MIDNIGHT 040

[allthekeys]

|| NIGHT 040: MIDNIGHT As the chimes of midnight ring throughout the house, the discordant music in the Ballroom hits a high note and increases dramatically in volume, though it becomes no easier to listen to. The very walls seem to tremble for a long moment as the music momentarily becomes nearly deafening. Surely it signals the start of something. All houseguests find that their vision momentarily blacks outs and their heads swim for a brief moment before they find themselves at the centre of the uproar, the bright lights of the ball all around them. Ghostly figures dance around them, though these dancers do not seem to respond to anything the guests say or do; perhaps if they were only pushed enough… Rose is still in the centre of the room, standing now atop her throne. Her arms are spread wide and her head lowered, hair obscuring her face. She sings low under her breath, possessed enough by her music that she does not even seem to notice the blood dripping down her arms and legs from the very thorns she was sitting on, the ones that now glisten with her dark blood. There is plenty of food set up around the tables in the room for anyone who wishes to sample it. It’s all hearty and meaty, but cooked and laid out with flair and displayed with a sense of fancy. There’s turkey, ham, potatoes, several food pies and sweet fruit laid out, among others; it’s all quite delicious but has a strangely metallic aftertaste. Outside there is a great commotion as suddenly dozens of birds emerge from the sky. They all seem to be far away, but advancing quickly toward the edge of the islands. They never make it to the house—the birds seem to crash into something invisible, necks breaking until suddenly there are what seems like a hundred birds falling from the sky just outside of reach, raining down around the houseguests and disappearing quickly from view as they plummet to their deaths—were their necks not already broken, at least. The stars in the Courtyard accelerate dramatically from their slow rotation until they’re zipping by at a blur. They slow down after a few moments until they stars can all be seen separately again, but they’re still spinning much too fast to make any movement directly across the Courtyard possible. The sound of fire whooshing through air is low but insistent and can be heard from too far away. The stars trapped in the Birdcage Room, Soft Bedroom and Garage spin violently as well, erratic in their captivity to the point where they on occasion bounce off the walls and leave scorch marks behind. The stars seem to pick up speed momentarily with every discordant note in the Ballroom. The Cook has finished his task in the Servant’s Kitchen of preparing the food for the ball, and the tables are empty save for scraps and leftovers. He doesn’t seem quite finished with everything, though, and as the bell chimes he advances on the wingless deer. Throughout the night he cuts pieces of meat from it, not bothering to kill it first; as it grows weaker still, the animal lies down on the floor in its own blood and eventually bleeds out, now dead for the second time. Whatever was glowing in the Lake is gone, and the murky waters seem somehow darker than usual.