This went on for several minutes until the noise stopped as suddenly as it had begun. All was quiet. Even the mice stopped their pattering. It was as if the house and everything in it were holding their breath. I know I was.
The silence ended with a resounding thump. Then a whole series of thumps, definite in rhythm. Thumps that were getting louder. And louder. And closer ...
Someone was climbing the stairs from the cellar.
I snatched up the candle and shrank into the furthest corner. Thump, thump, nearer and nearer, came the sound of heavy boots. Who could have been digging down there in the darkness? Who could be climbing the stairs now?
But maybe it wasn’t a question of who was climbing the stairs. Maybe it was a question of what... I heard the cellar door open and the thump of boots in the kitchen. I pressed myself back into the corner, trying to make myself small, waiting for the kitchen door to open. And open it did, very slowly, with a loud creak. Something stepped into the room. I felt coldness then. Real coldness. The kind of coldness that told me something was close that didn’t belong on this earth. It was like the coldness of Hangman’s Hill, only far, far worse. I lifted the candle, its flame flickering eerie shadows which danced up the walls and onto the 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 rattle the windowpanes even louder, and on every hour and half hour the church clock chimed, moving me closer to midnight.
The nearer the time came for me to go down the cellar steps, the more nervous I became. I did want to pass the Spook’s test, but, oh, how I longed to be back home in my nice, safe, warm bed. And then, just after the clock had given a single chime - half past eleven - the digging began again ... Once more I heard the slow thump, thu mp of heavy boots coming up the steps from the cellar; once more the door opened and the invisible boots stepped into the front room. By now the only bit of me that was moving was my heart, which pounded so hard it seemed about to break my ribs. But this time the boots didn’t veer away towards the window. They kept coming. Thump! Thump! Thump! Coming straight towards me.
I felt myself being lifted roughly by the hair and skin at the nape of my neck, just like a mother cat carries her kittens. Then an invisible arm wrapped itself around my body, pinning my arms to my sides. I tried to suck in a breath but it was impossible. My chest was being crushed. I was being carried towards the cellar door. I couldn’t see what was carrying me but I could hear its wheezing breath and I struggled in a panic, because somehow I knew exactly what was going to happen. Somehow I knew why there’d been the sound of digging from below. I was going to be carried down the cellar steps into the darkness and I knew that a grave was waiting for me down there. I was going to be buried alive.