When hinges creak in doorless chambers...

[hatchethanging]

 
 

 

 
 







Welcome, foolish mortals,
to the Haunted Mansion.



Watch your step on the way in, please.

 

Comments

[hatchethanging]

"...There's no hurry, I suppose," she replies uncertainly. "I'll let you stay in here for as long as you feel like." Her room, that is. He doesn't look like he'll be moving much on his own anyway.

But she must find out what's going on, or at least tell Madame Leota about it. Sally flattens her dress out and takes a few ballet steps towards the wall, and she's halfway through it before she thinks to pause and look at him again. "I'll be back soon! I'll...give you some time to collect yourself?" Is that a good idea?

[cookswithspite]

It’s hard, right then, for Noah to pay proper attention to Sally, but even curled up with his vision blurry and his thoughts spiraling downward he catches a bit of that uncertainty. God, he thinks. He must be making her so uncomfortable, acting so weird and babyish like this.

“Sorry. I just-” Noah sniffles, scrubbing ineffectually at his face. “A lot’s been happening.”

He attempts to straighten up, although it doesn’t add much to his dignity. “I don’t want to… bother you…Maybe I...” Maybe he should just go. Even if he’s not sure how to get to the exit. Or would that make things worse? “Um. Can you… give me just a minute?”

[hatchethanging]

"Of course! I'll be back as quickly as I can," she emphatically assures.

With a polite curtsy (still halfway through the wall), Sally vanishes.

And Noah is left to himself. The room is darker without the silhouette of a spirit within it.

Not long after this, another noise comes down the outside hall. A hoarse, croaking call.

Someone else has finally caught wind of the Mansion's chaos-causing visitors, and she's sent out her favorite not-so-little birds to check up. The door shifts itself open, and massive raven swoops in to perch on the headboard of the recently-vacated bed.