11/14/2025 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH (85K words).

Had to sit down and push myself.

…

The damn thing burbled as it… never mind. Let’s just say it made a noise. It did, all right: half snake’s hiss, half chicken squawk, and all scary. The sound carried in the room.

So did the rattle of the damn vent at the bottom of the wall as it opened to let it in. I paid attention to that without looking, which was easier than it sounds. A little. The knots were the important thing, and they were coming off nicely.

I could hear the ticky-tack sounds of little talons hitting stone as I finally got my wrists free and started fumbling with the ankle ropes. It wasn’t moving fast. I don’t know if that’s because it was trained to be slow, or because a monster that petrifies you on eye contact just doesn’t need to rush around. Maybe both?

Through my closed eyelids I could see the room rapidly lightening around me, and I knew then that my ankles would just have to wait. The damned thing’s hiss-squawk changed with the light, too. The talons started skittering excitedly, like it had a new toy. I wondered how many times somebody had faced this thing in this room, and whether the basilisk got to play with them before the whole stoneface thing. Then I decided that I didn’t want to wonder about that at all.