Keep calm. I was shaking. I squeezed my hands around the torch to still
them. Without Ruby around to watch my behaviour, I had to be hyper-
conscious of every action and thought. It would be too easy to be sucked back
into the fugue. Find Ruby. Snap her out of it. You’ve done it once. You can do
it again.
A thought hit me, and I turned towards the kitchen. Shreya wanted Ruby
dead. I’d left the poisoned cake on the table. If Ruby had returned to it, Iwould never forgive myself.
Shadows leapt about me as I moved from the music room to the back
section of the house. A hundred points of light glittered in the kitchen as my
torch moved over the pots, tiles, and metal appliances. When I didn’t focus
on them, they looked like eyes.
The cake still stood on the bench. A partially eaten slice rested on Ruby’s
plate. It didn’t seem to have been disturbed since we’d sat down together.
Thank goodness.
Something else had changed, though. Ruby had used a knife to cut the
cake then left the implement on the table. But it was missing. I licked my lips
and looked behind myself. Had she taken it in self-defence? To hurt herself?
Or to attack?
She’s still in the house. Somewhere. But Shreya’s in control. Where would
she lead her?
The answer was so obvious that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t recognised it
before: the blue room. The thought of climbing the stairs filled me with
nausea. I didn’t want to return to the insane woman’s den or see her crouched
in the room’s corner, her black, beady eyes glaring up at me. But I had to. I
dreaded to think of what she’d do to Ruby if I didn’t.
I returned to the foyer. My torch seemed to be growing weaker. Its beam
passed over the same furniture, but it didn’t illuminate them as well as before.
I could no longer see details, only outlines.
The stairs loomed above me, and pounding dread filled my head as I
stared at them. I didn’t want to climb up. Didn’t want to hear the chains
again. Didn’t want to see the faceless dolls.
Someone sighed. I swivelled towards the noise. Ruby stood behind me,
her loose hair a mess around her face. Her pallid skin was dotted with
perspiration, but her face appeared serene. I met her heavy-lidded eyes and
saw the awful glazed sheen I’d been dreading.
“Ruby, wake up.” I reached towards her, preparing to shake her, and
ready to slap her if it came to that. She didn’t shift away. Instead, she brought
her hand up. I saw the shine of silver and tried to twist aside too late.
The knife slashed along my side. Blinding pain spread from just below
my ribs, and I screamed as I collapsed away from Ruby, clutching the wound.
Hot blood ran between my fingers .
A cold smile twisted Ruby’s face as she stared down at me. Her foggy
eyes glittered, and she exhaled a single, marvelling “ha,” as though surprisedby my reaction. Then she dropped the knife and turned away.
The blade clattered to the floor at my feet. I tried to squirm away from it.
A click followed by a low creak and a gust of wind made me look over my
shoulder.
The front door drifted open. I was being let go.
“Ruby?”
Instead of answering my call, she began to climb the stairs. Her
movements were sluggish, almost robotic, but her head tilted upwards, turned
towards where the blue room lurked out of sight.
“Ruby!” I screamed the word as loudly as my lungs could manage. She
didn’t even flinch. I looked over my shoulder again at the door; the street was
only twenty paces away. I would be safe once I reached it. I could call an
ambulance, and the ambulance would take me a long way from Marwick
House. I’d never have to see it again.