The Twelve Chimes of Maligna Manor

Find the Thimble in the Hallway

Sara felt Ben slip from her grasp as he fell to the ground in a sobbing heap. She placed her hand on whatever part of him was closest but found it difficult to find any comfort to give. Her eyes were locked on the spot where Maligna had been and, whilst her mind raced with a hundred different actions, it seemed none were quite able to reach her body.

Sara felt numb.

Nothing made sense. The hallway blurred as her head grew light, and she felt the not-uncomforting presence of oblivion rush towards her. It would be for the best. To faint dead away on this floor and be done with it. It would all be the same in the end.

No.

It was a small thought in the dying embers of her mind, but it was growing, and its heat brought a new life into Sara.

She took a deep breath and knelt down beside her brother. Ben was still sobbing violently and try as she might, Sara was not getting him up just now. That was fine. All she had to do was find the key. She could do that on her own if she needed to.

Just got to take this one step at a time.

Sara looked around the hallway for inspiration. She was struck with the realisation of how many places a key could be hidden. The walls were lined with sets of drawers, cabinets and soft furnishings. There was also the whole area of the upper landing which Sara hadn't even seen yet.

This could take a while.

But Sara didn't have a time limit. So that was good. If it was true, which it probably wasn't, but now was not the time to start worrying about what we don't know.

"I'm going to start looking over by the door," said Sara.

If Ben heard her, he didn't respond. Sara gave him a quick squeeze and began making her way around the room.

Strangely enough, it was the emptiness of the room that Sara found to be the most unsettling. She hadn't felt that before Maligna had turned up, even though it had only been her and Ben then too, but it was different now.

This space that had once felt warm and inviting was now vast and cold. Sara felt a tingling at her back and spent much of her time looking over her shoulder to satisfy it. She never saw anything, but that didn't help much.

Maligna was watching her. How? Well, questions like that didn't seem to matter. Before she might have been able to rationalise about how a man could not be present in a room without physically being there but not now. Physical realities didn't matter anymore and that just left Sara with her worst imaginings.

The quiet didn't help either. Even Ben's sobs seemed to make a little dent in the oppressive silence of the hallway. All Sara had was the odd creak of wood and settling of pipes to keep her company as she explored.

Each one just as likely as any other to be the approach of Maligna or even something worse.

A long list of horrors played in Sara's mind as she began searching. It only slowed the process as each closed drawer became another hiding place for the worst things she could imagine. It took all the strength she could muster to open any potential hiding place and strength was something Sara only had in finite supply.

Her initial plan was to search what she felt were the most obvious spots for a key. She began with the cabinets near the door which was mostly an excuse to test the exit.

This was disheartening, to say the least. Sara had only a small hope that she could somehow get the door open, but it was still crushing to realise she couldn't. It wasn't just locked, that would be one thing, but there didn't seem to be any means of opening the door at all. It was just a solid block of pitch-black wood that stood at the end of the hallway. Sara tried to push it outwards, but there was no give. It was as solid as the wall around it.