Ghost Stories [antikvár]

Smee i To,' said Jackson with a shy Uttle smile. 'I'm sorry. 1 X ^ won't play hide and seek.', It was Christmas Eve, and there were fourteen of us in the house. We had had a good dinner, and we were all in the mood for fun and games — all, that is, except Jackson. When somebody suggested hide and seek, there were loud shouts of agreement. Jackson's refusal was the only one. It was not like Jackson to refuse to play a game. 'Aren't you feehng well?' someone asked. 'I'm perfectly all right, thank you,' he said. 'But,' he added with a smile that,softened, his refusal but did not change it, 'I'm still not playing hide and seek.j ^ 'Why npt?J someone asked. He hesitated, for a moment before replying. 'I sometimes go and stay at a house where a girl was killed. She was playing hide and seek in the dark. ^ She didn't know the house very well. There was a door that led to the 'servants' staircase. When she was ^diased, she thought the door led to a bedroom. She opened the door and jumped - and landed at the bottom of the stairs. She broke her neck, of course.' We all looked serious.^ Mrs Fernley said, 'How terrible! And were yoi^there when it happened?' Jackson, slfiook his head sadly. 'No,' he said, 'but 1 was there when something else happened. Something worse.' 'What could be worse than that?' 1