Craven Manor

by Darcy Coates

Rules: No strangers are allowed onto the property. Do not enter the tower. Do not leave the groundskeeper’s cottage between midnight and dawn. Draw your curtains. Keep the door locked. If you hear knocking, do not answer it.

The crows were so numerous that they almost appeared like surrogate leaves, dark and ever shifting, as they weighed down the branches.

The happy glow lasted until shortly after midnight, when something started tapping at his door.

Bury the bones, please. I cannot stand to look at them. You seek answers. Join me for supper in the dining room at seven tonight. -Bran

It will be fine. Go and season the door, just like regular people do all the time.

“My burden. My curse.” Bran had drawn close without Daniel realising. A change of tension in the chair’s fabric told him Bran had placed his hand on its back. “Eliza Myricks.”

“I have lived for some time now, Mr. Kane, and it has given me appreciation for how insignificant many of our daily trials are. You will not find me lacking in patience.”

How must it feel to live for decades past your expiration but fade a little more with every year?

Shoot for the moon. If you miss, you’ll die horribly in the void of space.

He felt as though he’d just walked beneath a sleeping dragon’s nose and come away unscathed.