10 March 2013
"LAYNIE! ARE YOU OKAY?" Quinn screams from the other room, using that fake voice she uses when there's visitors.
"Uh- uh, yeah! Everything's fine!" Laynie yells back as she stares at me from the side of the couch. "Kiela! Why are you here?" She hisses. "Quinn could kill you!"
"Or the Pillets." I answer. "They're way worse than Quinn. Listen, we have to leave soon. Tawn and Vynn are, like, evil or something-"
"Wait, who's 'we'?" Tayla interrupts, crouching next to Laynie.
"Maicy. She's behind the grandfather's clock."
"Oh."
"Anyway, the Pillets are freaks. I've been cleaning nonstop, and they even whipped Gabby when she dropped something. But the thing is, we found this note. It said something like 'Seedin Town Orphans wasn't good, but Miss Evinich's Home for Girls looks promising. Search the place'. And then it said today's date."
Laynie and Tayla exchange glances. "So your saying that the reason Tawn and Vynn are here is because they are searching the place? For what?" Tayla asks.
"I don't know. That's the reason we're here."
"Ohhh..." I can hear Maicy mutter from across the room.
"Okay. So, do you want us to keep Tawn and Vynn away? Like, stall?"
"Yeah, go do that. Me and Maicy can try to figure out what they're searching for. Just try to scare them away!"
"Kay. Do we need, like, a signal thingy?"
"A what?"
"A signal-"
"LAYNIE! TAYLA! GIVE MR. AND MRS. PILLET A TOUR!" Quinn calls from the kitchen.
"COMING!" Laynie yells, then sneezes. Huh- Laynie never sneezes. She and Tayla run off, glancing behind them at me. I nod, urging them to go foward. They do.
Slowly, I creep out of my hiding spot. Maicy does the same. Just as Maicy steps away, the grandfather's clock ticks weirdly.
"You hear that?" I whisper to Maicy.
"Hear what?"
I point to the clock, but the off-beat tick doesn't happen again. I remember the tick I heard that one night when we talked to Maicy. Why is the grandfather's clock doing this? Maybe it's just old.
I look at the grandfather's clock. It's old, it's worn, and it's rusty. Nothing special. Sudenly, something glints from the bottom of the tower. I look down, but don't see anything.
"Do you really want to see the living room?" I hear Laynie from the hallway.
"Yes." Tawn mumbles.
"So you REALLY want to see the living room?"
"Yes!" Tawn's aggravated voice rises.
"Okay, so you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY-"
"JUST SHOW US THE LIVING ROOM!" Vynn screeches.
"GIRLS, BE NICE!" Quinn yells at them.
"Okay." Tayla chirps, then sneezes. What is with all this sneezing? Are they trying to mock me?
"Where should we go?" Maicy whispers.
"Here." I lead her to the hall bathroom. Hey, it's better than nothing. We squeeze in and I shut the door without a sound.
I can only hear mumbles of what Laynie and Tayla are saying to Tawn and Vynn, so I lean my head against the door, trying to hear better.
"Do you hear them?" Maicy whispers.
"A little. Shh..."
"This is... Painting!" I hear chunks of what Tayla is saying. "Old... Antique!"
"Antique?" I listen as Vynn seems to inspect the painting. "Nice... Ancient... Where did... This?"
"Ask Quinn." Laynie is much louder than everyone else.
"Tawn... Quinn." I figure Vynn is instructing Tawn to go talk to Quinn. I hear footsteps. As they approach our door, we freeze. I even stop breathing.
Luckilly, they pass right by.
I return to evesdropping on the conversation.
"Anything else... Old... Here?" I listen to Vynn.
"Um- no! Nothing! Nothing at all." Laynie says, her voice wavering a little.
"What about that grandfather's clock?"
"Nope, it's new." There it is again. Laynie's voice cracks again. Oh, I get it! She still thinks that Maicy and I are hiding in there!
"Let me..." I hear more footsteps, then a bunch of sneezing. What is with all this- then I get it. Sneezing is the signal that something's going to happen! Smart.
"I... Don't think... Grandfather's... Special." Tayla says.
"Me neither! Come on, let's go this way. That hallway over there has waaaay older stuff than that clock!"
"...Really?"
"Yeah! Come on!" I figure that Laynie pulls Vynn away from the clock, with Tayla following behind. Then I hear footsteps, and I freeze. That hallway that Laynie was talking about is the one that our bathroom is in. No!
"See this plant? It's a fern. They were growing when the dinosaurs were alive!"
"Was... One?" Vynn asks suspiciously.
"Um, no. But-"
"Anything..." Vynn asks again, annoyed.
"I guess. You see this banister? It was made over 100 years ago!"
I hear nothing for a moment. Then, "It's not... Enough."
"Then how about a crystal sink faucet?"
"How... Old?"
"I don't know. Let's look."
No! Laynie, no! I glance at the sink. Sure enough, the faucet is crystal. Ack! Maicy looks around frantically, trying to find a hiding spot. Then I find it. The shower!
I dive towards the shower and pull back the polka-dot curtains. Maicy hops in, and I do the same.
The curtains are still part way open when the door squeeks open.
Grandfather's Clock Chapter 10 • Opuss № I