A New Estate - Crimson Peak

Chapter Forty Five

My breath caught in my throat as Lucille charged towards us.

China stood between us, barking as if that would stop the raging spirit in her place.

I didn't hesitate and immediately turned my focus back to the stairs, calling for China to stop her barking and follow me.

A panicked glance over my shoulder was a distraction that caused me to misstep and stumble up a stair or two, my foot collided with the edge rather than landing on top and I barely managed to catch myself and avoid tumbling back down to the bottom by bracing myself against the cold wall.

Behind me, Lucille flung one of the fallen bones, which crashed against the closed grate of the lift with a horrific clang and made my heart jolt in fear.

Everything became like a surreal dream, the lines between reality and fantasy blurring together as though I was trying to convince myself that this wasn't truly happening, like a fever dream.

My heart was racing, my brain was full of thoughts that never settled for long enough to become coherent and a panic induced wave of nausea was growing in my stomach and rising towards my throat.

I travelled up the stairs faster than I ever had in my life, a true feat considering just how shaky my legs had become.

An unease grew in the back of my neck when a yelp came from downstairs, ghost or dog I couldn't decipher.

Lord, I hope she hadn't harmed China.

With luck it was her screeching as she chased me, if she still were.

I was too much of a coward to spare a glance over my shoulder and check.

Just as I had been to cowardly to help Robert or to turn back and force China to come with me before taking off.

They may be dead and it would all be my fault.

Upon reaching the top, I tripped up the final step and stumbled again, tear stinging my eyes as I struggled to catch my footing.

My chest burned with every heave of breath, my tight throat making it all the more difficult to get a satisfying gasp in.

It was lucky that I had been changed from the borrowed, too tight trousers to a lighter petticoat, otherwise my race up the stairs would have been considerably more constricted and slower.

As a form of self-punishment, I barely gave myself a chance to stable my foot before bolting to the front door, rag full of bones clung tightly against my chest.

Fortunately, the men had had the hindsight to leave the front doors open, the hinges creaking as they rocked in place from a winter breeze.

I could have cried harder from being free of that mine.

As I neared the entrance, Hille came into view with a pile of wood hoisted on his shoulder.

I called to him, the pitch higher than I had intended and my voice cracking from franticness.

The man jumped and spun on his heel toward me, his face one of shock then relief and then one of sheer horror.

The world seemed to slow around us as bony fingers leafed through the hair at the back of my head and grasped a tight handful, the drying clumps of clay making the tug on the roots all the more painful.

Pain coursing over my scalp made time speed up too quickly, it seemed like there was barely a blink of an eye between Hille reaching for me and the foyer walls flying past me as I was dragged away from the entrance, the swathed bundle lost somewhere in between.