01 The Witching Hour

The Witching Hour Sophie couldn't sleep. A brilliant moonbeam was slanting through a gap in the curtains. It was shining right on to her pillow. The other children in the dormitory had been asleep for hours. Sophie closed her eyes and lay quite still. She tried very hard to doze off. It was no good. The moonbeam was like a silver blade slicing through the room on to her face. The house was absolutely silent. No voices came up from downstairs. There were no footsteps on the floor above either. The window behind the curtain was wide open, but nobody was walking on the pavement outside. No cars went by on the street. Not the tiniest sound could be heard anywhere. Sophie had never known such a silence.

魔女时刻苏菲睡不着。 一束明亮的月光从窗帘的缝隙里斜射进来。 它正照在她的枕头上。 宿舍里的其他孩子已经睡了好几个小时了。 索菲闭上眼睛，静静地躺着。 她竭力想打个盹儿。 这一点也不好。月光就像一把银刃，穿过房间，照在她的脸上。 屋子里鸦雀无声。 楼下没有声音。 楼上的地板上也没有脚步声。 窗帘后面的窗户大开着，但外面的人行道上没有人走。 街上没有汽车经过。 任何地方都听不到最微小的声音。 索菲从来没有经历过这样的寂静。

Perhaps, she told herself, this was what they called the witching hour. The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves. The moonbeam was brighter than ever on Sophie's pillow. She decided to get out of bed and close the gap in the curtains. You got punished if you were caught out of bed after lights-out. Even if you said you had to go to the lavatory, that was not accepted as an excuse and they punished you just the same. But there was no one about now, Sophie was sure of that.

也许，她对自己说，这就是他们所说的“妖魔时刻”。 有人曾经悄悄对她说过，这个令人神魂颠倒的时刻是半夜里的一个特殊时刻，每个孩子和大人都在熟睡中，所有的黑暗之物都从躲藏的地方出来，占据了整个世界。 月光照在索菲的枕头上，比以往任何时候都明亮。 她决定下床，把窗帘的缝隙合上。 如果你在熄灯后被发现起床，你会受到惩罚。 即使你说你要去洗手间，这也不能作为借口，他们还是会惩罚你。 但是现在周围一个人也没有了，这一点索菲敢肯定。

She reached out for her glasses that lay on the chair beside her bed. They had steel rims and very thick lenses, and she could hardly see a thing without them. She put them on, then she slipped out of bed and tiptoed over to the window. When she reached the curtains, Sophie hesitated. She longed to duck underneath them and lean out of the window to see what the world looked like now that the witching hour was at hand. She listened again. Everywhere it was deathly still. The longing to look out became so strong she couldn't resist it. Quickly, she ducked under the curtains and leaned out of the window. In the silvery moonlight, the village street she knew so well seemed completely different. The houses looked bent and crooked, like houses in a fairy tale. Everything was pale and ghostly and milky-white. Across the road, she could see Mrs Rance's shop, where you bought buttons and wool and bits of elastic. It didn't look real. There was something dim and misty about that too.

她伸手去拿放在床边椅子上的眼镜。 眼镜的镜框是钢的，镜片很厚，不戴眼镜她几乎什么也看不见。 她穿上它们，然后从床上溜下来，蹑手蹑脚地走到窗前。 索菲走到窗帘前，犹豫了一下。 她真想躲到他们下面去，把身子探出窗外，看看这个世界现在是什么样子，因为那令人心醉神迷的时刻就要到了。 她又听了一遍。到处都是死一般的寂静。 想往外看的渴望变得如此强烈，她无法抗拒。 她迅速地钻到窗帘下面，探出窗外。 在银色的月光下，她熟悉的乡村街道显得完全不同了。 这些房子看起来歪歪扭扭的，就像童话里的房子。 一切都是苍白的、幽灵般的、乳白色的。 在马路对面，她可以看到兰斯太太的商店，在那里你可以买纽扣、羊毛和一些松紧带。 它看起来不像真的。这里面也有一种朦胧的东西。

Sophie allowed her eye to travel further and further down the street. Suddenly she froze. There was something coming up the street on the opposite side. It was something black… Something tall and black… Something very tall and very black and very thin.

索菲的目光在街上越看越远。 突然，她僵住了。有什么东西从对面的街上走过来。 是黑色的东西……又高又黑的东西……又高又黑又瘦的东西。