Midnight Read online

  Now I was standing in the garden, hunched up tight, not daring to take a step further. Will gripped my wrist tightly, tense himself. I wondered what he could see.

  ‘Let’s go back, Will,’ I begged.

  ‘No, Violet. Let’s go forward,’ said Will, pulling me.

  The grass reached right up my legs so I had to wade through it like water. Brambles tore at me, branches flipped into my face. Will steered me slowly, telling me to duck and dodge, but I was clumsy with fear and kept blundering into things. I couldn’t help thinking there might be someone in the garden watching us.

  ‘Is there anyone there, Will?’ I whispered.

  ‘Oh yeah, Miss Lang’s ghost. Watch out, she’s coming to spook you,’ said Will. ‘Help, help, she’s coming!’

  I knew he was fooling around but I could suddenly see her, luminous white in a long nightgown, her face twisted sideways with her stroke. I could hear the rasp of her breath, the shuffle of her slippered feet, the tap, tap tap of her stick. I knew I couldn’t see anything under my blindfold, and I was simply hearing my own breath, my own footsteps – but I still clutched Will desperately.

  ‘Leave go of me!’

  ‘But I’m so scared, Will. I hate it out here.’

  ‘OK, OK. We’ll go indoors,’ said Will.

  He didn’t lead me back towards the gap in the hedge. He led me onwards, to the back of Miss Lang’s house. He had to be playing another trick on me. We couldn’t possibly get inside. All the doors were boarded up, the windows bricked in.

  The windows at the front. They hadn’t bothered to brick the back windows. I heard Will bashing at some catch and then felt him pushing hard. Something splintered and Will hurtled forwards.

  ‘Now comes the tricky bit,’ said Will, breathing heavily. ‘You’ve got to do exactly as I say, Violet. Just follow me.’

  I didn’t have to follow him. I could tear the blindfold from my face and run away from him. I could barricade myself back in my own room till Mum and Dad came back. What was the time? What if they came home early and we were missing?

  I couldn’t concentrate on Mum and Dad now. This was just Will and me. I had to stand up to him. I wasn’t a stupid baby any more. I didn’t have to do what he said. He didn’t have any real power over me. He still had a hold on me but he was scrabbling upwards, obviously trying to get in the window. I could tug my arm free now, when he was trying to balance on the sill. Now!

  ‘Now, Violet!’ Will hissed.

  I did as I was told. I scrambled after him, blindly obedient. He hauled me up and swivelled me round and pushed me out over the sink. I got painfully caught on the taps for a moment but then I fell with a thump onto the cold kitchen floor.

  I lay there, winded.

  ‘Violet? Vi, are you all right?’ Will touched my shoulder, giving me a little shake. He sounded scared but he still didn’t take the blindfold off. I lay holding my breath as long as I could, wanting to make him really worried.

  ‘I know you’re pretending,’ said Will, but he bent right down and put his face against mine to see if I was breathing. His cheek was as smooth and soft as a girl’s. His hair tickled my forehead. I twitched.

  ‘You bad girl,’ said Will. He tickled me under the chin. I shrieked and squirmed away from him.

  ‘There! Making out you’re dead!’

  ‘I feel dead,’ I said. ‘You’re killing me, Will, dragging me into hedges and through windows, acting like we’re on some crazy quest.’

  ‘We’re not finished, yet,’ said Will.

  ‘Please take the blindfold off. It’s really hurting, cutting right into my head. My eyes feel like they’re being poked back into my brain.’

  I remembered my old baby doll and the terrible day her blue eyes disappeared into the back of her head and rattled inside. I felt as blind and helpless now.

  Will pulled me along and I stumbled after him, through the kitchen, along the hall, in and out of the front room and then the living room. Our footsteps echoed horribly as we walked over the bare floorboards. I struggled to keep a plan of the house in my head but it was getting harder and harder. It stopped being Miss Lang’s ordinary suburban semi, the mirror image of ours. It was distorted into a dark maze and I felt as if I was never going to find my way out.

  Will led me up the stairs. I tripped on every step. We seemed to be going up and up and up – but when we reached the top at last it still wasn’t over. We didn’t go right or left along the landing. We were going up again.

  ‘Here,’ said Will, putting my hands on the rungs of a ladder.

  ‘I can’t! I can’t, Will. Not blindfolded.’

  ‘Yes you can. I’m just behind. Go on. Up. Up!’

  I went up, Will pushing me every time I stopped. I started sobbing, my nose running. I hated Will for doing this to me. I hated myself for letting him.

  He was reaching over my head, struggling to push the trapdoor open. We were going up into the attic. I felt my way up the last few rungs of the ladder, knowing that I could easily fall and break my neck.

  ‘I’ve got you,’ said Will, beside me now, hand under my elbow, helping me. I hauled myself up, right into the attic.

  There was a strange smell, not just dust and mould. I straightened up cautiously. I heard Will switch on the light. And then there was a flapping and a rushing as little creatures flew at me, their wings beating in my face.

  Dear C.D.,

  I wonder if you’ve got a brother? Did he ever scare you when you were young? Did you ever stand up to him?

  I wish I knew how to stand up to Will.

  I wish you were my brother. I wish you were my friend. I wish you could write to me.

  With love from

  Violet

  XXX

  From The Smoky Fairy by Casper Dream

  So the Smoky Fairy and the Magic Dragon flew away . . .

  Three

  THEY WERE BATS, flying all round me, flapping their weird black wings. I screamed and screamed, waving my hands wildly, trying to beat them away. Will helped me tear the blindfold off and let me escape down the ladder first. My shoes slid on the rungs and I scraped my shins. I ran along the landing, raking my long hair with my fingers, terrified one of the bats might be tangled up in it.

  I hurtled down the stairs, along the hallway, blundering in the gloom even without the blindfold. I heaved myself up onto the draining board in the kitchen, edged out of the broken window, and then raced down the garden. I wove my way through the long grass, scared there were more little darting creatures hiding there. I found the gap in the hedge and burrowed my way through.

  I straightened up in our own garden. It looked so neat and ordinary, the grass clipped, all the plants carefully pruned. I ran to the back door and got into the kitchen just as the old grandfather clock in the hall was chiming midnight.

  It was a shock seeing how muddy I was. I’d made dirty footprints across Mum’s newly polished floor-tiles. I took my trainers off and rushed upstairs to the bathroom. I locked the door and then started running a bath, struggling out of my filthy clothes.

  Will banged on the door. ‘Vi?’

  ‘Go away, you pig.’

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Violet.’

  ‘I’m having a bath. Clear off.’

  ‘Look, I didn’t know about the bats, I swear I didn’t.’

  Will was so good at lying you never knew when he was telling the truth.

  ‘Vi, talk to me.’

  I pressed my lips together, rubbing soap all over myself. I dunked my head in the water too, massaging shampoo in so fiercely I scratched my scalp. I needed to wash away the feel of the bats. I kept twitching and shuddering as if they were still flying into my face.

  ‘You’re being very childish,’ said Will, rattling the doorknob.

  I said nothing, rinsing my hair.

  ‘If you don’t answer I’m coming in,’ said Will.

  My heart started thumping. I’d locked the door, but the lock was old and faulty. We both knew Will