Chapter 16: The Rulebook

In the morning there were four new cards on the hall table.

Mouse's cards were round and crooked, in crayon.

These were in black pen, in square capital letters that leaned hard to the right.

THE BRIDE MAY NOT ENTER THE KITCHEN.

THE MASTER MAY NOT ENTER THE EAST WING.

THE LIBRARY DOORS ARE CLOSED TO THE BRIDE.

THE HOUSE MAY NOT ENTER THE LIBRARY.

Penny read them over my shoulder.

"That's a man who writes his grocery list in all caps," she said.

"That's Kyle," said the boy in the hoodie. "He did my name tag like that on night one. It said FODDER."

I went straight to the kitchen.

I got as far as the doorway.

Then there wasn't a doorway. There was wallpaper, roses and all, right where the swinging door had been.

I stepped back. The door was there.

I stepped forward. Roses.

On the other side, I heard a pot hit the floor and the cook make a long, low sound.

"It's okay!" I called through the wall. "I'm okay! I'll eat upstairs!"

The library was worse.

The doors were tall and carved with ivy. They had never once been locked.

I fit the master key into the keyhole. It slid in fine.

It wouldn't turn.

I put both hands on it and leaned. Nothing.

Mouse stood beside me with her rabbit.

She put out her hand toward the door and stopped an inch away.

She pressed harder. Her fingers went white.

"I can't," she whispered. "It's my book. I can't get in."

I heard a laugh on the other side of the ivy.

"Morning, fodder," Kyle said through the wood.

Six or seven guests had followed me down the hall by then. They were all listening.

"You took a little girl's book," I said.

"I found a book in a library. That's what libraries are for."

"You wrote that line about the Anomaly. Not the house. You."

"Prove it."

"Your handwriting's on the hall table, Kyle. It's the same handwriting as the card in everyone's pocket."

A long pause.

"Oops," he said.

I heard his footsteps go away from the door.

Behind me, a man in the gray tracksuit took his card out and looked at it for a long time.

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