The next morning, the Gracey twins awoke to a bright blue sky and birds chirping from their neighborhood. They almost forgot they were in Mrs. Macabre's house until they opened the bedroom door. Once they reached downstairs from the elevator, they could hear the sizzling of meat on a stove, but couldn't place the delicious scent in the air. They made a turn at the foyer and saw the kitchen.
"Morning, darlings!" Mrs. Macabre said over the stove where she was making eggs of some sort on a skillet. The kitchen, unlike the rest of the house, was surprisingly small, cozy even.
"Morning, Mrs. Macabre," the twins said in unison. They both lightly punched each other on the shoulder, a ritual they often did when they caught themselves mirroring one another.
"Morning," Elvira said from a corner. Her mouth was full and she was standing over a bowl of half-eaten raw fish.
"How was your first night?" The witch asked with concern.
"Just like being home," Catie said, taking a seat at the table in the center of the room.
"Fine," Jane said, doing the same. She considered sharing her nightmare, but she decided not to. It felt secret somehow, like it was only meant for her. "Yourself?"
"Like a vampire, my dear," Mrs. Macabre slid the eggs onto two plates. "Like a vampire. Breakfast is served!" She set the plates down and, judging by how good the smell was, the twins were not expecting what was sitting in front of them. Instead of yellow, these eggs were the color of concrete.
"Um. . . " Catie started, trying not to sound disgusted.
"Oh, silly me!" Mrs. Macabre said and snapped her fingers. A cabinet and drawer opened and a pepper shaker, two forks, and two glasses floated from them. The glasses were filled from a pitcher with murky, green water and the shaker rattled some pepper onto the eggs. The glasses flew over and gently placed themselves next to their meals.
"What is this, exactly?" Jane asked, inspecting the contents of her glass to make sure nothing was alive in the liquid.
"Why it's gargoyle eggs and beetle juice, dear," Mrs. Macabre sat down at the other end of the table. "Breakfast of champions."
Jane and Catie both looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Mrs. Macabre looked back at them with her hands on her chin, smiling.
"Don't mind me. I've already had mine," she said in a sweet voice.
Catie decided to bite the bullet first. She placed her fork in the eggs, picked them up and carefully placed them into her mouth. She chewed and made a face that surprised her sister. "Jane, you have to try this!"
"Don't pull my leg," Jane said, narrowing her eyes.
"I'm not! Promise. They're really good!" Catie said, eating more.
Jane looked down at the gray eggs again, shut her eyes, and took a bite. Her older sister by only a minute was right. The eggs were good, fantastic, even. She wasn't sure if it was because of how shocked she was, but they were some of the best eggs she had ever tasted. Not too runny and not too soft. She took a swig from the beetle juice and nearly laughed it out of her mouth. It tasted just like lemonade. "Hallowland breakfasts are the best!" She said.
"I'm so glad!" Mrs. Macabre applauded. "Eat up, we have a long day ahead of us."
"Is it going to get any brighter?" Catie asked, taking notice of the overcast outside. She also spotted no sun, but the full moon was still out.
"Oh, Hades no!" Mrs.Macabre laughed. "It never gets lighter than what you see outside. We of the Hallowland detest sunlight."
"What about seasons? Do you have those?"
"There are no winters, springs, or summers here. It is eternally autumn. Are there any more inquiries? I'd be delighted to answer them," she glanced back and forth at the girls.
"I have one," Jane said, finishing her breakfast, "On your card, it says that you're a missus."
"Correct," she smiled.
"Well, an R in the abbreviation for missus means that you're married. Are you?"
For the first time since they had met her, the Gracey twins saw a look of discomfort on Mrs. Macabre's face. It was if she was hiding a great shame from them. One that only brought back bad memories. "I used to," she sunk down in her seat, "I kept the title in honor of my wife."
"Oh. . ." Jane said, noticing the uncomfortable twinge in the air. "What happened to her?"
She paused and thought about it. Then she perked up with a smile. "Let's get going, shall we?" Mrs. Macabre got up from her seat. "Don't mind those," she said once she noticed the girls grabbing their plates and glasses. She snapped her fingers and they were placed in the sink. "Come along now, Elvira."
"Can I just have a minute to digest this?" The cat said, lying on her belly.
"Not now, my dear. The road waits for no one! Cat or witch!"
Elvira grumbled and got up, following them into the foyer. As they moved towards the elevator, Catie walked closer to Jane.
"Nice going," she whispered.
"How was I supposed to know that was a sensitive topic?" Jane snapped back.
"Just stop getting your nose into stuff where it doesn't belong," Catie waved her hand as if it were a way to finish the conversation for good. They reached the elevator and got in.
"Blasting off," Mrs. Macabre proclaimed after the grate was closed, pushing the button marked 100.
"What's at the top?" Catie asked.
"Why, the helm, of course."
"The helm? That's for a ship, though," she said with brows furrowed.
"You would think that after seeing a talking cat and a magic broom, they'd stop asking questions," Elvira shook her head.
"Well, it is kind of weird," Jane said.
"You're kidding me, right?" The cat raised the closest thing she had to an eyebrow.
"Here we are!" Mrs. Macabre interrupted them as the elevator came to a stop. They all got out and followed her. Unlike the other corridors that Jane and Catie had seen, this one was curved and, along with other doors, there was a set of doubles at the middle.
"Don't look down," Catie said.
Jane glanced over the railing and saw a hundred foot drop below. The black and white patterns of the ground floor were barely visible. "I looked down," she said, trying to keep her breakfast inside of her.
Mrs. Macabre opened the doors and they went inside. The helm of the house was as circular as the hallway that proceeded it. On one end was a large window that looked out onto the Hallowland, on the other end, a map of the land itself. On the walls were machines and pistons that reminded Catie of an old factory from the early 1900's. At the center of the room was an enormous steering wheel that you would find at the bow of a ship.
"What are these?" Catie asked, running over to the gears and metal contraptions on the wall.
"Those, my dear," Mrs. Macabre explained, "are the inner workings of the house. The cogs of the clock, if you will."
"I didn't realize the Hallowland was so big," Jane gazed in wonder at the map. She stared at drawings of forests, graveyards, rivers, castles, and cities that were dotted across the landscape. She hoped that she would be able to see them all.
"Even I haven't seen everything," the witch said getting behind the wheel. "Elvira, prepare to raise anchor."
"Aye, aye, Captain!" The cat said and jumped on a lever next to the wheel, pulling it all the way down.
There was a whistle somewhere up above and the cogs of the house began to turn, making Catie jump. The wheels turned with squeaks and bumps, she laughed and applauded with delight.
"Look over by that window, children!" Mrs. Macabre pointed to the other side.
"What's over there?" They both asked, running over, too excited to punch one another.
"Our way forward."
"But, Mrs. Macabre," Jane said. "I don't see any wheels," she pressed her face to the glass, but all she could see was the front porch and the ground.
"Wheels?" Their host smiled. She pressed a button on a console next to her.
The house lurched upwards, nearly knocking the twins over. Things could be heard rattling around below as the house swayed.
"What's going on?" Catie asked as the house rocked back and forth, as if it were trying to find its balance.
"Look!" Jane cried, staring out the window. Below the house was not wheels, but bird feet. Long legs and pointy toes with claws stuck out from underneath the porch.
"Your house has legs?" Catie asked, astonished.
"My house has a lot of things you don't know about, Catherine," Mrs. Macabre said. The lights flickered for a moment.
"That's odd," Elvira noted.
"Well, it is very old, after all," Mrs. Macabre said. "Now, where shall we go first? Take a look at the list, girls."
"List?" Jane asked, still wanting to watch the feet below.
"Over there," Mrs. Macabre pointed to something by the map. The Gracey twins rushed over and saw paper coming out of a slot on the wall. The tack-tack-tack of a typewriter could be heard from inside the slot and on the paper they saw a list of things to do for the day.
"Where should we start?" Catie kept grabbing the paper as it quickly came out, trying to keep up with it.
"The top, my dear," the witch said.
"Uh," Jane took a hold of the list and read it, "collect black apples."
"To the nightmare forest, then!" Mrs. Macabre exclaimed and, before the girls could ask what the nightmare forest was, she pressed another button.
The cogs and gears whirled to life again, along with the house. The twins were sent stumbling all over the place, spinning their arms around to keep them balanced. Jane looked at Catie and they exchanged another one of their silent conversations. Boat trip, their eyes said. They both remembered a trip to Costa Rica that they had made several years before, as their boat swayed back and forth on the choppy ocean, one of the crew members told them to go with the motion of the ship. As the house swayed left and right, so did they.
Jane made it back to the window and looked down, still in awe of the bird legs bobbing up and down as the Hallowland moved past them. She looked up and saw miles and miles ahead of her, then something blocked her vision, making her yelp. The creature's face at the corner of the window was red and had large eyes, sharp teeth formed a mischievous smile.
"Mrs. Macabre!" Jane cried, "There's something here! On the roof!
The witch looked at the cat. "Gremlins,", she said. She pulled a lever and the house grounded to a halt, the gears and cogs stopped.
"What are gremlins? You mean like from that movie?" Catie asked.
"I told you we should've checked for holes before parking!" Elvira said to her companion. They heard the sound of claws scrambling on the roof above them, like rats, along with hoarse giggling.
"Children," Mrs. Macabre said to them, "go over there and get some equipment," she pointed to a cabinet in the corner.
"What's in it?" Jane asked, nervously walking over to it.
"Gremlin repellant, of my own making. It won't kill them, but it'll knock them out for a while to give us time to move."
They opened the cabinet and in it they found a few metal cans connected to a nozzle with a pump on it. The cans read: GREMLIN GAS in big yellow letters. Old gas masks and worker gloves could be found on the floor, as well.
"Do we wear these?" Catie asked, holding a mask up.
"Absolutely," Mrs. Macabre said. "The gas will make you sick for weeks if you inhale it and their spikes leave quite a deep cut, if they pierce you, Now hurry, before they get in and wreck the engine!"
The Gracey twins didn't like the sound of spikes at all, but they did what they were told. They put on their gloves and masks, even if they were a bit too big, and armed themselves with the pumps.
"Over here!" Elvira said and jumped, grabbing hold of a cord from the ceiling with her teeth. A ladder unfolded along with the piece of the ceiling. The girls marched towards it. "Good luck," the cat said and Jane bent down and petted her head. When they reached the top, the ceiling was shut closed behind them.
The roof was clear. The twins looked back and forth through the large glass holes of the masks and none of the gremlins could be seen, just the gray sky.
"You think they're gone?" Jane asked, her voice muffled.
"No," Catie walked steadily over the tiles of the roof, "I think they might- behind you!"
Jane spun around. Right behind her was a gremlin, its crazed-eyes bulging up at her, its mouth dripping with saliva. It arched its back and the sharp spikes protruding from it shook, like a porcupine. With shaky hands, Jane pulled up the device and sprayed it. The gremlin went flying backwards, coughing and then fell off the roof.
She let out a sigh. "That was a close-" but before she could finish her sentence, more of the gremlins came crawling up from the corners of the roof. There were four of them total, but they were all primed for attack.
Catie held up her pump in defense. The gremlins slowly inched towards them, all gazing at the girls with malicious intent. "Spray!" Catie yelled and they both began pushing their devices in and out. Green smoke emitted from their nozzles, hitting one of the creatures, making it roll off the house like its sibling.
The other three strategically bounced around the smoke. Jane spotted one, it razed its back and wiggled, two of the red spikes came shooting towards her. She ducked, seeing one of them land tip first into the roof, then she felt a sharp pain in her leg and she let out a cry. A spike was sticking straight out of her pants into her right thigh. She placed a finger to the cut and saw blood dripping from it. The gremlin sneered at her. She gently pulled the barb out as carefully as she could, reminding her of a time when she was stung by a bee when she was smaller, and got back on her feet again.
The creature had vanished. She darted back and forth and saw Catie wrestling with one of them. "It's over there!" Her sister cried out to her. Jane looked to her right and saw the other two trying to climb up the chimney. She looked back. "Don't worry about me," Catie said as she used her pump as a sort of shield against the monster, gremlin saliva dripped onto her mask. "Just don't let them get inside!"
Jane nodded with determination and made her way to the chimney. As she limped her way over, she pumped the gas all over the area. The gremlins hissed and coughed until they were no longer visible. She heard a sharp scream of metal and glanced over to where Catie was. The gremlin that she had been fighting with had torn into the pump, bending it, and was now clawing away at her sister with eager teeth. Jane spun her pump around and sprayed the gremlin just before it reached her face. Its eyes bulged out and rolled off the roof with a wheeze.
Catie gave her a thumbs up. Jane looked at where the gremlins had been before and saw that they were gone. "Hey," she said. "I think I got them!"
Catie nodded, then stretched out her hands in protest. "Look out!" She cried through her mask. Jane spun around again and one of the gremlins jumped towards her. They were both sent downwards, tumbling off of the roof. Jane grabbed hold of the gutter rail that was connected to the side and hung onto it. Don't look down, don't look down, her sister's words rang in her ears, but of course she did.
Often times, when we are afraid, we have a tendency to do the thing that we should not. If we are in a dark forest, for instance, and we know that something terrible is behind us, we may look behind us anyway to confirm our suspicions. Jane Gracey was always one to confirm her suspicions.
She looked down and saw, not the ground, but the morning mist covering it, which was almost as terrible as seeing the bottom. It allowed her imagination to run wild with all sorts of creepy crawlers and other monsters of the Hallowland waiting to devoir her. There was another shriek of metal like the one she had heard above and she dipped down an inch, the iron grate giving hold.
"Catie!" She screamed, trying to get her sister's attention, but she was not there, only the gremlin stared back at her with that wicked grin. The creature let out a raspy laugh as it held out a claw to her, making sure that she would see every move that it was going to make. It swiped at the grate and the metal inched lower, making it shriek once more. Another laugh, another swipe, another shriek. She shut her eyes, the terror overtaking her vision and the gremlin's laugh along with the scream of the metal filled her ears. Her heart pounded and she breathed harder in the mask, making her eye pieces fog up. She thought of how awful it was that such a wonderful place could end up being the death of her. She was right all along, she was right about Mrs. Macabre and the Hallowland. This was a dangerous place and she should have refused the witch's offer. She should've stayed in her cozy bed in her cozy room. She should have decided to just sleep and bare her boring school on another boring day, she should have-
The sounds of the screaming and the cruel laughter stopped, it was replaced by a hacking cough. She opened her eyes and saw green smoke above her. The gremlin fell from the vapor and would have nearly struck her if she hadn't dodged it in time. She looked down and saw it fall into the fog below. She laughed triumphantly and then saw something else. At the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a floating shadow several yards away from her. A shadow that resembled the bride from her nightmare.
"Jane!" Catie called above her, breaking her concentration, "Climb up! Quickly!" She held out her hand.
Using the grate as a rope, Jane pulled herself up as hard as she could. As she did so, the metal grate screamed again and began to tear away from the roof. She scrambled up and grabbed her sister's arm, just as the grate fell off and down to the depths below.
"You okay?" Catie asked.
"I am now," she looked back at where the shadow had been and it was gone. She turned and saw Catie's broken pump on the roof and her sister holding hers.
"Let's go," Catie said. She helped Jane limp to the trap door. She stomped on it twice and it opened with Elvira hanging on the cord again. They both made their way down the ladder.
"Did you get them?" Elvira asked, letting go.
"Never mind that dear, " Mrs. Macabre sad, "as long as they are all right."
Jane removed her mask. "Never better," she said, her face covered in sweat and fainted.