The Twelve Chimes of Maligna Manor

Shell games in the Dining Room

Maggie was going to be sick. It was an absolute certainty, and frankly, she would welcome it because her stomach was feeling awful.

She tried to look around the room to settle her, but this did much the opposite. It was strange how, despite its constant presence in her mind, the image of this hallway had still managed to fade and alter over the twenty-three years. Being here again, she was noticing all the little details that her mind had failed to keep, and with each one, she felt her stomach turning as the reality of the situation set in.

So, she kept her eyes on her nephew as he recounted the events so far. She took in as much as she was able, but there was a lot, and many of the details were hard to swallow. It was clear that, whilst Ben was trying to give an accurate summation of what had happened, he found himself reconsidering certain moments and trying to downplay them for Maggie's benefit.

For instance, he talked about how he had nearly been bitten by a serpent in the bathroom despite the fact that he had a bloodied bandage round his leg. He began telling her about Sara wrestling with a giant wolf before trailing off and concluding that Jamie had saved her. What exactly Jamie was still doing here or why he looked like he did was a continuing mystery to Maggie because Ben seemed unwilling to be clear on those points. He was helping them now, and that was all she knew.

"Then Maligna showed me all this stuff," Ben told her, "and the darkness got super bad and stuff but then there was this voice, I don't know who it was, but they told me I had this power and I remembered back in the bedroom when... I told you what happened in the bedroom, right?"

Maggie nodded. Ben seemed to struggle most with that part of the story, but his lack of words had said a lot.

"Well, anyway, I think I can turn invisible," Said Ben, "Or maybe just stop people noticing me. Actually, I suppose that's really just the same thing. Anyway, I did that, and Maligna got really mad, and the darkness was like chasing me, but I escaped, and then I found you and... well, I guess you know what happened from there. So that's it, I guess. Do you have any questions or... anything?"

Maggie just shook her head and looked at her nephew's young face. She could almost forget that he was only eleven. His cheeks had thinned slightly over the long hours he had spent in the house, and his bright, silvery eyes seemed wide and fierce even as he smiled at her.

"Ay, you poor thing," She said as she touched his cheek, "I'm so sorry you had to go through all this."

Ben blinked a little as his lip quivered.

"It's okay, Tia," Said Ben, "We're doing okay. We just... Need to keep going. That's how we've managed so far."

It upset Maggie to think that Ben needed to lie to her. That somehow their roles had been flipped, and he was her guardian rather than the other way round. She had come here to save them, she remembered, and now she was on the floor being reassured that everything would be okay by an eleven-year-old boy.

"I think we should get going," Said Ben, "Sara should have found Jamie by now, and I'm sure they're waiting by the clock."

Maggie wanted nothing more than to stay where she was. It didn't matter that nothing would be accomplished because, as terrified as she was now, she was far more scared of what may be coming next.

But Ben had been right. She had to move forward. It was the only way she could keep her promise to him and Sara. With Ben's help, she got back to her feet and, keeping a tight grip on his hand, followed him up towards the clock.

Maggie's stomach gave another lurch as she caught sight of Jamie again. Jamie? Could that really be him?

As vague as Ben had been on what Jamie had done for Maligna, Maggie knew what happened here. Kids went into this house, and they never came out again. Jamie had not been the last, and there had been no mention of anyone else like him in the Manor. Something had kept him safe here, and it was not difficult to think what.