The Vanishing of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Phil Hickes
- Language: English
- Genre: Children’s Paranormal, Occult & Supernatural
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
A Mystery Awaits
Lulled by the rhythmic clickety-clack of the train, Aveline’s eyelids drooped.
Sleep reached out with its soft, spongy arms, but she resisted and blinked
herself awake. Outside, the countryside drowned beneath a watery deluge,
the rain hurling itself horizontally across the landscape like a fistful of grey
nails. Grim mires of dark water pooled in the fields. Black clouds billowed
like clenched fists. Frowning, Aveline pushed back her glasses. This was
supposed to be the best time of the year. The laziest. The comfiest.
The most
magical. School had finished and the Christmas holidays had started. By
now, she should have been existing mainly on chocolate, watching films in
her zebra onesie, and curled up on the cushions in front of the fire reading
her favourite books. Nothing to do and all day to do it. Instead, here she was,
sitting on a hard seat in a chilly train carriage with a rumbling stomach.
They were on their way to a village called Scarbury, about fifty miles away
from their home in Bristol. Aveline’s Uncle Rowan lived there – or at least
he used to live there – before he’d disappeared.
Aveline had only been two years old at the time, but her mum had told her a
little bit about what had happened. It had been December, almost ten years
ago. He had gone out one day, and just never came back. At first, everyone
expected Uncle Rowan to reappear. It wasn’t that unusual for him to go
AWOL every now and then. But as time passed, and he didn’t return, it
quickly went from odd, to weird, to worrying. No sightings. No clues. Just
thin air and an empty house gathering dust and junk mail. Since that day,
Uncle Rowan had never been heard from again. And so, eventually, the time
had come when her mum had to accept that, miracles aside, he wouldn’t be
coming back. And with mortgage payments on his house still outstanding,
they would need to sell it. It was a sad task for Aveline’s mum, almost like
an official goodbye, which is why she’d wanted to conclude matters before
Christmas.
Blinking out of her trance, Aveline glanced across the table, which was
covered with coffee cups, mobile phones, biscuit wrappers, books and a
scattered deck of playing cards. Opposite her, Aunt Lilian twitched in her
seat. She’d fallen into a doze sometime after they boarded the train. Even in
her sleep, she frowned slightly, obviously displeased at whatever was
happening in her dreams. This trip would be hard on her, too.
Uncle Rowan
was her younger brother. Normally strong and assured about everything,
right now, Aunt Lilian looked small and fragile. Aveline would have gone
and sat beside her, and maybe leaned into her a little, but Aveline’s mum was
sleeping, too, her head lolling against Aunt Lilian’s shoulder. Aveline
silently promised herself that she would try to be there for them both over
the next few days.
Rummaging in her backpack, Aveline retrieved the only photo she had of
herself and her Uncle Rowan. She pulled it close to her face.
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