Читать книгу Shadow Wrack - Kim Thompson - Страница 5

The House

In a small seaside town, on a quiet street next to a park, there lies the smoking ruin of a house. Before it went down in a blaze of glory, the house was one you might walk past a hundred times and never really look at. It was old and rambling, with a sagging front porch and a neglected lawn. The inhabitants were similarly tired, ancient, and sagging ladies and gents who moved slowly and grumbled about everything under the cold, watchful eye of Miss Trang.

This was the house that somehow caught the eye and imagination of twelve-year-old Willa Fuller. This was the house where she first saw a brownie — and by brownie I mean one of the Little People, not a wee girl hawking cookies door to door. This was the house where Willa got her first-ever real job, as a housekeeper, and found out that the residents had some rather spectacular secrets.

This was the house where she met fairy, centaur, androsphinx, mermaid, and even a dinosaur. This was the house where surprises lurked around every corner, and dark, mysterious things began to happen. This was the house that Miss Trang departed from, leaving Willa in charge.

This was the house where black spots grew like mildew.

This was the house that finally burst open at the seams, letting in horrible creatures from “the other side”: cats with human faces, swarms of spiders, mobs of butcher birds, and the great, black, sightless worm with the gaping mouth and infinite gullet.

This was the house where the battle occurred, and where Miss Trang turned into a dragon.

This was the house that caught fire from a phoenix flame and was utterly destroyed, though the inhabitants escaped.

The sign is still there, though the house is not, and the sign says: “Eldritch Manor.”