EXTRACTING INFORMATION AND PREDICTION

THE CURSE OF
COGSTON HOUSE.
 Beneath the Ivy
Jack strode up an overgrown path away from the park as though
relishing a mission through the jungle, dodging the occasional stinging
nettle with an effortless skip or jump.
“Come on, Luca. This is going to be epic!” Dipping his head and swiping
away leaves like some intrepid explorer, he manoeuvred under a tree
branch, which hung over the narrow track.
Luca dawdled behind. Only a few minutes earlier, he had been perfectly
happy practising his limited gymnastics moves upside down on the
monkey bars. Now, he was torn between making the effort to keep up
with his friend and deliberately getting left behind.
“Speed up – we’re nearly there!” Jack called eagerly over his shoulder.

What can you tell about Jack’s personality? Explain your answer.
You may include reference to Jack appearing confident,
using examples of words like ‘strode’, ‘effortless’ and
‘eagerly’ from the text
Which boy is which? How do you know?
Based on the description from the text, we would assume
that Jack is the boy on the right as he is smiling and looking
confident. Luca is the boy on the left who looks hesitant and
unsure.
Luca wasn’t at all sure that they should be leaving the park swings,
where they had been allowed to hang out without their parents since
both recently celebrating their eleventh birthdays in the same week. He
was even less sure that he wanted to be venturing towards ‘The Top
End’, as everyone called that part of the park grounds. He spun round to
look behind him. The monkey bars were now way out of sight and the
watery evening sun above was being muscled out of position by ever-
darkening shades of grey, layering over each other in the sky like a
collage.
“Maybe it’s getting too late for today. We could go another day,” Luca
suggested hopefully. He looked down towards his watch. Scowling at the
time – 10:31 – he shook his wrist vigorously. Clearly, the watch wasn’t
working, as it was only just beginning to go dark. He was going to need a
new excuse. “Why don’t we come back tomorrow, when it’s lighter? I
think it’s going to rain, from the look of those clouds, and Dad’s making
bolognese for tea. We don’t want to miss that!”
Being two days older than his friend clearly gave him no superiority at
all.

Can you find an example of a simile?

the watery evening sun above was
being muscled out of position by
ever-darkening shades of grey,
layering over each other in the sky
like a collage.
“Forget about your stomach for a minute! I can see the scaffolding
through this gap!” enthused Jack, trampling undeterred over the thorny
undergrowth.
Luca followed him unhappily along the gradually dwindling path. Hands
up in front of himself and elbows tucked in, he was now having to place
his trainers precisely onto prickly stems to pin them down with his soles
and avoid any contact with his bare arms or legs.
On the other side of a tangled row of bushes, the broken-looking building
loomed.
Fifty-foot-high scaffolding encased the crumbling walls of Cogston House
like a rusty exoskeleton. The long, metal poles, bolted together at
regular right angles, seemed as though they were the only things
keeping the whole house from falling apart.
About a hundred years ago, the house had apparently been quite a
grand sight, belonging to a rich family who owned the entire park. Until
about thirty years ago, it had still been inhabited but, for decades now, it
had wasted away, shedding scraps of brickwork and hiding itself under a
cloak of creeping ivy. Even from the outside, it had a look of being
What do you think ‘undeterred’ means?
infested with sadness.
‘Undeterred’ means to carry on despite
encountering problems or setbacks.
Everyone had a story about Cogston House. No one quite knew what was
true and what was rumour, and Luca didn’t want to stick around to find
out.
“Ow!” he squealed, as Jack reached back and hauled him through the
gap he had just made in the twisted greenery. Luca rubbed at a fresh,
pale scratch on his arm.
Unconcerned, Jack stood triumphantly, his hands on his hips, admiring
the enormous house. His eyes swept over the building as if they
belonged to an ancient explorer who had finally unearthed a once
mythical monument.
“Told you it would be epic,” Jack grinned.
“Epic? Looks like it’s barely still standing up.”

How is Jack feeling? Find some evidence to explain your answer.

Jack is feeling pleased and excited about finding the house as
it says he ‘stood triumphantly’ and ‘his eyes swept the
building as if they belonged to an ancient explorer who had
finally unearthed a once mythical monument.
What impression do you get of Cogston House?
The impressions of the house may include that it looks
old, abandoned and run-down due to the boarded-up
windows and door. It also looks unsafe to enter, spooky
or creepy.
At home, Luca had heard his stepmum say that it was about time
Cogston House was renovated, and that it would be good for the area if
it was properly restored with access opened up again. In reply, his dad
had said that it would be better to take a wrecking ball to it, after
everything that had gone on. Luca didn’t know exactly what ‘everything’
meant, but he was now regretting mentioning the place at all to Jack.
The house had always been there, as long as both boys could remember,
but it was just somewhere that they had never visited. Of course, it had
been Jack’s idea to go and investigate, after Luca had brought it up that
day at the swings. No doubt, Jack would know some story about the
place, and if he didn’t, he’d be making one up anyway.
“Have you heard the story of what happened to those two girls here?”
‘Right on cue,’ thought Luca. ‘Here it comes.’

What do you think Luca means by ‘Right on cue’?

Earlier in the text, Luca had expected Jack to know a story
about Cogston House or, if he didn’t, to make one up.
Jack now begins to tell a story about the place so Luca is
being sarcastic as he is not surprised.
“I heard it from my cousin’s next-door neighbour,” Jack went on. “Her
mum knew one of the girls from school, years ago, and her grandad
worked in the factory that the Cogston family owned.”
“What are you going on about?” Luca asked with a shake of his head,
distracted by pulling furry goosegrass buds from his shoulders.
Before an answer came, the crack of snapping wood grabbed Luca’s
attention and he looked up, eyes widening, to see Jack grinning back at
him from a narrow doorway at the side of the house. The splintered
length of rotten wood in his hand matched a large panel, daubed with
graffiti, which hung limply at an angle where a proper door should have
been.
“Come through here and I’ll tell you,” said Jack.

Can you find an example of onomatopoeia?

crack of snapping
“Oh, I really don’t think we should be doing that,” Luca responded,
looking around in search of any other signs of life. He flicked a creepy-
crawly from his arm with his finger and rubbed frantically at a tell tale
tickle on his head, which suggested that more critters were making a
new home in his hair. By the time that he’d dealt with them, Jack’s feet
were just disappearing after the rest of his body into the building.
A few raindrops were released from the bulging, grey clouds. Inside
Luca’s head, a slow drumbeat was gathering momentum and a voice
was screaming at him to turn round, yet his dry mouth barely let out a
murmur in protest. Inwardly, he wished that an invisible force field would
propel him backwards from the narrow opening in the doorway but,
instead, he swallowed hard and copied Jack’s crouching motion to
squeeze through the broken doorframe.

What can you tell about how Luca feels? Find some evidence.
Luca is feeling scared and anxious but feels that he has no
choice but to follow Jack. Evidence for this includes the
following:

‘Inside Luca’s head, a slow drumbeat was gathering

momentum and a voice was screaming at him to turn
round, yet his dry mouth barely let out a murmur in
protest.’
Standing upright again inside, Luca looked around. The first thing that he
noticed was the stale air, which seeped into his mouth and nostrils.
Repulsed by the mouldy stench that hung in the atmosphere, he focused
on inhaling through the tiniest slit in his mouth to avoid breathing it in
any more than he had to.
Beneath his feet, the floor was covered in rubble, like a building site, and
dry leaves nestled together in dirty piles, crunching when he trod on
them. It was as though the outside had crept inside. Huge rugs were
spaced along the hallway, not laid flat or neatly, as they once might
have been – they were worn, crumpled, damp-smelling and thick with
dirt. Luca shuddered at the thought of how many tiny creatures were
camping out among the fibres of the threadbare material.
Looking up, he noted that every single window was cracked or broken.
Spindly branches of a yew tree scratched and tapped at one high
window and, lower down, a cool breeze whistled through a jagged hole,
causing him to shiver.

Why do you think all of the windows were cracked or broken?

The house was old/no one lived there any more/it was
abandoned and run-down.
The hallway was darker than he would have liked. A lampshade dangled
from the ceiling at a crooked angle but there was no bulb. Instead, some
light forced its way in through the many dirty windows; some found an
easier passage through small holes in the walls and roof. Dust particles
floated in the still air and there was just enough light to allow the boys to
see the shape of the hallway and the decrepit furniture.
All around them, items from the house’s former life still remained. Huge
pictures in decorative frames hung on the walls: portraits of miserable
old men, which seemed to have been painted in shades of only brown or
beige. Although Luca could see the shadowy outlines of doorways
leading off from the hallway, the darkness swallowed up any objects that
lay farther down the corridor.
“Woah, look – a winding staircase!” Jack gasped, moving forwards
through the blackness. His voice rang through the house like a siren.

Find a word that means ‘worn out or ruined’.

Decrep
it
Can you use a metaphor to describe this setting?
The dark, gloomy hallway, a pathway to the unknown.

A beam of light scattered the dusty paintings.

She was a ghost in the painting on the floor.

“What about it?” whispered Luca, gazing towards the gloom at the end
of the hallway. The skeletal remains of a chair sat solemnly in the corner,
spilling out springy insides from within a rotten frame. Its back was
loosely attached to the rest of its body and one splintered leg splayed
out in an awkward fashion.
“Well, it’s just like in the story.”
“I still don’t know what story you’re going on about.”
Luca edged forwards gingerly, his steps short, until he was close enough
to Jack to see him clearly in the dim light. Jack was running his hand,
fascinated, along the weathered, wooden panels of an enormous
staircase, which wound grandly up to yet more darkness. As he turned
back towards Luca, he began to recount his tale.

What kind of word is ‘solemnly’? What does it add to the

sentence?
It is an adverb and helps to add to the personification
of the chair, giving an impression of the chair as a
skeleton and increasing the spooky atmosphere.
 Jack’s Tale
The house has not always been in this state. At the time when two girls,
Alice and Eliza, came in here to shelter from the rain, the Cogston family
had not lived in the place for years but a caretaker was still supposed to
be looking after it. According to the story, he was one of the old servants
who just stayed on after everyone else had left or died.
Alice was the taller of the pair, and the more cautious; Eliza was always
the adventurous one. They were both well behaved in general, never
looking for trouble or even mischievous. They were, perhaps, just a little
too nosy.
Back then, no walls were crumbling and no windows smashed.
Everything was just still and silent. It was as though whoever had lived
there had just upped and left, one day. The same gloomy-looking
portraits lined the walls, watching everything that occurred beneath
them.

Why does the author say that the portraits were ‘watching’?
Saying that the portraits were ‘watching’ adds to the
spooky atmosphere by making them seem as if they
were alive.
How could you describe these two girls to highlight their
differences?
Alice was the taller of the pair, and
the more cautious; Eliza was always
the adventurous one. They were both
well behaved in general, never
looking for trouble or even
mischievous. They were, perhaps,
just a little too nosy.
The girls explored a little inside, Alice following Eliza closely. They
peered cautiously into the downstairs rooms leading off the wide
hallway, but neither dared to venture up the spiral staircase. A fancy pair
of chairs here, a mute grand piano there. In some way, the eerie silence
of the house demanded silence from them, too. Alice let Eliza lead the
way, trailing just a couple of soft steps behind.
After only a few minutes of exploring, swallowing gulps of thick, dusty
air, Alice noticed that they had gradually travelled a surprising distance
from the big, heavy entrance door behind them. Somehow, the house
had enticed them deeper and deeper inside. As she traipsed along
behind Eliza, she realised that her feet were moving to a rhythm that
had, so far, escaped her notice. Steady and comforting, the girls were
treading to a beat, like soldiers marching in time with a drum. Alice
snatched a piece of Eliza’s coat to stop her in her tracks and stood
silently, listening.
Tick.

Can you define ‘traipsed’? Can you walk in this way?

‘Traipsed’ means to walk
slowly or reluctantly.’
Though their feet were no longer moving, a beat continued. Straining to
listen, the girls cocked their heads and frowned at one another as the
soft ticking of a clock reached their ears.
Tick.
The noise followed them through the house, breaking the silence
wherever they investigated. As the sound of a swinging pendulum from
one tall grandfather clock faded away behind them, it was replaced by a
wall clock in the next room.
Tick, tock.
The eerie sounds combined to make a strangely sinister clock chorus.
Ageing grandfather clocks stood proudly, evenly spaced on opposite
sides along the hallway, like soldiers stiffly standing guard. Each room
had its own sentry, too, watching from a wall or mantel.
Tick, tock.

Why has the author started a new line for each ‘tick, tock’?
This draws attention to the words and makes it seem
more dramatic.
The volume of one mantelpiece clock rose slightly as Alice walked by,
and slowly died again as she left it behind. A nearby door, slightly ajar,
allowed the resonance of another clock to pick up the rhythm.
Alice’s footfalls had just begun to slip back into the soothing pulse of the
ticking house when her attention was drawn to the nearest, exquisitely
polished timepiece.
She stopped. The realisation that invaded her mind made her stomach
lurch unpleasantly.
All over the vast house, thick blankets of dust clung to every item of
furniture – except for the clocks.
Tick, tock.

Can you find an example of a metaphor?

thick blankets of dust clung to every
item of furniture
Do you notice anything familiar about the time shown?
It is 10.31, which is also the time that Luca’s watch
stopped working.
Alice ran a finger along the smooth edge of a beautifully ornate carriage
clock, and found not a scrap of dirt on its surface. She looked up at the
filthy, mottled glass of the ground-floor windows and then back at the
gleaming, spotless face of the clock.
A few moments later, when both girls were back out on the main
corridor, Eliza stopped walking suddenly. She turned her head slightly to
the left, listening hard. “Can you hear that?” she whispered.
Alice stood still and silent for a moment, too. She looked back towards
the staircase, tracing the line of the banister with her narrowed eyes,
squinting up towards the dark vacuum above. In the inky blackness, it
was impossible to focus her vision but, just for a second, she had been
sure that something had moved. Her mind swam with images of a
hunched, silhouetted figure hovering just beyond the last, barely visible
step. Then, she remembered that she was supposed to be listening.
“I don’t think I can hear anything,” Alice muttered.
“Exactly,” her friend agreed. “No ticking.”

Can you think of a synonym for ‘hunched’?

HUNCHED
Huddled, stooped, bent, bowed, curved,
humped, crouched.
With a sudden shiver, Alice realised what Eliza was listening for – she
hadn’t heard the presence of something, farther away. She was listening
for the absence of it, right beside them.
Alice stood motionless, staring up at the nearest grandfather clock, the
latest in a long line of sombre watchmen standing against the dark,
panelled walls. Despite no other signs of life, the rest of the clocks had
all been working. They were even, as far as Alice had noticed, showing
the correct time.
The one in front of them, right now, had stopped.
“10:31,” said Eliza, looking back at Alice over her shoulder. The clock
was either three hours ahead or nine hours behind the correct time.
Eliza seemed to contemplate this for a moment and then, just as
suddenly as the clock had attracted her attention, she lost interest and
moved on down the hallway.

Find an example of a fronted adverbial.

‘With a sudden shiver’

‘Despite no other signs of life.’

Alice, meanwhile, stared up at the clock a little longer. Something about
its silent presence was strange, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on
what it was. She placed one hand on the frame and leaned closer.
Turning her head, she pressed her ear against the polished wooden
panel, as though listening for a pulse. The silence of the house was
deafening.
Seconds passed.
Without warning, an ear-splitting sound splintered the silence, like a pair
of huge cymbals being smashed by drumsticks. Alice’s vision went black.

Eliza had been creeping farther along the passageway when a

horrendous noise startled her. She spun round to find herself perfectly
alone in an empty hallway. The house looked exactly the same as it had
a moment earlier – but Alice was nowhere to be seen.
What do you think is the purpose of the small picture of ivy
between paragraphs?
(In some stories, an asterisk (*) would be used for the same
purpose.)
A small picture like this (or an asterisk) can be used to
show a jump in time or something that is happening
elsewhere at the same time.

It can also be suggested that ivy has been used as

Cogston House is described as being covered by a cloak
of creeping ivy.
Eliza’s face contorted from confusion into panic. Her arms appeared
frozen by her sides but her hands began to visibly shake. All
adventurous spirit whisked out of her, she whispered meekly, “Alice?”
Whipping her body round to face the other way, she spoke again, this
time louder and more urgently.
“Alice!”
Eliza aimed her call, with increasing volume, in different directions. She
dived in and out of the nearest rooms, all efforts to be stealthy
abandoned.
“Alice! Alice!”
Frantically, Eliza screamed Alice’s name again and again, fat tears
forming in her eyes. She took one more look from left to right and then
darted down the hallway and out of sight, back into the pouring rain.

How can you tell that Eliza is afraid? Find all of the evidence.
‘Eliza’s face contorted form confusion into panic.’
‘Her arms appeared frozen by her sides but her hands began to
visibly shake.’
‘She whispered meekly’
‘Whipping her body round from side to side, she spoke again, this
time louder and more urgently’
‘She dived in and out of the nearest rooms’
‘Frantically, Eliza screamed Alice’s name again”
‘Fat tears forming in her eyes’
Why are these numbers written backwards?
Alice watched it all but could not speak.
Standing in almost complete darkness, her eyes strained to adjust.
Directly in front of her face, she could see through a murky, circular
window. It was so close to the end of her nose that the thick glass
seemed to blur and distort the objects on the other side into gruesome,
deformed versions of themselves. She blinked rapidly as her befuddled
brain pieced together the picture in front of her.
She could see Eliza. Stretched and blurred by the small window, she was
standing in the corridor, just as she had been only a moment earlier. The
walls of the hallway seemed to curl sickeningly towards Alice at the top
and bottom as she rolled her eyes around to test the limits of her vision.
There was a stuffy, musty smell around her and she reached up to hold
her nose…
Nothing happened. Alice’s hands didn’t appear in front of her. She
focused hard on moving her arms from where they hung by her waist,
but it was as though they didn’t belong to her any more. She was rigid,
but for the swivelling of her wide, panicked eyes.

Why does the third paragraph end with an ellipsis (...)?

A cramped feeling began to smother her like a mass of vines and leaves
wrapping around a tree trunk. Cold beads of sweat formed on her
forehead. She watched Eliza run from door to door and heard her calling,
“Alice! Alice!”
Opening her mouth wide, Alice screamed for her friend until her throat
stung. She didn’t need to see Eliza running away down the hallway to
know that no sound had escaped from her lips.
From her prison, she watched in silent horror. Eliza had fled from the
house but Alice couldn’t force her own mouth to open, let alone call her
friend back. In front of her wide, tear-filled eyes, on the other side of the
brown glass, she could see a circle of numbers and the old-fashioned
hands of a clock. A short, stubby arrow pointed upwards and slightly to
the right; a thinner, more ornate bar hung down almost vertically.
From deep within her stomach, the desire to scream and wriggle and
fight was burning like a pilot light – but it was fighting with another
feeling. A terrifying thought rose within Alice as if it were freezing her
from the feet upwards.

Find the simile in the first paragraph, and replace it with your
own.
We are viewing the numbers from inside the clock.
Eliza was gone. Now, she was completely alone. Trapped.
Nothing moved. Cogston House was as silent as the grave. Perhaps the
only thing worse than hearing her best friend desperately calling her
name was being alone in this endless quiet. Alice’s eyes searched
through the darkness, scouring the corridor that faded into more murky
gloom. She could make out the hallway right in front of her, the door
opposite and, beyond it, the enormous winding staircase. As she looked,
blinking through the tears that had begun to stream hopelessly down
her face, she was met with a sight at the top of the staircase that all but
turned her to stone...
Something was moving.
Alice watched numbly. Her heart was in her mouth and her breath came
in sharp, rattling gasps.

Count the sentences which have 3 words or fewer. What is their

purpose?
 Five
sentences

The five short sentences help to break up the

description and add tension ad suspense to the story.
Descending the stairs one careful, agonising, creaking step at a time, a
hunched silhouette shuffled out from the darkness. A small, extremely
old man was moving slowly but purposefully towards Alice. His head was
bowed, showing a white, bald circle surrounded by wisps of light grey
hair.
“Help!” Alice tried to scream again, but nothing could be heard except
for a strangled silence. With no voice but the one inside her own head,
she begged the stranger to notice her and set her free...
A mottled, wrinkled hand reached forwards, holding a key.
A knot twisting in her stomach, Alice held her breath, staring down at
the top of the man’s head. There was a satisfying click as the key
wriggled into place. Grinding and creaking as it rotated, the key was
wound once…
...twice…
...three times, a brief pause between each half turn.

What is the effect of the long list of adjectives in the first

sentence?
It draws out the sentence and helps to create a vivid
description for the reader.
With each rotation of the key, Alice felt her chest become tighter and her
back straighten, as though a puppeteer were tugging at invisible strings.
Only her eyeballs scuttled from side to side, like marbles being jiggled in
a tiny box.
All of a sudden, everything was still once again – still, but not silent.
Alice could hear a pounding in her ears as her heartbeat became louder
and more rhythmic. The thin sliver of a third metal clock hand in front of
her face had begun to move and, as the deafening sound of her own
heart ticking overwhelmed her, she had the chilling realisation that this
particular clock was no longer broken.
Tick, tock.

What do you think has happened to Alice?

MAYBE – She is stuck inside or has become part of
the clock.
What do you predict will happen next?
YOU
DECIDE
 Beyond the Silence
Luca stared in horror at Jack as his voice deliberately faded away for
effect, mimicking ticking sounds.
“What happened next?”
Jack smirked. “Who knows? That’s how the story goes. It’s probably just
made up.”
“But the curved staircase, the hallway, the pictures! They’re all here, like
you described.” Luca’s head flicked from side to side, searching for more
details to match the story. He’d never felt totally convinced about
coming into the house in the first place; now, he was absolutely
convinced that he wanted to leave.
The boys had not yet ventured beyond the bottom of the staircase,
which opened out into the centre of the hallway. Jack seemed pleased
with himself as he sniggered and kicked at a scattering of broken stones
in front of his feet. Hands in his pockets, he wandered farther into the
grip of the building with nonchalance, as though strolling through his
own house.
Why does Luca think that the story might be true?
The details and description from the story match
what he can see inside the house
Luca stood frozen for a moment and listened. He didn’t dare move for
fear of preventing himself from hearing a sound elsewhere.
At first, there was nothing. Then, as he cocked his head to one side for a
better chance of hearing, a faint sound broke the silence...
Tick.
All of the hairs on the back of Luca’s neck stood on end.
“I’ve had enough,” he called out. “I think we should get out of here.”
“Ha! I knew you’d say that,” replied Jack, wandering farther down the
passage.
Luca had a sandstorm swirling in his throat. Desperately, he swallowed,
trying to wash away the dryness, and dithered in the centre of the
passage. Every second that he hesitated, Jack edged farther away from
him.

Summarise the differences between Jack and Luca.

The differences may include that Jack is confident and seems
brave whereas Luca is hesitant and seems scared. Jack wants to
continue exploring but Luca want to leave.
 Tick.
With each horrendous noise, Luca’s breathing quickened.
Tick.
He was panting, now. Where was it coming from? Slowly, with dread
filling him from toe to tip, he turned his head to track the source of the
noise.
Tick.
Jack’s story flashed through his head and Luca felt as if all the oxygen
were being sucked out of him.
TICK.
Then, his heart in his mouth, Luca’s eyes fell upon an explanation...

How many suspenseful writing techniques can you see?

1. Short sentences
2. One-line paragraphs
3. Italics and capitals for emphasis
4. Rhetorical question.
The high window that he had noticed earlier was being accosted by a
long branch, which was being thrown around rhythmically in the breeze.
He watched, matching the ticking sound to the thin fingers of wood
swaying and connecting with the murky glass.
Tapping, not ticking.
Luca breathed again.
“Hang on!” he pleaded with Jack.
While Luca had been standing listening, Jack had continued to explore.
Luca shook creepy thoughts from his mind like a wet dog shaking itself
dry after a swim. His stomach grumbled rudely, making him wish that he
were back home eating delicious spaghetti bolognese and savouring the
heavenly smell of fresh garlic bread. Instead, he was still surrounded by
the stinking innards of Cogston House.

Find an example of a subordinate clause.

While Luca had been standing
listening
‘Jack said that the story probably wasn’t even true,’ Luca told himself. He
followed in the direction of his friend with a little less trepidation,
heading farther along the hallway, deeper into the house. Hoping that
Jack hadn’t gone too far without him, he began to pick up his own pace
even more.
As the hallway bent into a corner and Luca’s walk broke into a trot, Jack
loomed into view. He was standing motionless and his body had tensed.
Luca rounded the corner and stopped abruptly. When he saw what Jack
was looking at, the bottom almost dropped out of his stomach.
Clocks.
Not just one, but a row of tall grandfather clocks, extending down the
hallway as though standing in a queue. Creeping up the corridor towards
them was a wave of soft ticking sounds.

Can you define ‘trepidation’ using the context to help you?

TREPIDATION means fear or anxiety about what might
happen so, here, Luca is feeling less scared as he’s
told himself that the story probably isn’t true.
“Clocks!” Luca spluttered, taking a few steps backwards. “That’s it – I’m
definitely out of here.”
“Wait – look at this, though,” Jack responded.
Tick.
Luca was no longer in the mood for waiting or looking. Turning to the
side, he began to edge back the way he had come, round the staircase
and towards the first hallway.
Tick.
He suddenly felt the urge to keep his eyes on everything: his friend, the
staircase, the darkness that felt like it was closing in on him. He didn’t
dare look where he was going.
Tick.

What is the effect of the repeating ‘tick’ sentences?

It breaks up the action of the story and adds to the
tension and suspense.
Stepping crab-style along the dusty hallway, he scraped through crinkly
leaves, which were disintegrating under his feet. Considering his
struggle to identify the quiet tapping of a branch on the window
moments ago, it was staggering how the crescendo of ticking was, now,
echoing loudly through his head.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
“Jack!”
Jack had stepped closer to one of the clocks. “This one has stopped,” he
called out. “You’re not going to believe what time it says...”
Luca didn’t need to be told. Something inside him was already
screaming the time.
“...10:31.”

How does Luca already know the time on the clock face?
This is the time that his watch stopped working and
also the time that the clock stopped in the story.
Jack was standing, transfixed, staring into the face of the huge
grandfather clock. Still backing away, Luca threw a glance up the
staircase and then back towards Jack. His friend was peering forward to
scrutinise the clock. What was holding his attention? Why couldn’t he
just leave, like Luca was?
“Jack!”
“Yeah. Yeah…” Jack murmured. Mesmerised, he was reaching out a hand
and placing it on the front of the clock.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
Luca kept moving, his back against one wall and his eyes constantly
scanning. Jack was becoming more out of focus, blending into the
encroaching darkness as Luca shuffled noisily away.
“AAAAGH!”

What is a rhetorical question? Find an example in the text.

A RHETORICAL QUESTION is a question that does not
require a direct answer.

‘What was holding his attention?’

‘Why couldn’t he just leave, like Luca was?’
Something huge and solid had collided with Luca’s back. Cursing himself
for not looking where he was going, he spun round and grabbed hold of a
heavy clock that had appeared behind him. It was not in any danger of
toppling but chimed and groaned at being disturbed. As he clutched it
with sweaty palms, he felt its weighty mechanism rocking inside.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
He steadied himself and exhaled the breath that he hadn’t realised he’d
been holding on to. Turning back to face the corridor, he panted, “It’s OK.
I’m OK, Jack.”
Jack did not respond.

Why do you think Jack has not responded?

YOUR
ANSWER
Now, you can choose how the story ends.
Out to
Safety

How it ends, only you can decide…

Under
the
Curse