Page 17 of Eldritch

She stepped on the red paisley material and spotted the footprints. They were muddy. Muddy enough that they’d have to use the carpet cleaner.

She took a couple of steps and knelt by one of the footprints. They weren’t particularly large and had big treads like a hiking boot. The back of her neck prickled, and she stood up swiftly and looked behind her back toward her door. No one was in the hallway. Not a sound. Then she heard movement down on the staircase. Someone was coming up the stairs. She held her breath. Unsure. A bizarre panic taking hold. She took a step back. Another. Stepped in a muddy footprint.

She lifted her foot out of the track. Ick! Right at that moment, Letisha appeared at the top of the stairs, fully dressed and looking composed. She held her phone as well, using it as a flashlight. She stopped when she saw the tracks and Sybil.

“Damn it,” Letisha hissed the words. “Up here, too?” She headed toward Sybil, her mouth a taut line and anger in her eyes. “I got up early because I couldn’t sleep and saw this outside my room. Who did this?”

The accusatory tone in Letisha’s voice took Sybil off guard. That minor part of her triggered by other people’s anger froze up. She couldn’t think of a thing to say as her mind went blank.

Letisha stopped next to Sybil. “Who did this?”

Sybil snapped out of her stupor.

“Damned if I know.” Sybil threw her arms up. “Someone knocked on my door just now and when I opened the door, no one was there.”

Letisha had dressed for cold in a violent pink fleece pullover that contrasted with her dark skin and the blaze in her eyes. Her denim overalls and boots were worn. “You mean they went into a room in this hallway?”

Sybil looked around. “I don’t know how they could’ve. I mean…it took me a moment, so maybe. They’d have to be some sort of world-class sprinter. I would’ve heard a door slam.”

“Someone’s been tracking mud everywhere in the house.” Letisha folded her arms.

Sybil’s mouth dropped open. “No way. Do you think Pauline or Maria did it?”

Letisha sighed. “Well, either they did, we did it sleepwalking, or that intruder we thought was gone is still in the house. In which case, we need to call that sheriff’s deputy. I half wish it was Pauline or Maria because the idea of there being someone else around here…”

Sybil considered all of that for a few seconds. “I don’t think Pauline and Maria did it. And I sure as hell didn’t. I fell into bed early last night and slept like a zombie. What time is it?”

Letisha glanced at her watch. “Seven. I thought you said you were getting up at five?”

Sybil’s heart tripped. “Shit.” Sybil rubbed her face and turned back toward her room. “I could’ve sworn I set my phone to go off at five. God. Look, let me grab a shower, and I’ll be downstairs fast. Where are Maria and Pauline?”

“Don’t know where Maria is. I knocked on her door and she didn’t answer. Pauline is downstairs looking like she wants to kill someone because of the mud.”

“Can’t say I blame her. Can you check on Maria again?”

Letisha turned back the way she’d come. “Sure. Why not?”

Sybil returned to her own room, closed the door and almost walked away. She hesitated. Returned to the door and locked it. She checked her phone. She’d set it to five in the morning.

“Shit.”

She turned the phone off and turned it back on again and hoped that would fix a glitch if there was one.

Flummoxed, she headed to the bathroom. Surely if the alarm rang, and she slept like the dead, she would’ve heard the snooze alarm at some point. Pissed at herself, she went into the bathroom to prepare for what looked like a long day.

* * *

Letisha, Maria, Pauline and Sybil congregated in the Great Hall near the fireplace. Daylight crept through the large windows and even the cloud cover couldn’t keep it all out. They’d turned on the chandelier light and other table lamps nearby.

They looked at the muddy footprints that tracked across the hardwood floor and the huge square area rug in the middle of the room, which extended to the three couches arranged in a square around an enormous square coffee table.

Sybil looked at her employees and her stomach sank. She didn’t need this shit. This uncertainty. This damned weirdness. Her stomach tossed.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Letisha said, a scowl still on her face.

“That’s for sure,” Maria said.

Pauline crossed her arms, her own frown in place. “Where were you this morning, Maria?”

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