Free Sleepover Girls on Safari by Angie Bates

screaming and screaming. It took me ages to realise it was me.
    The corpse dangled from its chains like a horrible puppet. We all clutched each other gibbering with fear.
    Lyndz sounded as if she might be going to be sick. “You can see the blood!” she whispered. “He must have died SO horribly!”
    Kirstin squeezed past without a word and went to inspect the body. It’s unbelievable how cool Australians are in a crisis. “Hmmn,” she said. “I thought it was well-preserved for a corpse. A medieval torture victim should be dust and bones by now.”
    We stared at her in the flickering torchlight.
    “Relax, you guys!” she chuckled. “It’s a waxwork. They probably used to run scary dungeon tours or something. Not very good ones by the look of this guy.”
    I felt such an idiot. Now I really came to look, the dead body was obviously a dummy.I could tell Emma felt really embarrassed too.
    “I knew it wasn’t real,” she said quickly.
    “Is that why you held on so tightly you practically broke my arm?” Frankie sneered.
    “I did not,” Emma snapped.
    Kirstin was groping her way along the tunnel. “There’s a door at the end,” she called. “What do you reckon we’ll find in here?”
    “Don’t bother,” said Kenny gloomily. “It’ll just be another stupid dummy.”
    “Hey, I’ve come all the way from Australia for this,” Kirstin said cheerfully. “I want my money’s worth.”
    She lifted the old-fashioned latch on the door, then suddenly staggered back.
    “Are you OK?” asked Frankie.
    Kirstin shook her head. “I’m not sure. The door felt so cold,” she whispered. “It was so cold it hurt.”
    “I think we should go now,” Lyndz said in a rather high voice. “I think we should go back to the others.”
    Emma gave Frankie a wary look. “If I go it’s not because I’m scared,” she gulped.
    Frankie shook her head. “Me neither.”
    But before anyone could move. Kirstin began to shiver violently. “It’s so cold,” she moaned. “And everything’s going so dark.”
    To our horror, she crumpled to the floor, still moaning faintly.
    “What’s wrong with her?” Emma squeaked.
    “I think she had some kind of fainting fit.” Frankie sounded genuinely scared. “You’re the medical person, Kenny. What should we do?”
    “I’m going to get Mrs Weaver,” Kenny whispered. “Kirstin could be seriously ill.”
    “NO.”
    Considering she’d just fainted, Kirstin’s voice sounded really loud and strange. She rose very slowly to her feet. “Stay where you are, mortal!” she boomed.
    Something had definitely happened to Kirstin’s voice. It sounded deeper and harsher. Her face looked different too. Kind of stern and unfriendly.
    “You should probably sit down,” said Emma nervously. “Maybe you don’t remember, but you fainted.”
    “I am perfectly well, now I have this mortal’s body,” Kirstin said in her new scary voice.
    I had a very creepy feeling. Something really weird had happened to Kirstin. Something supernatural-weird.
    “What do you mean you’ve got her body?” Frankie quavered.
    “Quiet!” said the voice. “Or I will crush your pathetic bones to pulp!”
    Lyndz whimpered and covered her eyes.
    “Who – who are you?” stammered Emma.
    “I am an unquiet spirit. My life was taken in this dungeon and now I want your blood in revenge!”
    That’s all we needed to hear. We picked up our heels and ran screaming from the dungeon. I fell over and landed on my knees hard. But I didn’t care about the pain or that I might be bleeding on my new jeans. I just wanted to get out of the dark and back to safety. We ran up the stairs, into the reception hall and straight into Mrs Skinner.
    “Girls, girls, what’s all this?”
    Everyone was babbling hysterically. Frankie was actually crying.
    “It’s my fault!” she wept. “If I hadn’t dared Emma, the unquiet spirit wouldn’t have got Kirstin!”
    Mrs Skinner looked baffled. “Who got who? What are you