“An app? How very modern, unlike this house.”
“Also, feel free to write another intro pack once you’ve settled in, but for now I’d just go with what there is until you’re more used to things.”
“Yeah, on my list of things to change, that is way, way down it.”
“So, upstairs or downstairs next?”
“What’s upstairs?”
“The turrets.”
I realised I’d not seen any stairs going up on this floor.
“How do you access those?”
Death beckoned for me to follow him. We walked to the end of the corridor and to what looked like a panelled wall. He pressed part of the wall’s beading and it swung inwards revealing a cold, wooden stairway, with dimly lit wall lights and yet more dust and cobwebs. “This is one of them. There are another two similar and then one where The Librarian lives.”
I wanted to ask him about the librarian but I’d navigate these steps first.
I climbed the stairs after him. They curved around and around and I thought I’d get too dizzy to reach the top, but eventually the stairs changed into a concrete landing that led to another door. Death pushed it open and bright-orange light lit the room. Before the change it would have made my eyes hurt after the dark, but my vampire senses just soaked it in. The room was circular with windows going up for seemingly miles, but the best bit was the ladders to the walls and the many books on the inbuilt bookcases. In the centre of the room were velvet couches. In here, there wasn’t a spick of dust.
“The turrets are the vast libraries of the house. The Librarian keeps order. You’ll meet her at some point when she’s good and ready,” Death explained. “This is one of the many reasons I considered you for the position of Queen though. You love books and this place has a vast library.”
“This is beautiful and the others are similar in style?”
Death nodded.
“Wow, they’re not like the other god-awful dust filled dumps.” I carried on taking it all in, and then I walked over to one of the large windows near to the floor. The view looked over the village, our place at the top of the hill, meaning a beautiful vista appeared before me.
“Gnarly Fell,” I exclaimed.
“Yes.”
I saw other houses, streets, cars, and people in the distance, plus trees. Lots and lots of trees.
“It’s overwhelming,” I confessed.
“You’re immortal, Mya. You have time to get used to things,” Death reassured me.
“Today, you look around, take things in. Get the feel of the place and of what you’ll be expected to do. But I’ve looked after the wayward souls and this house for many years. I’m not just going to abandon you after one day.”
I touched Death’s arm. He stared down at my hand on his. “Thank you.”
He nodded.
Neither of us said anything for a moment and then he moved, so my hand fell away from him.
“Let’s go see your rooms now, shall we?” he said. “The Librarian won’t be happy that we’re doing so much talking in her domain.”
Though I wanted to see my rooms, for a moment I’d just wanted to stay there, in the library with the person I was already coming to rely on. Drawing on comfort from the books around me as I always had.
Mya
“The whole ground floor of the house is yours,” Death told me as we reached the bottom of the main staircase and walked into the hallway.
The hallway flooring was patterned in black and white square tiles and made me think of a giant chessboard. Thick black paint clung to the wooden front door as if it had been overpainted a few times too many. I walked up to it, seeing drips immortalised in the paintwork. They were probably the tears of the ghosts of those who’d built the house and seen it left in this state. I walked through a doorway to my right. It was half smoked glass and then wooden panels, that were a stained orangey brown. The whole house appeared to have no cohesion. I pushed open the door to find a formal sitting room. Thick dusky pink carpets, black velvet curtains, dirty nets covering the windows, lamps with frilly light shades. I’d be ordering skips to shift this crap. I thought this used to be a castle? Where were the jewels of the place? I’d expected stained glass windows and valuable antiques.
“What do you think?” Death enquired.
“I think the size of the room is great, the windows I’m sure will let in a lot of light once the heavy curtains are gone and I need the number of an interior decorator as soon as possible.”
I pushed open the next door. This led through to a dining room. Same décor, but this room looked out over the back of the property where there was a vast garden before the land dipped away back down the hill. The dining room led to a kitchen and this one did have an Aga, though Death reminded me I didn’t eat proper food and didn’t need heating.
“I’m still going to have it serviced and working,” I informed him. “What if we have guests who do eat or get cold?”
At the other side of the house there were three more rooms: two were bedrooms, the largest with an en suite, and another was a large bathroom. So I had six rooms in total. They were all carpeted and fussily furnished. Even the bathroom had a carpet. I did not want to think about how much piss was probably soaked into it.
“Okay. I’m going to take this main bedroom, make the second bedroom a walk-in-wardrobe eventually, and I’ll take the room next door to yours upstairs for my own office. We’ll keep business up there.” I looked around. “Wow. I’m actually excited to start making some plans. I just need to give the place a good clean to start with while I wait for refurbishment.”
“Glad you like it.”
“So I have this floor to myself and you share a floor with the souls. How many souls are here?”
“There are thousands of souls here.”
“Th- thousands?”
Death nodded but wouldn’t look me straight in the eye. “It’s got a bit out of hand over the last year. I thought I’d be better at multitasking.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “How do I know who I have here?”
“It’s all in The Book of the Dead. You just have to ask it, but if you find a better way of keeping tabs on things, go for it. The place and the spirits are yours now.”
It was at that point that I realised I was walking around and chatting about all this stuff with Death as if this was real, and… it couldn’t possibly be, could it? This couldn’t be happening and so in real life something was very wrong with me.
I flopped onto the edge of the bed and threw myself backwards. Dust bounced around, but it didn’t make me cough, didn’t irritate my lungs. Hang on…
“I’m not breathing!” I screamed, smacking myself in the chest. I took deep gasps of air.
Death just sighed and took a seat on a fringed velour chair that was in front of an old wooden dressing table complete with oval mirrors.
“Why aren’t you helping me?” I clutched my hair in terror, shuffling up the bed and pulling my knees towards my chest. “Oh, it’s because you’re not really here. What’s happening to me?” I began smacking myself in the face. “Wake up, Mya. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”