40

The entry to Number Seven seemed to swell and constrict as Calum stared at it. A moment ago, it had grown teeth all around its edges, the red door a tongue ready to swallow him whole if he dared enter. Now, however, it was shrinking, becoming much too small, even for a boy. But he was shrinking too. All scaling factors failed as he stared towards the inner dark. When he’d met the neighbour's gaze, it had felt as though a mallet had driven great tent pegs through his feet. He’d need to rip them out to keep moving.

The door was beginning to widen again. This was his moment. He had survived his greatest terrors; somehow, that reality breathed in him as boldness. He ripped the pegs out, took a deep breath in, puffing up his chest as big as he could and sprinted. The door was shrinking again as he approached. Luckily, all the air he’d sucked in was blowing out, and he was deflating, he leapt and squeezed through over the threshold, tripped over a pile of shoeboxes and flew headfirst into the far wall, finally slumped amongst a stack of mops, buckets, and what looked like the motors and accessories of several different vacuum cleaners - Henry grinned at him. He followed his gaze towards the spiralling staircase. He sat up and journeyed through the accidental jungle gym, forgetting momentarily exactly where he was. Until he reached the clearing at the top step. The space ahead of him made the mess he’d travelled through suddenly very unnerving. Ahead of him lay the first light he’d seen in the house, a warm green glow emanating from the base of the door that lay before him. He put his eye nearer to it. He heard padding feet inside. He remembered exactly where he was.

“Come in,” said the neighbour then. Calum’s throat dried up. He reached his right arm across his thin body and tried to squeeze one of his ribs. He closed his eyes and tried to become completely silent.

“I said come in,” he repeated. Calum laid his left hand across his mouth, the knuckle of his index finger and his thumb pressing up, covering his nostrils to silence the racket of his pesky breathing. He lay there, in the green light of the door, as he doubled in age. His eyes remained clasped shut even as the warm green light washed over him, as the door gently creaked open.