Twisted Circles (Secret Society 2) - Page 38
Chapter Seventeen
At nine o’clock on the dot, I made my way downstairs.
The Manor seemed darker than usual, the light coming from the flicker of every other candle as I walked down the long corridor. I wasn’t sure how I knew where I was going, but I headed to the left, towards the dungeon doors that led to actual dungeons. A memory of a naked woman on a rock and monks surrounding her flashed in my mind and I froze, midway.
“You were doing so good,” a voice said.
“Keep going,” said another.
“Where are you?” I looked around, panicked. I wasn’t drunk, so I knew I wasn’t imagining things, but everything lately seemed to lead to second-guessing myself.
“Where are we? Where are you? Where is anyone?”
I pressed my back to the wall behind me, the edges of the portrait hanging there digging into my back as I looked around. There was no one in the hall. They must have been talking to me through a speaker. I turned my attention to the ceiling and saw a small black dome camera I hadn’t noticed before. There must have been a speaker somewhere as well.
“I wouldn’t push up against the walls if I were you,” one of the voices said that I was sure was Will’s. “They move.”
At that, I shook my head, nearly smiling. This wasn’t a haunted house. The house was creepy, I’d give them that. It was old and mysterious with even stranger things happening inside of it, but moving walls wasn’t something I was going to fall for. That was, until the frame behind me clicked, and the floor beneath me shifted so quickly, the only thing I could do was press my palms to the wall behind me to keep from falling. The spot where I was standing was a half-circle that spun around, and as I continued to press my palms onto the wall beneath the frame, I realized I had just been taken to another room, one I had no idea was behind the long, dark corridor. In front of me stood three red cloaks.
“I told you the walls moved.” That was Will, though I couldn’t see his face, but having them in front of me, I knew the one in the center was Adam, the one on the right was Will, and the other was unknown to me at the moment.
“What the hell is this place?” I asked, once my words found their way to my mouth from underneath the knot in my throat. I let go of the wall tentatively and stepped forward, away from the frame.
“The Manor.” The third guy cocked his head. “I assume you’re sober.”
“You know what they say about those who make assumptions.”
“Let’s start.” That was Adam, all authoritative, as he passed me my cloak.
He turned around and Will and the other guy picked up a candelabra that was beside the door. At first, I thought it was for show, but he continued holding it as Adam walked over to the wall behind them and turned a doorknob, pushing the door that blended into the wall open. I wondered how many secret passages and doors this place had. Were there any that led to my bedroom? God, I hoped not. With the door closed behind us, we walked further onto the lawn. It was freshly cut. If I stopped walking, shut my eyes, and just inhaled, I could transport myself back to Karen’s lawn on a day that the neighbor had just mowed it.
“Freshly cut grass is my favorite smell,” I said.
“Interesting,” Adam responded, though he didn’t turn around. “You realize it’s a distress signal the grass is releasing because it’s just been wounded by the blade, right?”
“It has a name,” Will mused.
“Green leaf volatiles,” Adam responded.
“Are you a botanist?” I blinked. “How do you even know this?”
Neither of them answered. I stopped talking and focused on the distress signal the grass was sending out. The walk seemed to go on forever and I was dying to ask how much longer we had till we got there, but didn’t. I looked over my shoulder and was surprised at how far from the house we’d gotten. As I looked up, I saw the house next door. It looked similar to The Manor. Eerily so. There was only one light on and with it came the outline of a woman standing by the window. I wondered if she could see us, and if so, if she would tell someone that a group of men led a woman into the woods and left her there. From what I gathered, that was what they were here to do. As we reached the entrance of the woods, where the long pine trees started, I felt myself shiver. I looked over my shoulder one last time, in search of the woman at the window, but she was gone, as was the light.
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