Georgina never quite understood why she had met only three neighbours, why no one stayed out until late. She wondered often why she never saw teenagers hanging out on the streets, but as always, she dismissed her musings with the joy she found in her new home. However, it seems that the more they were warned, the more enticed they became.

One evening after dinner, Donte had let the cats out of the house. His older siblings Olivia and Peter sat on the porch playing board games when suddenly there was a loud shriek emanating from some place at the top of the street. The children, startled out of their wits, stared at each other in disbelief. Donte had flown out of his shoes to get inside the house. He had often complained of the shrieks but was teased and accused of being a baby by his sister and brother. No one listened to him when he spoke of seeing the house with the large teeth, no one believed him when he said he saw people moving in Willow Manor. No one except old Mrs. Robinson and the Malabvers, who whispered in petrified voices, huddled closely to themselves.

Old Mrs. Robinson had peered through her window on hearing the sound, and quickly drew her curtains and retired to the inner bowels of her house. The children could hear the sound of doors and windows being slammed shut and they became even more curious and bewildered at the happenings.

Mark Godwin had not returned home from the country club that evening and the children became restless. It was almost seven, and the street was made even darker with the towering and overlapping branches of the willows.

Between the tiny gaps in the foliage, a full moon peered back, casting shadows, which seemed to sway back and forth and which moved ominously on the roofs and in the streets. Peter had convinced Olivia to help him find the cats, chiding her for being a "scaredy cat" herself. Wanting to prove him wrong, she stepped bravely aside him in the direction of Willows Manor.

The further up the street they went, the darker it seemed to get. Shadows moved swiftly behind trees and there was an eerie chill, which made Olivia and Peter shudder and pull at their sweaters. Peter thought he saw, looming at the end of the street in one of the windows, a tall white figure moving slowly. As quickly as he could have alerted Olivia to what he thought he saw, just as quickly the image vanished. Heart pounding, he hung onto his sister's hand and gave a tight squeeze, his stomach became knotted and he felt as though he would pass out when he was jolted back by the sound of a bone-chilling shriek which sent his heart into overdrive! Olivia had gone pale and wide-eyed, as, now looming and towering in front of them, was Willow Manor - only a few meters away.

Somehow, something was drawing them towards the house, voices calling them, scratching noises, which seemed to pull at their being, without physically touching them. Howling voices resounded from the belly of the house and the windows seemed to fly open and shut at will. They could both hear the voices, which called out to them from outside the windows of their parents' house.

A huge door flew open with such force, that the rest of the house seemed to shake at the sheer strength of it. From within, shapes of children and pale-faced teenagers peered back, arms outstretched, and which seemed to be grasping at anything, at the children. From within the house came screams and howls for help and shouts for the children to run, run as far away and as fast as they can. But Olivia and Peter were trapped in their stupor, for wide-eyed and gawking, they could not seem to pull themselves away from the house at the end of the street.

Willow Manor seemed to possess the features of a huge mouth, with large scissor-like teeth, clambering open and shut and which snapped sharply at the bewildered children. The tattered curtains in the old windows had been transformed into huge eyes, focused only on the meal in front of them.

There was a loud rumbling sound and the earth shook violently, making the house sway rhythmically, but to the beat of a deathly tune. In the blink of an eye Willow Manor had swallowed Peter and Olivia Godwin!

The huge gaping mouth with the scissor-like teeth had devoured the children - slamming shut once again with a finality that spoke volumes, a sound which reiterated the fact that the kids would never again see the light of day. As if nothing had happened, but with a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment, Willow Manor shook once more, returning again to its original state of a huge and towering house, with the old tattered curtains, the dark windows, the ominous presence. Once again there was the quiet, once again loomed the house at the end of the street, there stood Willow Manor.