I can’t even breathe, my lungs are gasping for air, and my heart feels like it might quit on me.I clutch my hands to my chest, and my gaze follows where she’s pointing.
She’s pointing at Ms.Peek’s room, the door closed.
I look back at Vivienne.She’s a rotting, festering corpse, with a giant gaping hole in the middle of her, staining her torn nightgown with crimson.It looks like all her organs have been removed and she’s bleeding profusely onto the floor.
And yet, even in those white eyes, I don’t sense anything malicious or evil.I think she’s trying to help me, not lead me into a trap.
Goodness, I hope I’m not being naïve.
“You want me to go inside there?”I whisper to her.
Vivienne raises a finger to her nonexistent lips and nods once.
I gulp down my fear and start toward Ms.Peek’s room.It feels wrong to turn my back on Vivienne, but I do.
Then, when my hand is on the doorknob, I stop and look back at her over my shoulder.
The hall is empty.
There’s no blood either.
Vivienne Henry is gone.
I take in a deep breath and open the door, finding it unlocked.
Ms.Peek’s room is dark save for the moonlight.It looks exactly like it did when I was last here, and though there is no lit incense or cigarettes, the room smells of it anyway.
I step farther inside, leaving the door wide open, and look around.The painting of the raven has been slashed, the raven cut right out of the canvas, sending chills down my spine.Her bed is unmade, and a few drawers of her dresser are open, undergarments spilling out.
A small bottle lies toppled over on her desk, the cork beside it.I pick it up and hold it to the moonlight, seeing just a little bit of black liquid inside.I sniff it, a licorice scent, and then look at the label, which is handwritten in ink:Carbones Corrumpebant.Something with charcoal.
I put the cork back in and slip the bottle in my pocket, thinking Crane might find it useful for something.
Then I hear a splash from the bathroom.
My heart stills.
Oh God.
Leave the room, the voice inside me says.Leave the room and run to Crane.
But what if it’s Ms.Peek?What if she’s alive still?
Vivienne Henry told me to come in here, didn’t she?Isn’t she trying to help?
I try to steady my breath and I slowly, silently, creep toward to the open door of the bathroom.
I step inside and gasp, dropping the candle, the flame going out.
The bathtub is filled to the rim with blood, the full moon from outside reflecting on the surface.
And as I stand there, staring at it, the blood starts to ripple and move.
A head starts to rise out of the liquid.
At first I don’t know who it is, if it’s Ms.Peek, if it’s Vivienne, or maybe even Marie.
Then the head fully emerges, dark hair plastered down the sides of the face, rivers of blood falling away from its features.The eyes open and stare directly at me, fully black.
