the ones on the next shelf.
“The statue,” William said from the other side of the wall.
I searched for the statue before spotting it on the shelf above me. It was of a Roman soldier. I tapped at the head and pressed all around it to no avail. On a whim, I then touched the back of the shield he carried. There was a click before the bookshelf shook and unlatched itself from the wall. With no hesitation, I opened it wider so I could step through, and then I closed it behind me.
William sat on the floor, playing with a wooden toy horse. “You’ll be safe now, sir.”
I looked around. There were no windows. The only light came from two burning candles. A hallway stretched behind William, and the air was musty.
“Won’t he be able to get in here?”
The boy shook his head. “He’ll forget about you soon. Darkness has hold of him now, but it’ll pass.”
“Where does that hallway lead?”
William disappeared from the floor and materialized under the archway to the hall, the toy still in his hand. “To the painting in the music room.”
I started walking down the corridor before turning back to him. “You aren’t coming with me?”
“I don’t go in the music room.”
“Why?”
“That’s where the lady is.”
Chills having nothing to do with the draft spread down my arms and legs. Great. My choices were to go back and face a mad man or to continue forward and meet some woman William was clearly afraid of.
I grabbed one of the candlesticks and ventured forward. The flame cast light on the walls, and I ran my hand over the wooden boards. About a minute later, I reached the end of the corridor. I held the light to the wall and saw a handle, which I grabbed and turned. There was a click, and the door swung open. I stepped into an open area, thankful for the tall windows that let in the daylight.
Even though it was stormy, the faint light was still better than the blinding darkness of the corridor.
White sheets covered some of the furniture; what looked like a chair and some kind of tall object. Maybe a coat hanger? A harp almost as big as me stood in the corner, and there was a cello beside it. A vase holding dead flowers sat on top of a baby grand piano.
I saw no one… yet I felt a presence. Someone watching me.
I closed the door—which was a large portrait of a colonial man riding a horse—and advanced farther in the room. A single note on the piano rang out. I halted in step and looked over at it. A key was pressed again. Then, the lid slammed shut.
And the tall sheet, which I had thought covered a coat hanger, began to drift forward.
“Hello?” I asked.
The floating sheet snagged on the end of a side table and slipped from the object beneath it, revealing a woman with her black hair pulled back in a low bun. She wore a corseted dress with a high collar and long sleeves. The woman’s pale face was stretched into a sinister smile, and her dark eyes were wide. She came at me faster, and I ran for the exit.
Heavy steps thumped behind me as she yelled in delight.
I jumped through the doorway and landed in the hall, flipping around just as she reached the edge of the room where the soft carpet met hardwood floor. She didn’t say a word as she stared at me, but her smile widened in an unnatural way.
I took off down the hall, nearly falling a few times as my shoes slipped on the slick floor. I wanted to check on Zeke, but I couldn’t chance staying in the mansion a moment longer.
As I finally reached the patio doors, I heard Jasper’s laugh echo from down the hall. There was also a flurry of other voices. Whispers and creepy giggles. I burst through the door leading to the backyard and didn’t look back as I ran for the fence.
Redwood Manor really was a mad house, each room holding a different horror.
Chapter Thirteen
I was still shaking when I got home.
After grabbing a beer from the fridge, I sat down at my kitchen table and popped it open to take a drink. I needed something much stronger to steady my nerves, but Taylor and I’d drunk all my vodka last time he’d come over. And to make matters worse, my head was beginning to ache. It had started as