Dead Voices by Katherine Arden

Author:Katherine Arden [Arden, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2019-08-26T18:30:00+00:00

10

OLLIE SCRAMBLED TO her feet. All was silent. The fire in front of her burned low and red. For a second, Ollie thought she had imagined falling forward, falling . . .

Falling through the mirror.

How could you fall through a mirror?

Then she realized that the air smelled different. It smelled like mold and damp and rotten food. It was freezing cold. She was shivering.

Next Ollie realized what wasn’t there. There was a fire, but no blankets.

Rotten carpet, but no tables.

Herself, but no friends.

She was alone.

Ollie spun in a circle. She was in the dining hall. But it had changed. This was the dining hall of her nightmare. The front window was broken and boarded up. Glass crunched when she moved.

“Coco?” Ollie whispered again. Then a little louder: “Brian? Dad?” Where were they? Where was she? She spun in another circle, trying desperately not to panic. She wasn’t succeeding too well. “Mom?”

No one answered. But the sound of a soft laugh came from the mirror.

For the mirror was still there. One of the only things that was. It was hanging on the wall opposite the fireplace. But now Ollie couldn’t see her own reflection in this mirror. Instead, she saw her friends moving around near the fire. Their lips moved as they called, Ollie, Ollie. But she couldn’t hear them.

She had gone through the mirror, Ollie thought. She was alone. She’d never been so afraid.

Then, with a surge of relief, Ollie realized that Mr. Voland was standing right next to the mirror, looking into it, staring right at her. The light from the fire on Ollie’s side of the glass fell on his face. “Mr. Voland!” Ollie called. “Mr. Voland!” She reached up and pressed her hands to the mirror’s cold glass. It felt just like a mirror. Rigid. Unyielding. She couldn’t get back through it. But if Mr. Voland could somehow hear her . . .

“No need to shout,” Mr. Voland said calmly, as though he’d heard her thought. “I can hear you, Olivia.”

Mr. Voland, Ollie wanted to say. Help me. But she didn’t say it. Something about his slow, satisfied smile choked the words back down her throat. Instead she said, “Where am I?”

“Behind the mirror,” he said. He was still smiling gently.

Behind him, Ollie glimpsed Coco frantically trying to shake her mother awake. But Ms. Zintner didn’t wake up. Brian was trying to do the same thing to Ollie’s dad.

He didn’t wake up either.

Cold terror filled Ollie. She stared at Mr. Voland. He smiled back at her. “Is my dad okay?” she whispered.

“Just asleep,” he said. “But he will not wake. Not tonight.”

Ollie’s mouth was completely, utterly dry. “You,” she croaked, licked her lips, tried again. “Who are you?”

“I think you know,” he said.

She did. She didn’t want to. She didn’t want it to be true. But it was, and she did. Stammering, Ollie said, “But you—you were different. The last time.”

His smile was colder than the freezing lodge. “I never look the same twice,” he said. “Where would the fun be in that?”

Now she recognized the smile.

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