The Secret of Spellshadow Manor Read online

  “Hobbesian…yes.” He ran a hand through his hair, trying not to look at Natalie. “Ah, philosopher Thomas Hobbes deduced in the seventeenth century that man’s natural state is one of equality, but believed this equality to take the form of…of continuous warfare. Since man is naturally pitted against his fellows, Hobbes argued in favor of embracing a strong sovereign, with absolute…power”—he cut his eyes at the ragged thing—“seeing this as the only possible way to avoid constant bloodshed and, um, civil war. Though it seems extreme, one must remember that he wrote Leviathan, in which this theory is expressed, during…during the English Civil War, a particularly bloody time in England’s history.”

  Mrs. Lambert beamed. “Excellent, Alex. Very well put. Would anyone like to expand on Alex’s answer?”

  Chris, a ginger-haired boy with a slash of freckles across the bridge of his nose, eagerly raised his hand. Alex glanced back to Natalie, unable to push the hallucination from his mind. He heard a bunch of girls whispering and giggling behind him, clearly thinking their conversation private. They seemed highly interested in the attention he was paying Natalie, but he ignored them, gritting his teeth, refusing to look at the hallucination again, trying to focus solely on the lesson.

  Chris was just finishing his answer. “Therefore,” he said, voice whistling out through his teeth, “when lived alone, life is nasty, brutish, and short.”

  Mrs. Lambert nodded, turning back to the board and writing the three words: Nasty. Brutish. Short.

  “And, can anyone tell me the Latin phrase Hobbes used to describe this? Alex, I’m sure you know it; go ahead.”

  Alex paused a moment. Natalie was starting to lean listlessly to the side, head drooping toward the figure beside her. It tensed, flexing its long, pale fingers.

  “Bellum omnium contra omnes,” he answered, not taking his eyes from Natalie.

  Mrs. Lambert made some exclamation of praise, but Alex wasn’t listening. He knew the figure wasn’t real, wasn’t anything, but he felt chilled to the bone nonetheless. It was cradling her head now, pulling her close to its chest, running its hands over her as if excited.

  Natalie raised a limp hand. “Excuse me, I…I don’t think I’m feeling well,” she said, her voice oddly toneless. “Is there a nurse?”

  “Why, yes, Natalie,” Mrs. Lambert replied, looking concerned. “You do look a bit unwell. Her office is just at the end of this hallway—turn left and it’s only six doors along.”

  Alex shot to his feet, shoving his books into his bag and saying, “Mrs. Lambert, I should probably go with her.”

  “Oh, I think Natalie can find her way,” the teacher replied with a knowing smile, and Alex stopped.

  He stared as Natalie left without glancing back at him, and the dread hallucination trailed after her, still whispering, its hands now at her forehead, stroking down her spine.

  The giggles that broke out behind him sounded manic in comparison, making the scene even more surreal.

  Of course, he told himself firmly, Natalie didn’t need help finding the nurse’s office. She was probably just still tired, her body adjusting to the new environment. Maybe she’d even caught a mild bug. There was nothing to worry about.

  And, for some reason, I’m just still hallucinating.

  He set his bag down and dropped back into his seat, watching as the door closed through the end of the thing’s rags. Class continued as normal, though without further involvement from him.

  Chapter 5

  Alex made his way quickly between the rows of lockers that made up the halls of Middledale High. The other students bustled around him, chattering loudly as they grabbed books from their lockers and made their way to their next classes.

  But Alex had no intention of going to his next class. He was heading straight to the nurse’s office to see if Natalie was still there. It was an irrational thing to do, checking on Natalie. He was obviously having profound mental issues, and it could prove drastic to involve someone else.

  But as much as he’d tried to reassure himself that this was all in his head, he just couldn’t rid himself of the feeling that something horrible was happening to her, right now. Mrs. Lambert had seen Natalie was unwell too, when earlier this morning she’d looked fine. That wasn’t just his imagination.

  He found himself speeding to a trot, and soon approached the door to the nurse’s office, which was shut. He remembered just in time that he should knock, and rapped quickly before bursting into the small room.

  The creature in rags was standing less than two feet from him, with one hand at the small of Natalie’s back. Alex sucked in a sharp breath, and with it came the vague taste of dirt, and something wet. He almost gagged, staring. He’d never been this close to the thing before. Seeing it now, he could tell just how dilapidated its clothes were. They weren’t just tattered, but filthy. Streaks of dirt, and something dark and red, slashed along the back, and the loose sleeves were heavy with rot. Blue veins wrapped around the tendons in its wrists, standing out starkly through its papery skin, and it kept up an incessant, hissing whisper.

  It was extraordinarily visceral for a hallucination.

  Natalie didn’t even seem to have noticed him enter the room, sitting in the nurse’s chair with her head buried in her hands. Her glossy black hair spilled out between her fingers, cascading down about her knees. The thing stood as still as death, its torn gray clothes fluttering lightly around it.

  “Natalie?”

  Her head jerked up, eyes wide and staring, and she forced a weak smile.

  “Hi. Alex.” Her voice sounded remote.

  “I just wanted to check on you,” he said uncertainly. “How are you feeling?”

  “Oh. Not well. I…can’t be…here anymore.” Her speech was oddly staggered, coming out in short bursts. Very unlike the exuberant, talkative girl he knew her to be.

  If he had hoped seeing her would reassure him, he was sorely disappointed. She seemed worse than ever, worn down, drained of all personality. At her side, the thing turned in Alex’s direction and shifted slightly beneath its rags.

  “Do you think you’re sick?” Alex pressed, keeping an eye on the hallucination.

  “I think I’m…sick,” she said lifelessly.

  The thing stopped its indecipherable whispering and abruptly took a step toward Alex, removing its hand from Natalie’s back to shuffle over to him. It moved its head back and forth, as if searching him out. Alex took an involuntary step back, horrified despite himself, his heart beating faster.

  “Alex?” said Natalie, in a voice that was suddenly more her own. “Are you okay?”

  “Y-Yes, I’m fine,” he managed. Act natural. She doesn’t know you’re hallucinating.

  It drew closer, but didn’t seem to see him, apparently staring right through him to the door at his back. For the first time, Alex could fully make out its face. The glassy eyes were like the night sky, black and full of stars. Its hollow cheeks were dusted with a short, bristling beard, and its patchy gray hair hung down in lank locks. There was a soft noise as its fetid clothes dragged upon the ground behind it.

  “Okay.” Natalie gave a weak laugh. “The nurse just had to take a phone call, but she’ll be back in a minute. So…what are you doing in here? Are you feeling sick too?” She tilted her head a little. “And what are you staring at?”

  “N-Nothing,” he said. He forced his eyes back to her and saw a little more color in her cheeks. “And yes—I mean, no, I’m feeling fine. I just wanted to check on you.”

  “You shouldn’t be here,” rasped the hallucination with a soft sound of irritation.

  That was the final straw for Alex. “What?” he snapped, turning on the thing.

  “Huh?” Natalie frowned.

  He whirled on her, running both hands quickly through his hair.

  “Alex,” she said cautiously, “are you sure you’re feeling okay? You’re acting…quite insane.”

  Yes, he was acting insane. He felt insane.

  “Natalie,
don’t you see this man?” he finally burst out. He jumped forward and pointed at the figure, now moving slowly back to her side. She recoiled a little and looked blankly where he indicated.

  “Man?”

  “He’s standing right next to you. He’s reaching toward you. Right there.”

  Natalie looked alarmed, even a little afraid. She grew very still as the thing replaced its hand at her back, the energy seeming to fade from her limbs again.

  “Alex…” Her lifeless tone returned. “I…I think I have to go. Home.” She rose gracefully and walked to the door. “I…hope you feel better.” Alex gaped as the thing followed her out, one hand at her back again.

  “Don’t interfere,” hissed the hallucination before continuing its low whisper.

  “Home?” Alex exclaimed, rushing after them into the crowded hallway. “We can’t go home without permission, I’ll need to—”

  Two things happened at once: the gray man disappeared, and Natalie—as if struck by a bolt of electricity—lurched forward into a swarm of students, vanishing from Alex’s view.

  “Natalie!” Alex called, his voice drowned out by the loud chattering. He pushed past students to chase after her, but when he got through the crowd and reached the other, sparser end of the hallway, she was nowhere in sight. Alex felt a breeze and looked to his left.

  The side door was open.

  He sprinted to it and slipped out, emerging in the parking lot at the front of the school. He looked around for Natalie, but still couldn’t see her. She must have left the compound already.

  What in the world was going through her head? Alex couldn’t even begin to fathom it.

  He hurried through the parking lot exit and scanned the adjoining road. He figured, if she really did remember the way back to his house, she would have taken the first left down Jamesdon Street, so he dashed directly to it.

  His instinct had been correct. He spotted her about halfway down, though she had slowed to a walk and appeared to be moving with purpose toward Ellis Street, which ran perpendicular to Jamesdon Street.

  The gray thing was with her.

  Everything about it clashed with the placid, beautiful street. Amid the suburban houses, its eerie aura seemed almost to glow, warping the features around him into strange mockeries of their original forms. Trees seemed to loom, branches looked more like claws, and houses that had felt normal moments before now seemed to contain eerie lights.

  Alex swallowed, rallying himself before rushing forward.

  “Natalie!” he shouted. “Wait!”

  She ignored him. She had stopped at the beginning of the road that…should have been Ellis Street. When Alex looked for the sign, however, he found only a rusting iron guidepost pointing in the direction Natalie was looking. Upon it, a single word was written: Spellshadow.

  “Natalie!” he urged.

  Once again, it was as though she couldn’t hear him. The emotion was gone from her face, her cheeks slack. She stepped forward, and the man behind her nodded, pushing her lightly. When she continued to walk, he let out a deep, throaty sigh.

  Alex caught up, grabbing Natalie’s arm.

  “Where are you—”

  She shook him off with such alarming force that Alex went sprawling to the cement. He shouted in shock, leaping back to his feet just in time to see her and her gray companion strolling away down the lane.

  “What?” he gasped. He had known she was fit, but that was just insane.

  He tried again, rushing forward and calling her name, ignoring the gray, tattered thing and grasping her shoulder. Again, she threw him off easily, and he landed hard in a scratchy bush. He rose, staring as she made her way.

  Alex surged after her, but the second he stepped onto the lane, he felt something come over him. A sensation that was almost indescribable. Like he had just stepped into a dream.

  The air suddenly became soft and sweet, filled with the smells of strange flowers and hot sand. Where the houses had just been tall, proud structures with columns and rolling lawns, they became eerie things, all turrets and twisting staircases, some of them bent in improbable ways. Alex stared around, stunned for a moment, before realizing that Natalie and the gray figure were far ahead of him.

  “Natalie!” he bellowed, and sprinted as fast as he could down the lane. Still she was ahead of him, and would not turn around, though he called for her again. How could she be so far ahead? She and the figure were walking at a measured pace, while he was running hard, feeling a stitch in his side. He stopped for breath, his hands on his knees. He was no closer to her than when he had begun. It was like a nightmare.

  Then darkness fell abruptly. As if it had run out of energy, the sun froze overhead, and slid down off the horizon to the south. The moon, fat with light, burgeoned atop distant mountains, seeming to cover half the skyline with its girth, spreading a wave of resplendent light out over the houses, which continued to grow stranger.

  Alex saw a building shaped like a coiled snake, wrapping around and around until it reared up into a tall tower, with window eyes and a long, crimson flag for a tongue. Crows were clustered upon its roof, screeching into the twisted night. Another house was built like a tree, little colored lights winking out at him from between the branches and leaves.

  Each home he passed, however, was more derelict than the last. They crumbled, consumed by ivy and moss, their walls collapsing inward like punctured balloons. Indeed, Alex saw no sign that anyone had lived in any of these fantastical houses for generations, or even longer. There was something in the stillness of this place that reminded him of a graveyard.

  Up ahead, the lane had reached its end, and finally he seemed able to catch up. He ran the remainder of the path, stopping just short of the pair.

  “Natalie!” he gasped, moving to grab her hand. “Natalie, WAIT!”

  Once more she brushed him away with unnatural force, and he crashed heavily to the path. He raised his head, the breath knocked out of him, to see the man standing next to a pair of massive iron gates with Natalie at his side. The gates were wreathed in ashen, gray ivy that completely obscured whatever lay beyond.

  The ragged man reached out and, with an almost delicate touch, pushed one gate open. There was a protesting scream of rusted hinges as it swung inward.

  A sinking, queasy feeling came over Alex where he lay, panting. He didn’t know what the hell was happening, but there was one certainty he couldn’t shake: She should not pass through these gates, should not go anywhere with this man.

  Alex leapt to his feet just as Natalie slipped through, following the man as the gate began to close behind them.

  Alex cursed. Rushing up to the closing gate, his heart was in his throat. He gazed at the strange, twisting patterns that were etched into the bars. For several seconds, he stood there, his hand closing over the cool metal. Barely twenty minutes ago, he’d been standing in the sun on a suburban road.

  Either he had really and truly lost his mind, or he was venturing blindly into an utterly unheard of realm.

  He looked up at the gray ivy that hung down in curtains before him. Whatever lay beyond, Natalie had gone ahead, and Alex couldn’t bring himself to turn away now. If nobody but him could see the gray man, there was no guarantee that anybody else would see what he saw now, here at the end of this impossible lane. He couldn’t rely on recruiting help.

  Swallowing hard, Alex set his jaw and pushed.

  The gate began to open.

  Chapter 6

  The first thing Alex noticed as he passed through the gates was the cold. It blossomed within him even though the wind blew warm against his skin, and he shivered as the gate swung shut behind him, the sheet of ivy swinging into place over it like a wall.

  He found himself standing before what could only be described as a mansion. It towered above him, windows flickering with uncertain light, red bricks almost entirely hidden by great swaths of the same gray plant that hung over the gates. The stuff was everywhere, covering the high wall that ringed
the perimeter of the house’s expansive gardens, and there was even a thin layer that crept over the ground. It seemed to drain the color from everything it touched. He shuddered and tried not to brush against it.

  Gritting his teeth, Alex moved toward the manor. He didn’t see Natalie or the man in rags anywhere, but there was only one place they could have gone.

  Gravel crunched loudly under his feet as he walked, though he tried his best to walk lightly. He had the feeling he did not want to be detected here.

  He tried to focus his mind solely on what he was here to achieve: Go in, get Natalie, get out. Quick and simple.

  As he drew nearer, the manor came into sharper detail. Burns and scars streaked the bricks of the silent structure. It looked deserted, like it had been abandoned decades before. Maybe the man in rags would be the only inhabitant.

  He shuddered at the thought of facing him, but braced himself for the likelihood.

  Before he knew it, Alex was standing before the doors. They were strange things, and looked more like trees than anything else. Gnarled branches stuck out of them at odd angles, and twists of age mottled their surface. From each hung a heavy golden ring, shaped like a snake twisting to bite its own tail.

  Ouroboros, Alex thought. The infinite cycle of creation and destruction, each eternally leading to the other. Not necessarily a bad sign.

  He grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, slipping inside.

  Whatever he had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t what greeted him. Bright light blasted his face, and he raised a hand, abruptly realizing how dark the night outside had been. Alex stared around in shock at the opulent entryway surrounding him; at the long hall, at least twenty feet across, that plunged deeper into the manor; at the high ceiling hung with a series of crystal chandeliers that shone with hundreds of candles. Dozens of paintings of dour-faced men in black robes lined the walls, and suits of ancient-looking armor stood sentry on either side.

  “Two?”