Chapter one
The house wasn't the same for her
anymore. Its halls, once seeming so comfortable and radiant, now were
confining, dark, and drafty. Ever since her father had disappeared three weeks ago, she hadn't been able to bring herself to enter his
study, once the hub of her and her siblings' fun, as it was always
full of little treat boxes that their father had brought back from
his travels abroad, as well as all the puzzles, games, and toys that
she or her brothers desired. The study, where her father had last
been seen, was now regarded by herself and her peers as off-limits,
though whether because it was hallowed or haunted, nobody could quite
tell. She pushed open the door to her bedchamber to find her three
step-brothers lying sprawled on her floor.
“Oy, Maria! Glad to see you're
finally back! Did you bring us something from Wingate?” Maria's
stomach churned. Her brothers had teased her ever since she was
young, but, lately, ever since the man of the house (the boys'
step-father, her father), had gone, their jokes had taken on a
different tone. Even as she thought this, the oldest of the boys,
Stephen, reached up a hand and pulled her to the floor. She hit hard
on her tailbone, and the basket she had been carrying, filled with
apples from one of their mansion's many orchards, tipped on its side,
spilling its contents all over the floor.
“Leave me alone, Stephen.”
Maria tried to walk away, but Stephen wouldn't let go. He let her stand
up, then twisted his grip on her ankle so that she fell again, this
time right into the lap of Harold, the youngest of the three. He
wrapped his arms around her and proclaimed,
“Look what I have here, boys!
Lookie what I got!” Johnny and Stephen immediately threw themselves
onto Harold, half-jokingly trying to get Maria away from him. She
wriggled out of the heap and onto her bed.
“You're all drunk!” She
yelled. “You've been at dad's liquor, haven't you. You all ought to
be ashamed of yourselves. Leave me alone!” Johnny looked up at her,
his eyes bleary under the alcoholic mask.
“Now, I was agreeing with you
right up until that last sentence. You shouldn't have said that last
sentence, Maria. Now I'm going to getcha!” Johnny leaped up onto
her bed, missed landing on Maria by about three feet, which gave her
the time to jump off her bed, slide out the door, and lock it behind
her. She stood with her back to the locked door for a second or two
before bolting to the study. The one place they would never look for
her. She slammed the door open and stepped into the room. As she
eased the door shut, she decided that the room looked just like it
did when Maria's father was around, except that the one thing her
father never allowed the children to touch – his wardrobe from
Saudi Arabia – was open. Unable to resist her curiosity, Maria
peeked inside. What she saw made her step back. A huge void, filled
with nothingness, no light, no dust, no anything, lay where the back
of the wardrobe should have been. Maria reached her hand forward and
it went past the ends of the walls of the wardrobe, into this void,
and she could feel a gentle force, like a vacuum turned on low,
pulling at her hand, trying to get her to come in farther, come
closer, closer, closer. Maria leaned forward a bit more, and
suddenly, a small set of jaws, like that of a snake but with lots more teeth snapped shut just below her hand. The spell was
broken, as if the vacuum had been shut off, and Maria, too terrified
to speak, crawled out of the wardrobe, clicking the doors shut behind
her. She sat against the wall, crying silently, scared enough to want
to talk to her brothers, but smart enough to know that that would put
her in a much worse spot than she already was. Wait... her brothers.
Surely, Maria thought,
this is just some elaborate joke contrived by those evil, devilish
things. She slid up the wall
until she was in a standing position.
“All
right, good joke, boys. You can come out now!” She crept towards
the door to the hallway. “I suspect you think you're smart, don't
you? But I've got you figured out. So ha! You can... come out now...
boys?” Her hand on the door, Maria heard a noise from behind her. A
sort of bestial growl. She turned, slowly, expecting to see one of
her brothers standing a few feet from her. Instead, she saw a huge
beast, part man, part bull, standing across the room from her.
Maria's spine tingled in fear and anticipation, and she felt dread
burning in her gut like acid.
The
minotaur took a step towards Maria, and only then did she notice the
large stick he held in his hand. He spun towards the outside wall of
the study and smashed his stick through it, letting in cold air and a
darkness that seemed to want to swallow the room.
The
beast turned to Maria, wind from outside bringing its horrific stench
to her nose.
“Your
father sends his regards.” it said, leaping out the window and into
the darkness.
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