The Four Houses of Villacián

Villacián: four houses, a storm and a yellow light in a window where nobody lives.

By the time Miriam, Ignacio and Josu reached Villacián, the storm had already taken over the village. Under the lightning, its four houses appeared and disappeared, each with a door opening onto the street and another hidden at the back. In the middle stood Miriam’s family house. On one side were two more, lived in by elderly couples; on the other, a fourth one that nobody seemed to want to mention: blackened walls, a caved-in roof and weeds that looked as if they wanted to swallow it whole. From the car, Miriam waved to one of those couples, who were watching them from the window of the furthest house.

The family house was made of dark stone, with a path that ended at a small porch. As they got out of the car, the other couple, the ones from the house next door, came out to welcome them and kissed Miriam on both cheeks. Before saying goodbye, the old man leaned in and whispered something in her ear. She answered with a mischievous smile, the kind that keeps secrets. Behind the house, a yard enclosed by a low wall opened onto the forest through an old gate.

During dinner, a clap of thunder rattled the windows. Ignacio looked out and froze: behind a black pane in the abandoned house, a yellowish light was flickering. Miriam then told them the story. A hundred years earlier, a fire had gutted the inside. A married couple and their seven-year-old daughter, Sonia, had lived there. When the neighbours put out the flames, they found none of the three. Nobody had lived there since.

Josu laughed and said the family must have come back to celebrate the anniversary.

At midnight, on the last chime of the cuckoo clock, the house went dark all at once. From the windows they could see that, in the whole of Villacián, only the burnt house was still lit. After a few minutes of silence, Miriam and Ignacio, who knew a bit about electricity, went down to the cellar to check the fuse box, with their phone torches as their only light. They had barely opened the door when a scream ran through the house.

They ran back up. Josu was pressed against the wall, speechless. In the middle of the living room stood a girl covered in soot, her dress burnt and her skin lit by a reddish glow, as if embers were still breathing beneath it. Ignacio hid behind Miriam. Sonia looked at them one by one.

“Do you want to play with me?” she asked, and began to laugh.

Outside, by the front door, two elderly laughs answered her in unison. Ignacio and Josu stepped back. Miriam, on the other hand, looked at the girl for a moment, raised her hand and gave her a high five.

Activities

1 Detective Inference

What was really going on that night in Villacián? Tick the correct hypothesis.

a) Sonia, the girl nobody found after the fire, had truly come back to her house and dragged the whole village’s light with her.
b) Ignacio and Josu had set up the scare to teach Miriam a lesson for telling them the story at dinner.
c) Miriam and the neighbours had planned a prank in advance, and Sonia, the soot-covered girl, was part of it.
d) A girl from another village had sneaked into the burnt house and hidden in the living room when the lights went out.

Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.

2 The Loom Order of events

The story starts with the arrival in Villacián. Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.

A fire guts the house where Sonia lived with her parents.
Ignacio spots a light flickering behind the glass of the burnt house.
The cuckoo clock strikes twelve and the house goes dark.
Miriam tells the story of the missing girl, and Josu laughs.
Miriam gives Sonia a high five while elderly laughter rings out.
An old man whispers something to Miriam and she smiles mischievously.

3 The Missing Page Coherence

Which continuation fits everything we know? Tick only one option.

a) Miriam runs to the car with Ignacio and Josu, terrified, while the girl chases them, laughing, through the rain as far as the yard.
b) Sonia wipes off the soot, laughing, and her grandparents come in through the back door: it’s the yearly prank, and Miriam knew all along.
c) The old couple, who knew nothing about the girl, come in very frightened, and Miriam explains she must be a child from the next village.
d) Josu, his voice back, confesses that he was the one who told the neighbours to scare Miriam, although the girl wasn’t part of his plan.

Why do you rule out the others? Explain one of them.

4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading

Three statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.

a) Miriam’s family house stood in the middle of the village, with the old couples on one side and the burnt house on the other.
b) The couple from the house next door were watching from the window when they arrived, and they were the ones who came out to kiss Miriam.
c) During dinner, Ignacio saw a yellowish light flickering behind a black pane in the abandoned house.
d) Since the fire, a hundred years earlier, nobody had lived in the village’s burnt house again.
e) At midnight the power went off in the whole village, including the burnt house, which went dark like the rest.
f) Miriam and Josu went down to the cellar together with their phone torches to check the fuse box.

5 The Gallery Visualisation

In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which illustration shows Villacián just after the lights went out at midnight?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.