Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 35

"Yes, ma'am" I said, and stared to back away.

"Grandma, what are you- oh, hello!" The screen door to the house opened, and a younger version of the stick lady stepped out, young enough to be her granddaughter.

She was tall and pretty, and her skin was more cocoa than wood brown. She wore her hair in braids, lots of them, and she smiled at me as she came and lay a hand on the lady's shoulder. "My grandma likes to sit out here and talk to people. Sorry if she bothered you"

"No, not at all" I said, and nervously fiddled with one of the loose adjustment straps of my backpack. "She um, warned me about the alley"

The woman's eyes moved rapidly from me, to the old lady and back again. "Did she?" She said. She didn't sound warm anymore. "Grandma, you know better than that. You need to quit scaring people with your stories"

"Don't be a damn fool, Lisa. They ain't just stories, and you know it"

"Grandma, there hasn't been any trouble around here for twenty years!"

"Doesn't mean it wouldn't happen!" Grandma said stubbornly, and pointed a stick thin shaking finger at me. "You don't go down that alley, now. I meant what I said"

"Yes, ma'am" I said faintly, and nodded to both women. "Um, thanks"

I turned to go, and as I did, I noticed something mounted on the wall next to the old woman's porch. A plaque, with a symbol. The same symbol was on the Glass House. The founders symbol.

And now I was looking at the house, really looking at it, it had the same lines to it, and it was about the same age.

I turned back, smiled apologetically, and said, "I'm sorry, but could I use your restroom? I've been chugging water out here-"

I thought for a second that Lisa was going to say no, but then the younger woman frowned and said, "I suppose" and came down the steps to open the white picket gate for me to enter. "Go on inside. It's the second door off the hall"

"Offer the child some lemonade, Lisa"

"She's not staying, grandma!"

"How do you know if you don't ask?"

I let them argue it out, and stepped inside. I didn't feel anything - not a tingle of a force field or anything - but then, I didn't going in and out of the Glass House.

Still, I recognised it immediately..There was something about this house. It had the same quality of stillness, of weight, that I always felt at home. Not the same at all inside from a decorating point of view - Grandma and Lisa seemed to like furniture, lots of it, all in fussy floral patterns and chintz, with rugs everywhere and a smothering amount of curtains and lace. I walked slowly down the hardwood hallway, trailing mr fingers lightly over the panelling. The wood felt warm, but all wood did, right?

"Freaky" I muttered, and opened the bathroom door. It wasn't a bathroom.

It was a study, a large one, and it couldn't of been more different from the overblown frilly living room..severe polished wood floors, a massive dark desk, a few glowering portraits on the walls. Dark red velvet curtains blocking out the sun. The walls were lined with books, old books mostly, and in the cabinet there was something that looked like a wine rack, only it had scrolls.

Amelie was seated at the desk, signing sheets of paper with a gold pen. One of her assistants, also a vampire, was standing attentively next to her, taking each sheet out of way as she wrote her name. Neither of them looked up at me.

"Close the door" Amelie said in a gentle voice accented with an almost-French sort of pronunciation. "I dislike the draft"

I thought about running, but I wasn't stupid enough to believe I could run far enough, or fast enough, and even though the idea of shrieking and slamming the door from the other side was pretty tempting, I swallowed my fear and stepped all the way in before I shut it with a quiet click.