The Death Of Romance

Chapter Ten: Cold Feet

I sighed and anxiously knocked on the heavy wooden door. A few minutes later I realised that the door had one of those metal knocker things. It was shaped like two demons holding a kid (who was tied onto a long stick) above a fire. Yeah, I know. I don't think I really saw it at first, otherwise I probably would've been a lot more freaked out than I actually was.

I lifted it, then slammed it down. I could hear the sound echoing through the empty and totally creepy house. I listened for footsteps, but nothing came. I did, through the tiny gap under the door, see a shadow smoothly slide into place without a single sound though.

Then the door was pulled open. "Sabra!"

There she was. Elvira did this...weird thing when she said my name. She lengthened the 'a' sound, rolled the 'r' like she was some kind of super rich European aristocrat, and sounded more like she breathed the word than spoke it. It made me want to shiver.

"H-Hey. How's it going?" I stammered.

"Absolutely terribly," she exclaimed with a smile. "Please, do come in!"

Elvira drifted to one side to let me in. And I did my best to keep myself from collapsing into a little ball and crying myself to sleep in front of her doorway. Or not-doorway. "Okay, s-sure."

Dust. There was dust everywhere. I thought the floor was panelled with some nice grey floorboards, but no. It was just caked with dust. I watched as Elvira firmly shut the door behind us. Her gaze latched onto my face like it was some kind of face-latching parasite.

I felt cold. Refreshing...tingling. Like a winter morning's breeze.

But of course, my heart basically shot straight through my sternum when I saw a figure in the corner of my eye. Aurora was standing there next to an iron bird cage that contained her raven, Edgar. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

I wasn't exactly eager to answer that question. 'Hello there, I'm just going to check your fridge for decapitated heads, entrails, and other suspicious frozen produce'. Urp, just thinking about that stuff made me want to vomit. I started to retch, but thankfully, I was saved.

"Please, sister. Dear Sabra is a friend, and friends need no reason for visitation," sung Elvira.

Aurora cocked her head in a surprisingly chilling way. Like she was one inch away from snapping her own neck. "Friend? Since when did you engage in the dreadful pastime of having friends?"

Okay, I had to talk. I had to say something. "I-I came over to say hi, but also to see if you guys were maybe interested in coming over to my place for dinner tomorrow."

I forced myself to smile. I was glad I couldn't see what I looked like, but quite frankly, I think because the Solstices were, well...the Solstices...the horrendous expression actually fit right in. Don't make me explain why I invited them over to my house. My thought process wasn't reasonable given my paralysing anxiety about the whole situation. I don't know, maybe I thought being chummy would lower their defenses and get them to trust me? Ugh...I just didn't know what I was doing. Officer Fauker could be here himself doing this like a trained professional instead of buying orange ice blocks in bulk.

Elvira drifted over to the stairs and rested an arm on the handrail, relaxing her posture. "Oh how exciting! Tell me, Sabra, what do you plan on cooking for us?"

"U-Uh, I think I can make a good schnitzel. Bill thinks it's okay."

"Schnitzel? What in the Nine Circles of Hell is a schnitzel?" Aurora asked.

Elvira scrunched up her nose like she was mildly disgusted. "A schnitzel, my little sister, is a tenderised cut of chicken flesh covered in hardened bread crumbs and cooked in a pan."