The Sealed-Up House by Olivia Snowe

Author:Olivia Snowe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fairy tales, fairytales, fractured fairytales, Olivia Snowe, Michelle Lamoreaux, Twicetold Tales, Sleeping Beauty, Stone Arch Books, 9781434260192, 9781434262813
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2014-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

“What do you want?” Mr. Sova said. Though his words were brave and stubborn, Brendan heard the tremble of fear in his voice.

The nurse must have heard it too, because she laughed out loud. In her voice, Brendan heard the crystal of the sun and the moon and the star, but he also heard the raspy threat of the skull.

“She’s all of them,” he whispered, almost to himself.

He felt Mr. Sova’s hand on his shoulder, just for instant, as if to say that Brendan was right, but also as a warning: This nurse is dangerous.

“I only come for my old position,” the nurse said, “now that you’re all awake.”

Mr. Sova let out a sorrowful sigh.

“And Talia?” the nurse said. She sat on the bench and smoothed the lap of her gown. “She is well?”

“Yes,” said Talia’s father in a deep, reluctant voice.

“Wonderful,” said the nurse. She caught Brendan’s eye and smiled at him. “Mr. Sova is reluctant to have me back, I think.”

Brendan didn’t reply. He just stared at her face, and he imagined he could see all four of those figures within her.

She laughed her crystal laugh and patted her hands on her knees. “He remembers how close the girl came to death,” she says, still smiling, “but he forgets it was I who pulled her back.”

“It was you who sent her there!” Mr. Sova said, and his body quivered and deflated.

She didn’t look at him, despite his explosion. She kept her eyes on Brendan. “He sees things in black and white,” she said, patting the bench beside her. “He always has.”

Brendan sat next to her and sat at an angle to face her. “Who are you?” he asked.

She looked at him, sort of cockeyed, like a confused dog—like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and maybe Brendan had taken a knock on the head. “I’m your nurse,” she said. “Don’t you remember?”

“But that’s not at all you are,” Brendan said quickly.

“And you,” she said, “are not only the new boy in school.”

Brendan thought he knew what she meant. He still felt dizzy and blinded, though, as the nurse stood up. “I’ll go and check on Talia,” she said.

“No,” Mr. Sova protested, grabbing her wrist.

The nurse looked down at his hand—in that instant, Brendan was sure he saw that skull on her forehead, just like he’d seen her in the stained-glass window—and Mr. Sova released her.

When she spoke, the crystal in her voice was gone, and only the smoky whisper remained: “You cannot hold me back. You cannot control me. You cannot stop me.”

Then, with the same grace she carried as she walked up Willow Avenue, the nurse stepped around the bench and walked up the path, opened the door, and went inside the Sova House.

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