The Werewolves Who Weren't by T.C. Shelley

Author:T.C. Shelley [Shelley, T.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526600813
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

While the gargoyles lingered in the darkness of The Hole, Sam lay in his bed listening as Woermann pressed four buttons somewhere near the front door – beep, beep, beep, beep – then wandered upstairs to stand outside Sam’s door. Sam pretended to sleep, making soft sounds and breathing gently. The big man padded away and a door – Woermann’s bedroom door, Sam guessed – opened and closed on the same floor but on the opposite side of the building.

Sam lay there, quiet and patient, listening to the alarm system bipping every three seconds. Woermann probably set it as much for keeping in Sam as keeping out anyone else. Sam listened. And waited. Then waited some more.

Finally, he heard Woermann purring in happy sleep.

Sam got out of bed fully dressed and stole barefoot to the window he had worked on all day, pulling at its hinge until it had opened to a boy-sized gap.

Everything shone under the gibbous moon, three-quarter-sized and full of spite. Moonlight revealed the side of the house. On the ground floor and even the second floor, little red eyes, part of the alarm system, blinked at Sam, telling him ‘We’re watching this window, find another’.

Sam climbed sideways towards the corner room and peered in. Yes. It was the guest bedroom with the hingeless window. The window was closed, but it took him no time to get his fingers into the frame. It opened with a sigh, and Sam crawled inside the room, stopping as he did to reassure himself Woermann was still snoring.

The plush olive carpet swallowed the sound of Sam’s footsteps. He ran down the upper corridor and took two flights of stairs, sure only a gargoyle could have heard him, and only if it had been actively listening.

The kitchen door opened on smooth-oiled hinges and he stepped into the room. The alarm system on the window blinked at him again, but he wasn’t trying to open an outside door, so it didn’t pay much attention. The dark ominous shapes transformed into a table and chairs, while the bulky figures across the room turned out to be no more than a fridge and a stove.

He approached the white door at the back of the kitchen. It looked like a pantry from the outside, but Sam’s nose picked up the stink of miserable animals and of fairy dust. There weren’t only dogs, but cats, rabbits and other creatures’ smells he didn’t recognise. If he could get them out of that little room, they could all worry about the alarm system afterwards.

He stopped again, listening for the only noise he wanted Woermann making: snores.

The pantry door had no key lock. Sam wondered if it needed some special device to open it, but he pulled down the handle and the door simply released. What appeared to be a pantry door opened on to dark stairs.

So far, so good.

Growling and whining started immediately.

‘Shhh,’ he hissed down at the noisemakers. ‘Be quiet. Don’t wake Woermann.’

‘Who is that?’ a rough, doggy voice called up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.