LYDIA DEETZ AND THE WITCH’S HOUSE
Capítulo 11: Dead end
The door of the blue room could be abandoned now that the north door had been unlocked and the group as they crossed it saw wooden steps leading to the upper floor.
CRASH.
A loud sound like a window bursting into a thousand pieces reverberated in the air.
“That noise is not a good omen," Percy said nervously.
“We are inside the haunted house," said Viola, "we are already in a very bad situation.”
“Let's go on," said Lydia and everyone went up to a large landing that was made up of a large parquet floor and a bluish stone wall, which was decorated with three stained-glass windows that had no pattern and hardly illuminated the place.
The group climbed back up the stairs and reached the top floor. A medium carpet of ochre colour and beige frame received them, and next to it, there was the main corridor consisting of a large dark blue parquet floor and a wall of blue stones similar to the one on the ground below, with the difference that these were of a larger surface and better placed one over the other so that they did not let a razor blade pass between them.
Like the landing, there were several stained glass windows spaced across the long extension of the wall.
The group was passing through each of the dark stained glass windows when one of them suddenly exploded.
With demonic speed, a sinister shadow landed on the ground, and with a dizzying reflection, it headed straight for the group eager for murder. There was no way out.
In less than a blink of an eye, Ellen's image came between the boys and the evil shadow, and in the same time, both the shadow and Ellen disappeared.
“...Lydia, that really scared me!” Percy shouted and went to seek the comfort of the Gothic girl who was ready to embrace him.
Viola looked at the couple strangely, sometimes Percy was the one who was acting like a macho and trying to protect Lydia, other times he was the one who was vulnerable. These two complemented each other depending on the situation.
“Better get on with it," said Lydia and Percy nodded.
The three kids reached the end of the long corridor and a carpet just like the one they had found just before rested in front of another door.
In the other room they found a room that contained only four tables covered with tablecloths of different colors and on top of them, antique dolls with different colors of dress. All the tables had one doll except for one and in the middle of the four tables just behind them was another door that was locked.
“We have to put each doll on the table with a tablecloth to match her clothes," said Lydia.
CLICK.
You could hear the sound that made the kids understand that they could walk through the door and they did.
The configuration of the house changed as they were now not on what would be an upper floor, but rather on the ground floor, in a garden.
In front of the door, a short corridor decorated with columns and arches holding roses gave access to a clearing in which a park bench was located above the green grass. The bench was made of wood with wrought iron supports and on top of it was a porcelain cup and next to it, Kira, the black cat watched the boys approach him.
“Hey," said Kirya happily, "this is the upper floor.”
The garden clearing was rectangular with two small plastic rose bushes on each corner and behind the bench was a large tree preceded by a beautiful white flower.
“How are you doing?” asked the flower to the three visitors.
“Good," said Lydia, "can you tell us anything about this place?”
“I don't know much, all my life I've been in the shade of the old tree. Anything you want to know, ask him.”
“Thank you," said Lydia and went to the tree.
“Do you... Do you need anything?” asked the tree.
“Yes, you see...”
“...There is nothing I can do for you," interrupted the tree in a tired voice. “…be quiet... oh yes. I must warn you. Don't disturb the timekeeper.”
Behind the tree, there were two other small artificial rose bushes in each corner of the clearing and another sign was attached to the wall.
"Birds eat foliage."
In the middle of the two false rosebushes, there was a creeper so hard that it did not allow passage to the short corridor behind it or to the door that it could barely be seen between the hard stems.
“We don't have any pruning shears or anything similar to get to the back door," said Lydia.
To the west of the park bench and the tree, there was a small chalet with a floor of irregular dark brown cobblestones and a brick wall painted white. In one corner there was a showcase and in the middle of the chalet there was a table already served with tea and pastries, but instead of people, yellow flowers were occupying the seats and chatting animatedly.
"Oh wow. You have long arms. Ho, ho, ho, ho."
"Oh, isn't anybody gonna kill that girl?"
"If any of you did... oh, yes. We would share some of our wonderful pollen.”
"I'm serious. She's such a pain in the ass."
"And to think that without her, we'd be the most beautiful ones in the garden!"
The flower group continued to cackling without paying attention to the group.
This seems to be from the film Alice in Wonderland," said Percy, who looked at the flowers carefully but couldn't get them to listen to him.
“To the north is a corridor," said Viola, "let's go there.”
At the end of the wide but short corridor there was a pendulum clock very similar to the one they met before and on the west side there was a door leading to a small room with a Persian carpet set as a moquette on the floor and on this a desk on the surface of which was another fragment of the witch's burnt diary.
"Then a girl came to play."
“The letters of this entry are written in blood," said Lydia, who continued the reading.
"A pretty girl in golden braids."
“Stop reading," Viola said angrily, and the group came out of the small room as part of the floor seemed to collapse.
In the southwest corner of the chalet and semi-hidden to the dining room table, there were three thigh beds so close together that there was no room between them. However, the beds were not glued to the wall, as there was a bedside table with a lamp on it.
“Let's check the nightstand," Lydia suggested, and the girls found a skull.
As they went to the flowers, they saw that there was another sign on the wall, but this one, unlike the previous ones, was written in blood.
"Kill the flower and you'll die too."
“I think we've reached a dead end," said Lydia after reading the sign.
“Can you think of any ideas?” Viola asked him.
“There's always a plan, we just have to think about it," replied the Gothic girl.
Seeing that there was nothing else to do there, the group went out into the garden again and headed for the eastern sector, where there was a kind of jail. The floor was made up of small irregular cobblestones in disorder and the walls were made up of stones, both the floor and the wall had a marked bluish touch that was very unfavourable to the lighting.
At the entrance and glued to the wall was the guard's desk with a book of prayer: The Talking Flowers.
"The flower ladies are beautiful, and they can talk. Those are their characteristics.”
"The white flowers are the most beautiful in the garden. When they are touched by the rain, strangely enough, their petals bloom.”
"The red herbs have knowledge. But they always lie, so be careful when you talk to them.”
"Yellow flowers are beautiful. The pollen produced by these flowers is a strong medicine that can kill or give life.”
To the north of the desk, there was a narrow passage leading to two places: the first, on the right, was blocked by a creeper that was impossible to break at the moment; and the second, led to a prison door whose lock was open.
“Lydia, there's no way we can cross this," said Percy, who saw how in the middle of the room there was a large opening from wall to wall, so deep that the bottom could not be seen and wide enough that he couldn't jump over it.
Returning in their footsteps, the boys returned to the main corridor and advanced to the next door of the jail. But it was padlocked and they kept going east where there was another door, but stopped to read the sign that preceded it.
"Medicine."
“This time they don't give us much information, eh," Percy said.
“Let's try to open the next door," said Lydia.
Like the other barred door, this one was also padlocked.
“Lydia, there's someone inside, a man, it looks like he's moaning!” the cat boy informed the group.
“Are you sure about this?” Viola asked him, because behind the bars there was the deepest darkness, just like the other barred doors.
“Mister..." said Lydia as she approached the door with caution, for no matter how hard she tried, she could not see anything in the darkness.
“Weee... ag... ag... cof... medicine... you... have some?” whispered a whisper that denoted intense tiredness and suffering.
“Wait a minute sir, we'll get you some medicine and get you out of here!” Lydia told him, but she received a spittle of contempt that fortunately did not reach her.
“Lydia, you're okay!” Percy shouted as her tail bristled.
“Yes, don't worry, let's try to find the medicine and a way to free this man.”
“Look, there's a big bird cage over there," said Viola.
The bird cage was made of a copper lattice and was very dented. At first they thought the cage was empty, but soon they saw the shadow of a bird flapping its wings.
“Look Lydia, it's a ghost bird.”
“I know, let's go down the hall," said Lydia as she frowned at the man and the bird locked in the haunted house.
The three of them reached the end of the corridor and there, sheltered in the shadows, were three groups of red herbs that barely saw the varied group began to speak as if guided by the will of others.
"Do you want to know how to kill a flower?"
"None of the three ways to kill are appropriate. You should just give up on this."
"I've already forgotten the exact way to kill... or cut it up or tear it down."
"Tearing it down and removing it are both ways of killing it."
“The book at the entrance warned us not to trust the red herbs," said Viola.
“I know, we'd better get out of here," said Lydia.
When the group arrived at the guard's desk, they saw that another human skull had appeared on the chair.
“I'll put him with the other one we found in the chalet," Percy offered, and they all came out of jail.
“What do you think is the way to kill the white flower in front of the tree? We must kill her so that the yellow flowers can give us their pollen for the prisoner's medicine," asked Viola...
“We won't kill anyone," Lydia replied in a resolute voice.
Percy looked expectantly at both girls who did not look away and wondered what alternative Lydia would give to the insurmountable situation.
CONTINUARÁ...
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