AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Later, in bed, they tangled again.
As she drifted off to sleep, Sonya thought if this was the wide-open sexual energy of beginnings, it really, really worked.
In the second parlor, just before three, the old grandfather clock’s pendulum began to tick.
Back and forth, back and forth as the hands on the moon-faced dial revolved.
And the clock struck three.
The first gong woke them both; the dogs leaped up and snarled.
“It’s louder.” Sonya gripped Trey’s arm. “Is it louder?”
“Than it was last night, yeah.” He rolled out of bed, then grabbed his sweatpants. “I’ll go check it out. The dogs’ll stay with you.”
“Please.” She found her clothes in the dim light of the fire. “All of us.”
“All of us then.”
When they reached the door of her sitting room, piano music drifted up.
“Just another three a.m. in the manor,” she murmured.
“It has to mean something. The time. It’s too consistent not to.” As they came down the stairs, he looked toward the portrait. “And the song. She always plays the same one.”
But when they reached the music room, it stopped.
“You saw Clover, but whoever’s playing—and I still think Astrid—either isn’t ready or can’t… I guess it’s materialize.”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
They continued down the hall. The dogs stopped at the door to the second parlor and snarled again.
Sonya’s breath backed up in her lungs until she had to push it out. “The hands moved to three.” She stepped in because he did. “And it’s cold, Trey.”
Even as she spoke, the keys on the piano in the music room crashed with crazed chords. The pendulum on the clock began to sway again, and each second ticked off like a fired bullet. With the hair standing up on the back of their necks, the dogs barked frenzied warnings.
Doors flew open; doors slammed shut. The light Trey had flipped on flickered and went out.
In the dark, something brushed by her. Something so cold it burned.
“Something’s in here.” Breathless, she groped for his hand. “I felt it. It touched me.”
“Next time we bring a flashlight.”
Something hit the front door like a battering ram.
On those wild barks, the dogs flew out of the room and toward the sound.
“Come on.” Trey pulled her from the room.
“You’re going to open the door. Jesus. Listen to that wind, the waves. Look, look, it’s ice hitting the windows.”
“So, she can pull out a nor’easter.” When he reached the door, he pulled it open to a still night and a swimming moon. “But it’s an illusion. Damn good one.”
“Oh, the dogs.”
“They’re fine. She’s not out there. I think she’s done for the night. I think that’s all she’s got.”
