Rosehead

Chapter 28. The Generous Offer

Lilith woke with a start and sat up, glancing around, fully expecting to find herself in her own room, in her own bed, in their cozy house in Boston. Instead, a living breathing mass of heads surrounded her like a dome. She recognized the Schlitzberger twins, their mother, Agatha, Monika, Gustav, even the blind Heidemarie Haas. Lilith closed her eyes, opened them, and pinched herself. Nothing changed. She took a deep breath. A noxious stench hung in the air, confirming she wasn't dreaming. Lilith groped for Panther, who wheezed nearby.

"Panther." She shook him. "Panther, wake up!"

The whippet stretched and rumbled something that sounded like a desire for her to please stop shaking him, to please not wake him up, so that he could please sleep in peace, because...

As if bitten, he jumped, producing an involuntary whimper. Daphne's head giggled, retracting its arm.

"Can't a dog have a nap?" he yapped and immediately fell silent, observing his surroundings with a wild expression in his eyes. "Where are we?"

"In the beautiful Bloom mansion," stated Lilith, attempting to withhold her usual sarcasm with little success. She blushed. There was no telling how the heads would react to anything but politeness. After all, the mansion remained her only powerful ally in defeating Rosehead.

"Little miss iz awake?" Agatha's head shifted closer, her sallow skin more wrinkled than before.

"Yes, I am. Thank you for helping us escape from the garden. And thank you very much for not letting anyone follow me, like I asked."

"We are happy to serve, az long az you pay," sneered Agatha's head, passing on the appreciative rustle to the squirming, shifting congregation behind her. Lilith's stomach twisted into a pretzel. "Anyzing else little miss wants us to do?"

"Yes, please. Don't let anyone out into the garden. You can let people in, but not out."

"We will do zo."

"Can I ask you a question? If you don't mind my curiosity, how did Petra get out? And Gustav and my grandfather?"

"Zey paid," the head said as if it was obvious.

"Paid with what?"

"We don't discuss buziness tranzactions wiz anyone but ze client," it hissed.

"Oh." Lilith bit her lip. "I'm sorry I asked. Please excuse me, it's just that, my head hurts, and my thinking is not—"

"Your head hurts? You didn't take your pills today, did you, missy?" said a sharp voice.

"Mom?" Lilith looked for the source of the voice.

"She never listens to me. Never!" shrieked her mother's head hysterically, breaking into sobs.

"Now, now..." Irma Schlitzberger's head patted the top of Gabby's. "One girl iz nothing. Imagine raising two at ze same time."

"Mutter!" twin heads exclaimed.

As the heads argued, more continued popping through the wall until all of the guests were there, squabbling, grotesquely distorted without their bodies. "Will you kindly shut up, all of you!" Lilith thumped her fists on the bed, her mind reeling.

The heads fell silent, drawing closer in one rustling horde. "Little miss wants us to be quiet," sneered Agatha's head; the rest of them sniggered.

Lilith nervously stroked Panther. "Why are there so many of you?" she blurted. "Why are you here? Who are you?"

The heads exchanged a grim look.

"You're part of the mansion, aren't you?" Lilith backtracked, hoping she didn't offend them.