Read Online The Haunting Within by Michelle Burley - Free Book Online

from outside that pierced through the air and penetrated the walls of the house. His heart felt like it had actually stopped beating for a second.
    “Did you hear that?” he asked in a breathless whisper.
    “Did I hear what?”
    “I thought I just heard a scream from outside.”
    “It was probably just an animal, that’s all! Don’t be a wuss!”
    Lisa was pleased with her explanation but Aiden didn’t buy it. He heard it and it didn’t sound like any animal he’d ever heard before. Even so, he said nothing more about it, not wanting to frighten his sister, and, in all truthfulness, himself. Lisa tried to forget the unnatural sound and focus on finding their mum.

18
    The ceilings were extremely high and the shadows reached right to the top completely filling every single recess like a sheet of pure solid blackness. The air upstairs was cool and calm apart from every so often when a slight breeze would whisper past their ears as though the house was talking to them, warning them about what lurked inside the desolate rooms…
    Taking the corridor that led straight ahead at the top of the staircase, the first door they came to had a tarnished brass sign hanging on the outside that said “bathroom” in an old-fashioned type of ornamental font. She didn't know why it would matter enough to her to give it second thought but Lisa found herself thinking of how heavy the plaque must be.
    Praying silently that she was in here so they could all just go back downstairs to the kitchen and stay there Lisa called through the old wooden door “Mum? Are you in here?” Pressing her ear against the door she could see up close the grain markings of the wood and smell the slight scent of varnish tinged with dust.
    There was no reply. Lisa asked again and still there came no reply. She put her hand around the circular metal door-knob which was warm, strangely, like someone had stood with their hand wrapped around it to warm it up. She turned the knob and pushed open the door. A strange sickly sweet, cloying smell like a floral scented perfume wafted past them, followed immediately by another smell of bleach that was so powerful it stung their eyes. Lisa groped around on the wall just inside the door for a light switch and flicked it on. It was a large bathroom with brass fittings that had rusted with age. In the centre of the room stood a large free-standing roll-top bath with clawed feet. To the right against the wall was an unremarkable toilet and next to that a bidet which Lisa thought was the epitome of posh. The squared porcelain washbasin was on the opposite wall. Much to their disappointment, their mum wasn’t in there with the old fashioned suite and its fittings. The tap in the sink was leaking steadily, making an annoying plopping noise as the stagnant water which lay in the rusted, lime-scaled taps wormed its way from the opening and splashed onto the cracked and yellowed enamel of the basin. Lisa crossed over to it and tightened the faucet to stop the monotonous dripping. As she looked up into the mirrored medicine cabinet on the wall above the sink she saw a shadow moving behind her to her left. Assuming that Aiden had followed her in the room she turned to face him but he wasn’t there. She looked to where the shadow had walked and saw it led to a door on the other side of the room. Becoming annoyed at her brothers immature game of hide and seek, she sidled quietly over to the wooden slatted door and gripped the handle firmly. Yanking the door open she prepared herself to be scared as Aiden jumped out at her, thinking he was funny, but what she saw was towels. Nothing but towels neatly folded on shelves. Aiden wasn’t in there. There was nowhere for him to hide either. The whole inside was taken up by shelves. Where was he then? She knew she’d seen him. What a time for him to play the prize prat and try scaring her. She was so going to get him back for this. Closing the door quietly she turned back to the room and