All For Not

Page 75

"All right, you go left, I go right."

"You seriously want to split up? In here? That is literally how every best friend dies in a horror movie." Turning back to look over the bannister I lost sight of Tyler, he had moved somewhere downstairs and disappeared from view, possibly under the guise of inspecting the house, he was a very suspicious boy; like a crab. "The faster we search, the sooner you can leave."

Enid began muttering in my ear, her voice shaky as she moved past me, to the left, Wednesday to the right. "Why am I even here? I know what my mom would say. 'Enid, you're a doormat. You're too needy. Show some teeth. Nobody likes a desperate little furball.' Shut up, Mom. Get out of my head!"

Frowning, I followed after her, preparing myself mentally to console her somehow or some way. Until she opened the first door in the corridor and froze, yelling with a shaky voice, "Wednesday, you need to see this."

Pulling her back I moved into the room, my head reared back almost immediately in confusion, "the bed's made. No dust or cobwebs..." I ignored the voice that appeared behind my shoulder and continued, walking farther into the room, both girls following my footsteps.

"LG?' Laurel Gates. Looks like somebody moved back into their old room." A glance over my shoulder told me that they were both at a vanity desk looking at something on the top of it. "It's not possible. She died 25 years ago, drowned overseas."

Suddenly each of us whip around, the sound of glass shattering downstairs distracting us, "let's go. This is officially the worst girls' night out ever!" Turning back to look at Enid, something caught my eyes in the movement, walking over to the nightstand I grabbed it, slinging my pack off my shoulders as Tyler's voice rang out through the house below us, "Guys! Get out! It's here!"

His scream startles Enid, the growl making her rush from the room with my sister on her tail as I took the time to stuff the picture frame into my bag, "the dumbwaiter. Go!"

Things moved fast, so fast that by the time I move out of the room and make my way to the banister the girls are already in the dumbwaiter, "Morella!?"

Rushing forward I glance back to see the beast of a creature crawling its way upstairs. Unable to think any further I look back at them, tossing my bag in as it makes its way up behind me with a snarling growl. With a wrench I closed the shutter to the dumbwaiter, sending it crashing down to the basement at Wednesday's inner workings to help them escape. Enid's screaming of my name ringing through the contraptions metal walls and my ears.

A sharp sting covers my entire back as my knees buckle, on impulse my shoulder blades pop and crack. Within seconds, my wings are flared out and I'm forcing him back down, sending him flying through the banisters railing and back downstairs as I fail to muffle my yelp, embers from my fire hitting him slowly falling in the stale air.

A hand reaches to the back of my shoulder and comes back tinged red with my own viscous blood, the heat bubbling up to molten fire as it tints the back of my shirt. A guttural growl sounds from below and the fire on my wings flares as the clawed feet move farther away from my hearing range, going deeper downstairs.

With a rush my feet take me down the steps, the sting in my back somehow becoming worse as I stumble to a slowed stop halfway down the stairway. Gasping, my legs weakened making me stumble down, almost falling down the rest of the steps, only the rail keeping me up until I lowered myself to sit down.

"Morella? Are you still here?" My eyes slowly closed as my breathing became ragged, wings retracting painfully as the bones and feathers crammed back and rubbed against the large scratches across my back, "shit, are you okay?"

Looking down at the teen my eyes catch sight of the blood dripping down his arm, slashes covering his bicep. To my surprise he rushes up the steps to help me up, his uninjured arm around my waist and mine over his shoulders as he lifts me up, a tsk leaving my mouth at the sting in my back, "come on let's get out of here while we still can."

Helping me down and out of the house, he sets me down against a pillar before sitting down across from me as my head lolls back into the brick layout. "Oh my God, Morella?!"

"Enid, hold this."

"That thing is still inside!" Tyler and I looked between the girls, Wednesday crouching down at his side while looking at his arm, "you're hurt. Can you walk?"

Suddenly my eyes closed, opening slowly to see Xavier had appeared, Wednesday being the first to take notice of him and question him, "where'd you come from?" His eyes meet mine as he pulls a spare piece of cloth from his jacket and hands it to her before moving to my side, "here. Take this."

"Your back, it's totally shredded," Enid's concern has a whimper leave her throat, "not to make this about me, but I am having a full-blown panic attack now. We need to get back before Weems realizes we've been gone, and Morella needs a nurse."

"You're right, we'll drop you three off at Nevermore on our way to Tyler's," Xavier's brows furrowed, "you're not coming with us then?"