The Willows–Part Five

Icewolf desperately tried to open the window.

“How can it be locked like this when it was wide open a minute ago? You only closed it – you didn’t even lock it!”

Scott tried the door again. “It’s like this door being wedged tight. The wind didn’t blow it that hard to cause that. And where are the others? Surely they must know that we’re locked in here. Where’s ‘Mummy’, whoever she is? She must be in one of the rooms up here.”

Scott tried calling for Mummy through the door.

In the parlour, Lady Salinger-Wallis had problems of her own. The battery power in her torch drained, leaving her in complete darkness. “Oh, bother.” She said. “The blithering battery’s gone on the blink.” She decided to open the heavy curtains that hung over the parlour window, hoping that a tiny amount of night light would filter into the room.

She pulled back one of the curtains which made no difference to the light in the room. She shook her torch, which briefly lit up and revealed that the window was actually boarded up. She touched the glass. “Oh, bother. It would be outside wouldn’t it?” The torch died again.

She decided to use the torch to bang on the door. Somebody is bound to hear her outside… unless they’ve got that wind-up radio on again, she thought.

Lightning outside lit up the bedroom that was holding Icewolf and Scott. Icewolf screamed as she saw what looked like a skeleton that had been painted onto one of the walls.

“This place is freaking me out now.” She said as the wall appeared plain again.

They both heard laughter coming from downstairs.

“Is that Lady S?” Scott asked. He pounded on the door, although what Lady S would have been able to do was beyond him.

“Can’t you use your superhero training, Scott?” Icewolf asked. “I mean, you must have superhero training to perform those stunts you do in ‘Stealth’”

“Like I said earlier, it’s mostly special effects, Icewolf. I just have to learn my lines, run a bit, jump a bit more, and sometimes pretend to fight. It’s nothing like what you see on the TV.”

“Well, we need to do something. I don’t fancy staying in here forever. In fact, I don’t fancy staying in here any longer.”

Scott managed to slide his fingers underneath the door. “I’ll keep pulling on this door. It must give sometime.”

Lady S squealed as something small and furry ran across her foot. She couldn’t stand mice. That wasn’t a mouse… she told herself… that wasn’t a mouse. She returned to the door, and pulled on the handle with all her might. It still wasn’t moving. She felt in her handbag for her skeleton key, and then felt around the handle for the keyhole. There wasn’t one, so she put the key away again.

“Oh, bother!” she sighed. “Devilla dear!” she shouted. “Gothicka! Anybody!”

Scott felt the door move slightly. “I think I’ve got it,” he declared. Icewolf ran over to help him, trying to fit her fingers into the side of the door. There was a slight gap about halfway up, where she managed to do so.

“One! Two! Three! Heave!” she shouted, and they both pulled together. They both could feel a draught coming from outside the room.

Icewolf continued to count for them, and with each pull they could feel the door move slightly further each time. “We’re doing it!” Icewolf enthused, “We’re doing it!”

Lady Salinger-Wallis thought she too could feel her door start to move as she pulled on the handle. “They must” she said and pulled “have known” she pulled again “about” she heaved once more “the phone!” She heard the door creak slightly with her latest hefty tug, but it still refused to open.

“I’m exhausted!” Icewolf said.

“We must keep on, Icy!” Scott prompted. “We’re almost there now!”

“One! Two! Thr…”

The door flung open, throwing Icewolf and Scott back into the room. Scott hit the back of his head against the wall where the window was, and Icewolf’s head landed firmly on his stomach. Her left hand also caught him squarely on his right eye.

“Ouch!” Scott moaned. He didn’t know which hurt the most.

Lady Salinger-Wallis took the full brunt force of her door in the face as it suddenly opened. “Oooooh! Me nose!” She laughed as her eyes started to fill with tears. “That smarted.”

“Hello!” came a man’s voice from outside the front door. “Is anybody in there?”

##TO BE CONCLUDED

(This is a repeat presentation, originally posted in 2015)