The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 5 by Bella Forrest (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

with a face that looked more like a skull than a living head. There was no way they could go in that direction, not if they wanted to live.

With shocked looks on their faces, the duo hurried back to where Ellabell and Lintz were patiently waiting.

“Yeah, we can’t go that way,” Alex said, catching his breath.

“So how do we get this one open?” Ellabell asked, tapping the stone doorway.

A vision flashed into Alex’s mind. He moved toward the eroded bust that stood just to the side of the doorway, looking more closely at the worn features. Standing nose-to-nose with the masonry, Alex was glad he had stopped for the ghostly woman. Upon further inspection, the features, though worn down, were remarkably similar to those of the ghost he had met. Alex was still holding her mask in his hand. Carefully, he placed the mask over the face. It fit perfectly, and as it locked into place around the sculpted features, a loud rumble shook the passageway. The entrance to the second tunnel was sliding upward, revealing a safer path—or so Alex hoped.

With no time to lose, they moved through the newly opened passage, praying it would prove kinder than the alternative route.

After following a dim, torch-lit tunnel for what seemed like an age, they emerged into a grand room, decked out with tapestries and fine furnishings. All around the walls were elegantly painted urns, depicting friezes of Grecian battles and ancient deities, but most intriguing of all was the magnificent feast laid out on a long table in the center of the room. Mountains of food rose up from silver platters and golden sauce jugs, from clusters of plump, ripe fruit, to desserts piled high with cream and chocolate. Alex’s stomach rumbled. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he still was, until he saw the beautiful spread that had been laid out.

“Do you think this is for us?” Aamir asked cautiously.

Lintz licked his lips. “I don’t know, but it sure looks good!”

The professor was right: it did look good, and Alex had a feeling it might be some sort of reward for having come this far through the vault. He reached out to grasp a glistening slice of fruit-filled pie, but Aamir’s hand shot out to stop him, snatching his arm away.

“Hey! We’ve earned this,” insisted Alex, none too pleased by Aamir’s intervention.

“We shouldn’t trust anything we see,” Aamir said. As he removed his hand from Alex’s arm, a strip of his bloodied bandage fell onto the table below, making impact with the slice of pie. As soon as it touched the enticing pastry, a swarm of vile-looking bugs with jagged pincers surged upward and engulfed the food in a writhing mass. When they receded, nothing was left of pie or bandage.

Alex shuddered, thinking about what would have happened if he’d actually made contact with the slice.

“I guess my stomach got the better of me,” Alex murmured.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the whole inner core of the feast was rotten, everything decaying, covered in a forest of gray and black mold. It was an illusion. Only the outer layer was fresh and glistening, designed to entice gluttonous hands, to encourage the flesh-eating bugs to come out of hiding. Alex understood that this was test number eight as he read the word embroidered on the purple velvet tablecloth: “Temperance.”

Alex glanced toward the beautifully decorated urns, and felt suddenly nervous. If this was a task, then what were the urns for? For the first time since entering the vault, Alex wasn’t even sure he wanted to get the book anymore, but the thought of Virgil, and the promise of destroying the Great Evil, of setting everyone free, pressed him on.

“We should go to the next room,” Ellabell said, urgency clear in her voice. “I don’t like this place.”

The others nodded and made their way toward the door at the other end of the room. However, as they neared, it became clear that the doorway was a trompe l’oeil, a deceptive painting, made to look realistic. There was no door.

Panic flooded Alex’s veins as all the torches were blown out. From the sudden darkness, a glowing, unnerving light filled the room. A split second later, frightening specters, very like the ones Alex had seen around Vincent, floated upward from the urns, their wispy forms twisting into being.

“Close your eyes!” Alex yelled. “Don’t look them in the eye! Whatever you do, do NOT open your eyes until we are out of this room, under any circumstances!”

“What? Why?” asked Ellabell.

“You have to! Close your eyes now, and don’t open them again until I say!” he insisted, his panicked voice making them obey.

Even with his eyes closed, Alex could feel the cold prickle of the specters all around him, brushing at his skin with their vaporous hands. Goosebumps rose on his flesh.

“We are the Gaki, the starving ghosts of the greedy,” some whispered, passing close to his ear.

“We are the Goryo, vengeful spirits of the dead,” said the others.

Alex didn’t know whether they were the same species of specter as the ones that had surrounded Vincent, or simply an illusion, but he wasn’t willing to risk an incident, regardless of where they had sprung from. They were creatures of dread, made all the more terrifying by the fact that they could not be fought in the conventional way.

“They’re telling me I have to open my eyes!” Aamir shouted. “I can feel them trying to lift my eyelids… I am not sure I can fight them,” he added, his voice strained.

“Don’t listen to them!” Alex instructed. He, too, could feel the spirits physically trying to lift his eyelids, their ice-cold hands making his eyes dry and itchy, compelling him to want to open his eyes and blink away the discomfort. He held fast, keeping them squeezed shut. He didn’t want to experience what Caius had.

Thinking fast, Alex wondered if there might be a key or a lever within the moldering buffet, but he couldn’t bring himself