Radley's Labyrinth for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (highly recommended books .txt) 📕

He threw on a white shirt and the pants from yesterday. When he pulled up his jeans, something slipped out of the pocket and clattered on the floor.

“Oh.” Mike picked up the crystalline necklace, inspecting it for the first time. It was a pretty blue color and felt cool to the touch. He flicked off the lights in the bathroom and cupped his hands together. Peeking through a gap in his fingers, he confirmed that the stone was, in fact, glowing with an inner light of its own.

That figured. The witch Sarah had been wearing a magical necklace, and the Mandragora had been wearing it as well. It must have survived whatever process Sarah’s body had undergone, and it was clearly magical. But what did it do? He briefly debated putting it on to see what would happen and was immediately assailed by an image of Tink smacking him on the back of the head. Granted, she would need to be standing on something, but the image was enough. He slipped it into his pocket, reminding himself to ask Naia about it later. On his way out of the room, he spotted the gear key on his dresser and put that in his pocket as well. For all he knew, the clock was downstairs waiting for him right now.

In the kitchen, he heated up a couple of Eggos that he found in the back of the freezer. They had fallen out of the box, which was probably why Sofia had missed them in her purge. He loaded them up with butter, peanut butter, and then syrup. He wasn’t very hungry, and his nerves were on edge, but he didn’t know when his next meal would be. After swallowing his breakfast in ungodly large bites, he casually tossed his plate in the sink, then walked over to the door just past the kitchen.

He opened the door to the basement and looked into the dark below. He took a deep breath and walked down the long steps, wondering briefly if they would somehow keep going forever this time. He hated how the temperature changed so rapidly and was relieved when he reached the light switch at the bottom.

The basement itself wasn’t large, and the walls were all poured concrete. By the freezer, he knelt and found the piece of chalk that Tink had left here. After drawing a door on the wall, he knocked on it, using the pattern that Tink had taught him.

His stomach dropped when nothing happened. Just as he got ready to knock again, the chalk lines glowed brightly and the door appeared before him. He pulled it open, staring at the strange treasures lining both sides of the wall. The Vault was supposed to be a storage place for the most dangerous items in the house, but it looked more like an antique store that had gone to shit. An old music box, a conch shell with dried blood on it, and even an Elvis bobblehead. He paused at this last one, leaning in for a closer look. As soon as he was near it, he saw the faint wobble of the oversize head and immediately backed away.

Careful not to touch anything, he crossed to the back of the room. Sitting inside of a glass display case was a creepy-looking porcelain doll. The doll regarded him with cold, lifeless eyes.

“Hello, Jenny.” Mike stood and waited, unsure if the doll would even speak with him. The last time he had dealt with Jenny had been an unmitigated disaster. Jenny had lost her temper, possessed Beth, and attempted to kill him. If she turned on him again, would he even be able to defend himself?

He had spent all night thinking about how he could get into the Labyrinth without Jenny’s help but had come up blank. Right now, he needed her help, and his only hope was that she would be receptive to giving it.

A minute passed and then another. Receiving no response, Mike continued, “So I think we got off to a bad start. We’ve both had a chance to cool down, and I was hoping that, if you were interested, we could come to an agreement that means you aren’t just locked away in here. The house has plenty of room, and we could make a space just for you. One with a view, maybe? I don’t know exactly what it is that you want, but you had the chance to leave and never come back, yet you came here. There must be a reason.”

He waited another minute. The Vault was silent. His heart thudded steadily in his ears, a gentle beat that seemed to echo from the walls.

“Okay, well, I thought it would be worth a shot.” He turned to leave, carefully picking his way around the dangerous items around him.

“Wait.” Her voice echoed across the Vault, coming from several places at once. Frost accumulated on the walls, and the whole room creaked.

He crossed his arms and looked at the doll. “Okay, Jenny. I’m listening.”

Several seconds passed, but she remained silent. He was about to leave when a chill wind passed through his body, grabbing him from behind the heart and pulling him forward. The room spun around him, the Vault disappearing from sight.

Mike stood in a small room, staring at the door that had been painted on the wall. He ran his hands along it, feeling the soft grains of the wood on his fingertips. The furniture in the room had a blocky quality to it, and the sofa nearest him looked like it was made of cheap plastic. Mike knelt and ran his fingers along the edges and confirmed that it was indeed plastic.

“Jenny?” Mike called, standing. He walked up to a window, one that wasn’t just painted on. The world outside the dollhouse was full of stars, stars that slowly moved across each other with no set direction. “Jenny, where am