And something was very wrong.
The hallway was different. The doors weren’t where they should be. Sally’s room was gone.
And the hall stretched without end into blackness.
I ran to the nearest door and turned the handle. Locked. I ran to the next and the next and the next. All locked. I ran back, banging on the doors and calling for Sally.
Chest heaving, I slumped against the wall, defeated. I didn’t know what to do next. How would I ever find my little sister? How could I help if I couldn’t get to her?
A sound jerked me to attention again. A pattering sound from the farthest, blackest part of the hall. It was coming closer. Footsteps, I realized.
A child’s footsteps, running toward me, and coming faster.
“Sally?”
I stepped out into the center of the hall. I could hear a child’s frightened breathing. The little footsteps pounded as hard as they could go.
Behind them came heavier steps. The child was being chased!
My breath quickened. Something terrible was about to happen! I started forward, seeking the sound of the frightened child, determined to help. I took a step and something slammed into me, knocking me over. But there was nothing there, nothing to see.
Now the invisible footsteps were flying past me, heading for the stairs.
The ghostly light blazed brighter again and a voice came out of it, screeching with evil. “Give me that thing! It’s mine, all mine! Give it to me now! Right now or else I’ll—”
A child screamed in terror. It hit me like a punch in the gut. The terrified scream increased, then trailed off. The scream of a child falling, falling a long way down.
Falling forever into the darkness.
The eerie light slowly faded. Silence fell over the house like a shroud. A terrible, terrible silence.
27
My whole body was trembling. I knew the falling child wasn’t Sally but my dread was deeper than ever. Something terrible had happened here, and it made the whole house into a twisted, haunted place.
I rose on shaky legs. I was almost standing when the floor tilted sharply. My feet flew out from under me and my fingers scrabbled at the smooth floorboards, trying to get a grip.
But there was nothing to hold on to. Nothing to stop my downhill slide. I pressed my heels and hands into the floor but that only made me slide faster.
The whole house was tilting! It was aiming me at the dark end of the hallway. As I got closer, sliding faster and faster, I saw a door at the end of the hall.
It looked like an ordinary door but it was closed, and I was hurtling straight for it, going faster every second with no way to stop.
No way to stop.
I tensed my body and closed my eyes and a heartbeat later I crashed right through the door and came to a skidding stop in the middle of the room.
I got up slowly, aching all over, and looked around. I’d never seen this room before. It was small and bare with no windows.
Behind me the door slammed shut. I whirled around. The door had disappeared. Just four pale, seamless walls, barely visible in the dark.
I was trapped, with no way to escape.
But wait! As I stared in horror at the smooth walls, a sliver of light appeared through a crack in the corner. A way out!
I didn’t care if it was a trap. I had to get out. I ran my fingers along the crack, feeling carefully for the outline of a door. It had to be there! Nothing. I felt along the floor but everything was smooth.
Was it my imagination or was the light along the crack starting to dim? “No,” I cried out, and beat my fists against the wall.
I heard a click, felt something give way, and jumped back just as a section of the wall fell forward.
On the other side of the wall was a narrow winding stairway, glowing with faint, cold light. Stairs to nowhere.
As much as I wanted to escape this room, I was never going to climb those stairs. No way. There was something terrible waiting for me up there, I just knew it.
A cold wind sprang up behind me, pushing me toward the stairs. I dug in my heels but the wind was strong and relentless. It pushed me inch by inch toward the opening.
I twisted to get away but the force of the wind turned me back. I was shivering with cold and terror. I braced my hands against the wall on either side of the opening and held on.
The wind was strong, but not strong enough to blow me up the stairs.
I’d beaten it.
Then I heard a faint cry, carried on the wind. “Jason!”
It was Sally. With a sinking sensation, I realized the cry was coming from the top of the stairway.
“Jason, help me, I’m scared,” wailed Sally. “Jason, please.”
I had to go. I was her only chance.
28
As I stepped over the threshold my feet felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. It was as if I was wading through an ocean of my own fear.
“Jason.”
Sally’s voice was very faint, getting smaller. I had to hurry. The stairs felt funny under my feet—sort of slippery and spongy. It was hard to get traction.
There was nothing to hold on to but the walls on either side. And the stairs were so steep and narrow.
My foot slipped. I started to go down and caught myself on the stairs with my hands.
I jerked back as if I’d been burned. The surface of the steps felt soft and cold and clammy—like dead human skin!
The stairway was alive.
I forced myself up the last few stairs, gasping for breath. The small door at the top was open. The door was so low I had to stoop to get inside.
I was in the attic. But not a part I’d ever seen before.
Something told me this room didn’t really exist. Not anymore. It was as the attic had been years
