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A muffled whimper echoed from the front door. Nora’s heart dropped. They were both in there: Madeline and her mother.

The pillars sheared through the front windows. Nora screamed. Lucille ran for the house, and Nora followed her inside.

forty-two

AUGUST 2024

LUCILLEthrew herself back into the house. She couldn’t tell who was screaming anymore. She frantically tried to dodge the vines. If one got her, it was all over.

On the other side of the house, Elaine stood frozen in the living room, staring out at the garden in a daze.

“Ma?” Lucille heard Nora shout. “We need to get out of here!”

Find Madeline, Lucille thought. There was a writhing mass of vines on the floor, in the middle of which was her daughter’s head. She wasn’t moving. A vine was curling its way around her neck.

Lucille grabbed desperately for her daughter. She tried to pull her by the shoulders, but the vines didn’t release. “I can’t!” she screamed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “It’s not—” She whimpered. She felt a tug as a vine wrapped around her ankle.Let them take me.She wasn’t letting go of her daughter.

Nora ran over and stood by her side, wrapping her arms around the vines, her teeth gritted. “There’s thorns!” she cried. “Be careful!”

A faint croak came from Madeline. Her eyes bulged.

Drywall tumbled around them along with bits of glass.

“She’s losing consciousness.” Nora sat back on her heels, her eyes full of panic.

“What are you doing?” Lucille yelled as she tried to grasp at smaller tendrils.

Nora leaned over Madeline. She placed her hand over where a thorny stem had punctured Madeline’s arm, and blood was streaming.She raked her palm over the thorny vines, gritting her teeth, and her hand came away streaked with blood.

Instantly, the thorns recoiled. Nora reached down and, with a grunt, pried the vines from Madeline’s neck. “Help me!” Nora yelled.

Lucille pulled with her, and the vine slowly gave way, letting Madeline suck in a shuddering gasp.

“Pull,” Nora said, her hands now covered in blood. “PULL!”

Lucille heaved backward again, and the vines withdrew from Madeline all at once, so quickly that her head hit the floor. She was going in and out of consciousness, her lips pale, her limbs frantically jerking about, as if she were still trying to free herself.

Painstakingly, they half dragged her out of the living room. “Ma!” Nora shouted over her shoulder. “Wake up!”

Elaine stared at them across the living room. She shuffled forward, stepping on vines that immediately recoiled from her feet.

Lucille looked up. High above them, cracks in the ceiling ruptured toward the chandelier. Rennie’s door was still closed.

She turned to Nora. “Get Madeline out.”

“You’re—”

“I need to get my sister.”

Elaine stepped into the foyer, her eyes glazed. “Leave,” she said flatly, as if still in a trance. “It’s not yours anymore.”

Just then, the chandelier detached from the ceiling.

Lucille threw herself at Elaine and they toppled toward the doorway. The chandelier landed with a horrific, screeching crash, glass exploding everywhere. Lucille ducked and pain split through her arm. She uncovered her head to see her arms studded with shards of glass and blood. “Getout,” Lucille shrieked. She shoved Elaine toward the entrance.

Lucille then ran toward the stairs, dodging the vines that lashed out at her. When she was halfway up, the steps behind her caved in as more vines punctured the wall. There was no way back down but couldn’t think about it now.

On the second-floor hallway, the entirety of the railing had been torn away by vines. To her right, there was a sheer drop down to thefoyer. To her left was the crumbling wall. Above her, the ceiling split apart.