Free Urban Myth by James Raven Page A

an arm and a leg poking out from under the duvet. It immediately struck me as odd. If Tina was still in bed then who the hell had flushed the toilet? I felt a cold shiver as I went straight over to the en-suite door and wrenched it open. But the tiny room was empty – not a bogeyman in sight. The fluorescent light was buzzing overhead and I could hear water flowing back into the cistern, which was concealed behind the tiled wall.
    I went back into the bedroom. Tina wasn’t moving but she had covered her head with a pillow to shield her eyes from the light.
    ‘Did you just go into the bathroom?’ I asked her.
    She stirred, moaned, pulled the duvet up over her shoulders.
    ‘Talk to me, sweetheart,’ I said. ‘Have you just been to the toilet?’
    She moved the pillow and peered at me through half-closed eyes.
    ‘No, I just woke up,’ she groaned irritably.
    I went back into the en-suite to check the toilet. There was nothing special about it: white porcelain pan, plastic seat and a normal domestic push-button flush control fitted to a tile.
    ‘Have you finished messing around in there, Pops? I’m bursting to go.’
    Tina had dragged herself out of bed and was standing behind me in her PJs with her legs crossed and her arms folded.
    ‘Did you sleep OK?’ I asked her.
    She gave me a funny look. ‘Yeah. Why?’
    ‘You didn’t wake up in the night or have any nightmares?’
    ‘No. Should I have?’
    I shook my head. ‘I just wondered. Only your brother had a bad night. He went walkabout in his sleep.’
    ‘Well that’s not so unusual,’ she said. ‘I’m only glad he didn’t come in here and freak me out. Now can I get in there before I pee over the floor?’
    Nicole was already preparing breakfast when I got back downstairs. Eggs, bacon, tomatoes and a loaf of bread had been assembled on the worktop.
    ‘Where’s Michael?’ I asked.
    ‘In the living room watching television. Do you mind laying the table?’
    As I got to work, I said, ‘Something weird just happened upstairs in Tina’s bedroom.’
    Nicole stopped what she was doing and gave me a long searching look.
    ‘What now, for heaven’s sake?’
    I told her about the toilet flushing whilst Tina was in bed.
    ‘Is that it?’ she said.
    ‘What do you mean is that it? Don’t you think it’s strange?’
    She shrugged. ‘Well it’s an odd thing to happen, I suppose. But so what? It’s probably a mechanical fault or something.’
    ‘But on top of everything else …’
    She rolled her eyes. ‘Jack, you’re making it sound like this is some kind of horror movie – one of those cliché-packed classics where the family move into a lovely house and nasty things start to happen. Eventually they realize the place is haunted and they all get possessed or worse. Is that what you think – that this house is haunted?’
    ‘I didn’t say that.’
    ‘No, but you’re hinting at it. Christ, a couple of unusual things have happened since we got here. That’s all. It’s no big deal.’
    ‘Well I’m not so sure,’ I said. ‘We’ve had the snake, the smell, the light, the doors, those voices—’
    ‘Hold on a sec,’ she said, interrupting. ‘What’s this about doors?’
    Shit.
    ‘Come on, Jack. Explain.’
    So I told her about finding all the doors open on our return from the walk. She was unimpressed.
    ‘So, not content with letting your imagination run riot, you’ve also decided to keep things from me,’ she said.
    I felt a pang of guilt. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you – not after the scare with the snake.’
    ‘I’m a grown-up, Jack. Not a child. You don’t have to keep things from me. Especially nonsense like that.’
    ‘It won’t happen again.’
    ‘I should hope not. Is there anything else you’re not telling me?’
    Oh, yeah. A crazy woman phoned me a few days ago and warned me not to bring you here. She said it wouldn’t be safe. But I decided you didn’t have to know about it
.
    ‘No, there’s