Chapter 8 #2
“Ebony! Don’t sneak up on me!” I cleared my throat of the blood gargling upwards to the tickle of my lungs and clutched the soft down comforter. “I was going to sleep in there.”
Ebony raised a translucent eyebrow, placing her hands on her nonexistent hips. “There is a perfectly good bed there.”
“I know.”
“Must you make this difficult?” She sighed. “If you are worried about the other guests in the castle, I can assure you that they’d been instructed not to bother you.”
“And Silas?” Cold hands took the soft comforter from mine as Ebony shuffled me toward the bed despite protests. She remade the bed in record time, fluffing the pillows with unusual detail I found difficult for someone who was opaque at best.
Smoothing out the creases, she softly added, “The master is not all bad. He has just been alone for too long.” Ebony pursed her lips together.
“I can assure you he means no harm and will treat you as a guest. He is out of practice with having guests, so it might take some time for him to adjust, but you are not a prisoner if that is your concern.”
She clasped her hands, bowing her head. “If there is anything you need, do let me know!”
I whirled around and hastily said, “Wait! What else should I know?”
Black pools flickered to the willowy orbs bouncing outside the open door. Whispered conversations were just out of reach as Ebony delivered her bone chilling advice to uphold during my time at Castle Briar.
“Take care to not wander the halls at night. There are beings far scarier than the master that haunt these halls.”
The coughing returned within the night with such relentless force. I leaned over the bed, spitting out blood bubbling within my chest. I groaned, heaving myself to the bathroom to rid myself of the mess. I turned on the facet to only find disappointment.
Of course there was no water in a haunted castle.
Clutching my dry throat, I crept to the bedroom.
The armoire was pressed close to the door but not enough to where the door was easily accessible to someone of slim stature.
Peeking out the door, I noticed an eerie quiet had lain itself over the hall before I snuck out.
I wandered down the corridor, flickering candlelight guiding my way toward the kitchen.
I stopped in my tracks.
I had no bloody idea where the kitchen was, and clearly, it was not as if I was at home. Sighing in defeat, turning on my heels, I decided to toughen out the murderous scratchiness when a dim light at the end of the hall and faint voices beckoned me.
Shuddered behind the cracked door on the other end of the hall, I leaned against the wall and begged a closer peek inside.
“Master, are you sure of this girl?” Ebony floated down in front of the large bookcase, a duster in hand, gracefully dancing around Silas, whose face was buried in stacks of paper. “She could complicate things.”
“I could not leave her there. If you saw what I have, you’d have gone mad. She was to marry a man who had killed two other women before deciding to marry her. It was atrocious. I smelled the blood on him before I even got close enough to find out the kind of man he was. Atrocious.”
Silas’s voice was thick and without remorse, muffled from beyond the stack.
“Is that all?”
“She . . . she resembled her.”
“I thought so.” Ebony giggled. From the crack, she served Silas a glass of the red liquid, mouth knitted into a frown as she flitted about the room, straightening books and other items. “There is much that is at risk. If she is to stay here, we will need to keep an eye on her. The other residents would be interested in the living and with the strange occurrences that have been plaguing recently—I worry.”
With his glass in hand, Silas took to pacing about the room, brows tight as he slipped a palm into his pocket. “The castle residents are the least of my problems.”
“Ah, yes, the infinite darkness of your work. How many is that now?”
“Thirty-three this month, and it continues to grow. An infestation that has overrun the grounds. It’s already rooted itself into the human populace.
It’s been difficult to control the pest without weeding out the source,” Silas growled.
“The rampant occurrences have left me with little time to search.”
“Don’t be discouraged. Perhaps, with the girl, there may be a chance.”
“Perhaps.” Silas sat in an elegant chair. In one hand was his glass of red liquid, in the other a book he had thumbed through. He tossed the book onto the nearby table as the clock chimed the hour. “Whether she is or isn’t—time is not on either side.”
Ebony’s form flickered. “Have faith. Perhaps the gods are listening.”
Silas laughed dryly. “They haven’t listened since the day they cursed me.” He leaned forward, dropping his elbows to his knees, and rubbed his face, the light of the fire playing with the shadows upon stone flesh.
Ebony draped a translucent arm around his shoulder. “Cheer up. I’m sure that—” The voids of her eyes whipped to the door with thinned scrutiny. “We’re being watched.”
I tumbled back from the door, quietly retreating down the hallway to my room.
My feet skittered faster against the floorboards.
From the shadows, a dark mass bubbled—inky black tendrils reached for me, never getting past the opened, lit door.
Thousands of red eyes stared back from the dark depths, shifting. Waiting.
I froze as a choppy, distorted animalistic growling sounded from the bowels of the castle, scraping against stone.
Hell . . . oooo, darrrllingg—come closer.
I slipped through the crack of the door, locked it quickly behind me, and pushed the armoire closer to block out the growling purrs from the other side. I stripped the sheets from the bed and dove into the tub.
What frightened me the most was not the inky liquid mass but Silas, who had seen my retreat and the sorrow that coated them.