One winter night, my cousins had come to stay with me at my house. We played, chatted and gossiped. It was a fun night. After becoming tired and my mum’s constant reminders that it was getting late, we finally got up to go and sleep. Mum had laid a spare mattress in my room for my cousins. So we talked for a while and finally went to sleep.

It was a cold night and I was sleeping cosily in my warm bed. Then I heard the sound of thunder at a distance, but it was getting louder by each passing minute. This meant that the rain could start any minute.

But I woke up to an uproarious sound and saw the spare mattresses in my room completely empty. Where were my cousins? This filled me with terror. I wondered if I should go and tell my parents, but decided to check downstairs first to see if they were sitting there. Out of eagerness I stepped out of the room, deciding to go downstairs to investigate or catch them red handed.

All of a sudden, the electricity went off and I couldn’t see anything, when I stepped on the top step, I slipped and rolled down the stairs like a ball. My legs were hurting and I was dizzy.

When I looked beside me, I saw a figure but couldn’t make out what it was. The figure started to move here and there, and then I heard eerie and spooky sounds. I glanced back towards the direction of the figure, but there was no sign of it this time. This made me frightened. I stayed rooted where I was holding my slippers in my hands.

Suddenly, the TV switched on by itself. I was very scared now. Then I felt as if someone was patting my shoulder. I shouted my lungs out as I was too frightened to move. But I mustered up some courage and hurried in the direction of the electricity switch and turned it on.

I was extremely surprised to see my mother. I rushed towards her and embraced her. As I breathlessly tried to tell her what I had just experienced, I heard laughter. My cousins jumped out from behind the sofas and started laughing at me. I couldn’t believe it.

But soon I was also laughing with them when they told me about their prank and how they have succeeded in scaring me. After I had calmed down, we all went to my room to finally sleep. But I couldn’t sleep for a long time as I was planning on how I would get back at them for playing such a mean prank on me.

Get ready cousins, it is going to be my turn to scare you soon.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 2nd, 2022