Ward of the White Worm

Inside the dark interior, Olli sat on a leather covered bench squished into a small ball against luggage that rattled against their straps as the carriage hurtled onwards. Equally as uncomfortably squished across from her was a pale thin man with a soft face who Olli thought was a lady at first until he spoke again. “What are you doing so far from your home, child? What are you wearing? Why are you dressed as a boy? Are you trying to go to the mills? Why did you go out on this night?!” He sounded frantic, staring at her with wide eyes almost as pale as his face.

Olli sat silently with her eyes just as wide. She had no idea how to answer almost any of those questions. She certainly did not want to tell an adult she was running away. What kind of question was that about her clothes? She was wearing a blue sweater with a peeling flower decoration and her jeans were from the girl’s section. What mills?

The carriage dipped down violently and Olli tumbled over a long trunk, and the stranger reached out and pulled her off of it so she would sit properly in the seat again. Or as properly as she could, at least. “Can you speak?” He asked.

“...Yeah,” she mumbled.

“I see the gates ahead!” The carriage driver shouted.

“Good,” the man said, relief on his face.

The carriage’s thundering wheels struck cobblestone, still rattling as the horses galloped onwards. Outside the carriage window, Olli caught sight of a tall stone wall and the shadow of an ornate gate before the carriage came to such an abrupt stop she was nearly thrown right into the stranger’s lap. Fortunately for them both, she clung to the edge of her seat and instead just slipped into a cramped little spot between two pieces of luggage.

She was not in the crammed spot for even a second though as the door opened and the pale man grabbed her by the collar of her sweater and pulled her out with him.

Outside had changed drastically. There was no sign of the park anymore, instead they were on a wide brick-layed path that sinuously curled into a thick U-shape. Dark trunked trees with heavy branches swayed and shivered as the wind rapidly picked up, standing guard before a manor that somehow seemed shriveled and ill beneath the cloudy sky. The windows looked like empty eye sockets set into a sickly white face, with ragged lips parting open for a dark mouth illuminated with a few lights like crumbling teeth.

There was a strange smell in the air, a mixture of mud, decaying meat, and sharp mint that made Olli wrinkle her nose reflexively in disgust. She tried to move back to find the path they had taken, yet the man held her wrist in a death grip.

Standing outside the manor were six ladies in long dark dresses covered in patchwork aprons, a few holding lanterns up that seemed pitiful in the darkness. Among them were also men in similar dark looking outfits, long coats shrouding their bodies as they swiftly moved forward to pull the trunks, boxes, and other luggage from the carriage that they then yanked rapidly into the entry hallway.

“Where have you been, my lord?” One woman, a paunchy red-faced elderly woman who clutched a lantern in one hand and her apron with the other. “It’s getting so close! The sky is already black! We were worried you weren’t going to make it?” She glanced down at Olli, who shrank away from her piggish stare. “Who is this?”

“None of your concern, get back inside now,” the man replied, raising his soft voice to be heard over the low moaning wind.

“Sir, the horses-” the driver said, hopping down from his perch.

“Take them to the stable, but do it quick!” The man instructed, “if you see the lights then stay in the stable, otherwise hurry back as quick as you can.”

“Yessir!”

“I’m not going in-” Olli was speaking, but nobody was listening. The pale man’s grip was as tight and inescapable as before, and now she was beginning to realize how cold it was. The air was plastering her with deep layers of chill that sunk down through her sweater and pants, past her shirt, straight into her bones. It pressed down on her head and pushed up from the soil into her sneakers and then her feet. Her teeth had been chattering and she had not even realized it. She was being pulled along, only barely able to keep up as they mounted a short stair that led to the doors. Closer now she could see the dingy hallway with a long narrow reddish rug and walls with scattered paintings barely illuminated by guttering lamps, there was a shape even further back where the light would not reach. Even with her confusion and chill she found the lamps odd enough that she twisted her head to look at them as they hurried down the hall flanked by the women and men who had been awaiting them outside. In the lamps she saw small flames dancing around, contained by grimey glass.

She was hurried down another hall, this one also badly lit and with a wooden floor that her sneakers squeaked loudly on while the floorboards were groaning under the shoes of the adults around her. It ended at a pair of doors that one man raced ahead to throw open, bowing as he gestured for the others to come inside.

Just like the wind earlier, Olli tried to push back and resist. Her heels squeaked in protest against the floor, but she could not fight the inexorable force and thus into the room she went.