Page 54 of Monster Mansion

My heart pounded as I made my way to the largest section of bloody mess on the ground and knelt before it, preparing to lay my entire body down in it for the sake of being the most convincing. I cringed at the concept, and the metallic tang of blood filled my nostrils. This was gross, but it was necessary.

I held the gun in my bandaged hand and moved to carefully hold it under my chest. I felt a reassuring pass of Nox’s tendrils down my back before he vanished into a dark corner to watch. I caught a glimpse of two red eyes shining from the dark space under the living room couch as I arranged myself to look as dead as I could manage. I laid in the awkward space between the foyer proper and the living room, just underneath the balcony, on the largest pool of Ted’s blood, face-down so I could hide my small breaths and flickering eyelids a little easier, with my feet facing the door. In a perfect world, I imagined I would be able to quickly roll over and fire away.

“He’s close,” Thorn hissed as he stomped through the foyer, shaking the wall decor, to get to his hiding place just through the double doors of the dining room. He was close enough to jump in at a moment’s notice, but hidden enough that his presence wouldn’t be immediately known to Jonas as he entered the mansion.

The sound of a distant car was Ruse’s cue to march down the stairs once again in his Ted disguise.

“Show time,” I heard him say from my frozen pose on the floor.

Time seemed to move slower than it ever had as each second took an hour, and each beat of my heart seemed to punch my chest in painful slow motion. I thought of a quiet sunrise on the beach, and my dad’s toothpick smile. I thought of my neighbor growing up, who would walk four standard poodles all at once, each with their own funny haircut. I thought of Taco Tuesdays with Blair and how she would snort-laugh when she thought something wasreallyfunny. I thought of my mom before she died, and the sound of her voice singing Alanis Morissette while cooking dinner in one of my dad’s plaid shirts.

My mind played a projection in my head of happy memories and serene images to bring me to a place of calm confidence as the sound of muffled voices could be heard on the other side of the door. Between mental images of Saturday morning cartoons and learning to drive in a grocery store parking lot, I desperately wished I could hear their conversation. Ruse was an excellent actor, and he had been watching Ted long enough to mimic his mannerisms and turns of phrase perfectly, but still—would that be enough?

“Yes, sir. She was laying there just like that when I saw her, yesterday,” I heard Ruse explain just as the heavy wooden door swung open with its hinges squealing in protest.

I was struck frozen with anxiety. My body felt heavier than it ever had, and I hoped with every fiber of my being that I would be able to roll over and lift the gun when necessary.

“That’s odd, isn’t it?” Mr. Silver responded in a snide tone. “What’s wrong with this one!? Didn’t you like this one!? What thefuckis she doing still laying here?”

I could hear my employer start to pace, but his steps never seemed to get any closer to me. I held my position on the floor and worried they could hear my heart pounding against the hardwood or the sound of my dry lips pulling apart.

“I know exactly why she is laying there,” Jonas said, sounding like he was holding his jaw shut in anger. “She’s laying there because she’s notfuckingdead, you dense fucking beasts! You want to explain to me why Ted’s wife called me this morning, sobbing because her husband never came home, when I found her ‘husband’ perfectly healthy and standing in my driveway this morning?”

The sound of piercing agony shook me from my stillness as Ruse cried out in pain.

“Probably because the Ted standing in my driveway wasn’t the real Ted,” Jonas said firmly.

In a panic, I rolled over to see Ruse slumped against the wall, clutching at his stomach. Jonas stood in front of him with his back turned to me holding a knife at his side dripping with the shifter’s black blood.

“Fifty years, my ass,” Jonas muttered through his teeth. “Fifty years of feeding you creatures, and I would get my power? That landmark has come and gone. So I took matters into my own hands. We’ll see how it works out for you,shifter.”

My heart pounded, and my hands violently shook as I rose to my feet and pointed my weapon at Jonas’s back. I was too nervous to pull the trigger while Jonas stood in front of the injured Ruse, whose body was bubbling and shifting as he still held his stomach with ragged breaths. What if the bullet sliced through the man and burrowed into Ruse’s head? Even as I rose to my feet, I couldn’t find the confidence to fire at my target.

“Shoot him,” I heard Nox’s cool voice whisper behind me. I saw his mist floating about in my peripheral vision, letting me know he was close by. Ruse appeared to be steadying himself from what I could see of him around Jonas. “He can heal himself if you hit him. He’s much stronger than he looks at the moment.”

It didn’t feel right, but I knew this was my perfect chance to fire. I took a deep breath, squared my posture, and squeezed the trigger, aiming at the center of Jonas Silver’s spine. In the exact moment my finger sent a bullet flying toward my target, Ruse launched himself toward me, taking the bullet straight to his chest and shifting mid-air into the horrifying shape of a great wolf with oversized fangs jutting out of its jaw.

The shifter didn’t seem even vaguely affected by my bullet as Ruse’s momentum knocked me backward toward the living room. His eyes were black as night as he tackled me to the ground, sending the gun flinging out of my hands to some place unknown. Ruse’s canine jaws were only inches away from my face, and I screamed as loud as I could against the weight of his paws crushing into my sternum as his dark blood dripped all over the front of me.

“Stop it! Get off!” I hollered in protest as I tried to use my back legs to kick the beast off of me. “What are youdoing,Ruse!? Getoff!”

From behind the wolf’s head, I saw a flash of black smoke dart through the air and heard the thunderous sound of Thorn slamming down the stairs with his massive body.

“No, you don’t!” I heard Jonas snap to the other two. “One prick from this and you’ll be on my side just like your little buddy over there.”

“Logan, it’s the knife,” Nox said with a shake in his voice.

I wished so badly I could see what was happening. I tried to wiggle away from the wolf, but he just snapped in my face and sent a jolt of horror through me.

“You’re right, itisthe knife,” I heard Jonas explain. “You three acted like nobody would do the math. Fifty years, you promised my father. That was all it was supposed to take, right? That’s what you promised, right? For the past year, I’ve been developing a Plan B, a way to take what I am owed, goddammit. You’ve been pulling the wool over my family’s eyes foryears, but not mine. Wouldn’t you know? Here we are, almost fifty-oneyears later, and I can show you what I came up with. Watch this.”

I watched in shock as Ruse shifted from a wolf to a great octopus seemingly against his will and wrapped his mighty limbs around me to hold me in the air. My situation was worse now, but at least I was able to see what was happening.

“Isn’t that something?” Jonas laughed as he flourished the knife around. “All I need is one tiny nick from this thing, and I can haveanymonster under my control, not just you three.”

Thorn and Nox hovered just outside of Jonas’s reach, too nervous to put themselves near him.

“It took a lot of research, a lot of travel, and alotof fucking money to get something like this,” Jonas said, launching himself toward Thorn, who immediately took a giant step backward to avoid the blade. “The Native tribes with roots around here are few and far between anymore, let alone one who can manipulate this kind of dark magick… the same magick that ties you three to this place.” He held the blade up in his hand to admire it for a moment. “But I think it was worth it. I almost want to thank you three for fooling me. Otherwise, I never would have had to look into something like this. Funny how things seem to always work out.” He raised the blade again, intending to corner Thorn against the wall and bring down the knife.

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