Page 55 of Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
As she moved toward the front door, the warmth was gone.Cold tendrils wrapped around her.She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Please, Lenore,” she whispered.“Please, let me go.”
Nevermore.
Victoria tried the knob.It wouldn’t budge.
There was an exit off the kitchen at the back of the house.She’d leave that way.She turned to head toward the dining room.As she approached, the door slammed shut.The walls rattled.She spun away, looking for signs of life.Of Lenore.
“You can’t keep me here,” she said.“I’m not your prisoner.”
The cackled laugh echoed through the halls.
She ran toward the foyer once again, skittering to a halt near the front door.Across from her, the parlor.Fog poured from the room.The piano played an eerie tune.She thought for sure she heard Lenore’s voice.
You cannot leave.
With her pulse pounding rapidly, she walked toward the parlor.Her nerves on edge.She stepped inside the threshold and halted, peering inside.The fog persisted.The music continued.And there, sitting on the bench, playing the piano was an apparition.
The ghostly face turned to look at her, eyes the color of ink meeting hers.Dark locks spilled down her back and over her shoulders.Victoria recognized her as the young woman from the portrait.
This was Lenore.
She had finally made an appearance.
Victoria sucked in a breath, blew it out.It fogged.Lenore continued to play that haunting tune.Continued to look at her with those dark, baleful eyes.
She could not stay here another moment.She spun toward the door.
It slammed shut in her face.
Victoria tried the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.The laugh behind her sent chills up her spine.She pounded on the door, crying out for Gabriel.
He can’t help you.Just like he couldn’t help me.
That voice wrapped around her, sending cold tendrils of fear through her.
She beat on the door until her fist ached.“Gabriel!”
Then, the music stopped, and the voice was no longer a whisper.“He can’t hear you.”
A shudder went through her as she turned, slowly, to face the specter before her.Lenore rose from the bench and hovered above the ground.Floating there.Looking at her as though she were a pox upon the household.Victoria backed up, banged against the door as the woman approached her.
“You think to leave this place.”Her words rasped in a roughened whisper.“You cannot.You’re part of it now.You’re part of the bloodline.”
The elegance of her face twisted into rage as she lunged forward.
Victoria screamed as something flared bright and hot inside her.Lenore’s ghostly face contorting in pain was the last thing she recalled before the darkness took her.
Chapter 22
Gabrielretreatedtohisroom, slamming the door with a finality that seemed earned.
He raked his hands through his hair and peered at his hollowed face in the full-length mirror of his dressing room.Shadows smudged under his eyes as the war within him continued to rage.
He couldn’t tell Victoria the truth.Couldn’t let her see what he truly was.Couldn’t allow his carefully built façade to crack.
Because she was closer to figuring out the truth.She was putting the pieces together.It was only a matter of time before she found out why her father was here searching for answers.Why her father insisted he remain hidden where no one would see him.
