Room 13 by Robert Swindells Read Free Book Online Page A

flipping watch.’
    Fliss looked at hers. ‘Twenty-three forty-five – quarter to twelve.’
    ‘Good grief, is that all? It feels like we’ve been here for ever.’ He withdrew from the doorway and walked up and down, hugging himself and shivering. Trot and Lisa drew back too, leaving Fliss to watch.
    Nothing happened. After a while she said, ‘Hey, how about somebody else taking a turn here? I need to get warm too.’
    ‘I’ll do it,’ volunteered Lisa. Fliss went and stood on one leg beside the bath, resting a cold foot on its rim in order to massage some warmth into it. After a while she swapped over and rubbed the other foot.
    Presently they heard the distant chimes again. Midnight. They looked at one another and drifted towards the door. As they did so, Lisa let out a stifled cry and pointed. ‘Look.’ They looked. The cupboard was room thirteen.
    ‘Oh, wow,’ moaned Gary. ‘It’s real. I thought it was a dream, but it’s real.’
    ‘You scared then?’ Trot’s words carried a challenge, but his voice came out a croak.
    ‘I told you, didn’t I?’ breathed Fliss. ‘I told you it wasn’t a dream.’
    ‘Oh, Fliss,’ whimpered Lisa. ‘Oh, my God, what am I doing here?’ Fliss put an arm round her friend and squeezed. ‘It’s OK, Lisa. Take it easy. It’s just a door with a number on it, right? We don’t have to go in there or anything. We don ’t even have to go near it, for goodness sake.’ She looked at the others. ‘What now?’
    ‘Listen!’ Trot was watching the stairs. ‘I think someone’s coming.’
    ‘Oh, no!’ Gary crammed all of his fingers in his mouth and stood, gazing at the stair-top and shaking his head.
    There came the unmistakable sound of footfalls slowly ascending, and a pale shape came into view. Trot grabbed Fliss’s arm. ‘It’s Ellie-May.’
    ‘Sssh!’
    ‘But shouldn’t we try to stop her? Look where she’s going for heaven’s sake.’
    ‘No!’ Fliss shook her head. ‘She’s asleep, I think – sleepwalking, and you’re not supposed to wake sleepwalkers. We’ll watch what happens and tell the teachers in the morning.’
    Lisa looked at her. ‘That was part of the plan, was it?’
    ‘Yes.’ It wasn’t, of course. She hadn’t even considered what they might do if events reached this stage. She only knew she couldn’t leave this bathroom right now to save her life. Hers, or anybody else’s.
    They watched. Ellie-May crossed the landing to the cupboard door and reached for the knob. She hesitated for a moment with her hand on it, then twisted and pushed. The watchers peered intently as the door swung inward, but from where they were they couldn’t see anything beyond it except darkness. They watched Ellie-May walk into that darkness and close the door.
    ‘Phew!’ Gary moved from the door again, shaking his head. ‘I don’t get it, Trot. What does she do in there?’
    The other boy shrugged. ‘I don’t know, do I?’
    ‘Does anybody fancy having a look?’ whispered Lisa.
    Gary looked at her. ‘Do you?’ She shook her head.
    ‘I think we should wait here till she comes out,’ said Fliss.
    They waited. Half-past twelve came, and a quarter to one. They didn’t take turns now but huddled together, watching the door through eyes that burned, while their feet grew numb. From time to time, faint sounds reached them from beyond the door: sounds which might have made them shiver, even if they had not been cold. It was almost a quarter-past one when the noises ceased, and a few minutes after that when the door opened and Ellie-May reappeared. They watched as she closed the door, crossed the landing and slipped away down the stairs.
    ‘Well,’ breathed Gary, ‘what now?’
    ‘I vote we go get old Hepworth,’ said Trot, ‘and let him have a look in that cupboard.’
    ‘No.’ Fliss shook her head. ‘What if Ellie-May wasn’t sleepwalking at all? What if she’s been up to something in there – something she shouldn’t? We don’t know,