Eldritch Manor by Kim Thompson

Author:Kim Thompson [Thompson, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
Publisher: Dundurn Press Limited
Published: 2012-09-05T14:00:00+00:00

Willa awoke the next morning to the strangest sound she’d ever heard, like a trumpet being strangled. She opened her eyes and had a moment of confusion, taking in the dark, musty room instead of her bright, clean room at home. Then she remembered where she was, and knew the noise to be Tengu greeting the day with his rooster impression. She looked up at the ceiling, and her brain felt just as dusty, cracked, and cobwebby as the room around her. This was the second night she hadn’t had any dreams, and her head felt like it was filled with mud. Every thought required great effort and she felt vaguely anxious.

She moved clumsily down the stairs. It was like she was on a planet with a force of gravity that made her weigh twice as much as she did on Earth, only she couldn’t remember whether it was small planets or big planets that would do that. Her thoughts were scattered and leaden. It was only when she glanced over at Fadiyah, serene and dignified in her cage in the parlour, that she felt calm and capable again.

In the dining room it was evident that she wasn’t the only one who was having trouble waking up. Belle was snoring in her chair in the corner, her head tipped back and mouth open. Horace stared blankly into space and rubbed his temples.

“Good morning,” Willa ventured, just as the kitchen door swung open and banged her elbow. Baz shuffled in with the teapot and cups on a tray. She paused to yawn, her hands shaking with the force of it, and tea slopped onto the floor.

Nobody had much to say, other than that they were all sleeping poorly and without dreams, just like Willa. And it was taking its toll. Even the normally chipper Tengu was subdued. Robert didn’t get out of bed until noon, but that could have been due to the crashing hangover he claimed to still have. Mab, on the other hand, seemed energetic enough, even spritely. Willa was positive she caught a smirk on her face when the others complained about being tired. Mab was still mad, though, about being locked up, and wouldn’t speak to anyone.

Over the next few days Willa wearily struggled to keep up with her duties, only leaving the house to buy groceries and to go home one night for dinner. At the table she could barely keep up a conversation and yawned so much her parents were alarmed.

“How hard are those oldsters working you?” her dad wanted to know. “Aren’t you getting enough sleep?”

Willa insisted that she was. In fact, she was going to bed embarrassingly early these days, at eight or nine o’clock.

And she wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the house was sleeping in later each day, napping frequently through the day, and heading upstairs to go to bed at earlier and earlier hours in the evening, yet with each passing day they grew more tired. Conversations became rare and made little to no sense as everyone forgot what they were about to say.

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