The Evil Hairdo Read Online Free Page A

for a month. Wayne could not play his console games and I was not allowed use the phone.
    I nearly cried there and then at the thought of being away from the phone for a month. They had only started letting me use it that year, but now it would be hard to do without it. I went to bed feeling miserable and ashamed.
    Just as I started to fall asleep that evening, I could swear I heard a soft, niggling voice in my ear. It was only barely loud enough to hear and I wasn’t sure. It was as if my hair was whispering something to me, but … no. It was all in my head. I was just upset. I fell asleep and forgot about it.
    ***
    I heard Mum calling my name. I was asleep, or at least I was waking up and I could hear her callingout …
    ‘Melanie! MELANIE! What on earth are you doing?’ she cried.

    I woke up and found that I was standing up. I was standing up and I was in Mum and Dad’s room. It must have been late, because it was dark and Mum and Dad were in bed. The cupboard door was open beside me. I frowned and was going to ask Mum what was going on when I realized I was holding something. In my right hand was a pair of scissors … and in my left was one of Mum’s dresses. The dress was almost cut in half. Onthe floor at my feet was a pile of Mum’s clothes, already cut into pieces.
    Mum’s face had gone a colour I had never seen before.
    I wailed and threw the scissors away, running out of the room. I tore down the landing and into my room, slamming the door behind me. I cried in big, heavy sobs. It was my hair. I was sure of it now. It was cursed. It was alive or something. I don’t know what, but it was evil whatever it was. They’d never believe that, though. They’d think I’d gone mad. I wasn’t sure what they did with mad children, but they were bound to lock me up and they would probably give me injections like we all got from the school nurse one year. I hated injections. And even if they locked me up, the evil hairdo would still be with me. If it could make me do things in my sleep, who knew what else it could do? I was going to have to get rid of it somehow.
    ‘Melanie!’ Mum knocked hard on the door. ‘Open this door at once! You have some explaining to do, young lady.’
    ‘It wasn’t me, Mum!’ I sobbed. ‘I wasn’t even awake! My hair made me do it!’
    That definitely made me sound mad. I was going to have to be more careful than that or I was going to end up in one of those hospitals with the high walls.
    ‘I was having a bad dream, Mum! I must have been sleepwalking.’ I kept my back to the door while I tried to make up something that an adult would believe. It was tough. Grown-ups don’t believe in much. Mum pushed the door and I moved away from it. She stood in the doorway and stared at me.
    ‘What were you thinking, Melanie … I mean … I mean, what were you thinking?’ She was so angry that she couldn’t even put the words together. Her face was bright red and her messed-up hair and sleepy eyes made her look quite scary. I shrugged and shook my head. I didn’t know what to tell her, so I gave up and didn’t say a word. I could see Wayne peeking around his door to see what all the noise was about, but he wasn’t about to come out – not with Mum talking in such a high voice. He didn’t dare. Even Dad steered clear of her when her voice went like that.

    In the end, everyone went back to bed, although Mum locked their bedroom door out of fear for the rest of her clothes. I couldn’t blame her. How was I to know I wouldn’t be back in there when I fell asleep again? One thing was for sure, I had to get rid of this hairdo tomorrow, before it did any more harm.
    As I lay with my face buried in my pillow and myduvet pulled up over my head, I could hear my hair rustling, like when there were mice in the walls last spring. It was creeping me out, so I sat up and turned on the lamp. I let out a whimper, and jammed my fist in my mouth.
    Some of my hair had fallen out. Lying there on the