Shiver Read Online Free Page A

the window – he needed an atmosphericsentence to begin with: something that would make readers’ spines tingle.
The snow began to fall steadily, blanketing the hills in silence.
    Too wordy?
he wondered.
    Oh, it’s not too bad
, he told himself.
In fact, it’s fairly promising
.
    He turned back to the computer screen, his fingers on the keyboard, but his cheeks suddenly drained of colour. From out of the screen drifted a face, its features assembling themselves before his eyes as if from smoke.
    He blinked his eyes.
    Was he imagining things? He shook his head to clear it of any fuzz. The face slowly faded out again, as if it had never been there.
    How could that be? He reached out a hand and touched the computer screen. Smooth and cold to the touch, like porcelain. Nothing there. An electric buzz emerging from the back of it. That was all.
    Surely writing a ghost story couldn’t summon up a real ghost, could it? That was absurd. Completely bizarre. I
mean, I know my English teachers tell me to use my imagination
, he thought,
but this is taking it a bit far
.
    â€œIf this is some kind of joke,” he muttered, “then it’s not very funny.” There was no way he could carry on writing his ghost story now.
    He made for the door and bolted downstairs.
    After he’d gone, the empty room seemed to let out a faintexhalation that was almost a sigh. A shady figure emerged, hovering near the window. It drifted slowly towards the computer and blew onto the screen. The opening lines of Charles’s ghost story vanished from sight.
    Â 
    Charles found the others in the kitchen.
    â€œWhere’s Mum?” he asked.
    â€œGone shopping,” Fiona told him. “With Isabel. House to ourselves.”
    â€œOh!”
    â€œWhat’s up?”
    â€œNothing,” he mumbled.
    â€œCharles, you’re white as a sheet,” she persisted. “What is it?”
    â€œYou’ve not been trying to write your ghost story again, have you?” Sebastian teased him.
    â€œHow did you know?” he snapped, glancing quickly in Fiona’s direction. For a brief moment Charles wondered if his brother had had anything to do with the hazy face he’d seen drift from the screen when he was writing. Perhaps Sebastian had done something to his computer? He was a bit of a technical whizkid.
Yes, perhaps that was it
, he thought.
It was just some kind of elaborate hoax
.
    â€œWait till you hear what we’ve found,” Fiona burst out, not giving Charles time to think about his problem any further.
    â€œWhat now?” he sighed, taking on his older brother’s stance. He slid into a seat next to them at the kitchen table, trying his best to look tolerably bored.
    â€œA secret staircase!” she cried. She nodded her headfuriously. “Honestly! We’ve found a secret staircase in the library!”
    â€œFiona, calm down,” Sebastian said.
    â€œBut it’s true!”
    â€œHave
you
seen it?” Charles asked, looking straight at his brother.
    Sebastian shook his head. “Not yet.”
    â€œWhat did Mum say about it?” he continued.
    â€œShe doesn’t know yet. Come on. We’ll show you.”
    Fiona leapt up from the table and began to lead the way past the grandfather clock and up the spiralling staircase. The house waited … and watched. Every unopened door seemed to contain a secret and the clock itself began to chime, its notes resounding as far as the tower itself.
    Samuel was a little reluctant to show the other two what they had discovered. He wasn’t sure what they would make of it.
    In the library, all four children stood before the fireplace.
    â€œAnd?” Charles said. “Now what?”
    â€œWait,” Fiona whispered. “Come on, Samuel … help me.” The two of them leant into the back of the fireplace and began to feel around for the loose stone slab. Nothing happened.
    Fiona’s face fell.