Chapter Nine
I WOKE TO the tightening of silken sheets at my throat and the sharp taste of bile on my tongue. My stomach churned painfully, and I rolled off the bed just in time to vomit all over the floor. My body trembled violently and my skin was so drenched in icy sweat that my clothes clung to me.
Every breath I drew burned, and the events of the previous night permeated my being, stretching my nerves to their limit. Even the bright sunshine was menacing to me.
With every ounce of my strength, I forced myself up and made a dash to the window, half convinced that I would find the landscape some sort of gate to Hell.
Nothing.
My view was extraordinarily ordinary. The courtyard was barren and cold, nothing out of place. There was no sign of the massive tree or the lake of lily-pads and lunar flowers. No demonic entities.
Just a courtyard.
"It was a dream!" I murmured aloud in relief. Of course it was a dream. What else could it have been?
I decided I had eaten something that hadn't agreed with me, and my mind had conjured up a very realistic hallucination.
"Just a dream," I repeated, sick with gratitude. How stupid of me.
A knock on my door roused me from my thoughts. Blu entered, bearing a breakfast tray in his hands and a change of fresh clothes folded over his arm. I discreetly took a long look at his face in order to satisfy to myself that there were no bulging blue veins or bloody eyes this time.
He looked perfectly normal. No maggots, no dripping fangs.
"Good morning Master Judas," his voice was light and pleasant. "I hope you find yourself quite well rested this morning, you seemed to be under a lot of strain last night. We were worried for your health."
"I'm fine, thank you," I replied weakly as I accepted the tray and the clothes. The food smelled delicious and my stomach groaned eagerly at the concept of sustenance.
Blu laid out the fresh clothes he had brought for me, though I had never seen them before in my life. They looked ordinary enough though there was something...aged about them.
"I want to see my great grandfather," I told him. "Is he up yet?" I was quite sure that my persistent tone bothered the butler but he made no comment towards it. Instead he offered me yet another of his enigmatic smiles.
"I'm afraid not, Young Master. You will be unable to see him today. He is not himself."
"Are you kidding me?" I burst out angrily. "I want to see me grandfather. Why won't he see me?"
Blu said nothing but continued to tidy up my room with not so much as a glance in my direction. He seemed to have lost interest in the conversation, making me feel like some sort of insect set up for his amusement.
Whatever game he and my great grandfather were playing, I was sadly unaware of it and was proving to be a very poor player.
"If you are not feeling well, Young Master, I suggest you stay in bed. If you must get up you are more than welcome to explore the manor and its grounds. They are quite something."
This time it was my turn to stay silent and I did so quite sullenly. I had hoped that in coming here, I might have had some semblance of family restored to me. Nothing in this world could ever take the place of my mother, of course. But I had hoped that perhaps I could find some form of solace in a relationship with my great grandfather.
We never had one when I was a child, but things were different now.
He had cared for my mother hadn't he? Cared for me? That was why he brought me here to live with him. There was no other logical explanation. He had been gruff and anti-social in my youth, but now he was reaching out.
Abruptly, I grabbed my clothes and began dressing, frantically stripping out of my sweaty things and making myself more presentable.
"I'll go for a walk," I said. The solution to my problem suddenly seemed so obvious to me. Blu was toying with me and I was in no mood to keep up with him. If he wanted to keep me separated from my relative well... that was fine. I would seek out my great grandfather without his help.
I hurriedly left the room, feeling the goose-bumps that had erupted over my skin dissipate as I left the butler's presence. Something about that man set my teeth on edge, as my mother would have said.
I ducked down the hallway, turning before I reached the main door. I had no idea where my great grandfather would be residing, the manor possessed more doors than I could possibly imagine.
Rows and rows of them, some containing single rooms, others larger ones that branched off into each other and still others containing more twisted hallways with more doors. To make matters worse, the lighting was dim, the faint bulbs coated with dust and cobwebs, making everything look identical.
The only technique I learned to find my way was by looking at the oil paintings that lined the walls. My great grandfather had the largest collection I had ever seen. Some were classic portraits of people and families, others of animals with scenes of fox hunts and deer, but my favorites were the scenes ripped right out of the literary greats. Dorian Gray, the Nautilus, Hannibal, Anna Karenina... all stared at me from their exquisitely life-like canvases.
Every detail was perfection. It was as if the artist had somehow photographed them in paint. They became my guides through the house and every time I came across one I had already met, I knew that I had taken a wrong turn and somehow looped back around.
Somewhere in the recesses of this house was my great grandfather and I was determined to find him.
Most of the rooms I explored that day were remarkably ordinary. Many were filled with books, each room dedicated to a specific subject. At first I lingered in each one, reading a little, yearning to know what my relative knew in order that we might find some common ground when I finally met him.
Gradually however, as the rooms began to blur together, I spent less and less time in each one and more and more time frantically moving from one to the next.
The house seemed to be playing tricks on me, switching hallways and staircases, convincing me that I had already seen one room when all the others around it were completely unfamiliar. I felt turned around and anxious and in a perpetual state of deja vu. I was no longer even sure which way would lead me back to my room.
"Juuuuuuudaaaaaas!"
The haunting moan sent prickles of ice down my spine and I spun around in alarm.
"Mother?" I ventured.
There was no reply but something rustled in the room to my right and I stiffened my body in concentration. Again, the tiny scratching sounds, barely audible. I didn't realize I was holding my breath.
"Hello?" I gave the door a gentle nudge and it drifted open, revealing to me an empty room. Or so I thought, until a streak of white launched itself at my legs with lightning fast speed, causing me to yelp and stumble backwards. My heart was thudding so violently I thought it might come crashing out of my chest, my lungs contracted painfully against the strain.
"What the -- !"
I watched as the white streak darted under a bureau and glared at me with twin coal eyes. A cat! I realized with relief. Just a cat!
"Master Judas!"
The soft voice made me almost leap out of my skin and I nearly broke my neck. I whipped around so fast to find myself almost nose to nose with Bast. Her skin was flushed and rosy and several of those silky brown strands of hair had escaped from under her maid's cap.
She stared at me with the same eyes I remembered from the night before and I felt a hot blush creeping up the back of my neck.
"Miss Ba -- Bast!" I hated myself for stuttering. "You startled me. I didn't think there was anyone in this part of the house."
She shifted her gaze from me to the bureau where the cat hid. I watched as she crouched to the ground and extended her pale hand. Slowly, the pearl white kitten emerged to sniff her fingers and offered an approving lick and a purr. Bast cradled the animal and I felt myself liking her even more.
"He's so beautiful!" I said, thrilled to finally have something to say to her that didn't make
me sound like a complete moron. "Is he yours? You must love cats." Maybe not.
"Ah, Bast, there you are. I see you've found another friend."
The deep voice of Blu interrupted anything she might have said to me, and I saw the red flush on her cheeks instantly drain to white. The butler towered over us both, his slitted eyes casually sliding from one to the other.
"I am sorry, Master Judas," he went on, "sometimes her pets escape the kitchen and find their way here."
"It's alright," I said, staring at the cat now purring contentedly in her arms. "I love cats."
"Is that so?" Blu offered a bow. "Forgive my presumption then. Your great grandfather abhors them. In any case, there is a matter for Bast to attend to in the cellar. Master Judas, it's nearly six 'o clock! You've been wandering around this house all day. Why don't you return to your room and enjoy a nice hot meal. I've taken the liberty of unpacking your things for you so everything is organized."
His words left no room for negotiation. Bast vanished as silently as if she was a ghost, taking the pearl kitten with her, and I had no desire to remain in the hallway with Blu. Every hair on my body stood up on end whenever I even looked at him.