down the corridor towards the front of the house. Your motherâs coming down the corridor towards you.
âOh dear,â she says, âI wish you wouldnât play in the cellar. Go outside for those sorts of games.â
And she walks on down the corridor as you lie there feeling your cuts and bruises. Youâre covered in bits of the monsterâs flesh and hair.
âHmm,â you think. âIâll never understand adults.â
alking as lightly as you can you start making your way through the attic. Little clouds of dust rise into the air as you tiptoe along. Thereâs something about this place that makes you want to tread carefully. Something that makes you feel very uncomfortable. Something that makes you feel you shouldnât be here.
Youâre nearly into the next room when suddenly you hear a sound. Some sounds might be OK up here maybe, like mouse sounds, or wind rattling the windows, or flies buzzing. But a human whisper? No. No, that definitely should not be here.
Youâre frozen with fear, your teeth rattling so hard youâre afraid theyâll cut off your tongue. Youâre glad thereâs no mirror because you never want to see yourself looking this grey. You try to think, to make your mind work, but itâs locked up completely. It might never work again. If youâre dead, for example, itâll stop working. And you very well might be dead in the next moment or two. You go to take a step back but then you hear the whisper again. You listen for the words. All too clearly you hear them.
âAll who trespass will die,â it hisses. âAll who trespass will die.â
âE . . . E . . . E . . .. E . . .. E . . .. . . E!â you say. You donât know what it means, but itâs definitely coming out of your mouth.
âDeath to the trespasser,â it says again. âCome to me, trespasser, and prepare to die.â
âYi . . . yi . . . yi . . . yi . . . yi.â
âYou have thirty seconds to live,â says the voice.
And suddenly thereâs something familiar about it. Youâve heard that voice before. Only normally it says things like, âYou have thirty seconds to change channels before I kill you.â
âDANNY, YOU ROTTEN CREEP,â you yell.
Your big brother pops up from behind a tea chest, laughing his stupid head off.
âGotcha, gotcha,â he chants. âGotcha! What a good one! You should have seen your face!â
âVery funny,â you say coldly. âI hope you found that amusing.â
âYes, I did, actually. Ha ha ha!â
âHowâd you get in here, anyway?â you ask, hoping to change the subject.
âOver there.â He points to a door you hadnât noticed before. It looks a much easier way than coming through the trapdoor.
âSo do you want to check this place out?â
âOh yeah, nothing better to do. What a dump. Here, look at this.â
He starts rummaging through a box of old clothes. Seems like the moths have used it as a restaurant, and dust flies everywhere. You start sneezing so, to get away, you go down to the end of the attic. Itâs a real mess there, just a lot of junk, and so dark itâs hard to make out too many details. But you check it out anyway.
The biggest thing is an old trunk, about the size of your kitchen table. Itâs huge. Behind that is a heap of machinery. To the left of that is one of those old self-operating wind-up winches, with a thin cable still attached to it. And that gives you an idea. An idea that will let you pay back your sneaky irritating brother.
ait! Wait!â you call. âPlease, come back.â
She does stop but she doesnât turn round. Just stands there. But youâre the kind of person who doesnât give up easily. You run down the driveway and face up to her again.
âWhat is going on?â you beg her.