The Ghost in the Corridor
‘Ow!’
‘Dec! You OK?’
‘You’re digging into my arm!’ he whispered, trying to control his volume. He didn’t know why he was trying to stay quiet, though. Whatever was outside knew they were in there.
‘W-what do you think it is?’ Stewy said as quietly as he could.
‘I don’t know, but it’s trying to find its way inside.’
The scraping started to get faster and louder as if this thing’s life depended on it.
‘It’s a g-ghost,’ Stewy stuttered.
‘No way. It can’t be. We haven’t even seen what’s out there.’
‘I’m not chancing it,’ Stewy squealed. With that, he leapt out of his bed and ducked under it. Declan was about to ask him to come out and stop acting silly, but he didn’t like the idea of being in his bed by himself so he squeezed under Stewy’s as well.
‘What’ll we do if it comes in?’ Stewy whispered.
‘I don’t know,’ Declan said honestly. ‘How do you attack a ghost?’
‘You can’t hit it. If you throw something, it’ll just pass through it. Ghosts can’t touch things.’
‘Wait … how is it touching the door then?’
‘I didn’t read the manual on ghost rules, did I?’ Stewy whispered with a hopeless look on his face. ‘We can’t fight it. We’re going to have to beg for mercy to survive.’
Declan’s eyes darted around the room, searching for a way out. He looked towards the window, but they were on the fourth storey and he didn’t fancy the drop. He looked to the en suite. ‘We could lock ourselves in the bathroom?’ he said.
‘Good idea,’ Stewy said. ‘But … em … you go first.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Because it’s your plan.’
‘Is that the rules?’
‘Also, I warned you there was a ghost and you didn’t believe me. So, if anyone is going –’
‘Wait!’ Declan said, still trying to keep his voice low. ‘Listen.’
‘What? I don’t hear anything.’
‘Exactly! The scraping. It’s stopped.’
‘OK, cool … You check if it’s gone.’
Declan just wanted this night to be over and done with, so he wasn’t going to argue. ‘Fine,’ he sighed as he slowly crawled from underneath the bed.
The noise had definitely stopped. He looked around every part of the room to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary.
‘OK. The coast is clear,’ he said to Stewy as he got to his feet. ‘Turn on the light.’
‘No way,’ Stewy said, shaking his head. ‘I’m not going near that door.’
As Stewy crawled out, they both heard a noise. It was a different sound but it was much scarier. They looked to the door to see the creaky door handle turning. Stewy opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. As the door slowly opened, every fibre of Declan’s being was telling him to get out of there. Get back under the bed. Hide in the bathroom. Break through the window. But he was so scared, he couldn’t move a muscle.
As the door opened, in glided a small thin figure draped in white. It was hunched and wearing a veil on its head, so it was impossible for them to get a good look at its face. As the figure came closer, they took a step back. Declan’s legs were quivering so much, he could barely stand.
The creature raised its head and made an inhumane squeal.
‘Spare us,’ Stewy pleaded as he fell to his knees. ‘Please spare us, spirit. We’ll do anything you want.’
The spectre raised its hands inches away from Declan’s face. ‘I am the ghost of Grangehill Castle,’ it uttered in a hoarse voice.
‘W-what do you want with us?’ Stewy stammered.
‘You have offended me. You must now pay the penalty.’
‘W-what?’ Stewy blubbered.
‘I will haunt you. Haunt you … forever.’
Declan had still been half asleep when the ‘ghost’ came in and hadn’t been thinking straight, especially with Stewy in a state of panic. But he was becoming calm now. And the calmer he felt, the more suspicious he became of the new visitor.
‘So where have you come from, Ghost of Grangehill Castle, or whatever you call yourself?’ he said in a firm voice.
The ghost hesitated before pointing up towards the ceiling. ‘From the … um … secret room,’ it explained.
‘From the “um” secret room?’ Declan repeated. ‘What ghost says “um”?’
He dived at the ghost and tackled it to the ground. As it wrestled with him, he pulled off its face-cover.
‘Jenkins!’ he exclaimed. ‘I knew it was you by the way you said the word “penalty”. You’re always calling for a penalty if you’re fouled anywhere near the square.’
‘Get off me, Declan,’ David Jenkins barked. ‘You’re hurting my arm. I won’t be able to play in the next match.’
‘You should have thought of that when you decided to act like an idiot!’
Suddenly, Paul Lynch jumped into the room, laughing his head off. ‘Oh, man. You guys sounded scared stiff. I wish I could have seen your faces.’
‘Was it really you making that noise out there?’ Stewy said. It seemed he still hadn’t got over his worst fears.
‘Of course it was. What age are you? I stopped believing ghost stories when I was six!’
Their discussion was interrupted by a sound in the corridor. At first, Declan assumed it was one of the other lads who was in on the gag. But then he saw the confusion and concern on David and Paul’s faces. They were just as clueless as him and Stewy.
‘Is that Brendan?’ Declan whispered to David.
‘He’s asleep,’ David said, getting to his feet.
Whatever the sound was, it was getting louder, which could mean only one thing: it was coming closer.