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Leaving the two of them, Mina walked past the parakeets and canaries, where melodic whistleShe leaned in toward the birds slowly to listen to their song, careful to not startle or interrupt thely i stopped, Mina froze, hoping that they would continue their song, but she noticed that the canaries weren’t the only birds to stop singing All of the any kind of noise at all The macaws, parrots, doves, and parakeets were silent, and stood unes Never in her life had Mina walked into a pet store and heard this kind of silence

She sed nervously and began to back away from the bird aisle and make her way back toward Nan The canaries turned their heads and watched her retreat Being under the scrutiny of so h to make anyone jumpy "It’s just a coincidence," Mina chanted to herself "It’s just a coincidence" Mina was so nervous that she sturay macaw The bird crooked his head and snapped his beak a few times before it spoke one word "Doom"

Chapter 10

The hair stood up on the back of Mina’s neck "Doom, doom, doom" The parakeets echoed The silence disappeared as all of the birds seemed to chirp one word over and over "Doom Doom Doom" Even the canaries seemed to take up the banter

Mina covered her ears and ran down the aisle, putting as much distance as she could between the bewitched birds and herself She didn’t stop running until she was in the aquatics department

"Finally!" Mina ness a around at the fish tanks, Mina was relieved There was nothing here that could talk and spew out frightening words The fish, either because they have snored her presence next to their tanks

Mina walked ai back to what had just happened Did she i to her? Or was thisto take control? There wasn’t any way the canaries could talk, sonoise drew Mina’s attention toward a shelf of tanks along a side wall There wasn’t a tag identifying the species in the tank, but the presence of logs and ave her the idea it was soain and Mina leaned closer to look to see as lass causing Mina to scream and step back She could clearly see it was a toad, as not only croaking but throwing hih

Thu sounds ca after frog caainst the tanks Eight tanks full of frogs in various sizes began to shake and s Even the tree frogs were causing their shtest bit

"Stop it!" Mina hissed out "You will hurt yourself" She reached forward apprehensively to push the tank with the large toads farther back on the shelf The toads took this as a rally point and began to clie and lift the lid off

Mina looked around in horror and grabbed a large aquariuot the saan to hop, climb, and otherwise h the lid

"No, no, no, no," Mina called out frantically and looked for other decorations to keep the frogs fros’ tank, and petrified wood on the poison dart frogs’, which could have been disastrous It wasn’t until so slithered past her foot that Mina abandoned her efforts A large striped snake was disappearing under a shelf, and fro fros she screas where sh to stay in their tanks, once the snakes were loose, but that wasn’t her probleh to grab Nan’s ar one of the puppies back to Greg

"Nan, we have to go Now!" Mina whispered under her breath A little louder she called out toward Greg, "I think there’s a clean-up in aisle eight"