The Midnight Chimes Read online

  For Lauren Fortune – thank you!

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: A Creepy Creature Comes to Visit

  Chapter 2: Tree-maggedon Strikes our School

  Chapter 3: Our Maths Lesson is Haunted

  Chapter 4: Annie Makes a Wish

  Chapter 5: We Find Out What’s Hidden in the Grimdean Dungeon

  Chapter 6: Mr Cryptorum Follows the Bats

  Chapter 7: Our New Club Has the Dumbest Name Ever

  Chapter 8: I Fight with a Frostblade for the Very First Time

  Chapter 9: Aiden Invents Some Awesome Gadgets

  Chapter 10: Blagdurn Heath is Full of Nasty Surprises

  Chapter 11: Nora Knows Useful Facts About Hairy Monster Bulls

  Chapter 12: Something Unexpected Lands on the Grimdean Lawn

  Chapter 13: I Trap a Kobold in a Roasting Dish

  Chapter 14: I Start to Wonder About the Hidden Wish

  Chapter 15: The Bird of Death Comes to Visit

  Chapter 16: We Use a Ton of Garlic

  Chapter 17: I Make a Wish for My Sister

  Chapter 18: We Search for the House of Sweets

  Chapter 19: I Eat the Gingerbread

  Chapter 20: We Face a Swarm of Deadly Creatures

  Chapter 21: Annie and Me Take Our First Helicopter Ride

  Chapter 22: Cryptorum Tells Me a Secret

  A Creepy Creature Comes to Visit

  can remember desperately wishing my life would get more exciting. We all do, right? Every week’s the same: school – homework – brush your teeth – go to bed. It’s even worse when you have four brothers and sisters moaning at you and hogging the TV. But if I’d got the chance to pick how things would get more exciting, I’d have chosen owning a pool with a water slide or winning a lifetime’s supply of free pizza.

  I wouldn’t have picked seeing freaky things in the middle of the night and discovering a whole creepy world that most people don’t know about. Trust me: no one needs excitement like that.

  The first time I saw something weird was one Wednesday at midnight when the clock at Grimdean House woke me up. As it finished striking twelve, I heard growling outside. Drawing back the curtain, I saw a creature with angry eyes and brown spines scratching round our front garden. It gave me this strange shiver that ran right from my shoulders to my feet. The creature was small – less than half my size – but it looked mean, like a goblin crossed with a porcupine.

  The odd thing was that when my little sister, Annie, woke up and crept over to the window, she didn’t notice it. The creature had spotted us though. It stared back with evil, piercing eyes, before vanishing into a bush. I got the feeling it didn’t like us very much but I told myself not to panic. As long as it stayed out there we were fine. Why would a spiny thing want to come inside anyway?

  I was standing in the kitchen a couple of days later when the same shiver ran through me. I stared round quickly. Was the creature inside? I didn’t want to see it, but believing it was here and not being able to see it was worse.

  Everything looked normal – the dented kitchen table, the wooden cupboards and the pile of washing-up next to the sink. My sister Sammie was standing by the oven stirring gravy, her wavy hair pinned back with a clip. My elder brother, Ben, was sitting at the table with earphones in. Annie was colouring a picture and my younger brother, Josh, was trying to pinch the crayons from her. Nothing else moved. If there was a creature here, it was pretty well hidden.

  I ducked to look under the table. Then I peered behind the door and checked the dark corner beside the washing machine. Nothing.

  “Robyn, what are you doing?” Sammie banged the saucepan with her wooden spoon.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  Having so many brothers and sisters basically sucks. What sucks even more is being number three out of the five of us – being smack in the middle, like the meat in a sandwich. The older ones – Sammie and Ben – get to do cool stuff that I’m not allowed to, like go to the teen rollerblading night at the sports centre. The younger ones – Josh and Annie – are totally spoilt.

  I just get moaned at by everybody, AND I have to share a room with Annie because we’re the two youngest girls (even though I’m eleven and she’s six). That’s what it’s like in the Silver family – everyone talks at once, and if you don’t sit down fast enough for dinner most of the food’s gone before you’ve even picked up your knife and fork.

  “Robyn!” Sammie rolled her eyes at me. “Get the cutlery out, and the table mats. Hurry up!”

  “In a minute.” I scanned the kitchen and shivered again. I still couldn’t see it. Maybe it was somewhere outside. Maybe I was just cold and my shiver had nothing to do with any creature.

  I pulled the drawer open, grabbing a handful of cutlery. Then I opened the cupboard and reached for the mats. Suddenly, something growled. An angry blur of spikes and claws leapt out of the cupboard, and I jerked backwards so fast that masses of knives, forks and spoons flew out of my hand and scattered all over the floor.

  The brown spiny thing bared its sharp teeth. It was the same creature I’d seen outside at night, although close up it looked even wilder and spikier. It smelt totally disgusting, like the stink of bad drains. Pouncing on to my left foot, the creature sank its teeth into my bunny slipper, which luckily for me was well-padded with fluff.

  I kicked out, shaking the thing off my foot. It crouched on the floor, still growling.

  “Robyn!” snapped Sammie. “What are you doing? You’ll wake up Mum. You know she went to bed with a headache.”

  “What? I couldn’t help it! This thing jumped out at me.” I looked round for something to use as a weapon. Why weren’t they helping me? Did they want me to be eaten by a goblin-porcupine? “Er . . . guys! I need some help here!”

  “Why?” Ben raised one eyebrow. “Did you see a mouse? There’s no need to go crazy. It won’t hurt you.”

  It was my turn to stare. A mouse!

  “I want to see the mouse!” Annie said excitedly. “Can you catch it, Robyn, and then I can keep it as a pet?”

  “It’s not a mouse!” I pointed at the spiny thing which was running up the wall. It dashed across the ceiling and hung upside down, as if its feet were glued there. It was the freakiest thing I’d ever seen.

  “I’m sure she was adopted,” Sammie said to no one in particular. “I cannot be related to someone so stupid.”

  “Can’t you see it? It’s there!” I was still pointing.

  Sammie ignored me. Ben, Josh and Annie stared at the ceiling, the same puzzled look on their faces.

  “Is it a spider?” Ben said.

  A horrible frozen feeling grew inside my stomach. They really couldn’t see it. None of them. What was going on?

  The creature growled and a blob of spittle fell from its mouth to the floor. I had to get this weird thing out of here fast.

  “What’s going on?” Mum came in wearing her dressing gown.

  “See! You woke her up,” Sammie hissed at me.

  “No, I was already awake,” Mum smiled peaceably. “I was reading actually.”

  Sammie shot me a black look. “You disturbed her.”

  Usually I would have glared back, but the creature on the ceiling was distracting me.

  “Nothing to worry about. We just had a Robyn-shaped disaster.” Ben, who’d started picking up the cutlery, slapped me on the shoulder and nearly sent me flying. It was a family joke, the Robyn-disaster thing. I didn’t make that much mess. Not really.

  “Robyn won’t catch the mouse for me.” Annie frowned and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

  While she wasn’t looking, Josh took her last crayon and went to watch TV.

  “A mo
use?” Mum looked alarmed.

  I glanced at the spiny thing – it was still stuck to the ceiling, but at least it wasn’t moving any more. What was I supposed to tell them? If they couldn’t see it then they’d never believe me. “It’s not a mouse,” I told her. “I thought I saw something, but it was nothing.”

  Mum smiled and went to check the pie in the oven. I helped Ben pick up the last of the knives and forks, but then the creature started creeping across the ceiling. I’d have to be quick if I wanted to catch it and get it out of the house. Soon Mum would dish up the pie and the “hordes would descend”, as Dad described our mealtimes.

  Grabbing the broom from the cupboard under the stairs, I climbed on a chair and swiped at the creature. If I could get it down off the ceiling then maybe I could drive it out the door.

  “What are you doing?” Sammie said in her best tone of loathing.

  Mum turned round. “Robyn, what’s the broom for?”

  “I’m getting rid of a cobweb.” I prodded at the creature. “I’ll only be a minute.”

  The thing’s eyes bulged with fury. It bit into the broom handle, making a loud crunching sound. I looked round, certain my family would have heard, but they didn’t react.

  The creature hurled itself at me, spikes bristling. I waved the broom wildly and hit it in mid-air. It yowled and spiralled away from me, landing on the table with a thunk.

  “Robyn, are you kung-fu fighting the cobweb?” Mum asked me.

  The spiny thing turned in her direction and scrunched up its body as if getting ready to launch. I jumped from the chair to the table, stumbling to my knees. At least I was between Mum and the creature.

  “Hell-oo, I’m home!” The back door swung open and my dad stood there in his blue overalls. He works as a maintenance man for the town council.

  The creature scampered across Annie’s picture and I dived at it, afraid for my little sister. Its teeth fastened on to my hand. A burning pain shot through my skin and I yelped and dropped the broom. I saw my dad’s confused expression but there was no time to explain. I had to get rid of this monster before it hurt someone else.

  I grabbed the broom again and swung it like a baseball bat. It smacked into the creature, sending it flying off the table. It gave one final growl and then darted straight past my dad’s legs, through the open door and out into the darkness.

  Dad didn’t even blink.

  I jumped off the table, holding my hand to my chest, and slammed the door shut behind it.

  “It’s welcome to the madhouse, is it?” Dad pulled off his shoes. “Great acrobatics, Robyn.”

  “Yeah, sorry! Just getting rid of a cobweb.” I ran into the hallway before anyone could ask me any more questions.

  I leant against the side of the stairs, my hand trembling. A bead of blood was sitting, round and crimson on my skin, so I ran upstairs to wash it off. My hand felt sore but that wasn’t the main thing that bothered me.

  Something no one else could see had hurt me.

  That ruined my last hope – the hope that I was imagining everything; the hope that I’d dreamt the creature up in the middle of the night.

  It meant the spiny thing was real.

  Tree-maggedon Strikes our School

  hat night I heard growling in the front garden again. Two spiny things were clambering through the bushes and snarling by the door. I got into bed and pulled the covers up tight. With the doors locked, I hoped they couldn’t get in. I shivered and waited. After a few minutes everything went quiet. Did that mean they’d gone, or were they up to something?

  Annie was asleep with her favourite teddy, Mr Huggle, tucked under her chin. Her quilt rose and fell as she breathed. There was an empty packet of sweets on her bedside table which she must have sneaked out of the kitchen cupboard. Sammie thinks she’s the pretty one in our family, but really it’s Annie. Us Silvers have this gangly look – skinny arms and legs and wavy brown hair that never looks tidy. All except Annie. She has fine golden hair and pink cheeks, and old ladies always coo over her in the street.

  I watched her sleeping for a minute and then crept out of bed. I couldn’t stand not knowing what the creatures were doing. I went to the window again and pulled back the corner of the curtain. One spiny thing was shuffling away down the street, but where was the other one?

  Suddenly, spines scraped against the glass, and black, beady eyes glared at me. I dropped the curtain, my heart skittering like a leaf in the wind. The creature must have walked all the way up the wall to stare in. Maybe it was the same one I’d hit with the broom and now it wanted revenge. The bite mark on my hand throbbed painfully.

  A minute ticked by, but it felt like for ever. At last I grabbed the torch off my bedside table and lifted the curtain again. The creature was walking back down the wall. It reached the ground and disappeared into the darkness. I watched the front garden for a while to make sure it had definitely gone. Why did it have to be me seeing these things? Ben was the one that read all the scary horror stories with zombies and stuff.

  A few streets away, the Grimdean clock chimed half past the hour.

  “Robyn?” Annie said sleepily. “I’m hot. Can we have the window open?”

  “No, we can’t.” I told her. “Now go back to sleep.”

  I was still thinking about the spiny creatures the next morning on the way to school. I was going to have to tell Aiden about them. We’d been friends for ages – ever since he built a super-fast go-kart and I was the only one who’d dared ride with him. If anyone would understand without teasing me, it was Aiden.

  I went round the corner into Ashbrook Street past the maple tree whose leaves were turning red. The wind swooped in, pulling off a handful of leaves and spinning them to the pavement. There was a lot of noise in the playground, but I didn’t really take much notice until a fire engine roared up the road with its lights flashing. It stopped at the entrance to our school and one of the firemen climbed down.

  “Robyn!” Aiden McGee bounced up to me, the sun shining on his round face and dark hair. “This is the Best Day Ever!”

  “What’s going on?” I asked. Aiden didn’t usually bounce on a school morning. He usually grumbled. The only time I’d seen him look this excited was when we got to use saws in a design & technology lesson.

  “Tree smackdown!” He waved his arm at the school roof. There were three huge trees lying on top of it.

  I gaped. The enormous tree trunks had crushed the roof in, and tiles were scattered all over the playground. “Woah! When did that happen?”

  “Last night!” Aiden grinned. “This is Tree-mageddon! They’ll have to send us home!”

  A chant rose in the air, as if every child had thought the same thing at exactly the same moment. “No more school! NO MORE SCHOOL!”

  I gazed at the red-brick building that I’d been coming to since I was five. The block for the younger kids, where Annie and Josh had lessons, was on the left with flowers and a rainbow painted on the window. Mum would be walking them up the road right now. To the right was the older kids’ block, mostly hidden by a mass of branches and leaves. The trees, which had stood at different corners of the building, couldn’t have caused more damage if they’d tried.

  “Awesome!” I grinned at Aiden. “It must’ve been the wind. They’ll probably close the place for weeks!”

  Mrs Lovell, our headmistress, was talking to a fireman. She was a short, round lady with flat grey hair and a habit of fiddling with her necklace when she was flustered – which she was right now, of course. Kids were jumping and dancing all around her, crazy with excitement and shouting, “NO MORE SCHOOL!”

  I pushed my way through the crowd with Aiden behind me. I wanted to hear what was going on.

  “We must evacuate the playground,” the fireman was telling Mrs Lovell. “More tiles could blow down at any moment.”

  “But . . . the children!” Mrs Lovell twisted her necklace frantically. “What about them?”

  “Maybe the council can make alternative
arrangements.” The fireman straightened his helmet. “This building won’t be safe for months. It’ll need a whole new roof and there could be a lot of repair work inside too.”

  “But there’s nowhere else for us to go!” said Mrs Lovell. “The town hall isn’t big enough and the sports pavilion’s being renovated.”

  “I’m sorry about that, but right now we just have to clear this playground.” The fireman held a loudspeaker to his mouth. “Quiet please, everyone. Your headmistress wants to say a few words and then we’ll need you to leave the area immediately.” He handed the speaker to Mrs Lovell.

  “I’m so sorry, children,” her voice wobbled. “I have bad news. Because of this awful disaster with the trees, the school will have to—” She broke off as a smart black limousine drew up behind the fire engine and a tall, slim woman slid smoothly out of the driving seat.

  Everyone looked round and a whisper ran across the playground. “It’s Cryptorum’s assistant!”

  “What’s she doing here?” Aiden muttered into my ear.

  “I don’t know but I have a really bad feeling about it.” I watched Miss Smiting cross the playground.

  Miss Smiting lived in Grimdean House in the centre of town and worked as an assistant to Mr Cryptorum – a strange old man with wild hair and enormous eyebrows. The mansion was one of the oldest buildings in Wendleton and there were loads of creepy rumours about the place. Some kids said that it was full of bats, and that Cryptorum transformed into one and went flying about at night. I’d also heard that there was a dungeon under the mansion where Cryptorum locked up people he didn’t like.

  Aiden and I were in the oldest class at Ashbrook School, so we didn’t believe that kind of stuff any more, but there was definitely something weird about the place. Mr Cryptorum was hardly ever seen in town, and almost never during daylight. Miss Smiting didn’t come out of the mansion much either.

  With her sunglasses on and her dark hair fastened into a smooth knot, Miss Smiting seemed like someone out of a movie. She glided along, her skirt sweeping the ground. Cutting through the crowd of kids and parents like a knife through butter, she stopped beside the headmistress. “You are Mrs Lovell, yes?” Her voice had a strange accent. “You are the leader of the school?”