The Spooks

By Dan Soule

Welcome to The Spooks and prepare yourself for the chilling of your spine and the crawling of your flesh. Lock the door and turn the page, and together we'll keep out the creatures of the night–which might also be what you call your little brother. Who knows? Perhaps he truly is a monster sent from the pit of hell to torture you. Or maybe your parents were replaced by aliens and are biding their time, waiting for an opportunity to eat next door's cat. 

 

In which case, consider this an education, read carefully and pay attention, because when the house creaks at night, there isn't always a logical explanation...

About The Spooks:

 

The Spooks is a fast-paced collection of eighteen terrifying short tales written for avid and reluctant readers alike. They mix gross-outs with humour and chills, and each story has its own creepy illustration.

 

Perfect for fans of:

Goosebumps by R.L. Stine

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Seven Ghosts by Chris Priestley

Room 13 Robert Swindells

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rotten Row Press
• Release date: Jul 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201958206

Book preview

1

The Junk Shop

Shoes stuck out everywhere from the piles of junk. Stacked from floor to ceiling, it was crammed into shelves from corner to corner. Mounds of the stuff even made thin passages through the small shop. And poking out here and there or sitting in neat pairs were so many shoes, of all shapes and sizes.

But it wasn’t the shoes that interested Aaron. They were just another thing that made the junk shop strange. Like, where were all the staff? Nobody seemed to work there. Aaron had been coming in every day for the last week and had never seen another soul. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen another customer. Not that Aaron was a customer. Not yet, anyway. He hadn’t bought anything yet.

Another weird thing was that nothing seemed to have a price. How could he pay for something if it didn’t have a price? And there wasn't anyone to ask how much it cost. Or to pay.

There didn’t seem to be any point to the shop. Most places sold one type of thing. If you wanted football boots, you went to a sports shop. Want a chocolate bar? Go to the sweet shop. Need a pen and paper? The stationery shop is the place for you. This shop, on the other hand, had just about everything.

Aaron had counted at least six old wooden tennis rackets, as well as a couple of new ones. There were too many books to count, jammed into shelves and piled into stacks on the floor.

There was an old wooden radio as big as he was. There were decks of cards, chess sets, tons of board games, and clocks. So many clocks. Like the shoes, they were all different shapes and sizes scattered around the shop.

And there were computers. Some of them were really old, with boxy screens. The keyboards were dusty and some of the letters had worn off.

But the thing Aaron was most interested in was a new computer. A thin, sleek, silver laptop. It was probably the newest thing in the shop apart from Aaron’s red trainers.

His mum had bought the shoes last week. Not that he needed them. They were just cool, and it was summer. The time of year when there was no school, but his mother had to work.

Work was very important. His mother said so all the time. Aaron had had many lectures on this subject, when his mother wasn’t on the phone or computer. She ran her own business. It was very hard, she said. She did everything by herself. Summer holidays were hard because his mum still needed to work, but Aaron didn’t have to go to school.

In the last couple of years, buying a new pair of trainers had turned into a tradition. At the start of summer, they went shopping. Aaron’s mum would pay for the new shoes. Aaron loved that shopping trip. He tried to drag it out. Each pair of trainers wasn’t quite right. He tried on so many pairs. His mum would answer the phone and talk. He would walk up and down the shop and look at how his feet looked in the mirror.

When his mum started to tut and looked at her watch, it was time to choose. Usually, it was the first pair he tried on. His mother would roll her eyes and say something about time being money. But that was the best part of the whole summer holiday. Aaron got to spend most of an afternoon with his mother.

After that, Aaron was free. That was supposed to be a good thing. Aaron would wander around the city centre. He’d get a milkshake and a burger lunch. Then maybe feed the pigeons. But after a while, there wasn’t anything to do.

Last week, Aaron walked past the junk shop. He’d been exploring some of the side streets at the edge of the city centre. Nothing had particularly interested him. Until, one day, it started to rain, and his new red trainers started getting wet. He pulled his hoodie up and ran for the nearest shop.

He found himself in the doorway of the junk shop. Piles of junk lay in front of the shop window getting wet. Aaron peered inside the misty windows but couldn’t see any life. Old gold letters had been written on the door. They had long ago worn off, leaving behind only faded skeletons of themselves.

Over the door, a brass bell rang as Aaron pushed inside. The shop smelled musty and of furniture polish. Specks of dust danced in the hazy light. Aaron shivered, his damp clothes sticking to him. When he called out, no one answered. With a shrug, he decided to wait out the rain and have a look around. That was when he saw it.

The brand-new silver laptop. It was thin and light, looked so cool that it could probably fly. Aaron touched it gently, as if it might bite him. It was cold and smooth. It would be too expensive, but he wanted to know. He lifted the computer. It was impossibly light. He turned it in his hands, looking for the price tag, frowned and put it down when he couldn’t find it.

Every day since, Aaron had been drawn back to the shop. He stopped spending his money on burgers and milkshakes. He didn’t buy bread to feed the pigeons. Instead, he saved up his money. He knew it would never be enough. Not for a computer like that. Maybe he could buy something else. Amongst the junk there were other interesting things.

Aaron spent the whole day looking around the junk shop. Time seemed to pass so quickly there. Maybe it was all the clocks ticking away? Maybe it was the stack of comics he’d read? He would have paid for them if the shopkeeper turned up, but no one ever did. Maybe it was the old plastic game of pinball he played for hours? He’d checked that to see how much it cost too. Nothing seemed to have a price in this shop.

But Aaron knew why