Faces of Fear Read Free Page B

because she had been sleeping in a funny position. The light was coming from under her door. First of all it was dazzling and then it was dim. It danced and skipped and changed direction. Then it retreated for a while, so that all she could see was a faint reflected glow.
    Oh, no! she thought. The house is on fire!
    She climbed off her bed and limped dead-legged to the door. She felt the doorknob to see if it was hot. The Fire Brigade had come to the school to give them all a lectureon do’s and don’ts, and she knew that she wasn’t to open the door if it was hot. Fire feeds on oxygen like a babby feeds on milk.
    But the doorknob was cold, and the door-panels were cold. Cautiously, Gillie turned the knob, and opened the door, and eased herself into the corridor. Toby’s room was directly opposite; and the light was shining from all around Toby’s door. At times it was so intense that she could scarcely look at it, and it shone through every crevice, and even through the keyhole.
    She sniffed. The odd thing was that she couldn’t smell smoke. And there was none of that crackling sound that you normally get with a fire.
    She approached Toby’s door and dabbed the doorknob with her fingertip. That, too, was quite cold. There was no fire burning in Toby’s room. For a moment, she became dreadfully frightened. She had a cold, sliding feeling in her stomach as if she had swallowed something really disgusting and knew that she was going to sick it up again. If it wasn’t a fire in Toby’s room, what was it?
    She was just about to run to her parents’ room when she heard an extraordinary noise. A thick, soft, rustling noise; and then the sound of Toby gurgling and giggling.
    He’s laughing, said Alice. He must be all right.
    â€œI wish it had been a fire. I wish he was dead.”
    No you don’t; and neither do I. You’re a nun now; you’re in holy orders. Nuns forgive everything. Nuns understand everything. Nuns are the brides of Christ.
    She opened Toby’s door.
    And
Holy Mary
! cried Alice.
    The sight that met her eyes was so dramatic and so dazzling that she fell to her knees on the carpet, her mouth wide open in disbelief.
    In the centre of Toby’s nursery stood a tall whitefigure. It was so blindingly bright that Gillie had to shield her eyes with the back of her hand. It was so tall that it almost touched the ceiling, and it was dressed in swathes of brilliant white linen, and it seemed to have huge folded wings on its back. It was impossible for Gillie to tell if it were a man or a woman. It was so bright that she couldn’t clearly see its face, but she could vaguely distinguish two eyes, floating in the brilliance like chicken embryos floating in egg-white; and the curve of a smile.
    But what made Gillie tremble more than anything else was the fact that Toby was out of his crib, and standing on his cribside rug,
standing
, with this tall, dazzling creature holding his little hands for him.
    â€œToby,” she whispered. “Oh God, Toby.”
    But all Toby did was turn toward her and smile his cheekiest smile, and take two unsteady steps across the rug, while the dazzling creature helped him to balance.
    Gillie slowly rose to her feet. The creature looked at her. Although it was so bright, she could see that it wasn’t staring at her aggressively. In fact there was something in its eyes that seemed to be appealing for understanding; or at least for calm. But then it lifted Toby up in its arms, right up in the air in its brilliant, flaring arms, and Gillie’s composure fell apart like a jigsaw falling out of its box.
    â€œ
Mum
!” she screamed, running up the corridor and beating on her parents’ bedroom door. “Mummy there’s an angel in Toby’s room! Mum, mum, mum, come quick! There’s an angel in Toby’s room!’
    Her father and mother came bursting out of the bedroom ruffled and bleary and hardly