The Thing That Lived Upstairs

What's a little girl to do when late in the night she is taunted by the sounds stirring in the locked upstairs bedroom? She trembles in fear as it descends with a kathump, kathump, kathump.

This is a true story of the scariest thing that ever happened in the author's childhood. Movement was being heard from the locked upstairs bedroom. When it began to descend down the hallway stairs, the little girl becomes terrified. Cries out to her exhausted mother seemed to be unfruitful. What's a little girl to do when late in the night she begins hearing noises in the locked upstairs bedroom? When it begins to descend down the stairs with a heavy kathump, kathump, kathump, Vone becomes terrified. As it enters a whole through the door and comes closer, her cries out to her exhausted mother seems to be fruitless.

LaVone Hicks has been a music teacher in NC for nearly 34 years. A 1976 graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC, she received her master's degree with a concentration in reading from UNC-Charlotte. The experience she gained as an insurance agent for 18 years paved the way for her first book, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-Life Lessons Learned, published in August 2014. But it was her students at Carver Elementary in Mt. Olive NC who inspired her to publish this children's book, "The Thing That Lived Upstairs." Her personal scary story intrigued the students so much until she actually prepared it for a Guided Reading lesson for students way back in 2003 when her school district required special area teachers to help with reading. It is hoped that this book will not only entertain, but also educate others about the NC lifestyle in the 1950's and become a legacy to her school, family, and friends.