Oliver Crum and the Blood Seekers by Chris Cooper

Author:Chris Cooper
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Dreadful Media
Published: 2019-10-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Pan rooted his nose through the straw-covered floor and emerged victorious, with a hand-stitched doll between his teeth. He carried the toy back to the little girl, who had thrown it, but she struggled to pry it from Pan’s mouth.

A woman noticed Pan with the doll and marched over from the far end of the room. “It took a week for your mother to make that doll, and I’ll take a cold dip in the pond before I let that mongrel destroy it.”

As she pulled the doll out of the girl’s hands, Pan leapt at the woman’s legs, pleading for her to return the toy. When the girl cried, though, he turned and ran to her, sticking his cold nose in her face and licking her tears. She giggled again and wrapped her arms around the tiny pup.

Oliver sat next to Izzy and Asher on the straw floor in the Briarwood hall. The adults had cleaned up lunch and were lounging around, some making small talk and others playing games with odd-looking decks of cards. Life in the hall must have been boring, sitting and waiting for the next blood-seeker attack. He wondered if the townspeople found any joy in the leisure, considering how difficult their lives must have been under Simon’s rule.

Simon’s throne overhead was an austere platform bordered with intricate metal wheels on either side, and it sat in odd contrast to the straw floor. The room’s interior reminded Oliver of the old bombed-out cathedrals in Europe. Although Simon had been gone for only a year, the town looked as though it had crumbled centuries before.

“I knew Briarwood was real,” Izzy said. “I could see it from my house, for Pete’s sake, but to see it up close is extraordinary.”

“If only it wasn’t surrounded by bloodthirsty murderers,” Oliver said.

“Well, you can’t have it all, I guess,” Izzy replied with a sly smile.

The little boy Oliver had seen earlier was staring at Nekko, who’d huddled close to Izzy. He pulled a loose piece of straw from the floor and tried to entice the cat to chase it, but Nekko remained a disinterested lump.

“Move it back and forth.” Izzy made an s pattern with an index finger.

The boy wiggled the piece of straw as Izzy instructed.

Nekko fought the urge to pounce at first, seeming overwhelmed by the large group of people in the room. Finally, the boy wiggled the straw just right, and Nekko slapped her paw down, trapping the straw underneath. The boy pulled it away and giggled then started the process over again.

Gideon tapped Oliver on a shoulder and motioned for him to follow.

“I’ll be back,” Oliver said as he stood to follow Gideon.

Gideon led him to a workroom, where Aymes sat at a long table, leaning over an old parchment map of the town, with Anna and the Clockmaker on the other side.

“He was just talking about doing another supply run,” Anna said as Aymes gestured for Oliver to take a seat.

Aymes leaned across the table. “We have opened every cupboard and searched every storeroom in this place.

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