"A Splinter of Darkness" (short story)

From "Dark House"
First Published:
Australia: Reed (Mammoth), 1995 [Out of print]
 
Dark House, subtitled stories compiled by the master of the macabre, is an anthology of horror stories for young adults edited by Gary Crew.
 
What is it about old houses that stirs the imagination?  Is it the presence of the house itself?  Its shuttered windows; its gaping doors ... the long dark tunnel of its hall?
 
Or is it the remembrance of some dark and secret episode of childhood?  Some shameful, long-buried memory we dare not share?
 
Gary Crew asked twelve of Australia's most exciting writers what lurks in the dark house of their imaginations and they dared to tell ... if you dare to listen...

Includes stories by Carmel Bird, Isobelle Carmody, Gary Crew, Garry Disher, Marion Halligan, Victor Kelleher, Peter Lawrance, David McRobbie, James Moloney, Philip Nielsen, Jenny Pausacker, Gillian Rubinstein and Arnold Zable.