Page 32 of The Little Shop of Curiosities, The Music Box Part 2

“Bloody hell!” Chan exclaims, patting his chest like he has palpitations. “Are you trying to give me premature wrinkles?”

Dusty blinks slowly and stares at Chan’s hat. “Is that a Mary Quant?”

“Dusty?” I pull her focus back.

“Oh, right.” Her eyes land on Harrison, who’s wrapped up like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Although his lips are no longer an alarming shade of blue, he’s still very pale, and his body is wracked with deep shudders. “Prickles, you don’t look so good.”

“Can’t say I’m f-feeling great,” he whispers.

“I don’t know what happened.” Dusty frowns. “I couldn’t sense you anywhere, then all of a sudden you just blipped back onto my radar.” Harrison opens his mouth to speak, but before he can say anything, Dusty adds, “I’m going to get Tristan.” Then pops out again.

“I don’t know what she thinks he can do,” Harrison mutters. “Unless he’s going to spoon me until I warm up.”

“If it’s a spooning you want, Prickles.” I grin to lighten the mood, although my heart is still pounding fast. I’m worried, deeply worried.

“I don’t need spooning. I need to know where I am.” He frowns and looks around the sparse corridor. “One minute I was watching Tristan open a cupboard and then I was here. Everything in between is a bit…foggy.”

I reach up and push his hair back from his face, keeping my other arm wrapped around him. “You’re on the third floor. I think it’s the old servants’ wing. You really don’t remember getting up here?”

“No. I⁠—”

There’s a sudden loud pounding and then Danny and Tristan spill out from the staircase and hurry down the corridor to where we’re standing. By the time they reach us, Danny looks slightly out of breath, and Tristan is leaning over with his hands braced on his knees as he wheezes.

“Bloody stairs,” Tristan pants.

“You okay there, Tris?” Chan smirks. “You’re looking a little cardio…deficient.”

He doesn’t answer, just makes a noise a bit like a balloon deflating.

“You okay, Harrison?” Danny asks, his eyes raking over the man in my arms. “You’re looking a little like a Teletubby. What did we miss?”

“I’m not sure what happened.” Harrison frowns. He’s stopped shivering as much, but he makes no move to step away from me, and I can’t say I have any plans to let him go.

“I tell you what happened,” Chan interrupts. “Sam and I were downstairs looking for Prickles in the rooms on the second floor when this weird-ass magic fox appeared and⁠—”

“A fox?” Harrison says sharply, and Chan nods. “Was it a melanistic fox?”

“Well, I suppose it was a little regal looking,” Chan muses.

“Not majestic, melanistic,” Tristan says, having finally caught his breath.

“Was it black and red?” Harrison asks.

“Yeah, it was.” I look down as he meets my eyes. “Have you seen it before?” He answers with a nod.

“Hang on a minute,” Dusty’s voice suddenly intrudes, and Chan yelps once again.

“For fuck’s sake, Dusty, you seem determined for me to join you in the afterlife prematurely. I don’t even want to think about my poor blood pressure right now.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your blood pressure.” Dusty rolls her eyes. “And don’t change the subject. What did you mean, magic fox?”

“It looked solid and real,” I say. “It seemed to be waiting for us, and when we followed it up the stairs, it disappeared only to reappear further down the corridor. At first, we couldn’t see Prickles. He was completely obscured by shadows.”

“How is that possible?” Tristan frowns, looking at the size of the corridor and the light placements.

“I don’t know,” I mutter, absently rubbing circles on Harrison’s back as he leans against me heavily. It’s a testament to how spaced-out and pale he looks that no one teases us. “But the fox led us straight to Prickles. He wound around his legs and the shadows…”

“The shadows what?” Tristan asks curiously.