LAMIAE

CHAPTER FIVE: IN THE MANSION

"Tell me that this is where my grandma lives," she snapped in a razor-sharp tone of voice. While she should be scared, she felt rather overwhelmed by how little she knew her family.

"Sure, she's never seen the mansion..." Casper probably whispered to himself, but she heard it anyway. "Come on, don't linger," he added much louder as he got out of the car. He wasn't nice enough to open her door, so she had to do it herself. As soon as she got out of the Mercedes, she saw something her eye couldn't catch through the window. About a hundred yards away, a wall stretched as high as the trees through the trees.

"Is that..." she almost stuck out her finger pointing to a bright gap. She finally realized what he meant by the word mansion. Didn't her grandmother live in some cottage, but in a... villa?!

"No, it's not a house yet," he laughed, his voice quickly growing louder, changing into echo. She winced as if she had drunk wormwood tincture. She moved to the back to get her suitcase and purse, but Casper waved his hand away.

"Go, I'll handle it."

Tie somehow magically snapped out of its lethargy, running out of the car eagerly, thanks to the door ajar on her side. The cat gave the impression that he hadn't seen the "villa" for several months, and if he had been able to, he jump with happiness.

She took a few steps towards the wall, measuring the distance in case of a possible escape. What she saw at the very beginning turned out to be, according to Casper, not a residence but a gazebo, placed perpendicular to the house.

The gazebo was peculiar with brick walls and a roof that resembled a makeshift structure, as if someone had deliberately left holes in the ceiling. In the middle of it, she saw a large free-standing chimney, although she could not understand why someone would heat the room from the outside. The path leading from the gazebo to the veranda was small, with a small hedge stretching on either side of it. As she walked past it, it crossed her mind that someone must have looked after those bushes that imitated a garden.

The villa, though not as high as the gazebo, was also a fair size, surely twice as tall as the average single-family home. The facade of the house was richly decorated with twin columns, decorated on the shafts with bas-reliefs depicting wrinkled women.

Her grandmother didn't run to her, though judging by the moving curtains and drapes she knew they had already arrived. She didn't know why, but she felt bad about it. She felt a bit unwelcome here. In fact, her father hadn't told her about her grandmother's reaction to the news that she was to take in her granddaughter. What if she wasn't happy about it at all? Maybe she mistakenly assumed that every grandmother would be happy to see her granddaughter? Maybe her family was different?

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" asked Casper, who immediately caught up with her, even though he had a purse slung over his shoulder and was dragging a giant suitcase on wheels. She had to admit that the purse didn't match his image.

"Give it to me," she demanded, smiling.

Casper obediently handed her the purse, then moved ahead. He was tall enough that she could easily hide behind him, but she eventually passed him and reached for the knocker first. It wasn't hard to spot it because it was demanding a little attention. The animal that imitated the knocker was a bat - it dangled from the bar by holding it with its hind limbs. The wings of the mammal were thus placed on the part of the movable handle, which guests knocked on the door.

As soon as she entered the hall, her terror turned to panic. Grandma was nowhere to be seen. Not only in the hall, but also wherever else... The residence was rightly named, because not only did it look impressive from the outside, but it was only inside that made a big impression. The house had three floors plus an attic. Going out into the hall, she could see them up close, because there were stairs leading to all the floors. You could even see the ground floor from the top.