The Mysterious Scraping Sound
“Chi…Chi, are you awake?” mum murmurs through my door.
“Yes I am, I’ll go to bed soon” I reply, checking the time. It’s 02:09.
“No, come here a sec…”
“Erm…Okay.” I walk over to the door and slowly open it, a creak breaking the silence.
“Come into my room a minute” mum whispers as she walks into her room, and beckons me over with her little hand.
“Why? I’m scared…Why are the lights off?”
“Shhhhhh! Just come over here”, she hisses. She sticks her head partially out of her window. “Do you hear that? There’s someone outside”
“Mum, don’t do this, this isn’t funny…” I whisper. I edge closer to the window, and I hear a scraping sound. I can’t describe it, I don’t think I’d ever heard such a sound before. Standing there in darkness, we listen for a minute or two, peering out from between the blinds every now and again.
“I’m waking Peter up. Peter…PETER.” she shakes him vigorously.
“Mmnm…What do you want?” he mumbles, half in slumber.
“There’s someone outside Peter, come and listen!” mum loudly whispers.
“Oh for crying out loud, let’s have a look.” He gets out of bed, and the three of us stand at the window, our ears through the open gap.
“What do you think it is Peter?” said mum.
“I don’t know…But if it’ll make you feel happier, would you like me to go down and check?” he says, his tone duller than ever. Mum nods, and Peter lets out a massive sigh before sticking on his grey dressing gown. We slowly open the door and quietly creep down the stairs.
“I’m scared” I hiss, hiding behind Peter. He slowly sticks in the key and turns it. Gently, he pulls down the door handle, and peeps through. The sound is louder than ever. I let out a small yelp.
“Oh bloody hell, it’s only a small hedgehog sniffing through the grass really loudly!” and there he is, a small brown mound on the grass, he notices us, and stops sniffing. The “scraping” sound stops.
“Go back to bed Tu” Peter says.
