The most important rule:
W
ailing. Agonising wailing. So faint it might almost not be there. It was a shadow of a sound, but she could hear it and her head perked up, turning towards the noise. She stared out into the long, shadowy corridor and trepidation washed through her, chilling her to the bone. The young girl had only recently become acquainted with the rooms of the house and the long, looming corridor that lay before her was a place she had once thought to never dare creep. But this sound, this awful sound, it drew her. The winter wind howled as it blew through the open shutter and rushed through her nightgown, freezing. The girl startled as the frigid cold jolted through her, taking a shaky breath. Cautiously, she placed down the hamper of clothes she was instructed to carry. Wordlessly, she closed the shutter, the vicious wind still beating at the closed pane. She crept towards a candle that hung on the wall. It guttered and danced as she raised it tentatively, a pool of light guiding her mismatched footsteps down the dark hall. The wailing, shrieking sound grew louder and louder as she
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approached and panic choking her.
rose in her chest,
She froze. The wailing had stopped. She stood, trembling in the quiet of the corridor. Alone. The silence was deafening. Stricken with fear, she replaced the candle on the wall and rushed back to her hamper, not daring to look up. Two moons passed before she heard it again. That awful, awful wailing. The sound bled into her eardrums, drowning her thoughts. Once again, she raised the candle from the wall and crept forward. The sound surrounded her like a vacuum. Fear gripped her like a vice. Her shallow breaths and quiet footsteps felt almost completely drowned out by the haunting noise. The wailing grew louder and louder, like a roaring in her ears. She stilled, her heart pulsing against her ribcage. Slowly, her gaze turned up. Embedded in the damp ceiling was a wooden trap door. It was gnarled and splintered, and terror struck ever deeper into her heart the longer she stared at it.
Photography by Amelie Soames
