A cold dark night suddenly fills up with sounds and shadows that threaten to overpower ...

It was a cold winter night and I was sleeping in my warm and cosy bed. My cousins had come to stay with me at my house. The sound of thunder could be heard in the distance, but getting closer by each passing minute.

I woke up and saw that my cousins were not sleeping in the spare beds in my room. They were gone! I had a thousand questions in my mind, ‘Where were they? Had someone kidnapped them?’

This filled me with fright. I wondered if I should go and tell my parents, then decided to check downstairs first to see if they were playing tricks with me or trying to pull my leg? I stepped out of the room and decided to go downstairs to investigate.

When I stepped on the top step, I slipped and rolled down the stairs like a ball. It was the most miserable experience rolling down the stairs! My legs were hurting and I had a bump on my forehead.

When I entered the living room, the electricity went off and because I couldn’t see anything, I accidentally bumped into the wall. This made me feel dizzy. When I looked beside me, I saw a figure but couldn’t make out what it was. The figure started to move here and there, and then I heard eerie and spooky sounds.

I glanced back towards the direction of the figure, but there was no sign of it this time. This made me frightened. Again I could hear someone talking and jumping in the room. I stayed rooted where I was.

Suddenly the TV switched on by itself. I was totally scared now. Then I felt as if someone was patting my shoulder. I hurried in the direction of the electricity switch and turned it on. Suddenly a person with bandages appeared in front of me and turned off the lights. I froze with fright for a moment but managed to muster enough courage to move away, only trip over a rope.

Someone then switched the lights on again. I thought the mummy I had just seen had appeared again and I screamed at the top of my voice as I couldn’t bear it anymore. I then looked toward the direction of the figure and saw my mother.

For an instance I was too frightened to move, then relief came over me and I rushed towards her and hugged her. As I breathlessly tried to tell her what I had just experienced, I heard laughter. My cousins jumped out from behind the sofas and started laughing at me. I couldn’t believe it! How could they scare me like that?

But soon I was also laughing with them after I had calmed down and we all went to my room to finally sleep. But I couldn’t sleep for a long time as I was planning on how I would get back at them for playing such a mean prank at me. Get ready cousins, it is going to be my turn to scare you soon.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 19th, 2018