My House Eats People

Jake hates his new house, stuck in a dull town fifty miles from all his friends. It’s old,
it’s creaky, and someone’s written ‘I don’t want to die here’ on his bedroom wall.

Jake’s parents love the new house and try to get Jake and his grumpy older sister, Julia, interested in fixing it up to its former glory. However, Julia is only interested in her new iPhone whilst Jake is dreading school the next day. Bad enough that he’s the only new kid this term, he also turned up three weeks late due to a mix-up with buying the house.

Then Jake’s mum walks upstairs one morning and no one sees her come back down. How can someone disappear inside their own house? And who will be next?

My House Eats People won the 2013 Cornerstones WOW Factor competition and is a funny, exciting and scary story that both children and adults will enjoy. Read on for an extract...

When I woke up again, the room was pitch black. Even the streetlamp outside wasn’t shining orange light into the room. I’ve gone blind, I thought, blinking frantically. Then my eyes made out something in the darkness, right above my head. Narrow lines of light, forming a square.

So this must be a hatch, leading into the attic. How come I hadn’t noticed it before? The light was bright, which meant someone was up there. I was very certain I didn’t want to find out who.

Quickly, before the hatch could open, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, toes fumbling for the carpet. Nothing there, I thought. Of course – it goes all the way down to the cellar! The duvet slipped through my fingers and I fell forward into the squeaking darkness.

Wait – SQUEAKING?

I woke up. I wasn’t falling. The rest of the nightmare was true but I wasn’t likely to die in the next thirty seconds. But I could still hear squeaking. It was coming from the corner of the room.

I fumbled for the bedside lamp.

The sudden light scorched my eyeballs, but I thought I saw something moving in the corner. A mouse. Let it be a mouse, I prayed.

I never thought I’d be praying to find a mouse in my room.

The movement was coming from the big pile of junk on the floor. Great. No mum to nag me to pick up my clothes, so now I’d got mice. I slid out of bed and crept towards the junk.

Definitely a mouse. Several, in fact. Burrowing into socks and old tissues and making them move.

Making them move towards me.

Okay, I had to stop kidding myself about the mice. A pile of old tissues and a dirty sock were trying to make friends with me. I backed away and fell onto the bed.

Now I could see more things moving, starting to take on vaguely human shapes with arms and legs. A glistening grey creature, oddly stretchy, arms reaching towards me. A man made of tiny sticks – where had those come from? A bundle of hair, white eyes gleaming as it shuffled across the carpet. All squeaking quietly, all intent on reaching me. I crouched lower in the bed, pulling the duvet up to my chin. Why does everyone think the duvet will save them? Face it, a few feathers and a picture of Optimus Prime aren’t going to help anyone.

The creatures began to jump into the bed, burrowing under the duvet in a way that would have been sweet if they’d been kittens. It was decidedly unsweet when they were weird living socks, hair (were those eyes shirt buttons?), used tissues, little sticks (where had those come from?), sweaty grey skin – no, chewing gum. I was being invaded by all the junk my mum had always nagged me to put in the bin. I hadn’t yet seen teeth on any of these creatures but they had to be there somewhere.

Was this my punishment for being a slob? To be eaten by my own rubbish?

The squeaking was getting louder. Soft hair pressed against my face. Tissues were nestling into my neck. Stickman scratched at my hand (those sticks were definitely familiar), while a rancid sock nuzzled my cheek. The chewing gum man was growing a mouth. It was time to go.