The Still Room

A witchy castle maid longs to kiss her noble crush, but when she discovers he’s been using her potions to attack women, she risks her own life (and theirs) to stop him.

A raw hand lays a delicate bloom in a bowl of oil. Kat, a teenaged still room maid, glares down at it. “Come on. Distill, already.”

She shakes the flower. It floats. Same as it ever was. She curses the simple, round room of gray stone. The shelves are stuffed with bottles of oil.  Almost every surface is covered in flowers, living and dead. A small white mouse, named Mouse, watches her work at a stone counter.

“Fine, then.” Kat grins at Mouse. “I’ll take matters into my own hands.” She lays a few more foxgloves in the oil and waves her hand over them. The oil shimmers, then returns to its normal color. The blooms wither and distill under her magic touch. 

Mouse twitches his nose, and speaks without moving his mouth. “Witch.”

Kat smirks at Mouse. Mouse shakes his head. Kat pours the flower oil into a glass bottle. “I’m just making something bound to happen, happen faster.” 

“Like I said. Witch.”

Kat sighs, and offers him a small crumb from her lunchtime hunk of bread. Mouse stuffs the full thing in his mouth. “You didn’t complain about me being a witch when I gave you the power of speech.” Kat walks the bottle over to a shelf filled with others just like it, next to a small stove and assorted racks of plants. 

“I’m not complaining, Kat my dear,” Mouse says, and snatches up her discarded hunk of bread. “You’re a good little witch. But you can be hasty at times. With matters of your work. With matters of the heart. Impatience can be dangerous.” 

Kat scoffs. “Impatience? Please. All I know is patience.” Kat looks sadly at the bottles on the shelves. Dead flowers float in oil. “All I do all day is wait for beautiful things to die. I should be out there.” 

Kat gestures out the room’s sole window: an arched stone opening with a view of a storybook castle on a hill. Her longing almost breaks her heart. 

“I want adventure. I want life. I want —”

SLAM! Cook, a strong woman, throws the heavy oak door open. “Who the hell are you talking to, girl?” She grunts. Mouse squeaks. Kat races back to her work station as Cook gathers supplies, ever suspicious of her. “You finished with the foxgloves already? How?” Cook shoots a disbelieving look at Kat. 

“Uh…” Kat looks at Mouse for help, but he scurries to hide behind the bread. “Hard work?” 

Cook scowls, and looks from Kat to Mouse to Kat again. “Fine. Do these then.” Cook dumps another basket of flowers on top of the counter. Kat groans. “I’ll be up at the castle for the feast. Two of the kitchen maids are with child and I don’t need you causing trouble here while I’m up to my ears in it there.”

Cook jabs her finger towards the window. “Cooking for this feast, making sure those two don’t die, whatever else Lord and Ladyship see fit. I don’t need any nonsense from you. None of your flirting while I’m away. You work here, you sleep here, you do not leave here, understand? You fill orders I’ve left for you. You let no one in, you understand?”

“Yes.” Kat glares. 

“Yes, what?” Cook glares harder. 

“Yes, I understand.” 

“Good.”

“Great –” 

But Kat’s sarcasm is lost in a clank of bottles as Cook gathers her things. SLAM! The heavy door shuts. Cook is gone. Kat groans into her flowers. 

“She wants me to live my entire life inside this place.”

Mouse pets Kat with his small paw. “She wants to keep you safe.”

Kat jerks away. “She wants to keep me to herself.”

“Such a shame. I’d take you any day.” a rich, roguish voice calls down from outside the window. Kat snaps her head up to see the handsome young Lord Ren smiling down at her. He’s trouble. And the owner of Kat’s heart.  “Um…can I come in?” A blush colors his face. The same blush that used to come over him from back when they were very small, and used to play together. Before they both became what they always were — a servant and her lord. 

“Lordship, of course, I –” 

“None of that,” Lord Ren laughs. “It’s Ren to you, Kitty-Kat. Like always.”

Kat blushes and hides a smile. He grins. 

SCRAPE! Kat opens the door and leads Lord Ren to the counter. “I’m not supposed to let anyone in while she’s –”

“Dealing with yet another feast for my brothers and their possible brides?”  Ren makes a ridiculously posh face. Then breaks it. “Well, I’m not supposed to steal marzipan for you, but...I do what I can.”

He tosses her a piece of heart-shaped marzipan. Kat catches it, amazed. 

“Ren!”

“I do my best for the best maid I know. Now...Can I get my special again?”

Kat arches an eyebrow, still in love with the prize he brought her, and sets it carefully on the counter. “Drink or perfume this time?”

Kat smiles like she’s playing — it’s a great way to mask her jealousy. Lord Ren grins, masking nothing.

“Both. Another prospect today. My brother is looking for a bride in the fine Lady Emmeline, so we all must look for a bride in her sisters.” He gags. Kat laughs, a little too hard. 

“Must be hard to be so marriageable.”

“Especially when I try my best not to be.” Lord Ren’s voice cracks a little. Kat can’t help but smile as he clears his throat. “Speaking of, can I get more sleeping draught?”

“Why sleep when you could dance all night?” Kat grins.

“Why dance when I can avoid the marriage bed?” Lord Ren grins. 

“For another fortnight, at least?” Kat’s eyes sparkle. Lord Ren’s dance. It’s grin city over here. “Well. Who am I to deny a man his freedom?” She hands him his bottles. 

“A saint alive.” He takes the small velvet bag he’s been twirling and plops it on the counter. He slides a single large gold coin from it, and sets it on the table. 

CLINK. She blushes — it’s a reminder of the world between them. 

“Please, my lord –”

“Ren.”

“Ren…” His name is strange but familiar in her mouth. Kat slides the coin towards him. “Your money is no good here.”

“Oh, Kitty-Kat.” He smiles. Deliciously. It almost knocks Kat off her axis. “My money is good everywhere.” He scrapes the door open, and lets it slam shut. Kat walks to the window, blushing like mad. 

Mouse sighs. 

“Cook should have sealed the place up.” 

At the window, Kat watches Lord Ren ride an auburn horse up the hill to the castle. A fine carriage waits at the top of the hill. The fine young Lady Emmeline and her two lovely sisters get out. Lord Ren bows to kiss her hand. He presents her the perfume bottle. Kat’s face falls. Mouse, curled on her shoulder, speaks gently. 

“He is to marry well, dear.”

“Maybe.” Kat stands up straighter. “But he’s not to marry yet.” Still, Kat’s smile fades as she watches Lord Ren say something that makes Lady Emmeline throw back her beautiful head and laugh. 

Later that night, the castle glows in moonlight. Still alive with the feast. Kat watches it through the window, awake on a small bedroll behind the counter. Mouse sleeps — and snores — soundly near her head, on an overturned bowl. The heart-shaped piece of marzipan rests next to him, enjoying pride of place. Wistful at the sight of it, Kat turns her gaze up at the ceiling. 

She twitches her wrist, and twirls a pair of dried, dead flowers — a foxglove and a rose —in a dance above her head. The flowers return to full bloom with her magic, and look lush and fresh in the pale moonlit still room. 

Kat conducts the flowers into a kiss, then lets the flowers drop onto her skin. She presses the rose to her cheek, draws it to her mouth, and parts her lips, revealing her glittering tongue, but then —SCRAPE! CRASH! Cook busts through the door and blunders around the still room, collecting supplies -- and speaking a mile a minute. 

“One kitchen girl died. So did the babe. Another maid is with child. The women are prowling or the men are animals, what does it matter, the same amount of work for me. People die every day. Simple as life. I don’t bat an eye, but the Lady Emmeline, what’s she do? Faints dead away dancing, she does. Knows nothing of the kitchen maid, just falls asleep at her own feast. These ladies and their excitement. They simply can’t handle the world as it is. You and I, dear, we’re simply made of stronger stuff.”

Kat lays a hand upon her shoulder. Cook seizes it and presses it to her face, overcome with powerful emotion. Cook looks at Kat for the first time. Her voice cracks. 

“The look of it. Mother and child, gone in the same breath.” Cook takes a deep breath. Whatever emotion has come up in her, she stuffs back down deep. “Help me now, girl.”

Bottles rattle as Kat hands cook a hefty basket. Cook accepts it, and authority returns to her voice. “Who knows when I’ll be back. But don’t go —”

“Anywhere. I know.” Kat smiles. Cook looks drained. She nods, and heads for the door. “Wait!” Kat calls out. She runs to the counter and back, quick as she can. She hands her precious heart-shaped marzipan to Cook. “Eat,” she says. 

Cook smiles. Then pops the marzipan in her mouth. Kat scrapes the heavy oak door open. 

Later that night, Kat and Mouse lay awake, staring out the stone window. Finally, Mouse speaks. 

“...Lady Emmeline fell asleep? 

The next morning, Kat trims thorns off flowers with a little flower knife. Mouse watches her intently. “It could have nothing to do with him.” She says.

“Or everything.” Mouse scoffs.

“Hey.” Kat jumps out of her skin. There, in the stone window, is Lord Ren. He looks rough. But smiles sweetly. “Can I come in?”

Moments later, Lord Ren drops a pile of marzipan hearts on the counter. Mouse takes one, and sniffs. “Lots of these went spare last night,” Lord Ren explains. 

“I heard,” Kat looks from the candy to Lord Ren. “Dark hours.”

“Strange days.” Lord Ren yawns. Kat tenses. Mouse drops his marzipan. “Sorry,” Lord Ren yawns again.

“You didn’t sleep well?”

“Sadly, no.” Lord Ren stuffs a marzipan heart in his mouth, and tosses one to Kat. She drops her work to catch it.

“Your draught made me fall asleep fast, alright.” Ren nods at Kat. Go on, eat it. She does. “But I had such terrible dreams. And I’d much rather dream of you.”

Kat almost chokes. Ren can’t keep back a laugh. 

“That’s why I came by again today,” he explains. “To see you. And to see if you have anything that takes longer to kick in. And can make my dreams sweeter?”

Kat smiles up at him. “I can have some ready by tonight.”

“Good. Thank you, Kitty-Kat.” They both blush, and look away. Kat relaxes. Finally. Lord Ren drops his coin purse on the counter and slides out another gold coin. But this time, instead of leaving it on the counter, he folds it into Kat’s hand. 

Later, Kat grinds petals with a mortar and pestle at the counter. Mouse watches her intently. 

“He’s lying.” 

Kat ignores him, and drops the powder into a bowl of oil. 

“He drugged her. The Lady.”

Kat stirs the oil with a long wooden spoon. She’s tense. “And how do you know?”

Mouse picks up a piece of marzipan. Studies it. “I don’t know.” He shoves the marzipan aside. “But I know.”

“Well. I don’t!” 

“You didn’t.” Mouse says, gently. “But now you do.” Kat struggles with this, but stirs. Mouse hisses at her. “And I know if you make this for him, he’ll do it again.”

“You do, do you?” Kat drops her spoon. “Fine. Okay. You win.” She wipes her hands on her dress, and rummages under the counter, in cabinets. 

Mouse watches her, confused. “What are you doing?”

Kat finds what she’s looking for, buried in the back of a cabinet, and pulls out a long jar full of beautiful, electric blue flowers. She sets the flower jar down next to the oil. She extracts a flower–it’s a shimmery thing, and some of the vibrant blue color comes off on her fingers. Mouse creeps closer to look, eyes wide. 

“Is that— it can’t be —”

“Blue mockbloom? It is.” 

Kat smirks, coldly. Mouse is horrified. 

“But blue mockbloom is rare. It’s illegal. Growing it is forbidden!”

Kat uses her little knife to trim away mockbloom thorns. Mouse is panicked. 

“Using it is punishable by death!”

“So is witchcraft.” Kat shrugs. “Who cares.” Kat grinds up the flower into a vibrant blue powder. “It’s the one thing I can do in this damn room that’s interesting at all.” Kat ignores Mouse, aghast, and shakes the powder it into another vial, and waves her hand over the vial -- the liquid glows bright and electric. 

“If Ren is doing what you say...this will make whoever he does drug only seem to be affected.”Kat takes a dropper, and adds one drop of the blue mockbloom liquid to the greater bowl of sleeping draught. “For a moment.” The rest is very hard to say. Harder to believe. “It’ll make them...confused. Like he wants. But then they’ll wake clear. And ready to fight.”

Kat pours the oil into a vial. She waves her hand over it — and the sleeping draught is no longer bright blue. It’s clear. It’s “normal.” Kat looks at it like she’s going to be sick. 

That night, festival music plays up at the castle. Lord Ren races up to the still room’s stone window on his auburn horse. 

“Kitty-Kat!”

He grins down through the window. Kat hands him the vial through the opening. He grabs her arm, sliding his hand from his elbow down to her hand. His hand closes around the bottle. And he’s off. 

Kat watches him ride up the hill. Some guests are gathered outside, in their festival finery. He greets Lady Emmeline on the lawn. She stiffens at the sight of him. But he takes her arm. They walk. 

Kat frowns. 

Much later, Kat sleeps fitfully on her bedroll. Mouse snores beside her. 

Then a scream pierces the night. 

The next day, Kat works at the counter. She looks like she hasn’t slept a wink. She scrapes thorns off of flowers, her fingers still shaded blue by last night’s blue mockbloom. Mouse dozes on her shoulder, looking ragged. SCRAPE — the door opens slowly. Cook heaves herself inside.

Kat pats some food she’s wrapped beautifully on the counter. Cook nods in thanks. She collapses into a stool at the counter and tucks in. Finally, she looks at Kat. “I think the Lady’s mad.”

Kat stops shaving her thorns. She keeps her voice even. “Oh? Why?”

Cook sighs. “Last night, another girl fainted dead away in the dance. Then another. I think she’s trying to set trends. After everyone falls asleep, she wakes up screaming to beat the band. Inside of her cheeks bitten up. Looked like she was after too much blueberry wine.”

Cook clucks her tongue. Kat puts her knife down. Very quietly, she speaks. “And?” 

“And…” Cook scoffs. “She says a demon came to her in the night. Says he put his pecker in her mouth and she bit it off.”

Kat’s stomach turns.

“Then she asks me, if I find it, can I bake it in a pie for her.” Cook looks at Kat: can you believe this? 

Kat doesn’t know what to say. Cook snorts, and finishes her meal. 

“Absolutely mad.” Cook stands, and wipes her hands on her dress. “Alright. I need to bring back more wine for the feast. Don’t let anyone in.”

Kat looks at Mouse. Her eyes hollow. 

Bottles clank. 

That afternoon, Kat watches the quiet castle from the window. Mouse rests on her shoulder. “If he attacked her, they would have stopped the feast. He would need medicine. He –”

“He approaches.”

Lord Ren rides down the hill on his auburn horse. He raises a gloved hand and waves. 

“More sleeping draught?”

Lord Ren paces in front of the counter. Kat is relieved to see him, but also unsure of what is true. 

“Please. Last night’s was too weak.” Lord Ren flashes a tight smile at Kat. “First night’s was too strong. I need something in the middle.” Ren looks up at the castle through the stone window. “Quickly.”

“Of course,” Kat smiles. Even more unsure now. “Come back in an hour?”

“Of course.”

He lingers. She smiles. It almost feels like nothing’s wrong. 

Almost.

“Um…” Kat falters. “No marzipan today?”

Lord Ren looks confused– but only for a moment. He smiles. “No, but I can do you one better.”

CLUNK. His velvet coin purse hits the  counter. He struggles to open the bag with his gloves on. 

He pulls off one glove and hands her a coin, twirling it in front of her smiling face. But Kat’s heart stops. 

Because one of Lord Ren’s fingers is stained a faded electric blue. 

At twilight, Kat works with the oil bowl and her vial of blue mockbloom at the counter. Her hand hovers with the dropper. Hesitating. 

“Won’t more hurt her, my dear?”

Mouse and Kat share a look.

“Maybe,” Kat nods. Then adds two drops of the bright blue liquid to the bowl. “But not as much as he will.”

The oil glows electric blue, then fades. Neutral. Normal. Kat looks worried. Then, before she can change her mind, she pours a heavy slug of liquid from the vial into the bowl. The oil glows, and glows, and glows. 

That night, Kat paces inside the still room. 

Hoofbeats approach. 

“Kat!” Lord Ren’s face appears in the window. He’s in a hurry.

“Sweet dreams,” Kat says, and passes a pale vial up to him. He takes it. Nods. 

“Yes, Kitty-Kat.” He pockets the vial and glares up at the castle. “May we all sleep well tonight.” 

Much later that night, Kat paces the still room. Mouse paces the window sill. 

“No screams. No visitors.” Kat says, and scans the night.

“Maybe…it wasn’t him?” Mouse asks, hopeful.

“No.” Kat says, grave. She watches the castle, still alive with music. The air has gone out of her. “It was.”

Much later, Kat sleeps in a ball on her bedroll. Mouse is curled in the curve of her neck. The room is lit by soft moonlight. 

Scrape. Kat’s eyes pop open. Was that the door? She freezes. Tries to hear what isn’t there. 

No footsteps. No breath. No sound. 

She quietly stands, transferring the sleeping Mouse from her hands to the counter. 

The room is empty. The window bare. 

Then Lord Ren launches up from the floor, bracing himself on the counter. His breath is ragged. There is a wet, blue slash across his neck. “Help me, Kitty-Kat.” Blood, blue and black, falls from his neck onto the counter. 

On instinct, Kat searches for something to help him. She waves her hand over his neck, and it shimmers — then freezes. She’s used magic to staunch the bleeding.

“Ren, I —”

Lord Ren’s eyes cross and uncross. Did he see? 

No. He snatches her hand — more fixated on her blue-stained fingertips. He laughs. Madly. “I knew it,” he says, voice thick. “You did something to it. The draught.”

“Because you did something to them.”

Kat tears her hand away, and steps back. Mouse squeaks. It registers on Lord Ren’s face that she’s scared. He backtracks, trying not to scare her. To explain. 

“No. I was having fun with them. They were having fun. But you?” He pulls her close. Pulls his shirt down to reveal just how deep the blue slashes are down his neck. They look like claw marks. Like fingernail slashes. “You made them do this.”

Kat looks away. He grabs her chin, and turns her face back. He is intense. Confused.

“Why?”

He releases her face, and tenderly takes her hand. She shakes her head. How is this happening? This can’t be happening. 

“We were like brother and sister. Is that why?” He’s so earnest. He so desperately wants to know. “Do you want something more?”Ren takes her hand, and lifts it up his wounded neck. He traces it down his shirt, which opens as he leads her trembling hand down the length of his wounds. Down his fit, slashed-blue chest. 

Kat’s thrilled. Scared. She’s never touched a man like this. She’s never touched anyone like this. Mouse squeaks, and turns in a nervous circle on the counter. But Kat can’t tear hear eyes from Ren’s body. Ren guides her hand further down. Down, down –Kat takes a ragged breath. Ren tips his head back and sighs. Moans, almost. Then –

SHINK! Kat snaps to see: Mouse has knocked her flower-trimming knife onto the counter. The sound is enough to knock Kat back into herself. She draws back from Ren, and scurries behind the stone counter. 

Lord Ren laughs. 

“Come on, Kat. You can’t be scared of me! I’m me.”

“You’re a criminal.” Kat says. Her stomach flips. Lord Ren grins.

“If I’m a criminal, then you’re my accomplice? Right?” Lord Ren smirks, and gestures at the bottles on their shelves. Kat follows his gesture — and slumps. He’s not wrong. 

Ren laughs again, and staggers closer to the counter. “But don’t worry. Love is no crime.”

“What you did isn’t love.” Kat shakes her head. 

“How do you know?” Lord Ren takes another step closer. Mouse squeaks. Lord Ren continues. “You haven’t felt it yet, have you? What it’s like to love someone?”

“I–”

“Let me show you.”

Lord Ren closes in. Mouse squeaks. Lord Ren hands slide onto the counter, loosely over Kat’s hands. Lord  Ren’s mouth is smiling right before the kiss, and then —

“Ah!” he lets out a shocked cry.

Kat’s eyes flash, terrified. 

She has stabbed Lord Ren with her small trimming knife, dead in the middle of his hand. 

The knife looks like a toy jammed into his flesh. But a drop of blood runs from his hand onto the marble counter. 

“Look what you did to me, Kitty-Kat.” Lord Ren pulls the knife out like it’s nothing. He holds it up, shiny with blood. Amazed. Kat stares at the knife as he moves it closer to her face. He wipes the blood from the blade on one cheek. “Look what you did to your Lord.” 

He traces the blade down the other side of her cheek — gently slicing it. Drawing blood. 

Mouse screeches. Kat tries to keep her voice from breaking.

“I’ll tell them what you did. I’ll tell them who you really are –”

“And what? They’ll care?”

Lord Ren tosses the knife aside and leans all the way into her. His laugh is as heartless as she is heartbroken. But then —

“Ah!” He cries out in pain. His hand is covered in blood.

Mouse raises his bloody mouth from from Lord Ren’s hand. He’s bitten him! Lord Ren grabs for him. Mouse squeaks. Kat sputters. 

“Please, just go. Confess. Or I’ll tell —”

Lord Ren grabs Mouse by the tail. 

“You’ll keep your mouth shut. Or I’ll tell them who you really are.” Lord Ren flips Mouse into his grip. “Witch.”

He crushes Mouse in his fist. A soft crunch – a puff, really. 

Mouse’s blood seeps out from between his fingers. 

Kat’s mouth hangs open. The breath goes out of her. Lord Ren stares at his bloody closed fist. He looks at Kat. Is he disgusted? Sorry? 

No. He smiles. And wipes the mess of Mouse right down the front of her dress. Bones clink as they fall from the goop to the floor. Kat stands, swaying. Lord Ren staggers towards the door. 

He reaches for it, then screams. His head smashes into the door — and the little knife sticks out his neck. 

Kat screams, rips the knife from him, and stabs him again. And again. She slashes his face. His hands. His eye — which drags a wild yell from him. He shoves her off him, and charges her — driving her back towards the glass bottles. 

There’s a strange humming in the distance outside, but neither Kat nor Lord Ren notice. They both can’t stop screaming. Grunting. Fighting. 

But the strange hum is getting closer. 

And louder. 

He pulls her back by the hair. She pokes for his eyes, landing a finger in one. He screams. She feels around for any weapon at all -- and her hand closes on a forgotten piece of marzipan on the ground. She shoves it into his mouth. He sputters, caught off guard for a second. Just long enough for her to grab a long bottle and jam it hard into his mouth. Glass slams into teeth —a solid hit. 

He stumbles back, dazed from the shock, hand over mouth. When he pulls his hand away --bits of glass and several teeth spill into his hand and onto the floor. He laughs in disbelief. And rage. When he speaks, it is through a gurgle of blood. 

“I’m going to kill you, Kitty-Kat.” He laughs. Like even he can’t believe it.

She tries to scramble away. But he’s too big. He’s on top of her. He punches her right in the face. 

She pounds him with fists that do nothing, absolutely nothing. He pets her face and she bites his hands. He picks her head up tenderly —studies her—then smashes it back on the ground. 

She weeps. With fury and anguish, she weeps. Kat squirms, desperate to live. He pulls her up again, eyes wild with this— he’s never done this before. He’s both sick from it, and aroused. He’s about to smash her back with a killing blow—but the hum is so loud now. 

Something is making the ground tremble. Something is vibrating the stone. Flowers rattle in their jars. Bottles fall off the walls. 

Lord Ren is scared. “What did you do, Witch?” His swagger is gone now.

Kat wipes blood and tears out her eyes and rolls away Lord Ren. Just a scared boy now.

“I command you to stop!”

SLAM! The heavy wooden door is blown off its hinges, into the room. It hits the floor. 

The humming stops. 

The room glows electric blue —because there, in the doorway, is a once-beautiful woman. 

Her hair is ragged and her dress in tatters. Her hands and arms are slick with electric blue blood. Her eyes have no pupil. No iris. They are orbs of glowing electric blue light. She floats into the room. Lord Ren freezes. Kat wipes blood from her eyes and tries to focus on who is before her. 

“Lady Emmeline?” she asks.

The woman dips her ghastly head in a nod.

Lord Ren can’t believe his eyes, but edges back as two women with glowing eyes and bloody mouths and arms slither into the room behind Lady Emmeline. 

One is a kitchen maid. Another is —

“Cook?”

Kat gasps. Her eyes shine with blood, tears, disbelief. Cook nods, then looks just over Kat’s head. Kat looks up and out the window to see two more faces with the terrifying glowing eyes and bloody mouths hovering there. Women Kat couldn’t place if she tried. 

But, from the horrified look on Lord Ren’s face, he can. 

Lady Emmeline floats towards them. Lord Ren pulls Kat to stand up between him and the Lady, using Kat as a human shield. Lady Emmeline moves closer. Lord Ren screams, and squeezes Kat’s arms tighter, offering her up. 

“This is witchcraft. I’ll have you all burned!”

The Lady grips Kat’s bloody face with blue-bloody hands. Tears shine in Kat’s eyes. “I was trying to keep you safe,” she explains. “I was trying to keep you all safe.”

Lady Emmeline’s eyes glow brighter. Finally, she nods. Then reaches for Lord Ren. 

“Do something, Kat. Please!” His voice breaks. For a moment, he sounds like the boy Kat once knew—and loved. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Help me, Kitty-Kat. I love you.”

Lord Ren releases Kat’s arms. She wobbles where she stands. Then...she steps aside. 

The wraith-women’s eyes all glow a little brighter. The soft hum begins again. 

It dawns on Lord Ren that he is doomed. 

His screams ring out through the night.

The women feast on him. Some hold pieces of his flesh. Others tear long pieces up in strips. Kat doesn’t eat — but she doesn’t look away. She stammers. “I can turn you all back. Maybe —” 

Cook shakes her head “no.” Lady Emmeline gestures to the window. Outside, at the ready, are a band of horses. Kat processes this. 

“Me? You want me to ride with you?” 

Lady Emmeline nods. 

Kat takes a step towards the counter.  Lady Emmeline cocks her head —would this girl stay behind? But no. 

Kat searches for something. She finds it: the velvet bag full of gold coins. Then she hunts around the floor, and finds her quarry: Mouse’s tiny, bloody little skull. She drops it into the bag, where it rests atop the gold. 

SLAM. 

The ladies and Kat ascend the hill on horseback. Kat is on Lord Ren’s auburn horse, of course. The castle quietly burns. The women ride past it, into the forest beyond. 

Lord Ren’s torn face is forever frozen in a look of surprise. 

Well, Almost forever. 

Time passes. 

The man in the still room transforms. 

Flowers grow though this eyes. Grass sprouts between his fingers. What was once bone turns to stone. What was stone, crumbles. 

Silently—except for the distant sound of horses riding into adventure. 

And a low, distant hum.