Bump in the Night
by Amber Averay
Check out Amber’s Facebook – https://m.facebook.com/100051324984630/
Once upon a time there was a young man named Topaz. He moved with his family to a house that had been built more than a hundred years before he was born, and now he had a bedroom all to himself – no more sharing with his older brother.
At first, Topaz was happy. He set his room up as he wanted it, posters on the walls, trophies on shelves, some comic books stacked up by the bed. A sign on his door saying ‘knock before entry’. His brother was in the room next door, his sister across the hall, and the bathroom just beyond her room. His parents’ bedroom was at the end of the hall, and one of Topaz’s favourite things was to slide along the boards in his stocking feet.
But one night, after Topaz had settled to sleep after a busy day, he awoke to a strange sound.
Tap, tap, tap.
What was that? he thought, sitting up in bed and looking about his room. He heard the noise again, and followed its source to the window. He felt such relief when he found nothing but twigs on the tree outside tapping on the glass.
So he went back to bed, but sleep did not come easily. Nor the next night, when he heard scratching coming from under his bed.
Mice, he thought stoutly. Has to be mice. But his father had set traps up just the other day, and none of them had been set off.
During the following day Topaz tried to find anything in his room that would make strange sounds. He checked beneath his bed – no mouse droppings, though long scratches, like clawmarks, raked over the wooden floorboards – and he opened his window to break off the offending twigs that continued to tap at his window.
He checked everywhere, for his sleep had been suffering and nobody else seemed to be experiencing the strange noises he was, or the interrupted nights.
That evening, certain he’d checked every inch of his bedroom, Topaz curled up in bed, feeling confident and proud of himself, and flicked off his bedside lamp. Almost immediately he heard whispering, a voice coming from somewhere in his room. Fear prickled upon his skin, ripples of goosebumps stippling his body, and he decided he had to know what the source was. He was brave. He was Topaz! With a name like his he’d had to learn strength and confidence, and this was his room now. He was going to find the problem and he was going to defend his right to peace!
Throwing the covers off him he climbed out of bed and followed the whispering voice to his wardrobe. Thumps and knocks and raps came from within, and the handle jiggled.
Topaz took a deep breath, and wrenched the wardrobe open, screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘Get out of my room!’
The shocked face of his sister Amethyst and brother Cole stared back at him, before they began laughing.
For a moment Topaz felt like a fool, but he was just glad it wasn’t mice!
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