Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
About the Author
Copyright
To Sophie
Nobody ever passed the old Garvan house alone. We never said we were scared, but we always made sure there were two or three of us together when we took the short cut from school.
The house stood on the corner of Ross Road and Bloom Avenue. Most of the houses on Ross Road were boarded up and derelict. Except for the Garvan place. It was dark and grim, but it wasn’t shuttered.
Some said that nobody lived there. Others said they’d seen dim lights at night, and the shadowy figure of old Mr Garvan at the window. Most people just hurried by because it was the sort of place you didn’t want to hang around.
It was Meg who first heard the cry. Meg lives next door to me and we walk to and from school together. On Tuesdays we stay late – Meg has hockey practice and I take trumpet lessons. That particular Tuesday we’d been delayed because Harvey O’Connor had hidden my schoolbag and my ma would have blown a fuse if I’d arrived home without it. Harve is a good friend, but sometimes his weird sense of fun goes a bit over the top.
Meg winkled out of Harve where he’d hidden my stuff. She chased him with her hockey stick until he broke down and confessed. Meg is like that. If something needs doing she’s the one to get it done. So it was getting dark when we passed the Garvan place.
‘That old place looks spooky in this mist,’ said Meg. ‘Especially with all those creepy trees around it.’
‘Totally spooky,’ I agreed. I shivered slightly when I looked up at the big, bare trees that stretched out their branches like grasping hands along the gravel avenue. The house loomed like a watching monster just barely visible through the laurel bushes that were rustling eerily.
‘Come on,’ I muttered. ‘This place freaks me out. Anyway I’m starving.’
‘Ssshhh.’ Meg froze, her finger pressed to her lips.