Ghost Stories [antikvár]

Smeei V o,' said Jackson with a shy little smile. 'I'm sorry. I, ^ ^ 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 or agreement. Jackson s refusal was the only one.It was not like Jackson to refuse to play a game. 'Aren't you feeling 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.''Why not?' 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 do^r that led to the servants' staircase. When she waf^cliase^^'%ie 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 you there when it happened?'Jackson shook his head sadly. 'No,' he said, 'but I was there when something else happened. Something worse.''What could be worse than that?'1