Page 77 of Goldilocks

A measure of anxiety filled Sam, despite this being a story from Goldilocks’s childhood and well in the past.

“As soon as I stepped upon the wooden boards of the house, they collapsed beneath my feet, and I fell into a deep and dark pit. Great weights of chains fell upon my back, and that beast fell upon me with them.”

Sam reached for Goldilocks’s hand and squeezed it. Goldilocks’s jaw remained tense, but as he spoke, rather than afraid, he seemed angry. Or perhaps disgusted?

Goldilocks’s gaze flicked up. “Do not fear,” he said. “I am a child no longer, and I can fell any ghoul that crosses my path with ease. Drink,” Goldilocks prompted. “I will show you what they can become.”

Sam looked at the medicine. If Goldilocks could open up and talk about being assaulted as a child, then Sam would suck it up and drink this without a word of complaint. He tilted back his head and downed it all.

The drink was horrendous. He jammed a hand to his mouth to stop himself from spitting it out. When he finally swallowed, Goldilocks offered him a glass of sparkling wine, and Sam downed the entire thing at once to chase the taste of the sickeningly sweet and bitter concoction away.

Goldilocks repacked his cuts with a salve and wrapped them tidily in white bandages.

“Come.” Goldilocks stood. They took a route Sam didn’t know, going deeper into the villa through open courtyards and long halls. People Goldilocks identified as ‘servants’ when Sam asked rushed here and there and greenery invaded from the outside, but when they stepped into a certain room, a sudden chill surrounded Sam from all sides. He could see his own breaths in the air beneath his nose and shivers prickled up his arms, leaving him wishing for the sweater he’d left behind in the bedroom. Sam glanced at Goldilocks, but he seemed unaffected by the cold. His golden eyes were fixed ahead, and Sam followed his gaze.

A strange mural hung on the wall in an otherwise empty room. They were completely indoors, yet there was no pool of water for a merman to gain entry, and dim blue lighting came from shell-shaped sconces that lined the walls.

Goldilocks advanced, his body a rigid line of tension, and Sam slowly followed. Red brick became a strange greenish colour with the blue light cast upon it, making the entire room seem murky and dark. As they approached the tapestry, the vague figure of a merman appeared, but Sam’s eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and he realised the edges of the tapestry were not fabric but instead wood. The figure in the middle was not woven artfully with thread but stood in relief from the wooden board it was against.

Wires jutted from the board. Twisted copper wrapped around the figure, supporting an upright position, holding the thing off the ground. Sam stopped walking, realising with a wash of chills he was looking at a corpse. And a hideous corpse, at that.

It had a tail like a merman, only very small and misshaped, with dull brown and black scales. Its torso was mottled all over, as if its very skin was diseased, with pustules of the ugliest red crowding greyish skin. Its face was incredibly damaged. One side caved in entirely, and the side that wasn’t crushed had long slashes marring the skin. Four deep marks that cut right to the bone.

Sam’s heart beat faster the longer he looked, horror and disgust rising within him.

“The Brothers gifted the body to Vi,” Goldilocks said, his voice echoing as if they were in a church or a crypt. The coldness made sense, Sam realised. A freezer to keep the corpse from decomposing. “After it killed Belle.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sam’s heart plummeted.

“Your sister?”

Goldilocks gazed at the corpse, expressionless. “She came to free me. And she did, at the cost of her own life.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam said. The words felt dumb in his mouth. He’d realised that Goldilocks’s sister was no longer around, but he hadn’t been brave enough to ask after her. He hadn’t guessed that she’d been killed. And been killed by a monster. By…this thing. Sam’s gaze returned to the corpse, and the sight of it clashed with the worm he’d seen on his boat. “They grow up to look like this?”

“They mimic what they consume,” Goldilocks explained. “And a ghoul that feeds from something powerful mimics that power.”

Sam digested that. He checked Goldilocks’s expression before continuing with another question. “What about your mother?” He was afraid to hear the answer. “Her drawing?”

“I never found the answer to that,” Goldilocks said. “My parents departed from these shores years ago to search for the last monarch when she vanished. They never returned. The Brothers investigated, as they have many resources on land, but they found no answers either. Most likely she is dead. Her memories feasted upon and used to find and trap me.” His gaze slid to the muddy tail. There was a dispassionate note in Goldilocks’s voice that Sam didn’t trust. He knew with himself it was often when he was the most upset that his voice came out flattest.

“Who are The Brothers?” Sam asked.

“Merfolk. They hold court in the old monarch’s castle. One rules, the other amuses himself with battles,” Goldilocks explained. “The city has been under their control for over a decade. Both hardly even venture into the ocean anymore, more amused by what they find on land. It is why they could prevail against the ghoul, where neither I nor Belle could. They are accustomed to fighting on land.”

As he spoke, Goldilocks continued to stare at the ghoul. That muscle in his jaw remained taunt. Sam stepped up to his side and reached for his hand. His skin was shockingly hot in the freezing room. Goldilocks’s face jerked toward Sam with a look of surprise. “You are cold.”

“We’re standing in a freezer.” Sam was shivering. “You swim around in the depths of the ocean; you’re used to the cold. I’m not.”

Goldilocks grunted. “Come. We will warm ourselves in the sun.” The bleakness in his eyes vanished.

Goldilocks exited, guiding him by the hand. Sam threw a last look over his shoulder at the ghoulish, awful thing on the far wall and took in a deep breath of warm air as the door shut behind them with a thud. Sam didn’t know if it was a normal thing here to keep corpses in your house, but as they walked through the vast estate, Sam could understand. This place was so large you could almost forget that tucked away in the back was that horror.

“You and Vi are still close?” Sam asked as they entered the garden where they’d first eaten together. If his parents had left when he was a baby, and his sister had died when he was a child, wouldn’t that mean Vi had raised him?

“Belle once held court here, and after she passed, Vi offered it to me. She and her household are under my protection now.” Goldilocks released Sam’s hand to pull out a chair and indicated for Sam to sit. As Sam sank into the chair, Goldilocks smoothed his hands over his shoulders. “As are you,” he added. “And your family. I have spoken to Vi about suitable rooms and care to be arranged for your sire. I will even have Jasper catch his birds from your garden to bring here.”