It's A Twin Thing | j. clarke [1]

twenty-four

-:- House of Stars / House of Harsh -:-

I put my hand over Alfie's, trying to calm him despite the fact that I wasn't even okay myself. I stared at the wall in front of me, too afraid to look away or blink. My heart, which was already rapidly racing, jumped in fear when a leg popped out of the wall. The leg was followed by a body, and I registered who it was as soon as I saw her necklace.

Alfie dug his nails into my shoulder, and I tore my eyes away from Anna momentarily to see what was wrong. Alfie was staring wide-eyed at Anna, his face contorted in fear and confusion.

I was barely able to linger on this when Anna started moving. She moved to the archway we'd been watching under and stood with her palm outwards. Her eyes narrowed at, presumably, Victor. Victor's footsteps halted, but I expected to see his head around the corner any moment.

And then his footsteps retreated.

"It's just a rat," he said.

One side of Anna's mouth curved upwards, and she sent me a wink as she walked back into the wall. I turned back to Alfie to find him staring at the spot on the wall where she'd disappeared. How had he seen her? Did this mean I wasn't crazy?

The rest of the ceremony went quickly, and they were gone in the next fifteen minutes. We waited for an extra ten before coming back upstairs, just in case Victor was making an appearance on the first floor.

"That was seriously close," Fabian breathed as he got out.

"Victor must really want to stay young if he drank snake poison, I mean that's what plastic surgery's for," Amber mumbled.

"What was that down there?" Alfie screeched.

"The snake?" Fabian asked.

"That woman," he clarified with a point at the oven door.

"What woman?" Fabian continued.

"You didn't see her?" Alfie asked.

Nina had gotten out of the door and locked it when she finally picked up on the conversation. She looked to me for confirmation and I nodded. Unfortunately, Alfie picked up on our exchange.

"What was that nod? Who was that?"

Fabian shushed him, not wanting to wake Victor or Trudy.

"That was Anna Frobisher-Smythe," I explained.

"What?" Fabian asked.

"I've seen her once before down there, and then again today at Sarah's funeral," I furthered. "I thought I was going insane, but Alfie you saw her too?"

"I saw her walk out of a wall and then wink at us and disappear," he whispered harshly. "That's nightmare fuel for the next two months."

"I think she was helping us," I defended.