A New Estate - Crimson Peak

Chapter Thirteen

The journey to the attic was a slow one, probably due to my own nerves about finding a crazed person living so close without me knowing.

China seemed on edge during the dragging trip in the lift, her ears were tucked back and she kept her head low. Every now and then she let out a soft whine, which broke my heart to hear, I'd only brought her along for comfort and to be sure I was keeping an eye on her for Robert.

I spared Jonathan a glance, his own gaze remained on the metal lift wall directly ahead of him, his eyes looked slightly glassy and glazed over.

If I had to guess, I would have said that he was worried, perhaps even apprehensive about what we would find up there.

My own heart was racing uncomfortably fast and my breathing was beginning to increase at a rapid speed.

I was glad that I wasn't going up alone, but I still didn't want to truly go in the first place, however it was now my manor and I had to see over everything that happened inside it.

The attic had been somewhere that I'd hope to put off going to until the end of my cleaning adventure, not due to a fear of being up there alone but more for my fear of coming into contact with various, large spiders.

The unbreakable dark and nightly visitors I could deal with, but those eight legged abominations of nature were a whole other situation. So I suppose it was good that I was being accompanied up there for the first time.

So far I had found a surprising lack of spiders, the few webs in the abandoned rooms seemed void of any living occupant. In fact I'd mostly encountered moths, not even a mouse appeared to eat any left over food from Allerdale Hall, as if all living creatures were unwelcome unless it was indeed a moth.

The lift came to a juddering halt, almost sending me stumbling over at the sudden, violent jerk, ripping me from any previous thoughts.

I flickered another glance to Jonathan, just in time to catch his eyes doing the same. We give each other a shy smile, both of us clearly uncertain as to whether this was a good idea or not.

Jonathan takes a deep breath before pulling the grated gate across and stepping out of the lift, I give China a gentle nudge as a sign for her to follow before walking out myself.

My heart continued to thump erratically in my chest, adrenaline coursing through me and causing my lips to quiver as if they were a separate part of my body beyond my control.

Jonathan led us down a short path that soon turned around a corner, if I glanced over my shoulder I could see a path just beyond the lift that no doubt would lead to the stairs to get up here should the lift be unavailable.

Considering the construction, we hadn't thought it safe to risk putting our weight on them just yet.

Through a dust covered window, I could see the scaffolding that had been moved around the building, the pipes looking worryingly rickety but that could have been an illusion of the dirty glass.

Loud yells and tools tinkering and clattering could be heard faintly through the window, I had to admit that I was curious as to how their work was done and the certain processes and instruments that needed to be used.

Jonathan now turned the corner and was out of sight, China spared me a glance over her shoulder as if to make sure I was still joining them and wasn't lagging behind.

"Did anyone come up here previously?" I enquired, needing to fill the silence.

"There was a report from the last lot of workmen to come here," he called back.