The Rattler (Rattler Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

1

Bank
Holiday Monday; 4.52 am, and the family, except Zoe, are running around the
house like headless-chickens. “Come on! The taxi’s here!” yelled Jim, from the
bottom of the stairs.
“Alright Jim, almost ready.
Just
stop rushing me!” answered Mary, crossly. She was frantically searching for
something in the bedroom. “Lost something dear?” asked Sally, as she popped her
head around the door. “Yes,” replied Mary, “I can’t find my other earring.”

“Is
this it by any chance?” said Sally. She passed a small gold earring to a very
relieved Mary. “I found it on the stairs.”

“Thank
God for that! Are you ready now?”

“Yes, dear.”

Zoe
came into the room, carrying a mug of hot chocolate. “They’re in the car waiting
for you,” she said. “Right, come here, you,” smiled Mary, giving her daughter
an all-in-one kiss and hug. “There’s some money in my top drawer if you need
anything,” she said, pointing to the dressing table. “I’ll be fine mum, go
on...” Zoe gestured to the door. “Dad’ll get the taxi driver to beep the horn
next!”

“The
old man will have his phone with him, and you can always call Uncle Carl if you
need anything,” said Mary, as she gave Zoe another hug. “I’ll be fine, mum,
honest. Just go; you’ll miss the flight.” Mary started to walk down the stairs,
and Sally gave Zoe a big cuddle. “Stay away from the second floor in the middle
of the night,” she whispered quietly in the girl’s ear as she followed Mary.
“What on earth does she mean by that?” Zoe wondered, as she waved the family
off on their travels.

She
walked back into her bedroom, drank some hot chocolate, and got back into bed.
I’m
home alone!
she
posted as her Facebook status via
the iPhone. She put the phone down onto the bedside table and closed her eyes.
She was eventually woken up by a message alert. It was a comment from Vana on
Facebook – just one word –
Party???
Zoe rubbed her eyes, and
replied,
lol :)
. It was always the plan for Vana to
come round – the only question was, how many would be coming with her?

2

Later
on that morning, Zoe was showered and dressed as she emerged from her bedroom
recording on her iPhone. “OK, peeps; part two of the popular video,” she said,
walking around the landing. “Now, what was Aunt Sally talking about?”

She
climbed up the stairs to the second floor. Again it felt cold and creepy.
“Obviously you guys can’t feel this sensation, but I can tell you it’s freaky.
It’s as if someone’s watching you. Aunt Sally said not to come up here in the
middle of the night. Why say that? Had she experienced something? I may have to
get Vana up here, filming us both.”

Zoe
walked around the landing. “As you can see, it’s empty. The old house never had
this many bedrooms, so furnishing them should be fun! Right, this is the bathroom
– the only one working in the entire house. Enough said on that.
Nothing strange in here.”
She moved the phone around the
room. There were two toothbrushes in a cup next to the washbasin. “That one’s
mine, so I guess someone’s forgotten theirs. I’m guessing it’s James. I don’t
think anyone else likes
Ben Ten
.”

As
Zoe walked towards the stairs leading up to the attic, she noticed the scratch
marks on the wall. “Right, I’m pretty sure they weren’t there the other day.
I’ll check the video footage. No doubt you guys will comment on that.” Zoe
flicked the light switch.
Still nothing.
She slowly
climbed the stairs and headed towards the closed attic door. The intrepid
explorer placed her hand on the doorknob and started to open the door when,
SLAM!
CRASH!
Zoe staggered backwards. “What the freakin’ hell was that?”

She
took several deep breaths, composed herself, and cautiously pushed the door
open. The loud creaking noise the door made caused goosebumps. Again, the attic
was empty apart from the chest. Still filming, she walked over to the open
window and closed it. She turned, and then noticed all the scratches on the
floor in front of the chest. “They definitely weren’t there the other day.” Zoe
wasn’t scared, but she struggled to piece it altogether in her mind. She’d
never seen a ghost, or witnessed anything paranormal, so her finger was firmly
pointing towards James.

She
went back down to the kitchen, made some toast, and sat at the table with her
laptop open in front of her. She examined the video footage. “I knew those
scratches weren’t there,” she said, as she watched the first video. It clearly
showed a lack of marks on the wall and on the floor. She was fascinated, but
also perplexed. “I bet it was James,” she said.
Here is the next weird and
wonderful video. Enjoy!
she
wrote on Facebook as
she posted video number two.

3

An
hour later, whilst listening to Pixie Lott, Eliza Doolittle, and Rihanna, via
her iPhone, Zoe was finishing off emptying boxes in the study. Her dad would be
working in there, drawing animations for computer games, when at home.
“Everything is now officially unpacked.” She collected the empty boxes together
and took them to the hallway. “One of mum’s chores can be ticked off the list.”
Still plugged into her iPhone, a short alert interrupted Rihanna. Jake, one of
her friends, had posted
You’re scaring the sh
!t
out
of me with these videos!
She laughed.
Thanx :).

4

The
rest of the day passed by quietly and uneventfully, as Zoe watched television
and caught up with friends from Uni on Facebook. She had always been a popular
girl, with lots of friends, and since her dad worked for a top computer games
company she had even more throughout the campus.

It
was dinner time. Zoe had skipped lunch to finish the unpacking, so she was
ravenous. She ordered a pizza using an app on her iPhone, and sat on the sofa
waiting for it to arrive. “Hurry up and bloody
come
round, Sky! I so miss you already,” she moaned, browsing the Freeview channels
on TV. Eventually, she settled for
Friends
on E4.

Insistent
rings on the bell, and loud knocking on the front door, woke Zoe up. “Shit! The
pizza man,” she muttered, as she got up from the sofa and walked into the hall.
She checked herself in the mirror, and opened the door. In front of her stood a
boy wearing a baseball cap showing the pizza company’s logo, holding a pizza
and bottle of Coke. “Sorry I’m a bit late,” he said, handing over the items.
“We’ve been mad busy, with it being a Bank Holiday and all.” He took the £10
note Zoe handed to him. “Yeah!” she said, “about that. I was like, just gonna
give you guys a call, and say,
where’s my mouthful – I need my pizza!
”

The
teenager smiled, took two discount vouchers out of his pocket that offered 10%
off the next purchases, and handed them to her. “Here take these as an
apology.”

“Thanks;
keep the change,” said Zoe, as she closed the door and walked back into the
lounge. “That’s a result!” She sat back down with her Coke and favourite 16”
pizza – topped with chicken and sweet corn. “Oh my God, that’s amazing,” she
said, taking a bite. “Pizza in Chelsea is good!” Her Facebook status later
changed to
My
first night alone and I’m
bravin’ it!

The
two videos had proved to be popular amongst her friends; they
liked
them, and gave them the famous
thumbs up
symbol.

1

2.03
am. Zoe abruptly woke.
Little Miss Piggy.
She
struggled from a deep sleep. There it was again.
Little
Miss Piggy.
Someone whispered in her ear. She was then conscious of
faint voices that seemed to come from the landing outside her bedroom, and also
from the second floor.

“
Zoe
,”
said a long drawn-out voice.
“
Oh, Zoe.
Out
here; I’m up here.
”

“Hello?
James?” Zoe forgot that she was indeed, still all on her own. “What the hell’s
going on?” she muttered. “Am I dreaming, or can I really hear voices? Hello? Is
anyone there?” She reached in the darkness for her iPhone, her hands shook as
she started recording. “God, it’s freezing in here. Get a grip girl. It’s five
past two in the morning, and I’ve just been woken up by someone whispering in
my ear.” She got out of bed and opened the door, silently. And there it was
again.
“Up here.”

“Listen
you guys, you must’ve heard that.”

As
she walked onto the dark landing, the only light coming from her phone, the voices
stopped. “I wonder if this is what my Aunt Sally was talking about. I’ll just
take a little peek upstairs.
Best to leave the lights off for
this.”
Zoe slowly felt her way through the darkness, recording as she
went, and walked up the stairs to the second floor. She filmed each room in
turn, but all was quiet. What she didn’t see was the shadow of a man; he moved
down the attic stairs and hid behind the bathroom door.

As
she turned to go back down the stairs, Zoe heard a tapping noise. “You must
have heard that,” she whispered, excitedly, into her phone. “Oh, please let me
have recorded it.” She walked down the stairs, in the darkness. The noise got
louder. Then it stopped. Zoe sat on the bottom step. “Shit! It’s gone quiet. I
can’t hear it now.” She was just about to pack it all in, and go back to bed,
when the tapping started again.

“We’re
on again!”

2

She
followed the noise. It came from the kitchen. “Maybe a neighbour’s cat got
trapped in there, or perhaps I left a window open?” She pushed the door open;
the first thing that the camera captured was the empty pizza box on the table.
“Honestly, guys, just for the record I didn’t eat all of that! Right, nothing
weird in here, but I can still hear the noise. Hang on. It seems to be coming
from the basement.” She nervously opened the door. It was pitch-black. She
turned on the light, and started down the stone stairs. Now it sounded as if
metal objects were being knocked together.

Wires
and cables ran across the ceiling. There were cobwebs hanging everywhere. In
the corner, where the noise was the loudest, was the central heating boiler
with copper pipes going up through the floor. “Mystery
solved,
guys. I guess it was just air in the pipes. Bit of an anti-climax, really,” she
said, as she pulled a face into the camera.

As
Zoe made her way back towards the stairs, she had a funny sensation, as if
she’d stepped into a giant cool-box. “Guys, I’ve just gone really cold.” She
shivered. “This is really strange,” she said, moving her hands in front of her.
“There seem to be a couple of cold spots here.” As she moved the phone slowly
around the basement, one of the floorboards near to the boiler creaked lightly.

“What
was that?” she said, moving over to the corner of the basement. “Hello? Is
someone in here with me?” The floorboard creaked again.

“OK.
You’ve gained my attention.” She stood the phone up against the wall, and bent
down to examine the floorboards. The boards moved under her touch. “Hey, this
one seems loose. I wonder if I can shift it. Just need to find something to
lever it up.” As she searched around, the phone continued to record. She did
not see orbs of light circling over the floorboards – the start of a ghostly
manifestation.

3

“I’m
back; right, let’s see if this works.” She tried to loosen the boards with the
aid of a rusty, flat-head screwdriver, which she found in a rotten toolbox.
“Success,” she said, lifting the floorboards. She reached for the phone.
“There’s something in the hole! Yeah, you guys definitely need to see this.”
Zoe moved the phone to show the gap in the floor before her. She propped up the
phone again, removed a parcel,
unwrapped
a dirty piece
of cloth, and found the first issue of the Daily Express newspaper.

“I
totally don’t believe it!”

She
moved her fingers delicately over the paper. “According to the date, this paper
is over a hundred years old. Wonder how much this would fetch on eBay?” Zoe sat
with her back against the damp wall, cold conditions forgotten, and started to
read the paper. A dirty thumb mark next to an article about the
Manor
Murderer
caught her eye. She was just reading about the tragic deaths of
the Clifford family when her phone beeped. She jumped. “OK
peeps,
I’m running out of space on my phone, so I’ll have to stop now.
Zoe out.”

Zoe
picked up the phone and newspaper and walked back up the stairs into the
kitchen. She poured some milk into a mug, shoved it into the microwave, and sat
at the table. Questions flooded her mind. Who, or what, had whispered in her
ear? Was it a ghost? And what the heck had led her to the basement? Whatever
the reason, she struggled to believe what had just happened. It wasn’t long
before the microwave pinged; she stirred some powdered chocolate into the hot
milk. “Right, time to go back to bed,” she said, carrying the newspaper under
her left arm. Sleep would certainly be out of the question now, but at least
she’d be warm and comfortable as she read the story.