Ghosts on Board Read Online Free Page A

neck leap to attention.
    â€˜Stop whispering in my ear.’ It’s the man this time.
    â€˜Can you see us?’ asks the girl.
    â€˜I can hear you. Where’s that idiot Billy gone? Why can’t I see you?’
    We stop in the shadows just before the end of the passage. In front of us are the dungeons, lit with dull red lighting that’s supposed to be scary firelight and which is actually just not quite bright enough to see anything properly. They’re ancient, drippy, mossy stone rooms with heavy bars across the front designed to stop anyone getting in or out. All the mined dust and rocks from Professor Lee’s attempt to steal the castle meteorite are locked inside. Grandma holds the key – she’s even heaped the dust up so that it can’t be reached from outside the bars. She’s thought of everything. It’s impregnable. The bars are solid, the padlock’s enormous.
    But right now there’s a man inside.
    A man with staring red eyes and a battered top hat. He’s holding the bars as if he’s arrived inside them by accident, and talking to himself.
    â€˜Wow!’ whispers Eric.
    â€˜Oh!’ is all I can think to say. ‘Oh,’ and, ‘How did he get there?’

Chapter 6
    We skulk in a doorway opposite. ‘I’m sure he’s the same man I saw for a second down on the beach and again in the model village,’ I whisper. ‘He looks like someone out of a film.’
    â€˜A really old film,’ says Jacob. ‘A black-and-white one.’
    â€˜He shouldn’t be in there,’ says Eric. ‘It’s dangerous.’
    â€˜Well, let’s get him out,’ says Jacob, marching out of the shadows, his flip-flops slapping on the cobbles. ‘Hey!’ he shouts. ‘That’s off limits, that is.’
    Although it’s gloomy I can see that for a moment the man behind the bars seems to panic, but very quickly he pulls his face into a picture of charm. ‘Goodness. People. And you can see me? Oh! How delightful  …  boys.’
    â€˜How did you do that?’ I ask. ‘You’re not supposed to be there.’
    â€˜Yes,’ says Eric. ‘Do you have a key?’
    â€˜Like this,’ says the man, pulling himself tall and jamming his arm and shoulder through a gap in the bars. He strains against the bars, ramming his face into the space between them and wriggling. His head is not going to fit through, one of his ears squishes forward and his top hat crumples but he stays firmly his side of the bars. ‘Ow!’ he says, pulling himself backwards and rubbing his ears.
    â€˜I could have told you that you wouldn’t fit,’ I say. ‘What were you expecting?’
    â€˜I don’t understand. I just walked in,’ he says, shaking the bars. ‘A moment ago. It was easy. This is impossible, quite impossible – something ridiculous has happened.’
    Jacob laughs. ‘Ridiculous? You’re ridiculous. Fancy imagining you could get through those bars. Fancy thinking we were so stupid we’d believe you!’ He whirls around, his arms outstretched. Sparks scatter from his fingertips and bounce through the dull red glow illuminating everything. They reflect from the puddles on the floor and the dripping walls. They bounce into the darkest corners and everyone looks demonic in the light, especially the man in the cage who can’t take his eyes off Jacob.
    From nearby, I hear a sharp intake of breath, but there’s no one standing there. Once again I get the prickly neck feeling.
    â€˜I’m not ridiculous,’ says the red-eyed man, grinning madly. ‘I’m delighted you’ve found me. How serendipitous.’
    Jacob stops. The sparks stop. He eyes the man in the cell with great care.
    â€˜You’re really weird, you are,’ he says in the end, letting drop a single spark that floats on the air, dancing like a firefly before