My Haunted House Read Online Free Page B

ghost. It was a bit disappointing, really, as that was kind of backward. I was meant to be scared of him .
    â€œSo what’s your name?” I asked.
    He still didn’t answer, which I thought was rude. Aunt Tabby would have told him it was rude too. He looked away and stared at the floor, and I could tell he was hoping that I would just go away. But there was no way I was going to walk away from the very first ghost I had ever found, especially after I’d been looking for one for such a long time.
    â€œYou must have a name ,” I told him. I had expected a ghost to be more fun than this one was turning out to be. But then I heard something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. A weird, hollow whisper filled up the air all around me.
    â€œEdmund…” the whisper said. It was him —the ghost boy—talking. And it was spooky .
    Edmund floated up from the floor and drifted over toward me. I took a step back, as I suddenly wasn’t so sure that I wanted to talk to a ghost after all. And then Edmund said something really odd—he said, “Are you the Tabitha?”
    He spoke with a strange accent that reminded me of some French people who had once turned up at the house, thinking it was a guesthouse. They hadn’t stayed long.
    â€œNo,” I told him, “I’m the…I’m Araminta.”
    â€œGood,” said Edmund, and he sort of walked up the wall and began to wander upside down along the ceiling. “I do not likethe Tabitha,” he said in his funny accent. “The Tabitha is noisy.”
    He had a point, I thought. There were times when I didn’t like the Tabitha either, and the Tabitha was most definitely noisy. In fact, just as Edmund was saying that, I could hear Aunt Tabby angrily shoveling coal into the boiler and banging the door closed with a loud clang. I figured Edmund must have heard a lot of Aunt Tabby’s tantrums over the years.
    Then, just as I was beginning to like Edmund, he said, “You must go now.”
    â€œWhat?” I asked him.
    â€œYou must go. You may not come any closer.”
    â€œWhy?”
    He didn’t answer. He just floated up and down in front of me with his arms outstretched, as if he could stop me from goingpast him. He need not have bothered, as there was no way I was going to walk through a ghost. Brrr. No way at all.
    â€œWell, I don’t want to go any farther, so there,” I told him. “I only came to look for the way to the balcony.”
    â€œThe balcony is not down here,” said Edmund, who had begun slowly spinning around for some weird reason—don’t ask me why. “So you must leave. Farewell.”

    It sounded to me as though Edmund knew where the balcony was, so I asked him if he would take me there.
    â€œIf I take you to the balcony, will you go away?” he asked.
    I don’t hang around where I’m not wanted. I have better things to do.
    â€œWell, I don’t want to stay down here, do I?” I told him.
    â€œDon’t you?” said Edmund. “Oh good. Follow me.”
    So I followed him.

7
THE BALCONY
    E dmund glowed really brightly, so I switched off my flashlight to conserve the batteries. Conserving your batteries is something you should always think about in a secret passage, as you never know how long you might be there, and it is the worst disaster ever to be in a secret passage with no light.
    I followed Edmund floating along thepassage, and I thought about Aunt Tabby on the other side of the wall and how she would have a fit if she knew what I was doing right then—but not as much of a fit as she was going to have when I sprang my Awful Ambush from the balcony.
    Soon I was climbing back up the rickety old ladder while Edmund just floated up in front of me. I thought how much easier it was for a ghost to go up ladders than a regular person. It didn’t seem fair somehow, especially as I had to carry my