Free Haunted Shadows 1: Sickness Behind Young Eyes by Jack Lewis

above
stayed dead. It swung softly from a cord that stretched out from the ceiling.
     
    This was a room I shouldn’t be in, I
decided. I knew instantly it had been the girl’s room, and it felt like I was
intruding on something private. I walked over to the window and looked out.
From here I could see the terrible woods. It gave me an unspoiled view of the
darkened tree trunks and spindly branches that hid their secrets within.
     
    How far into the woods had the
witches been hanged, I wondered? Would the townsfolk want to venture too far
into the labyrinth? This house must have been here when the witch trials
happened. Had the occupants back then heard the women’s screams as they were
murdered?
     
    “Let’s get to work,” said Jeremiah.
     
    He opened a wardrobe and poked around
in it.
     
    “What exactly are we looking for?” I
said.
     
    He turned his head toward me. “I
honestly don’t know. Something. Anything that might belong to the girl. They’re
hiding something from us.”
     
    “Maybe they have a right to do that.
It’s not for us to poke around.”
     
    “Just check the bed. Try and pull it
away, something might be behind it.”
     
    I walked over to the bed. It was a
single-sized frame, certainly small enough for a kid to sleep in. I took hold
of the headboard and pulled it back, but I couldn’t see anything in the crevice
between the bed and the wall. With every step I took and everything I touched
in this room, a feeling of dread built up in my chest. The back of my neck
itched as if eyes burnt holes in my skin.
     
    Jeremiah rifled through the wardrobe.
I heard the clang of metal as he pushed back coat hangers, and a thud as he
lifted a shelf and let it drop. We shouldn’t be here , I thought. I
lifted the mattress, my arms straining with the weight. When I didn’t see
anything underneath, I let it fall. I had the feeling that something was hidden
in the room, but I didn’t know which direction to look. It was like my body was
a compass drawn to whatever it was, but something span the dial so that the
reading changed constantly.
     
    Footsteps sounded on the floorboards
as someone walked into the room. I span round and felt my face go red like a
naughty school child. Peter stood in the doorway, his arms crossed. He looked
at Jeremiah with his head in the open wardrobe, and grimaced.
     
    “I think it’s time you left,” he
said.
     
    Peter walked down the stairway first,
his angry steps pounding on the carpet. Jeremiah walked behind me, and he
leaned toward me and whispered into my ear.
     
    “Did you find anything?” he said.
     
    “No,” I replied. “But I’m sure
something is there. I could feel it.”
     
    Jeremiah moved his head away from me.
We reached the bottom of the stairs. Sharon stood across the hallway in the
living room with both feet behind the threshold of the doorway. It was if she
were a vampire who wasn’t invited to step over the line.
     
    “I like the place,” said Jeremiah, in
as affable a tone as he could manage. “And I’d be interest to talk to your
estate agents. Think I could take one last look around?”
     
    “I think you’ve seen enough,” said
Peter.
     
    “I really won’t consider putting in
an offer unless I get another viewing.”
     
    Peter leaned in, his forehead creased
and eyebrows arched. “I don’t give a feck if you put in an offer or not, I’ll
never sell to you.”
     
    Sharon shrank into the doorway, as if
the harsh tone of her husband's words had pushed her back. I felt my heart
beat. As much as being in the house made my skin itch, I knew something was up
there. The key to it all was in that room, the one that I was sure the girl had
inhabited. If we left now, we would never get another chance.
     
    Jeremiah looked to me, eyes wide as
if he was telling me to do something. But what? Peter obviously didn’t believe
our story, and he’d just caught us snooping in the spare room. He had his
reasons for lying to us, and he