The Red Wing Mansion

Chapter Seven

At night I stoke the fire, choosing to remain in the largest living area. I'm relaxing on an old couch, and I enjoy how the fire and lanterns light the room just enough. I was going to sleep in here tonight.

I had my phone on the coffee table – nice and close for comfort.

I had not tried to open the front door, in fear of pissing him off again.

But, I was taking this journey slowly.

I rip open a packet of marshmallows and use a stick to pierce it, hovering it over the flames.

"Better than television," I murmur something my dad would say when we were out camping in front of a fire. I was surprisingly not too homesick. I guess because I had company here in the Red Wing. And I knew it was only temporary, despite my sexy ghost's strange inclinations toward wanting to possess me as a legal object and threatening to imprison me and then proceeding to pass it off as a stupid joke. Ha.

As soon as the pink marshmallow is brown and about to burn, I take it away and blow across it so it cools off before I take a bite.

My mouth is watering.

I had lost my appetite and didn't want to eat dinner after I had licked Claudius Fontaine's boots.

But now I'm just getting some sugar in my system. My lips part for the marshmallow, when I pause to see a figure outside, looking through the window.

I get a fright as I see Claudius staring in through the window like a creep in the total darkness, his pale marble skin almost translucent in the moon light.

I glare, and eventually he steps aside to show his raised arm and an owl sitting on his gloved hand.

Then, he beckons me to come outside with a finger.

I watch as Claudius turns toward the garden and meanders off, disappearing into the fog.

"You have got to be kidding me," I whisper in an annoyed hiss as I stand up in a soft white fluffy robe around my pink sleeping gown. Even in my exasperation, I find myself swiping up a lantern in my hand and tip toeing to a side exit.

I poke my head out into the chilly night, and I see Fontaine by a small bench and roses, waiting for me – his owl gone, now flying in the night.

I hear a hoot.

I feel more confident when I actually see Fontaine smile up at wherever his companion hunts.

As I walk through dewy grass with bare feet, I stand with my arms tucked under my arm pits as I smile at Fontaine, looking up at the sky, waiting for his owl to return.

"So cool," I whisper, "Is he your pet?"

"She," Fontaine looks right at me, then quickly changes the subject, "He hunts the field mice."

"Ah I– oh," I narrow my eyes at his sexist 'joke' that he tried to play off real smooth, "What's her name?" I pretend not to notice.

"His name is Coin," he is such an asshole.

"Interesting?" I raise a brow, as Fontaine stands back and holds out his arm to his side.

I turn around to see a large grey owl swooping down for my head.

I duck, feeling the claws swipe past as Coin lands back on Fontaine's wrist.

I stand back up straight to see the owl get a pet from Claudius Fontaine. I cross my arms and glare silently, while Fontaine praises his bird with words of encouragement, "Good job hunting the scared mouse for me."