< PREVIOUS |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5 Diary of Ellen Rimbauer- Excerpt #5 19 February 1928-- Dear God in Heaven! Give her back to me! Sukeena has gone missing! Last seen in the Health Room! No sign of her anywhere, I wander this tomb's endless hallways wondering why everyone who becomes so close to me ends up stolen from my life. Robbed from me. I hate this house. Despise it! I will never invite Adam back again. The staff is nearly sick with looking for my maid, so many hours--days now!--have we been at it. The house is impossibly large. Believe this or not, Dear Diary, we all have witnessed physical transformations. Hallways change structure and appearance behind your back. Rooms disappear! What is going on? How can it be? A physical structure, a building, and yet fluid as water. A chameleon. She no longer requires growing larger--she reinvents herself internally. Once a hallway, now a ballroom; once a basement, now a dungeon! I ordered all Sukeena's plants uprooted from the Health Room (for upon her disappearance, it bloomed more richly than I have ever seen--every plant at once in full blossom!). I watched that task carried out--watched it with my own eyes from up in my chambers, recalling my past observation of other events down there as well. Seven workers took three hours to clear the room down to bare soil. By the time they reached the west end, the east had sprouted new plants. By the following morning, the plants were six feet tall--taller than they'd ever been, and in full bloom. That is Sukeena providing that bloom--her love, her energy, her powers. We all--every one of us!--heard Rose Red laugh last night. Laugh at me. At us. It was the most frightening sound I've ever heard. If there is a game to this, she has clearly won. They are all gone. My loved ones. I am alone. Alone in my thoughts, alone in my silence, alone in this house. I shall fire the entire staff (before she gets another of them!). I shall dwell in this place alone for a time. Let her suffer. Let her fail. Perhaps then we can strike a bargain, this house and me. Perhaps then she'll allow me to visit Sukeena as I do April. My husband taught me well: everything is negotiable. < PREVIOUS |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5 MISSING EXCERPTS > > >