actually going crazy.
There was no time to go off the rails. She had another half a dozen houses to show to Al and Amy in the next four hours. The Martins were determined to lock in their mortgage interest rate, which meant she would probably be writing an offer with them tonight.
She took a deep breath to clear her head and pulled out of the long drive, leaving the old house, and hopefully the odd feelings, in the rearview mirror.
2
Dorian
Dorian sat on his throne and gazed out over the ballroom.
The sun was setting, casting long shadows across the black and white marble tiles.
Each day he watched the sun’s journey across the checkerboard floor. He knew its path so well he was sure he could paint it from memory, a fiery red at dawn, cool blue shadows at dusk.
Soon, the party would begin, and the ballroom floor would be covered in dancers, their frenzied movements bringing the space to life just as they had every night for a thousand years.
The palace of the King of Darkness was never at a loss for a party.
All the rooms in Dorian’s mansion seemed to lead to this one. No nook or cranny in the world could hide his subjects when it was time to dance.
He sighed and gazed out the window onto the rose garden, as he’d done so many times.
To his surprise, soft music greeted him.
He spun around, but there was no one there.
His subjects were all asleep as usual, in anticipation of tonight’s revelry. Only the king was unable to rest.
He listened again, but the melody had gone silent.
Too bad. It had warmed his heart and made him somehow homesick, as if he were being called back across the years to something soft and sweet. Something small, and young…
Ah, yes. The child.
But she hadn’t appeared in the garden in…weeks? Years?
He realized he was no longer aware of the passage of time in the mortal world. It didn’t matter. He would never set foot there again. His sentence had been clear on that.
He closed his eyes and pictured the child, all chubby cheeks and long dark hair. How she had loved his rose garden. She sang to the blooms with all the passion of a budding bard.
But the garden was empty now. For all he knew the mortal child was a grandmother, or long dead.
The sound of a small crash in the dining hall snapped him out of his reverie.
He leapt off his throne and strode across the floor to investigate.
At first glance, the room appeared unchanged. The massive wooden table stood motionless at the center of the room, awaiting a feast that would never come.
He was about to return to his throne when he spotted the broken vase on the hearth.
Heart pounding, he moved closer to be sure.
Yes, the thing was in shards, surrounded by withered petals and a drop of scarlet blood, like the scene of a marvelous, miniature murder.
Nothing like this had ever happened before.
He felt a cruel smile pull his lips upward.
A snatch of music, a broken vase.
This was something glorious.
This was something exciting.
This was something… new.
3
Sara
At the end of her day, Sara smiled and walked Al and Amy out the front door of Tarker’s Hollow Realty Group.
“Sara, we can’t thank you enough, truly,” Amy said. “You knew we’d fall in love with Rabbit Lane, but you showed us everything else on our list anyway.”
“And she didn’t even say I told you so,” Al teased, giving her a warm smile and a wink.
“I hope it all works out,” Sara said, unable to help smiling back. “It feels like such a good fit.”
“We’ll keep our phones handy,” Amy said. “Just in case of good news.”
They left smiling and even waved to her from their car before pulling out onto Park Avenue.
In moments like this, Sara really did love her job.
The Martins had chosen to put in an offer on a sturdy and charming Arts & Crafts cottage in Rosethorn Valley, not too far from the old mansion where they’d started their day. It was just the right kind of house for the downsizing former hippies - close to the Art Center and the Quaker retreat.
With any luck, Sara would be attending a home inspection with them a few days from now.
She realized she’d better set a reminder in her phone to connect the Martins with some local inspection companies so they could call ahead to see about holding a spot.
She grabbed her bag and rummaged around in it for her