Spooky House Page 2

  Billie feels her cheeks get hot and her ears sting. ‘Um, no!’ she says in a squeaky voice.

  ‘Billie?’ says her mum, looking at her suspiciously.

  ‘Oh, that’s right. I borrowed it,’ she says. ‘For a game I was playing.’

  ‘Oh, good,’ Billie’s dad says, climbing down the stepladder. ‘I’ve been looking for it everywhere!

  Can you run and get it then?’

  In her mind Billie sees the basket sitting on the front step of the spooky house. ‘Um, well, I don’t have it anymore,’ she says. ‘I, er, I lent it to someone.’

  ‘Who?’ says her dad.

  ‘Jack,’ Billie says. He is the first person she can think of.

  ‘Well, can you go and get it?’ Billie’s mum says. She sounds a little bit annoyed.

  Billie slips down off her stool and trudges towards the back door. ‘OK,’ she says, worried. ‘I’ll go and get it now. I’ll be back soon.’

  Billie slides open the back door and runs down the steps towards the hole in the fence. Then she squeezes through the gap and into Jack’s backyard. Now that Billie is getting bigger it’s harder to slip through, but it is still the quickest way to visit her best friend.

  ‘Is Jack home?’ Billie asks Jack’s dad when he opens the back door.

  ‘Sure, Billie,’ he says. ‘He’s upstairs. Shall I call him down?’

  ‘No, that’s OK. I’ll go up,’ says Billie. She runs up the stairs two at a time and swings open his bedroom door. Jack is sitting on the floor building a Lego spaceship.

  ‘Jack!’ she says, panting. ‘I need your help! I’m in big trouble.’

  Billie explains what’s happened and Jack listens carefully.

  ‘So I need you to come with me to get the basket back,’ she says. ‘I’m too scared to go on my own.’

  ‘All right,’ Jack says, packing away his Lego. ‘But no talking about witches or ghosts or anything else spooky like that, OK?’

  ‘OK,’ Billie promises. ‘Thanks, Jack. You’re the best.’

  Jack and Billie hurry downstairs. ‘Billie and I are just taking Scraps for a walk,’ Jack calls out to his parents.

  ‘OK,’ his mum calls back. ‘But only for half an hour. We’re going to your grandma’s for lunch.’

  Scraps jumps up and down excitedly when he sees the leash.

  Billie and Jack walk him out the front door and along the footpath, towards the spooky house. Outside, lots of people are walking their dogs. Billie and Jack wave at Mr Ahmed from across the road with his tiny poodle. Scraps and Mr Ahmed’s poodle bark at each other.

  As they get closer to the spooky house, Billie feels her heart begin to jump about. What if the witch sees us coming? she worries.

  What if she catches us and eats us for dinner?

  Soon they arrive. Billie looks up at the cracked window on the top floor glinting in the sunlight. It blinks back at her and she shivers.

  Jack ties Scraps to the fence and he and Billie open the gate as quietly as they can. Screeeee!, it squeals. Billie freezes, looking up at the front door.

  ‘Oh no!’ she says. ‘The basket’s gone! The wi– I mean, the woman must have taken it!’

  ‘Well, I guess someone lives here after all,’ Jack says calmly. ‘Come on. We’ll just knock on the door and ask for the basket back.’ He grabs Billie’s hand and pulls her to the door.

  ‘No!’ says Billie, pulling away. She stands shaking beside Scraps at the gate. ‘Don’t worry about the basket, Jack. Let’s go home! I’ll just tell Mum and Dad I lost it!’

  ‘Billie,’ says Jack, shaking his head and looking a little annoyed.

  ‘There’s no such thing as witches, remember? You made that story up.’

  ‘I know!’ Billie says. ‘It’s just that…’ But before she can finish, Jack has begun rapping on the front door. Almost immediately, it swings open and the tall white-haired lady is there. She looks even scarier than she did the day before.

  ‘Hello again!’ she says to Billie. ‘You’ve come back, have you?’ She smiles her yellow-toothed smile.

  ‘Um, we left a basket on your doorstep,’ Jack explains. ‘We were just wondering if we could have it back? Billie’s parents need it for a picnic.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ says the woman, resting her hand on Jack’s shoulder.

  Billie sees the horrible red splashes on her fingers.

  ‘I took it inside,’ the witchy woman continues. ‘Why don’t you come in? I’ve just got something in the oven that I need to check on.’

  Billie feels all her blood drain down to her feet. Children, she thinks. I bet that’s what she has in her oven! She turns to run away, but then, to her surprise, Jack answers the scary old lady.

  ‘Sure!’ he says, without looking at Billie. Then he steps right into the woman’s dark hallway.

  ‘Jack!’ Billie calls out. Her voice comes out like a terrified squawk.

  Jack turns and smiles curiously. ‘Can you watch Scraps for me?’ he says. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

  Billie’s mouth drops open in disbelief. Jack is going inside? she thinks. But he is the scarediest person, I know! Maybe the witch has cast a spell over him?

  But before she can say or do anything, the woman closes her front door.

  With Jack on the other side.

  ‘Jack! Jack!’ Billie calls out quietly. She doesn’t want the witch to come out and catch her too! But it is no use. The door stays firmly closed.

  I have to do something! Billie thinks. This is all my fault!

  Just then, she remembers. The house has a side window! She sprints around the corner to see if she can spot Jack inside. Billie finds the window, but it is too high for her to see through.

  Quickly, she looks around for something to climb. On the footpath by the fence is an old wooden plank.

  Billie leans it up against the side of the house and wedges the end under the windowsill.

  Then carefully, carefully, she inches her way up. The plank wibbles and wobbles, but Billie holds on tight. Soon her eyes are in line with the windowsill.

  Billie peers through the dusty glass into the dark room. What she sees nearly makes her fall off the plank in fright.

  Ghosts! Billie sees ghosts! Big tall eerie ghosts. Wide shadowy spooky ghosts. Pale white shapes in the big gloomy room.

  Billie jumps off the plank, her heart beating like a drum. It’s not just a witch that lives in there, but ghosts too!

  Should I go back home and get help? Billie wonders. But what if I’m too late? What if the witch has already put Jack into her bone-crushing machine? Or in the oven!

  Just then, she hears voices coming from the backyard. A loud cackle and then – Jack’s voice! He’s still alive! Billie feels dizzy with relief. She runs up to the side fence.

  She doesn’t want to climb it in case the witch spots her. So she searches desperately for a hole to peek through. Luckily, a piece of the rickety old fence breaks off in her hand. Billie peers through the crack.

  Through the hole she sees an overgrown garden full of tall grass and gnarly old trees. All around the garden are strange metal objects of all different shapes and sizes. Some of them are like weird machines. Others look like strange clockwork creatures.

  Billie hears the voices again. She pulls away some more of the wooden fence to see better. When she pushes her face to the hole, the splintery wood prickles her cheek.

  ‘Jack!’ she whispers. ‘Jack!’

  She even does their secret rooster call quietly but he still doesn’t reply.

  Then, when she is about to lose all hope, she sees him.

  ‘Jack?’ Billie can’t believe her eyes.

  There in the garden is Jack and the witch. They are walking around looking at all the weird mechanical creatures. The woman is carrying the basket.

  As Billie watches, Jack puts his hand into it and pulls out a lolly.

  Billie blinks and looks again. But there is nothing wrong with her eyes. Jack is really walking around the gard
en with the strange witchy lady – eating lollies!

  At that moment, Jack turns around. He sees Billie’s face pressed against the hole in the fence.

  ‘Billie?’ he calls. ‘What are you doing there?’ He jogs towards the side gate to let Billie in.

  Billie stands at the gate, her eyes wide and her mouth open.

  ‘What…?’ she stammers.

  Jack grins. ‘You weren’t worried about me, were you?’ he whispers.

  The woman in black swoops over. ‘Sorry to keep you waiting, love,’ she says. ‘I was just showing Jack some of my sculptures.’

  She swings her arms wide, pointing at the strange metal objects all around the garden. ‘Oh, and excuse me for eating your lollies. I just couldn’t resist them! But I’ll give Jack’s mum some money for them when I see her next.’

  The woman puts out her hand for Billie to shake. When Billie stands frozen, she looks down at her red splotchy fingers. ‘Oh, the paint’s dry, love. It just won’t wash off! I’ve been painting my new sculptures red.’

  ‘More sculptures?’ asks Jack. ‘Cool. You have so many!’

  ‘Yes! They’re inside, if you want to see them? I’ve covered them with sheets for now so they don’t get dusty. Grinding metal and sawing wood creates such a lot of mess!’

  Billie blinks. All the words she has in her head get stuck in her mouth.

  ‘I think we’d better get going, actually,’ Jack says. ‘Billie’s mum is waiting for her basket. Maybe we can drop in and see the rest of your sculptures another day, Mrs Wellington?’

  ‘Oh, please. Call me Andrea,’ she says. ‘Mrs Wellington makes me feel so old! All right then, kids. Do drop in any time. And thanks for the lollies!’

  Jack waves goodbye to Andrea at her gate. Her yellow teeth gleam in the sunlight as she waves back.

  ‘Andrea?’ says Billie to Jack, when they have rounded the corner.

  Jack grins a little sheepishly and shrugs. ‘I talked to Mum yesterday. I know you said we weren’t to talk to anyone about the Secret Mystery Club, but you scared us so much.’

  ‘But why didn’t you tell me she was friends with your mum on the way here?’ Billie says crossly. ‘I was scared, Jack! Really scared!’

  Jack bends down to scratch Scraps behind his ears. Then he looks up and gives her a strange look. ‘It’s not a nice feeling, is it?’ he says seriously. ‘When a friend tries to scare you on purpose.’

  Billie feels her cheeks get hot. She looks down at the ground.

  Jack is right, she thinks. It was mean of me to scare him. And Mika and Alex. It serves me right that Jack wanted to scare me back.

  ‘Sorry,’ she says, quietly. ‘I wanted to have a mystery to solve so much. And I thought it was just a bit of fun. But I guess I got carried away.’

  Jack smiles and passes Billie the basket. ‘That’s OK. Come on, we’d better get back. We don’t want to scare our parents now, do we?’

  Billie laughs. She walks alongside Jack swinging the empty basket.

  She feels buzzy with relief.

  ‘But come on,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘You have to admit, it really does look like a witch’s house! And, well, she does kind of dress like a witch.’

  ‘I know!’ says Jack. ‘You should have seen how messy her house was inside. I guess she’s too busy making her sculptures to clean up. Mum says she’s a famous artist. Her sculptures were pretty cool.

  You should come see them with me one day.’

  ‘Maybe,’ says Billie. She thinks about the strange white shapes she saw when she was peeking through the side window, and tries to imagine what weird sculptures might be hidden under there. ‘She still spooks me a little though.’

  Jack laughs. ‘You? But you’re the bravest person I know, Billie! You’re not scared of anyone!’

  Billie grins. Then she puts on a spooky old witch voice. ‘Obviously not as brave as you, my friend!’

  Scraps barks and the two of them jog along the street. They arrive at Billie’s house and Jack waits for her to go inside.

  Just then, Billie sees something white on the doorstep. ‘Jack! Come here!’ she calls.

  Jack bounds up to Billie with Scraps close behind. ‘What is it?’ he says.

  Billie bends down to pick up the thing at her feet. It is an envelope, made from stiff white paper. They peer down at the curly black writing on the front and read:

  Billie gasps. She tears open the envelope and tips out a large piece of folded white paper.

  ‘What does it say?’ Jack asks, trying to peer over her shoulder.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Billie says slowly. She turns the paper around and around. ‘I think it’s in code.’

  He and Billie stare at the paper. It has strange black squiggles running across it.

  ‘Wow,’ says Jack.

  ‘I’ll bring it to school on Monday,’ Billie says excitedly. ‘It looks like the Secret Mystery Club has our first real mystery to uncover!’

  Spooky House

  published in 2013 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  eISBN 9781743581124

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.

  Text copyright © 2013 Sally Rippin

  Illustration copyright © 2013 Aki Fukuoka

  Series design copyright © 2013 Hardie Grant Egmont

  Design by Stephanie Spartels