(Skeleton Key) Into Elurien Read Free Page A

round-topped chest, not trusting my trembling legs. My hands were faring no better, and I almost let the lid fall again before I hoisted it all the way open.
    A doll stared up at me. A baby doll, but oversized. Its hard face was painted with what might once have been charming features, but time had not been kind to her. The doll’s lips were brown, not the rosy pink I suspected they’d once been, with a cold tone to them that lent much to the impression of her being a dead child. Empty glass eyes stared up at me, unblinking, with spider-leg lashes painted around their peremiters. Her skin was white, save for a faded spot of orange on each cheek and a crooked lightning bolt crack that marred her from her hard-haired scalp to the middle of her left cheek.
    I had no urge to touch her, but someone must have once loved this horrifying monster. Some little girl had thought her beautiful. And now she’d been discarded, closed away forever. I shuddered and reached up to close the chest.
    As I did, the light from the bulb overhead caught a flash of something bright, nearly hidden beneath the doll’s filthy skirt. A collection of jewellery, all jumbled in a box. Costume stuff, and probably worthless. I held my breath as I shifted the doll sideways and plucked out the tin box that had lost its lid somewhere along the years.
    This was a much more pleasant find than the doll. A brooch caught my eye. Even in the dim light of the attic, the colours of the gems stood out bright and bold, forming the shape of a beautiful long-tailed bird. I reached into the box to scoop it up.
    “Ouch!” I dropped the pin and shoved my bleeding finger into my mouth. Not a deep cut, but it stung badly. The faint, coppery taste of blood washed over my tongue.
    Pretty, but not worth it, I decided, and hoped it hadn’t given me tetanus in the bargain. I picked more carefully through the box. The only other thing that caught my eye wasn’t a brooch or a necklace, but a key.
    It wasn’t made of metal, like the keys used by the hotel, but of glass or crystal, and felt unexpectedly heavy when I lifted it. It was about ten centimetres long, with only two teeth at the bottom. Nothing complicated, but the head of the key was certainly something. Formed in the shape of a skull, it grinned blankly up at me. I wrapped my fingers around the top, covering the toothy smile.
    “Freaked out enough to sleep yet?” I asked myself, and opened my hand again. The key wasn’t as creepy as the doll or as dangerous as the jewellery. In a way it was quite pretty. The overhead light cut through it and made the glass glow softly, and there was something appealing about its soft lines.
    I stood and closed the chest, but kept the key in my hand. It’s not stealing if it doesn’t leave the building, I reasoned, and turned to head down to bed.
    The pretty door caught my eye—the one with a different knob. Could the tall key slot match the skeleton key? I suspected the key was strictly for decoration, but tried it anyway.
    The lock clicked and the door popped open toward me, showing a sliver of darkness beyond.
    “Go to bed,” I ordered myself, but didn’t listen. Instead I pocketed the key, reached for my flashlight, and opened the door.
    The beam refused to cut through the utter blackness beyond.
    “Weird,” I muttered. I stepped one foot in, following the rafter I’d been standing on, moving cautiously. The blackness didn’t abate, and my flashlight didn’t pick out any odd shapes. Not even walls.
    I shone my flashlight upward and caught sight of a dangling string high overhead. Maybe out of reach. Maybe not.
    I stepped forward to reach for it, and screamed as the floor disappeared and I plunged into darkness.

Chapter Three
    S ometimes falls come in slow motion, made up of seemingly endless moments of flails and stumbles and near-catches. Not this time. Just as I realized I was falling farther than I had any right to, I slammed into a hard surface. Cold stone scraped