Allina put a spoonful of seabrine on the floor and waited in silence for the mouse to return. She added some things she figured a mouse would like to eat: a berry, lathered in seabrine, with a trail of seabrine-covered seeds leading up to it. Then she sat on the bed and read over the recipe again, still holding the wand in her mouth.
The mouse returned within a few minutes. It sniffed the seeds, cautiously, and Allina was sure not to look directly at it in case she scared it off.
It didn't eat any of the seeds, however: it went straight for the berry. After checking to make sure no predators were nearby, the mouse began to eat the berry, drinking seabrine along with it.
Once most of the seabrine was gone, Allina leapt off the bed and grabbed the mouse by its tail. It squealed; she cringed at the thought of hurting it, but she held on to it.
She flipped the mouse over and gasped. In its chest was a gaping, grotesque hole. It was black and slimy; deep within was a beating heart.
As she stared, a tooth began to grow out of the hole's side. It was long and yellow and dull at the end. Allina snapped off the tooth, then stroked the shocked mouth as its true mouth slowly closed. She tried to hum a tune to calm it: a half-remembered song she'd heard her father play on the kemenche.
Once the mouth was closed, the mouse squirmed away from her. Allina watched it go, then set to work.
YOU ARE READING
The Library
FantasyA young girl meets a favorite guest every Saturday at the library. She discovers an old book, and begins to wonder if the guest is who she says she is.
