The Hidden World by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online

that the cats wouldn’t get it, and then I told my momma. My momma called the vet, but when he lifted up the washbowl there was nothing underneath it but a dried-up old bath sponge. Same sponge I threw out the bathroom window the summer before.’
    Grace laughed and said, ‘She wasn’t wearing her glasses, that was the trouble.’
    But Jessica looked at Epiphany intently and said, ‘I’m talking about something else. I’m talking about things you see out of the corner of your eye, but when you look at them straight on they’re not there. I’m talking about things you see in the dark, but when you switch the light on they’ve gone back to being chairs or clothes.’
    Epiphany carried on stringing her beads. Jessica watched her, thinking she wasn’t going to answer, but after a while she said, ‘I’ve seen something like that.’
    â€˜What was it?’
    â€˜There was a shadow on my bedroom wall once. It looked just like a hunched-up man. I knew it couldn’t be a hunched-up man because my mom was downstairs talking to my Aunt Ellie. My bedroom door was open a little ways and it was only the shadow from the plant that stands in the hallway. But I couldn’t stop staring at it and I couldn’t help myself from feeling scared because it still looked like a hunched-up man.’
    â€˜Is that all?’
    â€˜No,’ said Epiphany, shaking her head so emphatically that the hoops in her ears jingled. ‘I heard my momma coming along the corridor and I thought, Oh no, the hunched-up man is going to get her! But before I could do anything the shadow ran all the way across my bedroom wall and disappeared into the corner. And it wasn’t a plant. It was a hunched-up man, or maybe some kind of a monster.’
    â€˜That’s true?’
    â€˜Cross my heart and spit in my eye.’
    â€˜So where do you think it went?’
    â€˜I don’t know. It just slipped into the corner, like – like there was a way through.’
    â€˜A way through to where?’
    â€˜To where you’re talking about … another world.’
    Grannie had been drying up cups. ‘Are you finished with your breakfast yet, Jessica? Grace needs to scrub the table.’
    Jessica finished up the last of her Cheerios. ‘Piff,’ she whispered. ‘I think there’s something here, in this house. I’ve been hearing voices, people asking me to help them. And seeing things, like the wallpaper moving. And last night I felt somebody stroking my hair.’
    â€˜Whooh,’ said Epiphany, rolling her eyes.
    â€˜So, what I’m saying is, why don’t you stay this afternoon and we’ll see if we can find out who these people are.’
    â€˜I don’t know … we were supposed to go skating.’
    â€˜I need a witness, Piff. Otherwise people will think it’s the bump on my head that’s done it.’
    â€˜I’m not sure.’
    â€˜Well, why don’t we both go skating, and then we’ll both come back here.’
    â€˜Are you allowed?’
    â€˜Sure I’m allowed.’
    â€˜Allowed to do what?’ asked Grannie, taking away her cereal bowl.
    â€˜I’m allowed to go skating, aren’t I? I’ll wear my thick woolly hat in case I fall over.’
    â€˜You know what Dr Leeming said. Plenty of rest.’
    â€˜I’ve had plenty of rest. What I need now is plenty of exercise.’
    â€˜All right then. But you be careful. I had a boyfriend who nearly drowned in Millard’s Pond.’

Under the Ice
    T he pond was already crowded when they arrived. It was almost a third of a mile across, frozen white, with crackly frozen reeds all around its edges and snow-laden trees overhanging it on three sides. Twenty or thirty Jeeps and Landcruisers were parked along the roadside, and dozens of people of all ages were spinning, circling and ice-dancing. The afternoon air was so frigid that