annotated floorplan - simple floorplan

Diana spun around, hoping that she’d just heard wrong and the voice had come from behind, not above, but there was no one there.

She could tell that because the library was warmly lit and there was no sign of dust or dust sheets. The books looked new, and the furniture was all polished glossy wood.

What there was not was anyone near her.

At least, not at first.

For just a heartbeat, she thought the roof was leaking, something dripping down from the ceiling, but it very quickly became clear that what was descending was much too viscous for that. The gelatinous mass was a surprisingly pleasant bright blue. It gathered itself into a mound, which then thinned out vertically, and in a matter of seconds, it took on the shape of a human. Specifically, a human woman, probably a young one. Even more specifically, very curvy and entirely naked. The goo was translucent, the light shimmering through it in strange ways.

Diana yelped and jumped back, eyes wide.

The blue woman giggled. “Hello.”

“You... what...” Hastily, Diana retreated, hoping to put some distance between them.

“Please stop backing up, you’re going to...”

Something solid behind Diana whapped the back of her legs, and the middle of her back, but wasn’t quite solid enough to catch her when she stumbled.

She landed with a splat, not on the hardwood floor, but on blue goo.

Blind instinct took over, and she scrambled madly to get away from it. Slimy!

The goo oozed in the opposite direction, and reformed into the woman shape. “Oh, please calm down. I just didn’t want you to hurt yourself. I didn’t leave any of me on you and I’m not the Blob or anything, I don’t eat people. We have an excellent cook who keeps the whole family very well fed. Please just relax.”

Diana looked down at her arms, and forced herself to stop scrubbing frantically at them with her hands. Even her clothes were clean and dry.

“What the ever-loving hell are you!”

“I’m not a what, I’m a who. I’m Sally. What’s your name?”

“D-Diana.”

“Take a deep breath, Diana. In... now out... in... out... There you go. You aren’t in any danger. Mistress won’t allow that. She won’t even allow anyone to live here who would want to do that. Just keep breathing. You didn’t hurt yourself when you fell, did you?”

“I, um...” She tried to take stock. “A few bruises, maybe, from banging into the... the desk.” She’d knocked over the standing desk, in fact. Carefully, she got to her feet, and winced. “And I must have come down wrong on my foot, my ankle’s twinging a bit. But it’s nothing bad.”

“Oh dear. Well, that’s no good. How can you give the house a fair chance if you’re in pain? Thalia can get you all fixed up. Can you walk a short distance?”

Diana shifted her weight onto her bad leg, a bit at a time, and flinched. “Probably, but it’ll be slow.”

“Stay right there. I’ll get someone to help. I’m not very good at support. Physically, I mean. I think I’m okay at it emotionally and all. Here, I’ll get you a chair.” That was an odd thing to see, since she didn’t move it like a regular person. Instead, she sort of liquefied and wrapped around the legs, oozed her way over to Diana with it, then pulled herself back into her human form, leaving the chair sitting in its new location. “Just sit down there and I’ll be right back.”

Diana nodded numbly.

The goo woman melted back into a blob, and extended part of herself forward, then pulled the rest of her to join it. She moved surprisingly fast that way, and was quickly out of sight, out the door Diana had come in.

Where was her camera? She looked around frantically, and spotted it lying on the floor nearby. She slid forward in the chair and used her good foot to drag it into reach, then leaned down to pick it up.

She pulled her voice recorder out of her bag and pressed the Record button. Having a record of all this would probably help her decide in the morning whether she’d hit her head when she’d fallen.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening. This house is supposed to be empty. It was empty, when I got here. I have the photos of that. But now, it’s alive, there’s gas lighting and it’s clean and gorgeous and looks like it must have back when the original family lived here. And I was just talking to some... some thing that sometimes looks like a person, she calls herself Sally, but she’s just... just some sort of jelly thing. She acts friendly, but right now, I’m so confused about how she can even exist that I can’t even guess what her intentions are. I did fall, but I fell because I was backing away from her, so I don’t think I could be hallucinating her because of hitting my head, and besides, I think she tried to keep me from doing that by getting under me, somehow. I just... I don’t understand what’s going on. This is the fastest way to leave myself a note for later, I guess. Right now, whatever’s happening, it feels very real. Oh my god. What if there’s a gas leak or something like that, and I’m hallucinating because I’m breathing something toxic without knowing it? I should get out of here.”

She pulled the floor plan out of her pocket to check it. Yes, she was remembering correctly. From here, she should be able to go straight back, through a smallish room labelled as the card room, and into the loggia, which would be open onto the terrace at the back. That was bound to be the quickest way to get to fresh air. She stood up, unsteady, but she was sure she could make it out to the terrace. She could sit out there on one of the benches to rest, then circle around the building to the front.

Unfortunately, she’d left her car in town, and walked out here so she could enjoy the atmosphere. But maybe she could call for help from the side of the road, or something.

Or she could call right now?

She fished in her bag for her phone, flipped it open, and discovered that she had no connection at all. That was always a risk in more rural areas, of course, but usually there was something. She was in a complete dead spot. That was all the more peculiar considering that she’d used her phone to check for voicemail messages from her boyfriend before she’d turned in the driveway to the house, and it had been working normally.

All right, so she was back to the previous plan. She’d have to get out by the road to call.

Footsteps, so heavy that the floor trembled faintly, made her look up.

Suddenly light-headed, she sank back into the chair. The floor wasn’t the only thing trembling.

The man ducked to get through the door, and it wasn’t only to get his horns past the top of the frame. He had to turn sideways, too, because his shoulders were just too wide.

“M... min...” Diana stuttered.

The blue band wrapped diagonally from one broad shoulder to the opposite hip uncoiled and dripped to the floor, forming into Sally’s human shape. “Minotaur,” she said helpfully. “This is Jake. He’s going to help you get to Thalia.”

Diana had read countless stories involving women swooning in response to fear and overwhelming emotion, but she’d never in her life fainted for any reason.

She didn’t completely pass out, but the world did get extremely dark and foggy and felt like it was moving.

“Oh dear,” Sally said worriedly. “We’d better bring her to Thalia quickly.”

The huge bull-headed, hooved man snorted, and scooped Diana up like a child with unexpected gentleness. The motion made her feel queasy. She scrunched her eyes closed, clinging to her bag, and hoping fervently that this was going to end soon.