Chapter 9: The Black Door

The Ambrose in the mirror turned his head.

He looked straight at me through the glass.

His mouth moved. I couldn't hear a word.

Then the silver went dark.

I backed into the nursery and shut the door.

I didn't sleep.

At dawn the doors turned back into doors, and I went down to the ballroom.

He was sitting on the piano bench with his head in his hands. Literally.

He looked up when I came in.

"You saw it," he said.

"Black door. Big red letters. Kind of hard to miss."

"It only shows in mirrors."

"So you know about it."

"I've known about it for eleven years."

I sat down on the bench next to him. Not close.

"Tell me. Term three."

He set his head on the music stand and looked at the keys instead of me.

"The exit is mine. It opens for the Master on any night he chooses."

"Then why are you still here?"

"Because there's a price," he said. "The night the Master walks out, the house keeps every guest inside."

"Every guest."

"Every living one. They don't go home on day one hundred. They stay. They put on aprons."

I thought about the boy in the hoodie singing about the bus with his eyes shut.

"And you never used it."

"No."

"Not once? Not in eleven years?"

"I had my hand on the handle once, in the second year." He was quiet. "Then I thought about the cook."

My shoulders came down.

"Okay. Then here's my plan. On day one hundred, you walk out the front gate with me."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"The bargain. The Master stays. That's the whole point of a master."

"There has to be a way."

"There isn't," he said.

He said it fast. Too fast. I didn't catch it then.

"So that's it?" I said. "I walk out and you play piano for another eleven years?"

"Yes."

"And you're fine with that."

"I've been fine with it for a long time."

"You were holding your own head under your arm a week ago. You're not fine."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Accidentally Pregnant with the Horror Boss from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.