Mandy spent the rest of the day glaring at him and refusing to talk, and he couldn’t really blame her. She’d been right, things had gotten worse.
All that day he’d felt as if people were standing close to him, leaning over him and staring. He tried to ignore it, but it was so unpleasant that he’d hardly been able to eat supper. Then later that night he’d been wakened by the sense that someone had touched him. He opened his eyes to see the black silhouette of a man standing before him. And then the man was gone, just like that. Rip lay still, absolutely still, feeling as though the man was still standing there and that he meant no good, and that he had no face but what Rip had seen, a blackness like a shadow made solid.
Rip was so scared he could hear his own heartbeat and he wanted to cry but he didn’t dare, so his throat ached and it was hard to breathe and his mouth was as dry as cotton and he had to use the pot but couldn’t. He wanted to wake one of the others so that he wouldn’t be alone in the dark, but he was afraid to speak out loud. Rip was so wide awake it never occurred to him that he might go back to sleep. But somehow he did. And when he woke, it was with the feeling that someone unseen was leaning over him. He lay there thinking, I’ve got to get out of here.
Twice a day a fat man with a mean face and a bad smell came to bring them food and take away the slops bucket, replacing it with an empty one. Other than that the door was locked and there were bars on the windows and they were up high anyway. So Rip would have to get out when the door opened.
‘I’m going to get out of here,’ he told the others.
The girls just looked at him; Mandy in scorn, Neesa with eyes wide. Rip didn’t think she knew what he was talking about.
‘Oh, they’ll come and get you really soon now,’ Kay teased. ‘And they’ll chop off your head, whoosh!’ He pretended to be waving a sword.
‘They’ll probably come for you first,’ Rip snapped. ‘You’ve been here longer than me!’
Kay gasped, taken by surprise by Rip’s vehemence and the truth of what he had said. Then he got mad and made to run at Rip.
‘Stop it, Kay!’ Mandy snapped.
By the way the other boy stopped in his tracks Rip knew he’d been right about Mandy teaching Kay a thing or two about behaving himself. Kay still glared, but he did it from a safe distance.
‘How do you think you can get out?’ Mandy said.
‘I don’t know,’ Rip said. ‘Maybe we throw a sheet over his head and while he’s trying to get it off we run out of the door.’
Kay made a farting sound and laughed. ‘That’s so stupid! He’s twice as big as you. All you’d be able to do is throw a sheet over his bum and his brains may be there, but his eyes and hands are what you have to worry about.’ He laughed and pointed at Rip. ‘Stupid!’
‘Shut up, Kay!’ Mandy snapped. ‘It’s what we’ve all got to worry about. We’ve been lucky so far, but that’s not going to last.’ She glowered at him, then lowered her voice. ‘Besides . . . it’s getting worse.’
Kay’s eyes widened and he cast a quick look around. Clearly he was startled that she would even hint at the presences that haunted them.
‘Yeah. So stop pretending that you’re not just as scared as the rest of us and help us think up how we’re going to do this,’ Rip yelled.
Kay looked resentful and mulish, but then he suddenly brightened. ‘Hey! I know, we can trip him! Then we can throw a sheet over him.’
Mandy looked thoughtful. ‘And we could maybe tie it around him so he couldn’t get loose.’
‘We could take his keys,’ Rip said, ‘and lock him in.’
‘We could whack him on the head!’ Neesa cried gleefully. ‘Bonk! Bonk, on the head!’
The others laughed. ‘Good idea!’ Rip said and patted the little girl on the back. ‘That’s just what we’ll do.’
When their burly caretaker came with their breakfast Rip and Kay were on opposite sides of the room playing catch with an apple. The man turned to put the tray of food on the table that was usually by the door only to find it had been moved to the centre of the room and shrouded in a sheet that trailed out onto the floor.
‘What’s that doin’ there?’ he growled.
Neesa raised the sheet on one side and said haughtily, ‘It’s my house and this is where it’s s’posed to be.’ She dropped the sheet.
‘You two,’ the man said to the boys, ‘move that back over here.’
‘No!’ Neesa shouted. It was amazing that so much angry sound could come from such a petite source.
‘Please,’ Mandy said, looking pained, ‘can we wait until she’s finished playing with it? If we move it, she’ll yell the house down.’