Bizenghast Fanfiction: Edaniel's Busy Day
Well, my exercise in writing nearly serious fanfiction is almost to a close. This is the second to last part of Edaniel's Busy Day. And nevermind that all this is probably been rendered ridiculous by the release of the second book. Oh, well. Chapter four:
Edaniel’s Busy Day
Chapter Four: Way Too Damn Long
“We should go back to the tower room first,” said Edaniel, as Dinah knelt and tied the string around his neck in a thin, floppy bow. As Dinah leaned back to consider her handiwork, it drooped rather depressingly to the floor. She quickly tied the bow in a double, then triple, knot to keep Edaniel from tripping on the loose loops.
“Thanks,” said Edaniel. “Heh. Get me! I’m dapper! I’m debonair! I’m puttin’ on the Ritz!”
“Why the tower room?” asked Dinah, standing and dusting off her skirt futilely.
“Always best to check the lair first,” replied Edaniel. “Also, she probably hasn’t gone too far. Knows we’re still in the maze. Might even know we’re on her side. C’mon.”
It was no better traipsing through the moldering corridors even with the ghost of Margaret gone. If anything it was worse, as Dinah had no idea how things would turn out, and wasn’t sure she wanted to either.
“Are Lillian’s husband and son ghosts too?” asked Dinah, attempting to use conversation to mask her anxiety. “It would be awful to simply lie on a table for all eternity while your murderer torments your loved one.”
“Nah,” said Edaniel. “They’re just props.”
“Props?”
“Yeah, like in a play. Margie and Lills are acting out their angsty melodrama for all eternity, but they can’t do that without a couple of dead blokes taking up space on their dining room table. They’re just there to fill up narrative space in the sisters’ story. Like the candelabra or the stairs or the house itself. Not conscious ghosts. Just objects.”
“But you couldn’t have a conscious ghost house,” said Dinah sensibly.
“So you think,” replied Edaniel.
Three rights wasn’t a far walk. As they rounded the final corner, Dinah could see the entrance of what could loosely be termed Lillian’s home. There was a simple arched entrance in the bottom of the tower, not unlike the entrance to a cave. A rank smell drifted out, wet and sick, like sweat mixed with something sharp and coopery that Dinah recognized, but couldn’t quite articulate. The low light from the flickering torches did not extend into the dwelling, making it impossible for her to see if anyone was inside. They would have to approach.
Edaniel trotted forward as if there was nothing to worry about, entering the darkness. “Ewwwwww,” he said.
“Is she there?” asked Dinah, not quite ready to brave the unknown.
“Nah, but you should come see this.”
Entering the darkness, Dinah waited for her eyes to adjust. When she could finally make out the room she was in, she gasped. The smell was stronger and seemed to mostly come from a dirty pallet in a far back corner (as much as a circular room could have a corner). There was a dark stain right next to it, and Dinah was certain it was not spilt water. There was little else that could be called furniture, only a battered tin cup and a broom handle that was jaggedly broken. Filth and spiders occupied the rest of the circular room. A millipede crawled across the split handle, unaware of the visitors. “How could she live like this?” she wondered, appalled at the conditions in which Lillian Caine had lived and died.
“I doubt she lived very long,” said Edainel. “Probably starved or committed suicide or sommat. But never mind how she bought the farm, check out this drawing.”
Dinah hadn’t noticed before, but over the rancid pallet, about a foot off the ground, was a shaky line drawing daubed on the wall with dark paint. It was hard to make out, being done in dark colors on top of a dark color in a dark room. Dinah knelt down and leaned forward until her nose was almost pressed against the drawing. The lines were all connected and radiated out from a center dot like…
“A maze!” cried Dinah. “It’s the Maze! She mapped it out!”
“Good on her,” said Edaniel.
“But how did she make it? There’s nothing to paint with.” Dinah lightly touched the drawing and watched it flake onto her fingers. Rubbing her fingers together, Dinah considered. That smell she couldn’t quite identify. It was stronger by the picture. Staring at the dark lines, it suddenly clicked in her head. She threw herself back, stumbling on the pallet. She landed on her rear with her hand in the dark stain. “Oh God!” she gasped. “It’s blood!” She skittered backwards like a crab to escape, nearly managed to tangle herself up in the yarn trailing from Edaniel’s neck, and huddled against the wall, clutching her wrist.
“Yeah,” said Edaniel. “Like I said: ‘Ew.’” Padding up to the drawing, Edaniel cocked his head and said, “Huh. I wonder what all these x’s are.”
Dinah did not respond, as she was still traumatized in the corner. Edaniel glanced at her over his shoulder and sighed. “Do you want me to do a dramatic reading of Shakespeare? Will that make you feel better? I do an excellent Hamlet,” he asked.
“NO,” replied Dinah emphatically.
“Well, then, help me look at these x’s. They’re all over the map. I wonder what they mean.”
“They are an escape,” said a hollow voice from behind them. Twisting around and shrieking in shock, Dinah turned to the entrance to find the rag-doll form of Lillian Caine standing in the entrance behind them. Edaniel strolled over and stood between them.
“Oh, look. You made Dinah scream in horror,” said Edaniel. “Not that this is particularly difficult.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” whispered Lillian, as she slid back into the maze, away from Dinah and Edaniel. “I didn’t mean-”
“It’s all right,” said Dinah, not exactly meaning it, but wanting to calm down the ghost. She stood and put out her hand in what was presumably a reassuring gesture, but looked more like “Stop! In the name of Love!”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” repeated Lily.
“Don’t be sorry, woman!” snapped Edaniel. “Be angry! Your sister’s a murderous loony! And we’re going to help you get yours!”
“What?” asked the ghost.
“You can’t spend your whole after life scurrying about a maze with no cheese at the end!” cried Edaniel. “We’ll help you get your cheese! Save yourself from your sister and you’ll have all the cheese you want! Mountains of cheese! Cheese to the moon! A moon of cheese! Though not green cheese; that’s just gross.”
“What?” asked the ghost again, clearly discombobulated by Edaniel, as all right- or nearly-right-thinking people are.
“We’re here to help,” said Dinah.
“Oh,” said Lillian. “Thank you?”
“Now, what’s this about escape?” asked Edaniel keenly.
Though still visibly unsure, Lillian beckoned Dinah and Edaniel to follow her into the maze proper. Standing at the wall directly across from her lair’s entrance, Lily started running her hands over the dusty surface. Dinah boggled for a moment, but all became clear when, with an audible crunch, the wall creaked open like a door. Lillian held it open for a moment, and then, pulling away her hand, let it crash shut.
“Secret passages?” asked an amazed Dinah.
“Sweeeeeeet,” said Edaniel.
“My grandmother put them in,” said Lillian. “She didn’t think an inescapable maze under the house was very genteel.”
“Most high society frowns upon inescapable mazes,” agreed Edaniel.
“All those x’s!” cried Dinah. “Are they all secret passages?”
“Oh, yes,” replied the ghost, “it’s actually quite impossible to get lost, if you know they’re there. There’s a passage in just about every section of wall. Sometimes more than one, if it’s a support wall. Sections of the wall are on hinges, and when you find the latch, they spring open. You have to hold them open, however, because they’ll close automatically.” Lillian had become quite animated during the conversation, and Dinah could almost see the bright, lively woman Lillian Caine could have been.
“Yeah,” said Edaniel, “this is really educational and all, but it doesn’t help us. We already know where the exit is. The problem is more the locked gate.”
“Unless there’s another exit?” asked Dinah hopefully.
Lillian’s energy faded before their eyes. “Not anymore,” she said, shoulders slumping. “Margaret collapsed it.”
“Well, then,” said Edaniel. “There’s only one thing to be done: bring down the house.”
Dinah and Lillian stared at him. “What?” they asked together. Dinah hadn’t believed she would find kinship with a ghost, but Edaniel had a way of bridging minor differences like Life and Death.
“Well, I’d raise the roof, but that doesn’t seem like a feasible plan,” he continued. “Now, we have to be careful because otherwise we’ll all die, and that’s counterproductive.”
“Edaniel,” interrupted Dinah, “how are we going to collapse the house? I’m still stuck on that point.”
“We’re going to open all the secret passages, of course. You heard Margaret earlier. This Maze here supports the house. We open up all the passages, the load-bearing walls can no longer bear loads, and presto-changeo, the whole thing comes down like a house of mortar and bricks, which is like a house of cards, only much, much heavier.”
“Won’t we be trapped down here?” asked Dinah.
“Dinah,” said Edaniel, “before the dust even settles, it won’t really be an issue for us anymore, capiche?”
And while Dinah did capiche, she was still not exactly thrilled with this plan. Lillian seemed to be seriously considering it, however. “The passages will close if we don’t hold them open,” she said, “but we can prop them open with debris from the collapsed exit.”
“See, now you’ve got it,” said Edaniel. “Why can’t you be more like Lily here, Dinah? Perfectly willing to throw yourself face first into the brick wall of danger? Now put your best hat on, grab that yarn, and let’s get some rocks.”
Lillian had started by leading them through the secret passages, but that plan was quickly nixed when Edaniel’s yarn trail kept getting caught in the closing doors (“Why don’t we untie it?” “Because it’s pretty, woman!”). As he was not particularly fond of choking, Lillian led them the long way around the Maze. She explained that she had had plenty of time to wander around, and no longer needed the map she had drawn on the wall. Dinah studiously pretended she did not know exactly why Lillian had had all this time on her hands. “We used to play here, Margaret and I,” chatted Lillian, who seemed to be overcoming her fear of the girl and cat monster. “Our parents encouraged it, telling us we were exploring our rich heritage.”
“-of crazy,” added Edaniel sotto voce to Dinah.
The light, though vaguely morbid, conversation made the time pass quickly as they scurried through the winding turns of the Maze, until Dinah felt as if she had been walking for miles without actually getting anywhere. But Lily plugged along, stopping from time to time to wipe dust off the latches of some of the further away secret passages. “You may need to run,” she said cheerfully.
At last they reached a particularly dark cul-de-sac. The roof had been caved in with a large oak whose broken, dead top was still rotting in the Maze. Earth littered with large New England rocks had fallen in after the tree, blocking any passage out. Lillian told them they were far from the house; they had walked down the hill to the edge of the forest at which Dinah and Edaniel had appeared. “I don’t think I can carry enough rocks back to hold open all those doors,” said Dinah worriedly.
“I have the bag from my bag of yarn,” said Edaniel. “That should help us out. Also, I can eat them.”
“Eat them?” asked Dinah.
“Eat them,” stated Edaniel matter-of-factly.
“We can use our skirts to carry some, too,” said Lillian.
“My dress is already ruined,” agreed Dinah, looking down sadly at the filthy tatters her hem had become.
“First of all, Dinah, take this yarn off me,” said Edaniel. “We’ll leave it on the ground to follow once the house starts collapsing. We won’t want to be messing around with secret passages then.”
As Dinah filled the bag with rocks, Edaniel went around unhinging his jaw and swallowing a large number of rocks. Lillian and Dinah frequently stopped to watch in undisguised horror as Edaniel ate the rocks like a snake would a mouse. “Stop that,” he said. “You’re making me nervous and putting me off my lunch.”
Hurrying back to the part of the Maze under the house, Lillian picked out a number of doors they could prop open first without crashing the mansion down on their heads all at once. Opening all these doors was sweaty work and Dinah wondered how much time they had left until dawn in the real world. It felt like this vault had gone on forever.
When only a few select doors had been left unopened to maintain the structural integrity of the building until the last possible moment, Edaniel then suggested that they practice opening, blocking and rushing to the secret passages. Dinah felt mighty strange running this unusual relay with a ghost and a green cat. Lillian would rush to a secret passage and hit the latch, while Dinah would take a large rock from the bag and force it under and against the open door. Edaniel would run through, open the next door while Lillian pulled out rock. Then Dinah would rush through, unlatch another passage, Edaniel would regurgitate up a stone, and so on.
It was all very bizarre.
Finally, Edaniel pulled out a stopwatch and clapped his paws. “All right, guys. It’s time to put this operation into motion. I’ll be timing us.”
They had mapped out exactly which doors to open in what order to disturb the building above them and hopefully avoid getting killed by the falling house. Dinah had no desire to go out like a bad witch. Steadying herself at the first door, Dinah took a deep breath, found the secret latch and opened the door.
They were off.
It was dizzying work; the moment Dinah finished one task she was off on another. She barely noticed the slight shifting and noises from above her. Her head was too busy spinning as she sped through the Maze, taking rapid directions from Lillian and varied cheerleading from Edaniel.
At last there was a creak too loud to ignore that shuddered through the ceiling, causing Dinah and Lillian to freeze. “There it goes,” said Edaniel. “About time. Keep moving, ladies.”
The noises from the house above them became increasingly louder as they continued their relay through the Maze’s secret passages. As Dinah was wedging a rock into a door held open by Edaniel, a new sound echoed through the Maze. “Lily! What are you doing?” It was Margaret. Lillian shivered, but ignored her sister’s wrath and hurried through the door to open the next passage.
“Lily!” called Margaret. It seemed she had entered the Maze to seek out her sister. “You stop this right now, or I’ll cut their heads off!” Lily froze and looked around in wide-eyed horror.
While she hesitated in indecision, she and Dinah were thrown to the ground when a part of the house fell into the Maze with a terrific crash far to their left. Margaret, wherever she was, screamed aloud and shouted, “I swear I will, Lily! I’m going upstairs right now!”
Lily gave a low, horrified cry and started to run back toward the entrance. “Robert!” she cried.
“Lillian!” Dinah screamed. “Lillian, come back! You’ll be crushed!”
“Let her go,” advised Edaniel. “That’s what she wants.”
Dinah hesitated only a moment to watch Lillian’s back disappear around a corner before running after Edaniel. The ground shook directly behind her as the large house collapsed into the Maze, kicking up vast amounts of dust that filled Dinah’s eyes. She could no longer see the yarn trail through her tears, but merely followed Edaniel’s bright green body skittering around the corners like a sentient Day-Glo skateboard. Her lungs heaved as they tried to breathe in the fine powder all around her, and she stumbled frequently when particularly strong earthquakes rocked the Maze.
Suddenly, from behind her, a bright light cut through the dense dust cloud, causing Dinah to throw her arms over her eyes for protection. The deafening noise faded away, the terrible shaking of the ground ceased, and Dinah found herself and Edaniel sprawled on the floor of the Sunken Mausoleum, alive and safe once more.
“Edaniel!” cried Dinah, pulling herself off the dusty Mausoleum floor. “We’re alive! We did it! We saved Lillian!” Overjoyed with the revelation that she was not dead and had survived even without Vincent, Dinah swept Edaniel up into her arms and gave the cat monster a big hug.
“Man,” said Edaniel extracting himself from her embrace, “I can’t take you anywhere, can I?”
Edaniel’s Busy Day
Chapter Four: Way Too Damn Long
“We should go back to the tower room first,” said Edaniel, as Dinah knelt and tied the string around his neck in a thin, floppy bow. As Dinah leaned back to consider her handiwork, it drooped rather depressingly to the floor. She quickly tied the bow in a double, then triple, knot to keep Edaniel from tripping on the loose loops.
“Thanks,” said Edaniel. “Heh. Get me! I’m dapper! I’m debonair! I’m puttin’ on the Ritz!”
“Why the tower room?” asked Dinah, standing and dusting off her skirt futilely.
“Always best to check the lair first,” replied Edaniel. “Also, she probably hasn’t gone too far. Knows we’re still in the maze. Might even know we’re on her side. C’mon.”
It was no better traipsing through the moldering corridors even with the ghost of Margaret gone. If anything it was worse, as Dinah had no idea how things would turn out, and wasn’t sure she wanted to either.
“Are Lillian’s husband and son ghosts too?” asked Dinah, attempting to use conversation to mask her anxiety. “It would be awful to simply lie on a table for all eternity while your murderer torments your loved one.”
“Nah,” said Edaniel. “They’re just props.”
“Props?”
“Yeah, like in a play. Margie and Lills are acting out their angsty melodrama for all eternity, but they can’t do that without a couple of dead blokes taking up space on their dining room table. They’re just there to fill up narrative space in the sisters’ story. Like the candelabra or the stairs or the house itself. Not conscious ghosts. Just objects.”
“But you couldn’t have a conscious ghost house,” said Dinah sensibly.
“So you think,” replied Edaniel.
Three rights wasn’t a far walk. As they rounded the final corner, Dinah could see the entrance of what could loosely be termed Lillian’s home. There was a simple arched entrance in the bottom of the tower, not unlike the entrance to a cave. A rank smell drifted out, wet and sick, like sweat mixed with something sharp and coopery that Dinah recognized, but couldn’t quite articulate. The low light from the flickering torches did not extend into the dwelling, making it impossible for her to see if anyone was inside. They would have to approach.
Edaniel trotted forward as if there was nothing to worry about, entering the darkness. “Ewwwwww,” he said.
“Is she there?” asked Dinah, not quite ready to brave the unknown.
“Nah, but you should come see this.”
Entering the darkness, Dinah waited for her eyes to adjust. When she could finally make out the room she was in, she gasped. The smell was stronger and seemed to mostly come from a dirty pallet in a far back corner (as much as a circular room could have a corner). There was a dark stain right next to it, and Dinah was certain it was not spilt water. There was little else that could be called furniture, only a battered tin cup and a broom handle that was jaggedly broken. Filth and spiders occupied the rest of the circular room. A millipede crawled across the split handle, unaware of the visitors. “How could she live like this?” she wondered, appalled at the conditions in which Lillian Caine had lived and died.
“I doubt she lived very long,” said Edainel. “Probably starved or committed suicide or sommat. But never mind how she bought the farm, check out this drawing.”
Dinah hadn’t noticed before, but over the rancid pallet, about a foot off the ground, was a shaky line drawing daubed on the wall with dark paint. It was hard to make out, being done in dark colors on top of a dark color in a dark room. Dinah knelt down and leaned forward until her nose was almost pressed against the drawing. The lines were all connected and radiated out from a center dot like…
“A maze!” cried Dinah. “It’s the Maze! She mapped it out!”
“Good on her,” said Edaniel.
“But how did she make it? There’s nothing to paint with.” Dinah lightly touched the drawing and watched it flake onto her fingers. Rubbing her fingers together, Dinah considered. That smell she couldn’t quite identify. It was stronger by the picture. Staring at the dark lines, it suddenly clicked in her head. She threw herself back, stumbling on the pallet. She landed on her rear with her hand in the dark stain. “Oh God!” she gasped. “It’s blood!” She skittered backwards like a crab to escape, nearly managed to tangle herself up in the yarn trailing from Edaniel’s neck, and huddled against the wall, clutching her wrist.
“Yeah,” said Edaniel. “Like I said: ‘Ew.’” Padding up to the drawing, Edaniel cocked his head and said, “Huh. I wonder what all these x’s are.”
Dinah did not respond, as she was still traumatized in the corner. Edaniel glanced at her over his shoulder and sighed. “Do you want me to do a dramatic reading of Shakespeare? Will that make you feel better? I do an excellent Hamlet,” he asked.
“NO,” replied Dinah emphatically.
“Well, then, help me look at these x’s. They’re all over the map. I wonder what they mean.”
“They are an escape,” said a hollow voice from behind them. Twisting around and shrieking in shock, Dinah turned to the entrance to find the rag-doll form of Lillian Caine standing in the entrance behind them. Edaniel strolled over and stood between them.
“Oh, look. You made Dinah scream in horror,” said Edaniel. “Not that this is particularly difficult.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” whispered Lillian, as she slid back into the maze, away from Dinah and Edaniel. “I didn’t mean-”
“It’s all right,” said Dinah, not exactly meaning it, but wanting to calm down the ghost. She stood and put out her hand in what was presumably a reassuring gesture, but looked more like “Stop! In the name of Love!”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” repeated Lily.
“Don’t be sorry, woman!” snapped Edaniel. “Be angry! Your sister’s a murderous loony! And we’re going to help you get yours!”
“What?” asked the ghost.
“You can’t spend your whole after life scurrying about a maze with no cheese at the end!” cried Edaniel. “We’ll help you get your cheese! Save yourself from your sister and you’ll have all the cheese you want! Mountains of cheese! Cheese to the moon! A moon of cheese! Though not green cheese; that’s just gross.”
“What?” asked the ghost again, clearly discombobulated by Edaniel, as all right- or nearly-right-thinking people are.
“We’re here to help,” said Dinah.
“Oh,” said Lillian. “Thank you?”
“Now, what’s this about escape?” asked Edaniel keenly.
Though still visibly unsure, Lillian beckoned Dinah and Edaniel to follow her into the maze proper. Standing at the wall directly across from her lair’s entrance, Lily started running her hands over the dusty surface. Dinah boggled for a moment, but all became clear when, with an audible crunch, the wall creaked open like a door. Lillian held it open for a moment, and then, pulling away her hand, let it crash shut.
“Secret passages?” asked an amazed Dinah.
“Sweeeeeeet,” said Edaniel.
“My grandmother put them in,” said Lillian. “She didn’t think an inescapable maze under the house was very genteel.”
“Most high society frowns upon inescapable mazes,” agreed Edaniel.
“All those x’s!” cried Dinah. “Are they all secret passages?”
“Oh, yes,” replied the ghost, “it’s actually quite impossible to get lost, if you know they’re there. There’s a passage in just about every section of wall. Sometimes more than one, if it’s a support wall. Sections of the wall are on hinges, and when you find the latch, they spring open. You have to hold them open, however, because they’ll close automatically.” Lillian had become quite animated during the conversation, and Dinah could almost see the bright, lively woman Lillian Caine could have been.
“Yeah,” said Edaniel, “this is really educational and all, but it doesn’t help us. We already know where the exit is. The problem is more the locked gate.”
“Unless there’s another exit?” asked Dinah hopefully.
Lillian’s energy faded before their eyes. “Not anymore,” she said, shoulders slumping. “Margaret collapsed it.”
“Well, then,” said Edaniel. “There’s only one thing to be done: bring down the house.”
Dinah and Lillian stared at him. “What?” they asked together. Dinah hadn’t believed she would find kinship with a ghost, but Edaniel had a way of bridging minor differences like Life and Death.
“Well, I’d raise the roof, but that doesn’t seem like a feasible plan,” he continued. “Now, we have to be careful because otherwise we’ll all die, and that’s counterproductive.”
“Edaniel,” interrupted Dinah, “how are we going to collapse the house? I’m still stuck on that point.”
“We’re going to open all the secret passages, of course. You heard Margaret earlier. This Maze here supports the house. We open up all the passages, the load-bearing walls can no longer bear loads, and presto-changeo, the whole thing comes down like a house of mortar and bricks, which is like a house of cards, only much, much heavier.”
“Won’t we be trapped down here?” asked Dinah.
“Dinah,” said Edaniel, “before the dust even settles, it won’t really be an issue for us anymore, capiche?”
And while Dinah did capiche, she was still not exactly thrilled with this plan. Lillian seemed to be seriously considering it, however. “The passages will close if we don’t hold them open,” she said, “but we can prop them open with debris from the collapsed exit.”
“See, now you’ve got it,” said Edaniel. “Why can’t you be more like Lily here, Dinah? Perfectly willing to throw yourself face first into the brick wall of danger? Now put your best hat on, grab that yarn, and let’s get some rocks.”
Lillian had started by leading them through the secret passages, but that plan was quickly nixed when Edaniel’s yarn trail kept getting caught in the closing doors (“Why don’t we untie it?” “Because it’s pretty, woman!”). As he was not particularly fond of choking, Lillian led them the long way around the Maze. She explained that she had had plenty of time to wander around, and no longer needed the map she had drawn on the wall. Dinah studiously pretended she did not know exactly why Lillian had had all this time on her hands. “We used to play here, Margaret and I,” chatted Lillian, who seemed to be overcoming her fear of the girl and cat monster. “Our parents encouraged it, telling us we were exploring our rich heritage.”
“-of crazy,” added Edaniel sotto voce to Dinah.
The light, though vaguely morbid, conversation made the time pass quickly as they scurried through the winding turns of the Maze, until Dinah felt as if she had been walking for miles without actually getting anywhere. But Lily plugged along, stopping from time to time to wipe dust off the latches of some of the further away secret passages. “You may need to run,” she said cheerfully.
At last they reached a particularly dark cul-de-sac. The roof had been caved in with a large oak whose broken, dead top was still rotting in the Maze. Earth littered with large New England rocks had fallen in after the tree, blocking any passage out. Lillian told them they were far from the house; they had walked down the hill to the edge of the forest at which Dinah and Edaniel had appeared. “I don’t think I can carry enough rocks back to hold open all those doors,” said Dinah worriedly.
“I have the bag from my bag of yarn,” said Edaniel. “That should help us out. Also, I can eat them.”
“Eat them?” asked Dinah.
“Eat them,” stated Edaniel matter-of-factly.
“We can use our skirts to carry some, too,” said Lillian.
“My dress is already ruined,” agreed Dinah, looking down sadly at the filthy tatters her hem had become.
“First of all, Dinah, take this yarn off me,” said Edaniel. “We’ll leave it on the ground to follow once the house starts collapsing. We won’t want to be messing around with secret passages then.”
As Dinah filled the bag with rocks, Edaniel went around unhinging his jaw and swallowing a large number of rocks. Lillian and Dinah frequently stopped to watch in undisguised horror as Edaniel ate the rocks like a snake would a mouse. “Stop that,” he said. “You’re making me nervous and putting me off my lunch.”
Hurrying back to the part of the Maze under the house, Lillian picked out a number of doors they could prop open first without crashing the mansion down on their heads all at once. Opening all these doors was sweaty work and Dinah wondered how much time they had left until dawn in the real world. It felt like this vault had gone on forever.
When only a few select doors had been left unopened to maintain the structural integrity of the building until the last possible moment, Edaniel then suggested that they practice opening, blocking and rushing to the secret passages. Dinah felt mighty strange running this unusual relay with a ghost and a green cat. Lillian would rush to a secret passage and hit the latch, while Dinah would take a large rock from the bag and force it under and against the open door. Edaniel would run through, open the next door while Lillian pulled out rock. Then Dinah would rush through, unlatch another passage, Edaniel would regurgitate up a stone, and so on.
It was all very bizarre.
Finally, Edaniel pulled out a stopwatch and clapped his paws. “All right, guys. It’s time to put this operation into motion. I’ll be timing us.”
They had mapped out exactly which doors to open in what order to disturb the building above them and hopefully avoid getting killed by the falling house. Dinah had no desire to go out like a bad witch. Steadying herself at the first door, Dinah took a deep breath, found the secret latch and opened the door.
They were off.
It was dizzying work; the moment Dinah finished one task she was off on another. She barely noticed the slight shifting and noises from above her. Her head was too busy spinning as she sped through the Maze, taking rapid directions from Lillian and varied cheerleading from Edaniel.
At last there was a creak too loud to ignore that shuddered through the ceiling, causing Dinah and Lillian to freeze. “There it goes,” said Edaniel. “About time. Keep moving, ladies.”
The noises from the house above them became increasingly louder as they continued their relay through the Maze’s secret passages. As Dinah was wedging a rock into a door held open by Edaniel, a new sound echoed through the Maze. “Lily! What are you doing?” It was Margaret. Lillian shivered, but ignored her sister’s wrath and hurried through the door to open the next passage.
“Lily!” called Margaret. It seemed she had entered the Maze to seek out her sister. “You stop this right now, or I’ll cut their heads off!” Lily froze and looked around in wide-eyed horror.
While she hesitated in indecision, she and Dinah were thrown to the ground when a part of the house fell into the Maze with a terrific crash far to their left. Margaret, wherever she was, screamed aloud and shouted, “I swear I will, Lily! I’m going upstairs right now!”
Lily gave a low, horrified cry and started to run back toward the entrance. “Robert!” she cried.
“Lillian!” Dinah screamed. “Lillian, come back! You’ll be crushed!”
“Let her go,” advised Edaniel. “That’s what she wants.”
Dinah hesitated only a moment to watch Lillian’s back disappear around a corner before running after Edaniel. The ground shook directly behind her as the large house collapsed into the Maze, kicking up vast amounts of dust that filled Dinah’s eyes. She could no longer see the yarn trail through her tears, but merely followed Edaniel’s bright green body skittering around the corners like a sentient Day-Glo skateboard. Her lungs heaved as they tried to breathe in the fine powder all around her, and she stumbled frequently when particularly strong earthquakes rocked the Maze.
Suddenly, from behind her, a bright light cut through the dense dust cloud, causing Dinah to throw her arms over her eyes for protection. The deafening noise faded away, the terrible shaking of the ground ceased, and Dinah found herself and Edaniel sprawled on the floor of the Sunken Mausoleum, alive and safe once more.
“Edaniel!” cried Dinah, pulling herself off the dusty Mausoleum floor. “We’re alive! We did it! We saved Lillian!” Overjoyed with the revelation that she was not dead and had survived even without Vincent, Dinah swept Edaniel up into her arms and gave the cat monster a big hug.
“Man,” said Edaniel extracting himself from her embrace, “I can’t take you anywhere, can I?”