The Night Crawler

Inside the Cottage Walls

Suddenly a loud knocking thumped out of the dead of night. Spooked and forced awake, I bolted from under the covers and pressed my back against the bedframe, breathing heavily and trying to adjust my eyes to the unlit space I was in.

I felt disoriented. I had a headache, and I had no idea where I was.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Even louder this time. My heart skipped a beat while my eyes were locked on the door. A strip of light played under its wooden frame. Someone lingered on the other side of the door. I could see his shadow moving and blocking the light out. The doorknob made a slight turning sound before it released, and everything went quiet.

I sat still for a few minutes, listening. But no footsteps followed, and I felt the air slowly leave my lungs, making my head throb worse.

Sophia must have carried me here. The cookies she gave me, they must have been heavily spelled. More than I expected them to be.

My eyes quickly travelled from the bed to a round silver mirror and an arch of braided lavender flowers forming a curve above it. The whole room looked twisted in its reflection. There was also a set of double windows that made out one of the walls.

The white vanity table and a dresser in the southeast corner of the bedroom shifted while the armchair next to it sank deeper into the wall. The light inside the old lantern on the vanity threw a shadow onto a cherrywood bookcase. It was filled with grimoires and rolled maps that peered out of old drawers. The grimoires glowed blue, like jellyfish. But there was no reflection of them inside the old mirror. It was as if they didn't exist.

Some sort of illusory trick. But why? Why would anyone want a room to be this deceiving?

A spelled beach clock struck three-thirty in the morning. The waves rolled onto the shore and dolphins splashed out of the water before diving back into the deep of the sea.

I was so taken aback by the magic clock; I didn't notice how a bird had landed on a wine barrel outside. An owl curiously peered out at me through the window, his head turned side-ways. It was a massive brown bird with honeycomb-colored eyes. I spotted it instantly.

"Shoo!" I lurched at the window, and the bird flapped its wings and took off into the woods. As it flew off, I noticed a small graveyard below the pines. Stone ravens sat on the tombstones and tiny copper bells hung from their faces, guided by the wind.

This must be Sophia's and Garrett's family cemetery.

The clock chimed again but it didn't feel any time had passed. It only diverted my attention away from the cemetery. The tides changed, and the water at the surface of the clock became smooth and glossy. Crabs hurried down the beach in a long scarlet ribbon towards the water.

I looked through the glass back at the cemetery, but it had already vanished from view, only a couple rose bushes fringed the hills that led to the forest. The half-moon tore the starry fabric of the sky, and its dazzling light illuminated the clouds.

I crawled on top of the bed, pushing the extra pillows and blankets out of the way, until they formed a pile. Lifting the weighted purple blanket over my head, I rested on my right side, giving the bedroom door another glance.

The moon reflected in the old mirror and cast its light onto the folds of the bed. I pressed my head onto the softest of pillows, and squeezed my eyes shut thinking about Derek and Nick, and if they knew where I was, and the waves crashing inside the magic clock. With the warm summer breeze and a peach-powdered sunset inside my head, I drifted into sleep.

Sometime during the night, I felt a gentle, cold tapping on my shoulder blade. I jerked awake, startled, and stared into the dark. A sinking feeling pulled behind my ribs. In the reflection of the mirror opposite the bed I saw a shadow of a girl with long raven hair. She looked like Amanda, Nick's ex-demon-girlfriend, but a little older. She smiled at me and disappeared back into the mirror.