Eldritch Manor Read online

  Horace was in the library as usual, but his book lay open and unread in his lap as he snoozed with his head propped in his hand. Fadiyah was hopping about restlessly on her perch. Willa put her hand on the bars of the cage and the bird stopped and looked at her. As usual, waves of reassurance wafted over her, like a gentle breeze. She took a deep breath and felt calm. The bird nodded.

  Baz was still asleep. Willa could hear her snoring through the heavy door. Robert’s room, however, was empty. Willa hurried back to Belle, still at the window.

  “Belle! Where’s Robert?”

  The old lady raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Robert had a fine time last night, thanks to the Scotch. You should have heard him carrying on … the old goat.”

  “But where is he? Where did he go?”

  Belle nodded toward the yard. “He was partying with the floozies back there.”

  “Who?” Willa was confused.

  “The wood nymphs,” Belle answered wearily as she wheeled away. “I need a nap.”

  Tengu was in the dining room with his head down on the table, fast asleep. Willa gently shook his arm.

  “Tengu! Wake up! We have to go find Robert.”

  He lifted his bleary head and blinked. “Okay.”

  “Why is everyone so tired? How late did you stay up?”

  “Oh, I went to bed right away, but I didn’t sleep well. Don’t feel rested at all.”

  “I had the same kind of night.” Willa yawned, and they went out the kitchen door into the misty back garden.

  The stable was straight ahead, in the back left corner of the property, but it could barely be seen, covered in ivy and drowning in tall grass. To the right of the stable was a stand of trees, strung heavily with vines and moss. Further to the right, next to the high fence that separated them from the Hacketts, was an open sunny area, but it was so clogged with grasses and prickly blackberry bushes that it was even more impassable than the woods.

  Tengu led the way into the trees, following the loud sound of snoring. He pushed aside the branches and thorns for Willa, but she still found it hard to keep up with the agile little man. Once she heard a strange breath, like a sigh, that came from all sides at once. It sounded ancient and sad and chilled her to the bone. She hurried to catch up to Tengu, who was waiting for her.

  “You’d better stick with me. Don’t want you wandering off on your own. You might fall in the pool or something.”

  “There’s a pool?”

  He waved vaguely toward the open area. “Yes, but it’s all grown over, full of weeds and slimy things. Best left alone.” They continued on.

  Finally, beside the stable, they came upon a very strange sight. Robert was sound asleep sitting against the stone wall. Lying on the ground around him were a couple dozen little fairies, also asleep. With their long hair matted and their leafy clothing in severe disarray, they looked like discarded dolls. All was quiet except for snoring, Robert’s booming and the wood nymphs’ squeaky little snorts.

  Willa couldn’t help but laugh. “So these are wood nymphs!”

  Tengu nodded, also giggling a little. “A real disgrace, they are.”

  Willa always had an eye on the Hackett house. To her relief the corner of the garden where Robert and the nymphs were passed out was shielded from the neighbours’ sight by thick vines and branches. However, they had to traverse a rather open area of the yard to get back in the house, so she fetched a blanket to throw over Robert’s head and shoulders. It was quite a struggle, but they finally got him to his feet, or his hooves, and he lurched toward the back door, moaning and grumbling.

  Willa could see Mr. and Mrs. Hackett sitting in their kitchen, and when Robert’s hooves hit the back steps with a loud thud, Mr. Hackett leaned to peer out the window at them. Pulling the blanket firmly over Robert’s head, Willa and Tengu desperately shoved him into the kitchen, resulting in more crashing and cursing. Willa was stumbling up the steps, about to follow them inside, when she heard Mr. Hackett.

  “Oh, Willaaaa!” He was on the back step now, hands on his hips. He wore that smug look that could only mean he had a grievance.

  Willa sighed and conjured up a cheerful expression. “Hello, Mr. Hackett.”

  “Was that a horse I just saw? It’s against zoning to have livestock, you know.”

  “No, no,” Willa laughed nervously. “It’s not a real horse, just a costume. We, uh, had a costume party last night. I hope we didn’t make too much noise.” She knew the mention of noise would divert Mr. Hackett’s attention away from Robert. Noise was one of his favourite topics. She was right.

  “Indeed! An unholy row it was, and after midnight too!” He was just getting revved up when Mrs. Hackett popped her head out the door.

  “Later than that. I looked at my bedside clock and it said one thirty-seven precisely. I remember. One thirty-seven.”

  “It’s really unacceptable, Willa,” continued Mr. Hackett. “I very nearly called the police.”

  “Oh, thank you for not calling. It won’t happen again. We won’t have any more parties, I promise.”

  “I should hope not,” sniffed Mrs. Hackett, patting her curlers and disappearing inside. Mr. Hackett remained, still peering curiously at the house. Willa smiled brightly, edging away.

  “Welllll, anyway ... sorry for your trouble. Have a nice day!” As she opened the kitchen door there was another loud crash from inside. She gave Mr. Hackett another smile and a shrug, and hurried inside.

  Robert had paused for a breather, leaning against the kitchen wall, and Tengu was picking up the chairs he’d knocked over. Willa took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts.

  “Okay. We’ll get Robert up to his room where he can sleep it off.” Robert merely grunted in reply and rubbed his eyes. Willa squinted out the window. “I hope the nymphs are all right out there.”

  “They’ll have to be,” replied Tengu. “We can’t bring them in here. They don’t get along with Mab at all. Some kind of fairy feud.”

  Willa froze. “Omigosh. Mab!”

  Rushing into the parlour, she retrieved the tiny key from the mantlepiece and paused before the dollhouse. She’d locked Mab in there before dinner last night and had forgotten to let her out again. She unclicked the lock and swung the side of the house open to see Mab sitting on the bed, arms crossed and staring daggers at her. The fairy’s face was purple with rage. Willa stuttered her apologies but Mab silently glared her down. Willa was relieved for the distraction of Robert clip-clopping through the house, moaning piteously. She joined Tengu, watching helplessly as the centaur staggered up the stairs, leaning against the wall or the bannister, which creaked under his weight, threatening imminent collapse. At the top he knocked a painting off the wall, slumped around the corner, and finally disappeared into his room.

  Willa sighed. “No more booze for Robert.”

  Willa awoke the next morning to the strangest sound she’d ever heard, like a trumpet being strangled. She opened her eyes and had a moment of confusion, taking in the dark, musty room instead of her bright, clean room at home. Then she remembered where she was, and knew the noise to be Tengu greeting the day with his rooster impression. She looked up at the ceiling, and her brain felt just as dusty, cracked, and cobwebby as the room around her. This was the second night she hadn’t had any dreams, and her head felt like it was filled with mud. Every thought required great effort and she felt vaguely anxious.

  She moved clumsily down the stairs. It was like she was on a planet with a force of gravity that made her weigh twice as much as she did on Earth, only she couldn’t remember whether it was small planets or big planets that would do that. Her thoughts were scattered and leaden. It was only when she glanced over at Fadiyah, serene and dignified in her cage in the parlour, that she felt calm and capable again.

  In the dining room it was evident that she wasn’t the only one who was having trouble waking up. Belle was snoring in her chair in the corner, her head tipped back and mouth open. Horace stared blankly into space and rubb
ed his temples.

  “Good morning,” Willa ventured, just as the kitchen door swung open and banged her elbow. Baz shuffled in with the teapot and cups on a tray. She paused to yawn, her hands shaking with the force of it, and tea slopped onto the floor.

  Nobody had much to say, other than that they were all sleeping poorly and without dreams, just like Willa. And it was taking its toll. Even the normally chipper Tengu was subdued. Robert didn’t get out of bed until noon, but that could have been due to the crashing hangover he claimed to still have. Mab, on the other hand, seemed energetic enough, even spritely. Willa was positive she caught a smirk on her face when the others complained about being tired. Mab was still mad, though, about being locked up, and wouldn’t speak to anyone.

  Over the next few days Willa wearily struggled to keep up with her duties, only leaving the house to buy groceries and to go home one night for dinner. At the table she could barely keep up a conversation and yawned so much her parents were alarmed.

  “How hard are those oldsters working you?” her dad wanted to know. “Aren’t you getting enough sleep?”

  Willa insisted that she was. In fact, she was going to bed embarrassingly early these days, at eight or nine o’clock.

  And she wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the house was sleeping in later each day, napping frequently through the day, and heading upstairs to go to bed at earlier and earlier hours in the evening, yet with each passing day they grew more tired. Conversations became rare and made little to no sense as everyone forgot what they were about to say. They were all clumsier, stumbling and dropping things. Even the bird stared with dull eyes and wobbled on her perch, nearly falling off.

  On the fifth day of this sleepiness Willa felt a need for some fresh air to clear her head and ventured out into the backyard jungle. She had waited until she saw the Hacketts leave in their car. She wanted to be alone and not have to chit-chat with those two. Keeping in mind the overgrown pool Tengu said was back there, she proceeded very cautiously, probing the tangled weeds ahead of her with a long stick. The air was thick and muggy, and her hair started to stick to her forehead and the back of her neck.

  She soon reached the clearing. It was low-lying and rather soggy underfoot, so she was glad to spot a large, sloping grey stone emerging from the damp moss. She clambered up on it and sat down to think. She was worried. Why were they all so tired? It didn’t seem normal. Was a magic spell causing it? Was this being done by the enemies Horace had spoken about? Willa wished Miss Trang would get back soon. She’d know what to do.

  Willa yawned. She lay back on the rock and yawned again, the kind of yawn that makes you wonder if it’s ever going to end. And when it finally did end she heard someone yawn back. Or rather she felt it. The yawn surrounded her and vibrated through her body, a yawn so big and deep that she sat up in alarm. The rock beneath her was shifting.

  An earthquake! she thought, and scrambled off, but the ground was still. She poked the rock with her stick and it shuddered.

  Her heart beat wildly. The yard was silent, still. She wanted to run into the house and call the others, but ... she couldn’t help herself. She inched forward through the thick brush, uncovering more of the rock — or whatever it was — and repeatedly poking it with the stick. Each time she did it twitched and rippled a little, like a muscle flexing. When she found the edge of the thing, she proceeded around its perimeter, which turned out to be a perfect, straight-edged rectangle. It was the pool. But a pool should be a hole in the ground, and this was a mound, a perfectly rectangular mound. It took Willa’s weary brain a moment or two to come up with the answer. The pool was filled with something large, grey, and leathery. Something that yawned and moved. It was time to get the others.

  They gathered around the thing, wrinkling their noses against the stench of the brackish water. Flies buzzed around them and the air was strangely still. To her surprise, nobody else knew anything about it, or had any guess as to what it could be. They gathered around while Tengu and Horace cut back the foliage. Even so, it was hard to make out any details. The thing had creases that contained slimy green water, and folds craggy with moss, but most of its bulk was smooth and grey. Horace pointed out what looked to be a long neck folded alongside the body, and to where the head probably was, tucked out of sight. They tentatively ran their hands over the “skin.” It was smoother than stone, almost leathery. Was it a kind of huge snake? A lizard? A smooth-skinned crocodile? Whatever it was, it had taken refuge in the water of the pool, and it had been there a long, long time.

  “So it came here before any of you did. How long have you all been here?” asked Willa. They pondered this question, brows furrowed.

  Horace waved vaguely. “It’s rather hard to say. I’m never sure about how fast time is passing here....”

  Willa was confused. “Well who’s been here the longest?”

  Belle shook her head. “Not me. I arrived last. I’m ...” and here she started to cackle, “... the baby of the group.”

  Horace spoke again, looking pained. “I can’t remember for sure, but I might have been the first, although I remember Miss Trang from those days.”

  Willa was getting impatient. “What days? How long ago?”

  Horace shrugged. “It could be decades. Or centuries. Or millennia. I’m sorry, but they all feel the same to me.” He gestured to the house. “Places like this ... Where we come from time moves differently. When we retired the only way we could live in your ... time ... was to come to a safehouse with a special time-regulating dispensation....”

  Willa gave up trying to understand. Horace was being strangely unhelpful, going on and not making sense when they had this ... this thing in front of them. This monstrous thing.

  “So what is it? Is it dangerous? Should we get it out of there?” Willa asked. No one had an answer.

  A sudden loud screech echoed around the yard, making them jump. It was Fadiyah, up above them in her cage. Willa had put the bird out on a third floor balcony so she could get some air. She’d never heard Fadi make a sound like this before. Everyone stared up as Fadi screamed, each squawk increasing in pitch, volume, and intensity until they had to turn away and hold their ears. Willa thanked her lucky stars that the Hacketts weren’t home. They would not like this racket one bit.

  It felt like the sound was drilling right into Willa’s brain. She pressed her palms hard into her ears and dropped to her knees. When she thought she couldn’t take another moment, the earth rumbled and the bird went quiet. The shape in the pool writhed. Willa stumbled back, grabbing at Belle’s wheelchair and yanking her back too.

  The grey beast shifted from side to side, the concrete of the pool popping and cracking, then it slowly lifted its long neck, raising its head from the muck. It had a lizard-like face, a wide mouth and huge, moist eyes with long lashes. Its grey skin lay in folds like an elephant’s, but it certainly wasn’t an elephant. Willa felt a wild, insane excitement, and actually laughed out loud. Just when she thought this place couldn’t get any weirder, there turned out to be a dinosaur in the swimming pool.

  Chapter Nine

  Wearier and wearier, Willa solves a mystery

  As they stared at it in shock, the dinosaur swung its drooping head back and forth, taking in the entire scene with sleepy eyes. It didn’t seem dangerous. Willa devoutly hoped it was a herbivore. Then the beast spotted the bird up on the balcony and slowly lifted its head, coughing wheezily. When it finally reached the third floor, the dinosaur squinted briefly at the bird. Then its eyes rolled back in its head and it flopped to the ground with a terrific crash.

  Willa stared in shock. Had the only dinosaur alive in the whole world just died in front of her? They approached cautiously. Horace gingerly put a hand on its neck and announced it still had a pulse. He guessed it had simply fainted.

  Willa’s next big problem was how to keep a full-sized dinosaur out of sight of the neighbours. The bushes provided only partial cover, so Willa dashed to the hardware store for enormous blu
e tarps and several long poles. Tengu helped her fashion a large tent over the pool, and they worked quickly in the heat and humidity while Horace sat and watched.

  The dinosaur came to as they worked and watched them calmly. Its long lashes convinced Willa it was a she, and she began calling her Dinah. Willa was concerned about Dinah’s health, since she didn’t seem to be able to climb out of the pool. Horace speculated she’d been immobile in the pool for a good long while and this had probably caused her legs to weaken. Willa asked how she could have got there, and where was she before, and how old was she anyway? At this Horace got all vague again, talking about different kinds of time and something called a time talisman, and “rips in the fabric of time,” until Willa simply gave up asking questions.

  However Dinah had gotten in the pool, she’d been there a while, and Horace maintained that her legs may have become “vestigial,” or permanently useless. Willa hoped not. She hoped beyond hope that she could see Dinah walking around like she would have done millions of years ago. But they’d have to work up to that and allow her to regain her strength. She did not look at all well at the moment, sniffling and wheezing, but hopefully time and rest would put her right.

  Luckily they got the tent up before the Hacketts returned home late that afternoon. It blocked the entire pool area from their view, though it wasn’t tall enough to cover Dinah if she was ever able to stand up. Predictably, Mr. Hackett appeared on his back step, squinting over at the tent and shaking his head in irritation. And Mrs. Hackett squawked out the kitchen window that the thing was a “terrible eyesore,” but Willa knew there was nothing much they could do about it.

  That evening Willa sat at the dining room table, surrounded by library books about dinosaurs. Curiosity drew the others to the table.