The curtains billowed like ships sails against a starry sky. Jenny stirred, turning in her bed, kicking stuffed animals onto the floor.
"Get up!" the voice was cruel and harsh, cutting off Jenny's dreams as if a plug had been pulled.
She opened her eyes. The curtains settled but one of the printed teddies continued to toddle around and another tricycled right off the hem and into the shadows on the wall beneath. Jenny pulled her blanket over her face and then peered out to check if her eyes had deceived her. All was as it should be apart from the larger than life shadow that lurked under the curtain, the shadow that had swallowed the tricycling teddy earlier.
Trembling now, Jenny climbed out of bed, favourite blanket bunched in her fists and thrust tightly under her chin.
"There are no crocodiles, Jenny!" her mother had scolded before she went to bed. "Be brave, whip the valance away! Get down on your knees and see for yourself!"
Mum was right. She had to face her fears, she that what made her feel so uneasy was nothing more than what mum called her 'overactive imagination'.
Another two steps and there she was. She clasped the curtain and withdrew it in one swift movement like removing sticking plaster from a scraped knee. Nothing. There wasn't even a shadow.
There was laughter though.
A streak of white flashed across the garden.
As she searched the scant shrubs and the shadows around the shed, she caught a glimpse of something loitering in the dustbin alcove. The wheelie-bin was toppled with a loud thud and the cat scavenging within it let out a screech of fright and shot out as the bin thudded to the floor. Heart pounding, Jenny held her breath.
"It's only a cat. Only a cat, only a-"
Down in the yard a young girl materialised from the alcove gloom, she was perhaps a year or two older than Jenny and dressed in a pristine white pinafore.
"Come quick! Stop hiding we will be in trouble! You cannot afford to be afraid!"
After gesturing frantically for Jenny to follow, she turned heel and dodging the rubbish strewn on the path, fled towards the gate. Jenny waved, the action tentative, curious. Her whole body was trembling as pulled on her slippers before going down the stairs, but her mother's words rang in her ears.
"You've got to face you fears Jenny."
Click on Chapter 1 to find out what happens in the new updated version of the story.
For more about me and my writing go to www.noarawle.blogspot.gr.
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