. Skylar hummed as she put her backpack down on the floor and sat on her bed. "Wow," she said. "I did it! I actually did it!"

Did what? Zoe wondered.

Skylar pulled out her phone and called one of her friends. "Hi Debby!" Skylar said to her friend. "Guess who I just got to agree to go out with me?"

"Who?" said a voice from the other end of Skylar's phone call.

"Michael Collins."

"What? No way!"

"Yeah, I know, it's crazy," said Skylar. "But I managed to talk him into it! We're gonna meet at the mall tomorrow and get lunch and go shopping together!"

"Wow," said Debby. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you. I'll bet-" She broke off when she heard a knock at the door.

"What?"

"Nothing," said Skylar. "I thought I heard-"

There was another knock at the door, this time a much longer series of knocks.

Skylar cursed. "I'll talk to you later," she said. "There's someone at the door." She hung up her phone and left the room.

For a second, Zoe wondered who could be coming to see Skylar at this time. But then she realized it was probably Miles causing a distraction. That distraction could be the key to Zoe figuring out her escape! Once she heard Skylar close the door behind her, Zoe opened the closet door and got out from behind the prom dress. She looked around the room, wondering what to do, until her eyes fell upon the window.

Zoe went up and unlocked the window, but faltered when she heard Skylar's voice. "No one there," Skylar grumbled to herself. "Probably just a prank."

Oh no. Skylar was coming back! Zoe darted back over to the bedroom door and locked it shut. Not two seconds later, Skylar tried the door and found it locked. "What the fuck?" she asked. "Did I lock the door?"

Zoe's heart hammered against her sternum. Clearly Skylar didn't suspect her, but she'd probably only bought herself a minute or two at most. She climbed onto Skylar's bed, opened the window, and swung her legs over the windowsill. Zoe dropped down outside the window right as Skylar jimmied the lock and came into her room.

"What? How's the window open?" Skylar wondered. Zoe flattened herself against the wall below the window, not even daring to breathe. Up above her, Skylar poked her head out of the window and looked around. But since Zoe was out of the line of Skylar's peripheral vision, the other girl did not see her. "I must be losing my marbles," Skylar muttered. She stuck her head back inside and closed the window.

Miles furtively ran up to Zoe. "Are you okay?" he asked in an undertone.

"Yeah, I think so," Zoe answered. "Let's get out of here."

Zoe and Miles left through the side gate and fled the property. As they ran, they didn't have a specific destination in mind-only away from Skylar's house. They didn't stop until they were three blocks away.

"That was too close," Zoe panted.

"I know," said Miles. "Did you at least find anything in there?"

"No," Zoe answered. "I looked through the boxes in her closet-and her underwear drawer-but I didn't find anything out of the ordinary."

Miles sighed. "I told you this was a bad idea," he said.

"I know," said Zoe.

"We should've had Mr. Al handle it. He and his men could've done a much better search of Skylar's house."

"I mean, yeah," said Zoe. Another thought had occurred to her. "But if there wasn't any witchy stuff in there..."

"What are you talking about?"

"What if we're wrong? What if Skylar's not a witch?"

"What do you mean? Of course she's a witch!"

"Well, if we didn't find anything..."

"Zoe, you didn't even get to search her house fully. For all we know, Skylar might have a secret bunker underneath her house."

"I mean, maybe?"

"We should've just given that package to Mr. Al," said Miles. "He wouldn't have even needed to open it. He could've just used one of his X-ray machines to see what was in the package."

"I guess," said Zoe. "Especially because it was from someplace called the Witches' Workshop."

"I actually Googled it earlier," said Miles. "I found nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nope. No official website."

"Why not?"

"They probably don't have an official website to prevent people like us from tracking them down."

"Or maybe 'Witches' Workshop' is just a codename? Or they're just really low budget? I don't know."

"Well, hopefully we'll find out soon," said Miles.

"Seriously, though," said Zoe. "What if it turns out we're wrong? What if Skylar really isn't the witch we're looking for?"

"Well, if it's not Skylar, then who is it?"

Zoe threw up her hands. "I don't know," she said. "I guess we'll just have to keep looking for evidence."

"Should we tell Mr. Al about our failed investigation on Skylar's house?"

"No," said Zoe. "No, no, no. We've got enough going on already."

Miles nodded. "But we're still gonna keep an eye on Skylar, right?"

"I guess so," said Zoe. But internally, she wasn't so sure. For weeks, she'd been convinced Skylar was the one guilty of cursing that bathroom and turning Zack into Zoe. But thus far, the only evidence of Skylar being the guilty one was shaky at best-and they'd just uncovered potential evidence to the contrary. The fact that Skylar had been so nice with Zoe didn't help matters, either. If Skylar was a witch, and it was her spell that had affected Zoe, then would she be able to sense it? Could witches even do that? Zoe had no idea. Then again, nobody else at school had been acting suspicious around Zoe, either. It was as if Brittany, and Alan, and Michael, and everyone else not in the know believed the cover story of Zack moving away and Zoe getting adopted by the Fletchers.

No, Zoe thought. They were nowhere near close to solving this mystery.

To be continued...