Page 38 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
“Ain’t that the truth,” Lyric said before all three of us faced the mansion. “This place feels… off. Like there’s magic in the air, but it isn’t… pleasant magic.”
Winter said, “That can’t be good.”
I agreed that the place sort of felt ominous, but saying it had unpleasant magic was a peculiar way of putting it. But I couldn’t exactly disagree with the sentiment.
I grimaced. “Are you guys ready?”
Winter sighed. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s do this, bitches!” Lyric said before heading toward the employee entrance door.
Winter laughed. “Wait! Come back! You need coveralls on.”
Lyric turned on their heel and winced. “Do I really?”
I grinned. “Unless you’re prepared to get spider webs and gnome poop on your nice clothes, then yes, you do.”
They did a fake shudder and headed back for my truck.
Chapter Twelve
Winter
Once we were in our coveralls and loaded up with our tools, we headed inside. Maybe I was nervous because of what happened to Miles yesterday, or maybe I was picking up on something in the air, but it felt… creepy and not at all like the house we’d entered yesterday.
“Why is this so creepy?” Lyric asked as soon as they stepped through the door. “Did you guys bring me to a haunted house to play a trick on me? ‘Cause if you did, I’m going to murder you both… and then you’ll be stuck inside this house as ghosts forever. Muhahahaha.”
Miles let out a strangled laugh, and I turned to my best friend with what I was sure was an incredulous expression. “Your mind is a scary place.”
They shrugged. “Probably why I became an artist.” They shooed me. “Now go on. Lead the way so you’re the first one to get ax-murdered.”
I rolled my eyes but trudged ahead. “No one’s getting ax-murdered.”
“I mean, Miles and I definitely aren’t—unless they come up from behind and grab Miles—but you probably are. I’m the safe one, sandwiched between you.”
“You wish you were sandwiched between us.”
They chuckled. “Truth.”
“I… don’t even know what’s happening right now,” Miles said.
I sighed. “No one does when Lyric’s involved.”
Lyric sighed. “Also true.”
I snorted and headed to the first room we’d left traps in last night, and froze as soon as I was through the door.
The traps were still there, of course, and they were filled, but… but the noise coming from them was maddening, and there were more gnomes running around the room. Everywhere. Holy crap, I didn’t think I’d ever seen this many gnomes in one place, let alone this many running around like maniacs.
“What the fuck?”
Lyric ducked under my arm so they could come into the room and see what was going on, and Miles stopped right beside me, his shoulder pressed into mine. I was almost—almost—too distracted by the gnomes to realize what a big deal it was for him to casually touch me, but my insides did a big ol’ cheer.
Miles is touching me! Woot!
“What in the actual hell is happening?” Miles asked, his voice and face astonished.
As if on cue, nearly all of the gnomes stopped what they were doing, turned toward Miles, and let out a war cry as they came running.
