Page 39 of Of Brides Of Queens

I jerked open the entrance, and we lumbered up to level three. The path to the apartment door was a familiar one. And yet different. I rapped my knuckles on the brick wall that had been erected.

“That is a strange and heavy door,” remarked Sign.

Yes, it was. “Did she hope to trap her fear and dark convention inside?” I wondered, then pushed. The brick wall crumbled, and I climbed through the gap.

The smell was different. Stale, and… “What is that?”

“A herb,” answered Seal. “Humans burn them on occasions like this.”

I had been human and had no memories of this. “Why?”

“To ward off evil spirits.”

The trio barked together in laughter, and I grinned too.

Traces remained of whatever she had burned in the form of ash in stone bowls. The bowls were arranged in a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle, and this pattern was pleasing to the eye. The landlady had left the hole into the elevator open, clearly content with bricking up the main door.

“Who’s there?” a voice warbled from the hall. High-pitched. Fearful.

I beamed as true excitement lit me from within. “How do you best like to fright?”

Sign’s gaze grew vacant as if he pulled a file from deep in the archives of his mind. “I like to trap. And I like the frightee to know it.”

“I like to trap, but I like the frightee unaware of the trap for as long as possible,” said Deliver.

Seal hummed. “I used to like bringing a frightee’s worst fears to light. Yes, I like that a lot.”

Every one of my skins buzzed with excitement. “Sign, go ahead and lock the doors. Deliver, how about a never-ending staircase? Seal, her apartment is at the end of the hall. You can find inspiration for her worst fear there.”

Deliver bounced on the balls of his feet. “And you, my queen?”

I smirked. “For this frightee, a more personal approach works for me. My voice must do if I will be invisible to her now. Remember,fright lightly.”

The pawns slipped into the shadows as the landlady edged closer down the hall. I shrank back into darkness too.

“No, no, no.” The landlady moaned low as she reached the crumbled brick wall.

Pressed against the wall, I held my breath, and nearly laughed when Seal wheezed from the pressure of keeping quiet and Sign elbowed him in the gut.

I bit the inside of my cheek, determined not to ruin this haunting before it had begun. My, but I had forgotten the emotional highs of this pastime.

Candlelight swelled into the bedroom as the landlady neared, but this time, when she entered the bedroom, I had no plans to wait in the elevator shaft and utter eerie rental reminders.

My pawns blurred out of the apartment, and I blinked into the hallway after them.

This would be a light and drawn-out kind of fright. A torment.

A monstrous delight.

Yes.

My stairway pawns exited the apartment behind me—Seal racing off to the landlady’s apartment, Sign to lock the exits, and Deliver to create a paradigm trap.

I whispered after them, and a terrible horror layered my voice, “Easy, my pawns. We have all night.”

Chapter Eight

A murder of crows

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