Malorie Martin

'Malorie Martin'


By Vanessa Veglio


When you were little, did you ever hear a bump in the night
and picture a monster skulking under the stairs? Did you ever see
shadows in the corner of your room and wonder if creatures were hiding
under your bed? Or maybe, when it was dark and you were alone, did you
feel something creeping over your duvet that didn't quite feel like
your pet cat? Well Malorie Martin did. And can you imagine her surprise
when all the sounds and sights that kept her awake at night, actually
came true.


*


It was dark and late and Malorie's mother and father had gone
to bed hours ago. She had heard the click as their bedside lamp
switched off and soon afterwards, her dad's snoring had echoed down the
hallway. In the next room, she could hear her older brother James (or
Jerk Face as she liked to call him), tapping on the keys of his
computer, even though he had been told to switch it much earlier. This
came as no surprise - James was always hiding in his room, working on
his computer and ignoring everyone in the family. Mum and Dad called
him 'antisocial.'


Malorie looked up at the ceiling and sighed. She hadn't been
able to sleep for hours. Perhaps it was the heat from the hot summer
night. Perhaps it was the fact that she had a maths test tomorrow with
Mr Price (her least favourite teacher in the world). Those thoughts did
bother her, but no, what really kept Malorie awake was the constant
tapping from outside her open window.


The tapping was so quiet it was difficult to hear unless,
like Malorie, you had been lying awake with nothing else to listen to.
Something small was banging against the wall, like a twig or a lollipop
stick, but Malorie was too afraid to look outside. At night, the
shadows in her room appeared thick and oily, as though they were
moving. And had she just heard a floorboard creak outside in the
hallway?


Malorie was too scared to move as the tapping continued,
shifting slightly to become more urgent. She was sure there was a
rhythm to it, like the Morse code signals she had written about for her
homework on the First World War. That was how people had communicated
if they wanted to talk without another knowing. Perhaps the tapping was
a form of communication?


But no, that was impossible! It was right outside her
bedroom window for a start. Who could get that high up without being
seen? She was on the second floor. And secondly, who could make a noise
so faint that a human could barely hear it? Malorie sat up, shaking her
head. There was a logical, reasonable explanation for the noise that
had been keeping her awake, and she was determined to deal with it
before she had anymore sleepless hours.



Malorie came up onto her knees. The window was right next to her bed,
and she slowly lifted back the curtain, feeling the cool wind drift
across her face. The tapping was only slightly louder now, but outside
she could tell where it was coming from - right underneath her
windowsill!


Slowly and silently, Malorie fully opened the window. It was
now easy to peer out over the sill. The tiles underneath the window
jutted out at forty-five degree angles, so she really had to lean over
to see what was underneath. Blood rushed to her head as she tipped
downwards, her heart ringing in her ears. The sound grew even more
distinct and without realising, Malorie held her breath. Her head and
shoulders were hanging out in the open air now, and nervously, she
looked down past the overhang, about to find out what was making
the---------


Malorie stopped. She thought her heart would stop too, but
by some miracle it didn't. For as Malorie looked underneath the
overhang, she was met by two round yellow eyeballs, followed slowly by
a row of spiky, yellow teeth.


"Boo!" Said a rough, grating voice, and Malorie was about to
scream when something clapped over her mouth and wrenched her back into
the bedroom.


It had suddenly become very dark indoors. Slightly dizzy
from hanging upside down, Malorie blinked as the hand moved away and
steadied herself on the bed post. A figure crouched up against the
wall. From outside the window came scratching and little yelps and she
went to pull it closed, but a familiar voice said, "No,
wait."


"Jerk Face?" Malorie whispered, "What the-!"


Her brother appeared in a streak of moonlight shining
through the gap in the curtains. Malorie watched dumbfounded as he held
up a piece of netting and something resembling a giant ice-cream
scoop.


"Move out the way," he hissed, and Malorie silently obeyed.
What on earth was her brother doing? And how did he know about the
creature underneath her windowsill?


Then the creature appeared. It was framed by the moonlight,
and on reaching its full height, stood about twenty inches from the
floor. The thinness of its arms and legs was emphasised by a huge
protruding belly, perfectly round like a balloon. Its flesh was
bogey-green and on either side of its head were two large floppy ears.
Nothing about it was in the least bit normal, and Malorie gasped as
bony, green fingers peeled back the curtain, two yellow eyes blinking
slowly in the dark.


"Got'chya!" Her brother hissed as with one swift movement he
hoisted up the Goblin with the ice-cream scoop and landed it in the
net. The Goblin let out a high-pitched shriek as it fought to get out,
but her brother tied the net up and flung it over his shoulder without
hesitation.


Malorie stared open-mouthed.


"What's going on Jerk Face?" She hissed. "And what," she
said, pointing to the wriggling net, "Is that?"


"Firstly, you can stop calling me Jerk Face," Her brother
said, "And secondly, I think we should close the window, before they
start arriving."


"There are more of those things?"


James stood still, watching her closely. They looked just
like one another - same slender frames, pale blond hair and sea green
eyes - but suddenly, Malorie had never felt more different from
him.


"Well?" She whispered.


James sighed, "I think you'd better come to my room. I'll
explain everything to you there."