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calming me the way it usually does, the local rock station just bugged me.
    Finally I tossed the earphones on the floor and drifted off. I don’t know how long I had slept before I came suddenly awake. It must have been the cold that woke me. I was freezing . I sat up in bed, pulling my blanket up around my ears. Outside my bay window the moonlight was like silver paint on the leaves. The wind chimes reflected the light and on the windowsill the glass bowl sort of glowed.
    I didn’t know why, but my stomach was in a tight knot—the way it is when you’ve got an important test coming up, or you did something wrong and your parents found out and it’s time to get punished.
    Then I realized I could see my breath.
    It can’t be this cold , I thought. And if it was cold, how come the furnace didn’t start up? I decided to get out of bed and wake up Dad and get the heat turned on.
    It was the sharp tinkling of the wind chimes that stopped me. I looked up at them, surprised, because I was sure I had shut my window.
    My window was closed. The chimes were perfectly still, but jangling like mad.
    The jangling stopped, and all I could hear was my own breathing. What the heck is going on , I thought.
    Then I heard footsteps in the hall outside my room, creaking on the hardwood floor.
    And a wave of fear rolled through me. Because I knew they weren’t footsteps belonging to Mom or Dad or John. There was someone in the house!
    I was too scared to get out of bed. I sat there, tense, staring at my closed door, hoping that the footsteps wouldn’t come closer, hoping that the bolt would hold. I heard a sudden laugh, then the sound of someone running, toward the front of the house.
    Then dead silence.
    Still I stared at the door. I pulled the blanket tighter as my teeth began chattering—from fear or cold, I didn’t know which. I wanted to run to my parents’ room but I was too terrified to get out of bed. I glanced up at the wind chimes, half expecting them to jangle again, then back to the door.
    I felt exhausted, heavy. I lay down again on my side with my legs curled up to my chest. I was beginning to feel a little warmer but I could still see my breath. I lay there, staring at the door.
    Footsteps again. Creaking slowly toward my room.
    The temperature dropped. I moaned in terror and cowered back until I could feel the wall behind me as the footsteps came even closer.
    The footsteps stopped. Then— Bang! Bang! Bang! —the door shook in its frame. The clamour kept on without a rest, a constant knocking, like someone on the other side was mad, really mad, and wanted me.
    The knocking got louder and louder. The whole wall seemed to vibrate with each deafening bang on the door. I pressed my hands to my ears, thinking I was going crazy. The pounding started to echo inside my skull, like a drum. I tore my eyes from the door when the motionless wind chimes began to jangle again.
    My eyes darted to the slide bolt above the knob on the door. It rattled and jumped with each booming blow. I looked at the doorknob, expecting it to begin to turn, slowly, like in all the horror movies.
    But the thunderous knocking stopped. The wind chimes fell silent.
    I flopped back on the bed, relieved, as if someone had pushed me over. I was breathing fast and a trickle of sweat ran into my eye. How can I be sweating , I thought. It’s still freezing in here . But I couldn’t see my breath anymore.
    I felt the heaviness again, and fell into sleep.
    When I opened my eyes, it was still night. Moonlight spilled through my window and across the floor. I was facing the door, and the knob shone a little from the moonlight.
    I pushed my blanket down. It was very warm in the room.
    â€œWhew! What a dream,” I whispered. “Must have been all that popcorn I ate before I went to bed.”
    I had almost convinced myself that it had all been a nightmare when I heard footsteps again.
    They crept slowly down