The soft click of heels thudded in Dovesi’s ears.
Click.
Her eyes were screwed shut as her breathing, labored with fear, hissed in and out between her teeth.
Click.
A pool of thick, black liquid lazily meandered its way towards her cheek, pressed against the cold hardwood floor in the second floor.
Click.
She clamped her mouth shut, her eyes still closed, tears leaking. Her lips trembled between her teeth, biting down to keep the pleas for her life in her mouth.
Click.
The smell of iron filled her nose, causing her to open her eyes.. The blood from Nel’s severed head had creeped under the bed. Her heart thudded in her chest as fear screamed in her head. She forced her body to stay still as the owner of the well-oiled heels dragged the tip of her shoe across the floor, catching only slightly in the spaces between the wood. There was a sigh.
“Well, it looks like Nels the Naughty wasn’t very naughty at all,” a light, feminine voice observed. The voice has a slight airy sound to it, an unmistakable sound of smugness dripped into Dovesi’s ears. “In fact, he was quite chivalrous. Up until the end, of course, when he begged me to take you instead of him.” The chuckle was scandalous.
Click.
Another step towards the bed.
“I wonder,”
Click
“If you caught,”
Click
“His expression.”
Something was tossed beneath the bed, and Dovesi screamed. She jumped up, hitting her head on the wooden bars of the bed, knocking the mattress nearly off as she scrambled to stand up. Nels’ empty sockets held her gaze, even as she scrambled past, flipping the bed on its side as she stood up in a hurry, and tripped over his body. She reached for the knob of the door, the one that led into the hallway, to her freedom…
“Oh no, I forgot to tell you,” the voice said behind her. “I locked it. Oh, and don’t bother picking it. You’ll be dead before you can even reach for a pick.”
The voice’s owner had a cruel grin on her face, one that was too wide for a small body such as hers. Her face was bare of any makeup, and her figure boyish at best, shapeless at the worst. Dovesi turned to the still-grinning woman. The blonde woman's dress had been a dark red when she arrived, and now some parts were darker than others. She waggled her blonde brows twice.
“You’re awfully quiet. I really thought you’d beg. I suppose I’ll have to make you.”
Summitmist Manor was a clean, pristine house with two floors, three, if you counted the basement. The beds were neatly made, the kegs filled with mead, and the cupboards filled with food. By the time the murderer was finished, gore painted the ceilings and caked the floors. She posed some of the guests in lewd positions, tying their limbs together with the ripped sheets. The others, she sat at the table, as if read to devour the ripped apart body of Matilde.
The door was left open later that night, when the full moons were at their highest. The Watch guard who found the bodies quit the next day and went home to Bravil, swearing to stay away from anything that resembled what he saw. Another guard penned a memoir. Deep in all their hearts, something dark lurked.
Once in awhile,a yellow-haired woman would stand staring at the house, a strange smiled spread across her face.
Good memories.
Then she would disappear.
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