Emma and the Elixir of Madness (Tales of Widowswood Book 4) by Matthew S. Cox

Author:Matthew S. Cox [Cox, Matthew S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781949174786
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Published: 2018-11-15T23:00:00+00:00

14

Bump in the Night

Emma found herself awake and staring at the ceiling, but had no idea why. At the opposite corner of the room, Tam also sat up in bed, looking around with one eye open. Kimber remained zonked, mouth agape, arms and legs splayed like she’d fallen off the roof. With nice weather, they’d left the shutters open for air, and a cool, but pleasant breeze blew in. The window between the girls’ bed and the empty one (that officially belonged to Kimber but she hadn’t yet used) held blackness and moonlight, a sure sign Emma should still be sleeping. Yet something woke her, and her heart thumped.

She looked at the window, at her brother, at the door into the house. Nothing seemed out of place. Tam appeared frightened, but also confused.

Bang!

The entire house shook like a giant had kicked it.

Mama’s startled shout came through the wall, followed by Da’s angry bellow.

She looked at her brother “What was—?”

Bang! The tail end of the explosion sounded goopy and splattery. Again, the house shook. A clatter arose in the hallway, stuff falling from shelves.

Emma flung the bedding aside and leapt to her feet.

The scrape of Da’s broadsword leaving its sheath came from the hall, along with heavy footsteps.

A faint purple flash in the window accompanied another loud bang!

Emma looked up as the house shuddered again. Stick Knight fell off the table beside Tam’s bed, and a few of the kids’ books tumbled to the floor. Rapid squeaking echoed in the rat’s trunk-house. She crept to the window, flinching when another bang shook the front end of the house. A heavy thud rumbled in the floorboards.

Kimber hadn’t so much as twitched in her sleep.

Emma hesitated, not trusting the bubbling, goopy noises outside, but the quiet, cruel laugh of a boy made her angry. She leaned out the window, staring into the darkness of Widowswood Forest a short distance away, certain Alan had something to do with this chaos. The strip of meadow between the house and the trees looked empty, the grass aglow in moonlight. A shadow moved to her left—and it had many, many legs.

Emma twisted and peered up. A bulbous purple-and-red blob stuck to the side of the house above and a few feet left from her window. Six long, thin tentacles covered in silvery bristles sprouted from it, all waving about.

No sooner did she scream, than one of the strands whipped down and coiled around her. It squeezed tight, pinning her arms to her sides. The fiery pain of a thousand tiny needles pierced her skin. Shrieking, Emma squirmed in an effort to free herself, but in mere seconds, the pain stopped and her body refused to move.

With a terrified squeal, the rat jumped up and clamped its teeth on a length of rope dangling from the trunk lid. It hung for a few seconds, tugging with all its weight, and dragged it closed with a wooden slam.

The tentacle pulled her limp body up and out the window. Tam let out a battle cry behind her and came charging across the bedroom to grab her by the ankles.

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