Nightfall Gardens by Allen Houston

Author:Allen Houston [Houston, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flycatcher Books
Published: 2013-05-08T07:00:00+00:00

9

Lily Sees Her Death

The wallpaper was moving. That was the first thing Lily noticed when she entered the room following Abigail. Stories were weaving themselves on the ochre-colored wallpaper. Intricately detailed shapes were coming into existence.

'Where is she?' Lily thought. Her aunt had vanished and left her alone in this abandoned room. A candle burning on a nearby roll-top writing desk and a battered wardrobe in one corner were the only other furniture there.

The shapes continued to draw themselves on the walls. Lily stepped closer to watch. She saw a creature with the head of a snake and body of a human whipping a group of people who fell on their knees in worship. On another wall, witches warmed a pot for dinner while children locked inside a cage screamed for help. In a different scene, a dragon with scales so detailed that they formed ten thousand diamonds flew over a village, burning it to the ground. In yet another, a man was chained to a mountainside as vultures feasted on his flesh. Scenes of horror, too many to comprehend, passed before her eyes. Night creatures came forth to drag families from their beds. Goblins made slaves of humans. The old gods walked the earth and destroyed with no thought of the lives they were taking. The images shifted and changed on the walls, like some magic lantern show of terror that played over and over again. Lily's stomach tightened and she felt she was going to be sick. ‘Abigail wanted me to see this. Wanted me to understand what was at stake. This was what the world was like before Prometheus trapped all of the evil inside the box' she thought, watching as a tentacled creature came from the depths of the ocean and pulled a ship under the waves. Tears stung her eyes as a young girl, much like herself, was chased through dark woods by wolves. The girl came to a cliff and jumped into a ravine rather than be torn apart by their jaws. The scenes continued. This was what her ancestor had almost unleashed on the world. This was why Lily was here. She shuddered at the thought of all of these things free to roam the world. Once they were loose, there would be no more theater, no more Paris, New Amsterdam, or anything. The world as she knew it would cease to exist and countless people would die. All because of her. 'No,' she thought. 'It’s not my fault. I shouldn't have to pay for a mistake that a relative made centuries ago. It's not fair.' Lily ran her hands along her goose-bumped arms. More images and stories unfolded, each more ghastly than the one before. Monsters with claws and fangs made sport of the humans they caught. Gigantic worms burst from the ground and swallowed homes. Malignant spirits drove people to the brink of madness and beyond. “Enough,” Lily said, putting her hands over her eyes, only to discover that they were wet with tears.

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