The Shadows: A Poppy Farrell Mystery

Chapter 26

Poppy had backed up a dark space, a walk-in closet lined with shelves full of dishes, glassware, tablecloths, including a wall of chopping knives and cleavers. At the end, fitted between the shelves and the wall, was a large, white refrigerator.

Poppy looked at it askance. Clair had found a freezer full of blood in the Science Lab. What if there was something in this refrigerator that Poppy could use as proof that Blight's Academy was infested with witches? She tightened her grip on the knife, made her way down to the to the gleaming white door, and looked inside.

What she saw sent her pulses racing. Everything in her wanted to scream, but she didn't dare. She clamped her hand over her mouth and backed away. She wanted to run, but didn't want to be heard. The knife trembled in her hand. She raised it as if to ward off the horrific, soul-wrenching sight.

There, on the shelves, in a neat little row were the heads of Maggie, Georgie, and a third girl she'd never seen before. A sign underneath the shelf said: See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil.

To her mind, there could be no clearer sign than the saying on her Three Monkeys tuck box, that this was a direct message to Poppy Farrell: You're next!

She let go the handle of the door and let if fall quietly shut. Shivering with cold and dread, her legs so heavy she felt as if they were pulling her into the ground, she fell against the linens. Darkness came and went. She couldn't afford to go into shock. She must act.

Holding her breath, Poppy slipped awkwardly out of the alcove and hurried down the hallway. Turning a corner, she almost buckled to her knees. Her ankle ached. She pressed her hand against the wall at her side, and wept.

She couldn't erase the image of Georgie's head from her mind, or Maggie, or the unknown girl. What happened to the rest of them? Their bodies?

Don't go there! Don't go there! she told herself. Never, ever let that thought arise.

Her mind flashed back to Isabelle falling over the railing of the spiral staircase and flying into space. She'd killed her. The fact that it was self-defense didn't make her feel any better. Why hadn't she listened to Maggie on the train platform that night, and gone straight home? And where was Clair? Had she played a part in this?

Her stomach hurt. It was heaving. The dagger in her hand... the speech from Macbeth began playing in her mind again. She raised the dagger. It was real, in her hand, and it was bloody. Appalled that she'd been carrying it around like that, she wiped the blade on the carpet.

Now what should she do?

She looked up. The corridor was not completely dark. There, at the very end, was a band of light shining around the edges of a door.

She heard a tinkling sound. The music box was coming in her direction. Silent as a cat, she dashed toward the door with the lighted edge around it, and came face to face with Aurora Blight.

In the flickering candle fire, the portrait seemed alive, the eyes looking straight at her. Poppy quickly slipped behind the dark curtains that covered the near wall and, gulping her breath down, waited.

The scraping sound she'd heard when she'd blundered in here with Tom rasped softly from another room. Suddenly it stopped.

The music box was playing just outside the door.

Poppy crossed herself and prayed to God they wouldn't find her.

There were spaces between the draperies just wide enough for Poppy to make out the shadowy figure of Aurora Blight hunching into the room and mumbling incoherently under her breath. One claw-like hand was extended in front of her as if she meant to open something. Sweat dripped down Poppy's face. Don't let it be the curtain!