ceiling.
‘Who’s there?’ I asked. ‘Who’s there?’ my voice trembling even more than the hand holding the candle.
There was no answer. Even the wind outside had fallen silent.
‘Who’s there?’ I called out again.
Again no reply, but invisible boots grated on the flags as they stepped towards me. Nearer and nearer they came, and now I could hear breathing. Something big was breathing heavily. It sounded like a huge carthorse that had just pulled a heavy load up a steep hill.
At the very last moment the footsteps veered away from me and halted close to the window. I was holding my breath and the thing by the window seemed to be breathing for both of us, drawing great gulps of air into its lungs as if it could never get enough.
Just when I could stand it no longer, it gave a huge sigh that sounded weary and sad at the same time, and the invisible boots grated on the flags once more, heavy steps that moved away from the window, back towards the door. When they began to thump their way down the cellar steps, I was finally able to breathe again.
My heart began to slow, my hands stopped shaking and gradually I calmed down. I had to pull myself together. I’d been scared, but if that was the worst that was going to happen tonight, I’d got through it, passed my first test. I was going to be the Spook’s apprentice, so I’d have to get used to places like this haunted house. It went with the job.
After about five minutes or so I began to feel better. I even thought about making another attempt to get to sleep, but as my dad sometimes says, ‘There’s no rest for the wicked.’ Well, I don’t know what I’d done wrong, but there was a sudden new sound to disturb me.
It was faint and distant at first - someone knocking on a door. There was a pause, and then it happened again. Three distinct raps, but a little nearer this time. Another pause and three more raps.
It didn’t take me long to work it out. Somebody was rapping hard on each door in the street, moving nearer and nearer to number thirteen. When they finally came to the haunted house, the three raps on the front door were loud enough to wake the dead. Would the thing in the cellar climb the steps to answer that summons? I felt trapped between the two: something outside wanting to get in; something below that wanted to be free.
And then, suddenly, it was all right. A voice called to me from the other side of the front door, a voice I recognized.
‘Tom! Tom! Open the door! Let me in!’
It was Mam. I was so glad to hear her that I rushed to the front door without thinking. It was raining outside and she’d be getting wet.
‘Quickly, Tom, quickly!’ Mam called. ‘Don’t keep me waiting.’
I was actually lifting the latch to open it, when I remembered the Spook’s warning: ‘Don’t open the front door to anyone, no matter how hard they knock ... ’
But how could I leave Mam out there in the dark?
‘Come on, Tom! Let me in!’ the voice called again.
Remembering what the Spook had said, I took a deep breath and tried to think. Common sense told me it couldn’t be her. Why would she have followed me all this way? How would she have known where we were going? Mam wouldn’t have travelled alone either. My dad or Jack would have come with her.
No, it was a something else waiting outside. Something without hands that could still rap on the door. Something without feet that could still stand on the pavement.
The knocking started to get louder.
‘Please let me in, Tom,’ pleaded the voice. ‘How can you be so hard and cruel? I’m cold, wet and tired.’
Eventually it began to cry, and then I knew for certain that it couldn’t possibly be Mam. Mam was strong. Mam never cried no matter how bad things got.
After a few moments the sounds faded and stopped altogether. I lay down on the floor and tried to sleep again. I kept turning over, first one way and then the other, but try as I might, I couldn’t get to sleep. The wind began to
Elizabeth Amelia Barrington