The Hollow Masquerade

The walls bled.

Not metaphorically thick, clotted streams of black oozed from between the bricks as the house roused fully. The ceiling peeled back like a rotting eyelid, revealing a sky that wasn't a sky at all, but the underside of something vast and hungry, its surface studded with half-formed faces that moaned in unison.

Eleanor grabbed Emily's hand. "What did you do?"

The girl smiled. It was the most terrifying thing Eleanor had ever seen. "I remembered."

The Priest Thomas let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. "You weren't supposed to."

The crow dive-bombed him, talons raking across his hollowed cheeks. "Liar! You left the cracks in her memory on purpose!"

A root speared up from the floor, impaling the bird mid-flight. It exploded into a cloud of feathers that reformed into words on the walls:

THE ANGEL REMEMBERS

THE GARDENER WAKES

Jacob's cage groaned.

Deep within the petrified bones, something glowed a golden light that pulsed in time with Emily's humming. She tugged Eleanor toward the shuddering walls. "Danny planted a way out. In the roses."

The house screamed.

Not in anger.

In fear.