Toni’s Blog

“You must have heard it!” I whispered as I shook Sandra awake.  She yawned.  “Go back to sleep - you were dreaming.” How I wish I had been...

A sharp noise, like a door slamming, had jolted me awake.  In the other single bed in the chalet Sandra slept on, but I lay listening to the muffled noises from the chalet next door.

“Shut up and let me sleep,” I muttered into the darkness.  “Some of us have to work tomorrow.”

I turned over in the narrow bed and closed my eyes again. Sandra and I had been determined to do something different this summer, and impulsively we’d applied for jobs in the gift shop of a self-catering holiday village in the South of France.

We’d always fancied sunning ourselves with the jet set, but there was no way we’d ever have the money for that kind of exotic holiday, so working our way through it was the perfect solution.

Until we’d set foot on French soil neither of us could believe we’d actually been accepted for the job, but after two weeks of hard work - and quite a few good times - we’d settled in and were really enjoying ourselves.  The only trouble was we had to be up at six for breakfast so we could open the shop by 7.30 and noisy neighbours didn’t help!

I was just dropping off to sleep again when there was a loud, petrified scream from next door.  I shot up in bed gripping the bedclothes to me as my heart pounded.  Before the scream had died away someone yelled furiously, then there was a dull thud followed by an uncanny silence.

My heart was beating fast and held my breath as I strained my ears for sounds from the next chalet.  Yet the silence went on undisturbed.  What on earth was happening in there?  I suppose if I’d been Superwoman I’d have gone to investigate, but I was plain old Jackie Dunster and I did the only thing I was brave enough to do - I woke Sandra...

“Wake up!” I hissed in her ear.  Then I shook her in exasperation until she opened her eyes, trying hard to focus on me.  “You’d sleep through an earthquake, wouldn’t you?” I accused her crossly.

“Jackie...” she mumbled.  “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Something’s going on in the next chalet,” I told her in a whisper.  “There was a scream, then a yell, then an ominous dull thud.”

“And you’ve got a vivid imagination!”  Sandra yawned as she yanked the covers over her shoulders and lay down again.

“Don’t you dare go back to sleep!” I warned.  “Sandra, there’s something wrong - I can feel it.”

“Oh, you’re clairvoyant now, are you?” she asked.  “For heaven’s sake, Jackie, this is a place where people come for their happy hols - nothing nasty happens here.  You were probably dreaming.  Now please go back to bed and let me sleep.  In another few hours we’ve got to get up again.”

Sandra settled down and I went back to sit on my bed.  It was quiet next door, and surely if something awful had happened there’d be some kind of noise.  I got back into bed.  I had to admit I was prone to exaggerate on occasions, so maybe Sandra was right and I had been dreaming...

Yet when I woke up next morning the strange noises I’d heard were still strong in my mind.  Sandra was chattering on about a couple of guys that had arrived in the village the previous day, but I wasn’t listening.  The more I thought about those noises the more uneasy I became.

“You ready yet?” Sandra asked.

“What?  Oh, no,” I said absently.  “You go and get in the breakfast queue, I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Sandra went off and I finished dressing quickly.  There was something I had to do before I went to the staff dining room for breakfast, and after Sandra’s lack of interest in the early hours, I didn’t want her to know.

I closed the chalet door behind me and pretended to look for something in my bag while I made sure there was no one around.  Then I walked casually to the next chalet.  The door was locked, and the curtains pulled roughly across the windows.  I studied the windows carefully and I was sure one of them wasn’t shut properly.

Gingerly I pulled at it and it started to swing open.  I held it wide enough to slip my hand in and lift the curtains so I could see into the room.  The chalet was furnished exactly the same as ours, the only difference was we didn’t have what looked like a body lying on the floor!

continue