Lydia Deetz and the witch's house (completed 14/14)

The cook's tribulations

LYDIA DEETZ AND THE WITCH'S HOUSE

Capítulo 5: The cook's tribulations

The door opened with the sound of dry wood and the kids entered a spacious but poorly lit dining room.

"It's strange," said Lydia, "some parts of the house are covered in cobwebs, giving the impression that the house is abandoned. But the tablecloth on the dining room table is very clean and neat."

" What's that over there, Lydia?" Percy asked, as he approached a bowl on the side of the table.

"I think it's poison," said Viola.

"How do you know that?" Lydia asked.

"What else could it be? So far we haven't seen Ellen. I'm sure this is her trap."

"Viola's right, Lydia," said Percy, sniffing the bowl, "this is not for eating."

The children surrounded the table and saw another worn and moldy paper sign next to a door to the north.

"The cook is tired, give him a hand"

"What can this mean," asked Percy.

Lydia shook her head, nodding to the cat boy that she didn't know what the message meant either, and when she put her very white-fingered hand on the doorknob, she was stopped by Viola.

"This door gives me a bad feeling, we'd better find another way out," said Viola with a nervous look.

"All right. I see another door out front, we'd better get over there."

As they walked through the door, they saw to their surprise that they had reached the previous corridor.

"You scared me! Don't just come out of nowhere!" The black cat shouted at them as he bristled his fur.

"Hey, are we back in the hallway? What's going on?" wanted to know Percy, who, like the black cat, bristled the hairs on his black tail.

"Apparently the house changes its structure or part of its structure, depending on which door we go through," Lydia explained, "if that is the case, it would be very dangerous for us to separate to cover more ground. Not that I was considering the idea in the first place, since the worst thing to do in these cases is to separate."

"What can we do?" Percy asked.

"Viola, there's no alternative. We must go by the north gate, there is no other way."

Viola accepted with a resigned face and the three friends returned to the dining room. The black cat, however, decided to stay in the hallway.

"Lydia, look!" Percy said.

The bowl had changed shape and was now equal to a person's skull, with the exception that the top had been cut off and now the skull served as a macabre replacement for the bowl.

"The poison is still in the bowl," said Lydia.

Then, the boys got up the courage and opened the northern door next to the sign.

Apparently they had arrived at the kitchen of the old house. The floor was made up of small blue stone cobblestones that formed mushroom-shaped patterns and on top of them a small black mouse rushed from place to place that reminded them of a piece of charcoal.

"Easy, Percy," Lydia calmed the catboy, who immediately put his ears on alert and each of his hands made a fist. It was obvious he wanted to chase the rodent.