Petrify (2 page)

“Get a grip, Ella!” Josh grins. “When are you going to accept there's no such thing as witches?”

I step back from him. “You're wrong Josh. This is dangerous.”

“I'd like to see her come and get it,” he laughs.

I shake my head. I have a feeling his words may come back to haunt him.

* * *

The next morning I'm woken up by a banging on the door.

“Do you know how early it is?” I demand, as I stare at Josh.

He ignores the question. “Take it.” He pushes the stone hanky at me.

Illustration 3: On Ella's doorstep. Terrified and tired Josh handing Ella a stone hankerchief, Ella looking at Josh, shocked and angry.

I stare down at the reddish brown stone. “I don't want it,” I say.

Josh's voice shakes. “I couldn't sleep last night. I kept hearing noises. Freaky sounds! As if someone was trying to get in through my window…”

“Oh yeah?” I guess Josh is setting me up so he can laugh about me with the others. I bet the hanky didn't even come from Ma Jessop's cave at all.

“Take it,” Josh begs. “I don't want it.”

I shrug, deciding to play it cool. Even if the hanky did come from the cave it's not as if anything will happen to me.

I'm not the one that stole it.

I put the stone hanky on the windowsill in my bedroom, then forget all about it as my mum takes me and Nan out for the day.

We get back late and Nan makes an excuse to get me on her own.

The moment the door shuts she asks, “Well, what happened?”

I don't tell her we went to Ma Jessop's cave. And there's no way I'm going to tell her about the hanky. Besides, the more I think about it the more I'm sure Josh is winding me up. I mean, what would Ma Jessop have wanted with a stone hanky?

“Nothing happened,” I lie. “We just hung around for a while.” I feel bad for not telling her the truth but I'd have felt worse if I'd made her worry.

I watch a bit of TV then I head up to bed, switch off the light and slowly drift into sleep.

I'm not sure what wakes me.

I lie in the dark, my eyes wide open, my heart thumping. The bedside clock tells me it's five past midnight. I strain my ears, but can't hear a thing. But just as my breathing slows down there's a noise directly above my bed on the roof. My mind races as I try to work out what could be making it. A branch, I tell myself, it's just a branch. The scrabbling moves in the direction of the window. Perhaps it's a bird, I think, starting to panic now. Or maybe some kind of rat or mouse?

My fingers tighten on my duvet as a horrible thought occurs to me.

The window is open.

I lie still, unable to make myself move.

Get up! Shut the window!
a voice shouts in my head. The noise on the roof stops for a moment. It's long enough for me to sit up and push off my duvet. I race across the room and bang the window shut. My fingers tremble as I turn the key in the window lock.

It's pitch black outside. I can't see anything, but then, I don't want to. I turn and run back to bed.

As I pull the duvet up over my head, I hear the worst noise yet.

A screeching sound fills my room.

There's no mistaking what it is.

It's the sound of fingernails scraping against glass.

Illustration 4: Ella in pyjamas attempting to lock the window, stone hanky visible as she pulls back curtain. Also if possible, on the opposite side of the window to where Ella is looking at the lock, a shadowy hand with long, twisted fingernails pressed against the glass

I don't know when I fall asleep but I'm woken by birdsong. Sunlight streams through the gap in my curtains. I hurry over to the window.

It's still shut and locked and the stone hanky is exactly where I left it the day before.
Taking a deep breath I unlock my window and push it open. I lean out and stare down at the garden.

At first everything seems the same. My bike is still propped up against the fence. I can see the washing on the line. Then I stare directly below. My eyes widen as I see footprints in the soft grass. They're small, almost like a child's.

In a rush, Nan's words come back to me.

The wickedness inside her was so powerful it stopped her growing…

I shake my head. It's impossible. Sure, I believe that curses could exist, but there's no way I believe Ma Jessop's still
alive
.

My gaze moves to the stone hanky. I think back to the sound of fingernails scraping against glass.

It doesn't matter if I believe Ma Jessop is alive or not. I'm not risking another night like that. The stone hanky's going back.

Today.

I'm planning to go round to see Josh but he beats me to it. I open the door to find him standing there, his finger about to press the bell.

“How did you sleep?” he asks. “I had a much better night.”

“That's because you sent all the trouble around to me,” I snap.

I march up the side path and show him the footprints on the grass.

Josh hardly glances at them. Instead he stares at the fence.

“Look.” He points at five scratch marks in the wooden fence. They look as if they've been made by something sharp.

“Fingernails?” I shudder.

Josh's eyebrows jerk up.

“We have to take the hanky back,” I say, even though I am terrified. “Maybe then we'll be left alone?”

Before Josh can reply, the kitchen door opens and my mum calls out to us, “Come here! There's some bad news.”

“Carrie and Helena went to a party last night and were in an accident on their way home,” Mum tells us. “A tree fell on the roof of the car they were in.”

“Oh no!” My stomach twists. “Are they going to be alright?”

Mum nods. “They're in hospital. They're going to be okay but it will be a while before they're able to come home again.”

Josh and I look at each other.

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” he asks.

I press my lips together, feeling sick. Poor Carrie and Helena. Was this because of our visit to Ma Jessop's cave?

Illustration 5: Illustration of a car crushed by a tree or large branch, ambulance in background.

I can't help worrying that things are only going to get worse.

* * *

Josh and I make our way through the woods without talking. When we reach the quarry Josh places the hanky at the cave's entrance.

“Aren't you going to go in?” I hiss. “So you can leave it where you found it?”

Josh's face is pale. He shakes his head.

“Do you hear that?” I grip Josh's arm. From the depths of the cave a strange sound echoes.

“Something's in there!” Josh panics.

We don't run. There's no way either of us is going to turn our back on the quarry. Instead we put one foot behind the other, walking backwards as fast as possible. Only when the quarry disappears from sight do we turn and race along the woodland trail.

“Let's hope that's worked,” I gasp. “I just want life to get back to normal.”

That night I sleep with my light on but all is quiet. Getting dressed the next morning I decide that taking the hanky back has worked.

Maybe now Josh will finally accept why we never go into the woods.

As I'm eating a piece of toast I get a text from Josh. My heart sinks as I read it.

Karl's in hospital. Was
attacked last night by
Milo.

“No way,” I whisper. Karl's dog Milo is the dopiest animal ever. Getting out of his basket to eat his dinner was the most energy he'd spend in a day.

Nan joins me and reads the text over my shoulder. “Karl? Wasn't he with you when you went to the woods?”

My mouth is dry. “And Helena and Carrie.”

Nan sits opposite me, her blue eyes serious. I tell her everything. When I say we were at the quarry she gives a little gasp. She's quiet for a while and then reaches out and covers my hand with hers.

“There's something I've never told you about the witch,” she tells me. “Do you know how she kept herself alive?”

It's the worst part of the story. Ma Jessop would kidnap people and drink their blood. As she did, she would become younger and younger. I can imagine her skin getting smoother, her thin grey hair becoming thick and dark, her hunched back straightening, her lips red with blood.

Illustration 6: Really scary illustration of Ma Jessop, still hunched like an old lady but with darker hair, and a younger face, blood around her mouth. Perhaps a shadowy figure of a child chained up in background?

“She always took young people.” Nan's voice lowers. “Children… teenagers. Their blood is the most powerful, you see.” Nan takes a deep breath. “It's said that, deep in the caves, water runs down the walls. If anything is left in the water it slowly turns to stone. It's called being petrified.”

“The hanky,” I say slowly. “The hanky was petrified.”

Nan rubs her hand over her face. “The children who disappeared,” she whispers. “It's said they were chained to the walls.”

My stomach twists as I understand what Nan's telling me. The victims were slowly turned to stone. While still alive.

There's a knock at the front door. Josh stands there, his eyes wide with shock.

“Milo is being put down. They took him away this morning.”

I shake my head, unable to speak. Karl loved that dog! I blink hard as tears fill my eyes. “We've got to do something before anything else happens…” I say, trying not to cry.

I don't finish my sentence, but I can tell Josh knows what I'm thinking.

Before anything worse happens to us.

I take Josh to Nan.

“In the past, people would leave Ma Jessop gifts at the entrance to her cave,” Nan says.
“It was the only way to calm her if she became angry.”

As soon as Nan goes to have a lie down, I say to Josh, “We have to go back to the quarry and leave a gift.”