There was that creak on the stair again, I had wanted to get to sleep before it came but like most nights, I didn’t manage it. The step that made that awful noise was the fourth up from the bottom, just as the staircase turned the corner as it headed upwards, towards me. There were another ten steps after this and then just across the landing to my bedroom. I held my breath and tucked my head under the bedcovers, waiting for the handle to turn. Nothing, silence a painful wait in the dark.
My little sister slept soundly across the room, I could hear the mumble of her breathing. I didn’t want to look around the room, not now in the dark, I knew that the shadows cast by the light from the hall would make the strangest of shapes. That my toys that gave me so much joy in the daylight hours would appear sinister and if I saw, I might never want to play with them again.
Mum was moving about downstairs, humming to herself as she prepared herself for bed. Who was it that had made the stair creak again tonight, nobody else lived in our house. I had to get to sleep before mum finally went to her room, I couldn’t bear it if I was still awake after she turned off the lights in the hall. I squeezed my eyes tight and prayed that sleep would come before the darkness filled my room, before the door opened and I would get to see who or what was on the landing.
I hated the stair that creaked, I never trod on it myself. In my dreams, if I did it would open up and swallow me whole, take me to a place where my mum would never find me. I would hold tightly onto the banister, however much I might be carrying, however hard I wanted the toilet and straddle myself over that creaky step.
Nobody else took any notice of the fourth step. My sister ran up and down the stairs without thinking or counting, it appeared to me she didn’t realise what danger might be hidden under the stairs. If mum shouted that she should be careful, it was of falling down, directing her to go slower and look where she was going.
Maybe our house was haunted, maybe the stair just creaked as the house cooled at night but whatever it was that made the noise, it never got me.
lizalizaskysaregrey 