Page 109 of The Manor of Dreams

She leapt out of bed and immediately pitched forward. The ground buckled under her feet. A vine surged in the window, shattering glass, and curled itself around the sill.

Madeline screamed. She leapt for the door and flung it open, scrambling into the hallway. When she looked down, her stomach dropped. In the slits of moonlight that came through the foyer windows she could make out writhing vines that snaked their way in through the windows, like dozens of arms reaching in. There was a terrible splitting sound as vines emerged through the floor.

The stone foundation was cracking.

Madeline staggered through the hallway. She threw herself against the doors and banged on them with her fist. “Ma!” she shouted. “Yí Ma! Wake up! Wake up!”

No one answered. Madeline peered over the stairs. The door to the library flung open below.

“Ma!”

“Come down!” her mother shouted. “We need to get out! She’s tearing down the house.”

She?

Madeline turned to watch a vine erupt clean through a wall and splinter a door. Cracks were spreading through every room. Madeline went back up the stairs and pounded on Aunt Rennie’s locked door. The floor swayed as she threw her weight against the door. A shock of pain tore through her shoulder. “Yí Ma!” She was sobbing now. “Get out!”

Writhing vines crawled up the banister.

“Madeline! Come down!”

Madeline ducked and scrambled down the stairs, leaping past each tendril that seemed to reach for her. The railings had split and cracked. Her mother was at the front door. Nora ran into the foyer. At the threshold she paused and looked past Madeline. “Ma!”

Nora met Madeline’s eyes, then ran. Madeline tried to follow her, but she fell forward. A vine lashed out, faster than she could see, and wrapped around her ankle.

“No.” Madeline tried to tug herself free. “No!”

The vine pulled back with a violent jerk. Madeline screamed, pain ricocheting through her knees, her wrists. She scrambled for any kind of purchase, but her fingers clawed smooth granite. The vine wound up her thigh, thorns tearing into her skin. Madeline choked out a cry.

She skidded across the floor. She was being dragged backward, farther into the house.

“Ma!” Madeline shrieked. “Ma—”

The vines were strong and solid as trees. A rose burst from one, trickling blood and oozing a foul, rotten odor. Madeline gritted her teeth. The floor felt slick, and she realized the granite was smeared with her blood. Dimly she heard her name.

Madeline found a smooth spot on the vine around her waist and yanked it with all her might. It loosened for a moment, and she sucked in a breath. But then it shot up with a vengeance, crushingher ribs, and coiling farther up her torso. Above her, the chandelier swayed. Vines reached for it across the ceiling, forming dark, grotesque veins.

I’m not going to get out.

A vine twisted itself around her shoulders and began to constrict.

NORA’s eyes flew open.

The walls rattled. The digital clock toppled off the nightstand and cracked. The lamp rattled on the floor and was surrounded by glass from the shattered bulb. Nora sprung out of bed just as a giant vine burst through behind her and drywall scattered to the floor.

She saw her mother in the hallway. Her eyes were wide. “Ma!” The walls around them rippled and splintered. Nora looked back into her room, but her bed was already on its side, tilted by a vine that had sprung up from beneath it. There was no time to gather her things. She ran for the foyer. A crackling sound shot through the house as one of the pillars buckled.

Nora tripped on a vine and watched as it coiled into itself and retreated, almost as if it was clearing a path for her. A chunk of the hallway ceiling fell to the granite tiles with a horrific crash. Nora turned blindly and screamed, “Ma! Getout!”

She looked up to see Madeline making her way through the foyer. And then she sprinted for the front door, which was now a gaping hole. The chandelier clattered wildly, shedding bits of glass fixtures to the floor. She threw herself into the light from outside and tumbled down the front steps. A sharp pain split through her knee, but she hauled herself up and ran down the driveway. When she reached the end, she looked back.

The house was being swallowed. Nora could see vines scaling the sides, burrowing into cracks and tearing chunks out of the walls.

Someone shrieked, “Madeline!”

Lucille staggered up behind her in the driveway. One hand covered her eye, and blood dripped through her fingers. “She’s in there. She’s trapped in there with Rennie!”

Nora whirled. Where was her mother? “Ma?” She scanned the grounds, but there was no sign of her.

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