The Secret of Crickley Hall

Chester was shivering.

She tapped on the glass to get his attention while the two men behind her continued talking. But the dog wouldn't look her way. He seemed rapt on something quite close to him.

The swing. The swing was swaying gently, but more so than before, when they had first arrived: back and forth it went, almost as if someone—a child—were sitting on it. But of course it was empty.

Must be the wind, Eve thought. But then, although it was raining, the leaves and the tree branches were perfectly still, as were the shrubbery and the longer tufts of grass. There was no wind.

5: LOREN CALEIGH

Wearing a yellow Fat Face long-sleeved T-shirt and beige fatigues more suited to summer than autumn, Loren pulled up her younger sister's baby-blue bedsheet and plumped up the Shrek and Princess Fiona pillow. She reached for the colourful Shrek, Fiona and Donkey duvet at her feet and dragged it up onto the narrow bed, which was twin to her own bed a few feet away. Dad and 'Uncle' Vern had brought them from their real home and put them together a week ago (she and Cally had slept in the spare room until the move). Her long brown hair hung over her face as she tucked the duvet's end and sides under the mattress and when she stood upright there was a frown marring her features.

Loren was at that sensitive, awkward stage of being neither a teenager nor a child, a time when hormones were kicking in and sudden outbreaks of tears were not uncommon. Her thin arms and legs were beginning to develop beyond cuteness. Although she didn't feel it, she was just a normal pre-teenager.

She didn't like Crickley Hall, she didn't like it at all. Away from her friends, having to start a new school on Monday where she would stand out like a freak, a city girl among country bumpkins. It wasn't fair. It was too harsh.

Then she remembered the main reason for the temporary move. It wasn't just because of Dad's job—he often spent weeks away from home on various engineering assignments. No, this time it was because they had to get Mummy away from their proper house. Loren's eyes glistened as she thought of Cameron; what a lovely little brother he was. Now he was gone and Mummy still hadn't got over it. It hadn't been her fault. Mummy was tired and couldn't help falling asleep on the park bench. Cam had just wandered off and someone bad had taken him. Loren tried to imagine who could be that bad, what wicked person would snatch a small boy away and keep him all this time. Why didn't they bring him back, or let him go so that the police or someone kind could find him and bring him home to his family? Who could be that dreadful?

She brushed at her damp eyes with the back of one hand. Dad said they had to be strong for Mummy's sake and she, Loren, had done her best. She rarely cried over Cam any more even though she missed him terribly; she almost had right then because she was in a strange place and was already feeling homesick.

She leaned forward to straighten the duvet and as she did so she caught something moving out of the corner of her eye. Something small had walked past the doorway—no, had run past the bedroom door. She hadn't heard footsteps, but she had definitely seen a blur go past.

It must be Cally. It seemed to be her size even if it was rushed.

'Cally?' Loren called out. 'Is that you out there?'

No reply.

She walked to the open door and looked along the balustraded landing that ran round two sides of the big hall.

Nothing. No one there.

Except… Loren wasn't sure she'd really heard it. But it came again. It sounded like a whimper.

Loren stepped out onto the landing and looked to her right, towards where she thought the sound had come from. Holding her breath, she listened.

It came again. A quiet little sob. And then again. A small child crying.

'Cally?' she called again. 'What's wrong? What's the matter?'

Loren could hear the low buzz of conversation coming from the kitchen doorway below, but the sound she strained to hear again wasn't from there. She took a few paces along the landing, then stopped when she heard another whimper. It came from a cupboard set in the wall.

'Cally,' she called again, this time somewhat irritated. Why wouldn't her sister answer her?

She went to the closed cupboard. Was Cally playing a game, hiding from her? Now she'd shut herself in the cupboard and had become afraid of the dark. But then why didn't she just come out? Had she locked herself in? But she couldn't have: the key was in the lock.

Another tiny sound of a sob. Definitely from inside the cupboard.

Loren reached out a hand for the key. Her fingers closed around it.

And suddenly she was afraid.

The whimpers, the sobs, hadn't sounded like Cally at all. And Cally wasn't a cry-baby anyway. She was mostly a happy girl. The quiet whimper came again and it seemed much further off than from inside the cupboard. Somehow it was distant now.

With sudden resolve, Loren gripped the key hard, turned it and pulled.

The cupboard door swung open and inside there was only—Loren shivered—inside there was only blackness. A blackness so deep it seemed solid.

6: WHITE SHADOW

'Mum! Dad! I heard someone—' Loren all but skidded into the kitchen, her words broken off when she saw the stranger sitting at the kitchen table. All eyes turned to her.

'What is it, Loren?' Eve asked calmly as she leaned back against the sink. There always seemed to be a crisis in her eldest daughter's life these days.

Loren didn't reply immediately, her attention taken up with the visitor, a funny old man with stick-out ears and a red face.

'I heard something… someone upstairs!' She burst out the news, despite the presence of the stranger.

'This is Mr Judd,' Eve told her, ignoring Loren's agitation for the moment. 'He's Crickley Hall's gardener and handyman. He'll be helping us with the place.'

Percy gave her a quick smile but, sitting close to him, Gabe noticed the curiosity in his stare. Was there something else, too? Something that was close to alarm?

'Now, what are you going on about?' Eve's voice was patient.

'I was in our new bedroom,' Loren said in a rush, 'and I saw something go past the door. I thought it was Cally.'

Her little sister was hanging onto the back of her father's chair and she looked confused. 'Not me,' she said as if anxious that she was being accused of doing something naughty.

'I know it wasn't you, silly.' Loren shook her head at Cally.

'Not silly,' Cally insisted.

Gabe stepped in. 'Who did you see, Loren?'

'I… I don't know, Dad. It was like… it was like a white shadow.'

Gabe raised his eyebrows and glanced at Eve, who went to her daughter and put an arm round her shoulder.

'It's true, Mummy,' Loren insisted. 'It was gone before I could look properly. And then I heard someone crying. It wasn't very loud, but I could still hear it I thought it was Cally at first, but she's down here with you and it didn't really sound like her when I got closer.'

'Closer to what?' asked Gabe, still at the table with Percy Judd.

'To the cupboard upstairs,' Loren replied. 'I thought someone had shut themselves inside the cupboard.'

By chance, Gabe had looked towards the gardener again and now he saw there was alarm in those old faded eyes. Yet Percy said nothing. Gabe swung back to Loren and began to rise. 'Let me take a look. Maybe you heard a mouse or something.'

'It wasn't a mouse. It was a voice, Mummy. It was someone small crying.' She looked up at Eve for support.