to the strangest sound she’d ever heard, like a trumpet being strangled. She opened her eyes and had a moment of confusion, taking in the dark, musty room instead of her bright, clean room at home. Then she remembered where she was, and knew the noise to be Tengu greeting the day with his rooster impression. She looked up at the ceiling, and her brain felt just as dusty, cracked, and cobwebby as the room around her. This was the second night she hadn’t had any dreams, and her head felt like it was filled with mud. Every thought required great effort and she felt vaguely anxious.
She moved clumsily down the stairs. It was like she was on a planet with a force of gravity that made her weigh twice as much as she did on Earth, only she couldn’t remember whether it was small planets or big planets that would do that. Her thoughts were scattered and leaden. It was only when she glanced over at Fadiyah, serene and dignified in her cage in the parlour, that she felt calm and capable again.
In the dining room it was evident that she wasn’t the only one who was having trouble waking up. Belle was snoring in her chair in the corner, her head tipped back and mouth open. Horace stared blankly into space and rubbed his temples.
“Good morning,” Willa ventured, just as the kitchen door swung open and banged her elbow. Baz shuffled in with the teapot and cups on a tray. She paused to yawn, her hands shaking with the force of it, and tea slopped onto the floor.
Nobody had much to say, other than that they were all sleeping poorly and without dreams, just like Willa. And it was taking its toll. Even the normally chipper Tengu was subdued. Robert didn’t get out of bed until noon, but that could have been due to the crashing hangover he claimed to still have. Mab, on the other hand, seemed energetic enough, even spritely. Willa was positive she caught a smirk on her face when the others complained about being tired. Mab was still mad, though, about being locked up, and wouldn’t speak to anyone.
Over the next few days Willa wearily struggled to keep up with her duties, only leaving the house to buy groceries and to go home one night for dinner. At the table she could barely keep up a conversation and yawned so much her parents were alarmed.
“How hard are those oldsters working you?” her dad wanted to know. “Aren’t you getting enough sleep?”
Willa insisted that she was. In fact, she was going to bed embarrassingly early these days, at eight or nine o’clock.
And she wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the house was sleeping in later each day, napping frequently through the day, and heading upstairs to go to bed at earlier and earlier hours in the evening, yet with each passing day they grew more tired. Conversations became rare and made little to no sense as everyone forgot what they were about to say. They were all clumsier, stumbling and dropping things. Even the bird stared with dull eyes and wobbled on her perch, nearly falling off.
On the fifth day of this sleepiness Willa felt a need for some fresh air to clear her head and ventured out into the backyard jungle. She had waited until she saw the Hacketts leave in their car. She wanted to be alone and not have to chit-chat with those two. Keeping in mind the overgrown pool Tengu said was back there, she proceeded very cautiously, probing the tangled weeds ahead of her with a long stick. The air was thick and muggy, and her hair started to stick to her forehead and the back of her neck.
She soon reached the clearing. It was low-lying and rather soggy underfoot, so she was glad to spot a large, sloping grey stone emerging from the damp moss. She clambered up on it and sat down to think. She was worried. Why were they all so tired? It didn’t seem normal. Was a magic spell causing it? Was this being done by the enemies Horace had spoken about? Willa wished Miss Trang would get back soon. She’d know what to do.
Willa yawned. She lay back on the rock and yawned again, the kind of yawn that makes you wonder if it’s ever going to end. And when it finally did end she heard someone yawn back. Or rather she felt it. The yawn surrounded her and vibrated through her body, a yawn so big and deep that she sat up in alarm. The rock beneath her was shifting.
An earthquake! she thought, and scrambled off, but the ground was still. She poked the rock with her stick and it shuddered.
Her heart beat wildly. The yard was silent, still. She wanted to run into the house and call the others, but ... she couldn’t help herself. She inched forward through the thick brush, uncovering more of the rock — or whatever it was — and repeatedly poking it with the stick. Each time she did it twitched and rippled a little, like a muscle flexing. When she found the edge of the thing, she proceeded around its perimeter, which turned out to be a perfect, straight-edged rectangle. It was the pool. But a pool should be a hole in the ground, and this was a mound, a perfectly rectangular mound. It took Willa’s weary brain a moment or two to come up with the answer. The pool was filled with something large, grey, and leathery. Something that yawned and moved. It was time to get the others.
They gathered around the thing, wrinkling their noses against the stench of the brackish water. Flies buzzed around them and the air was strangely still. To her surprise, nobody else knew anything about it, or had any guess as to what it could be. They gathered around while Tengu and Horace cut back the foliage. Even so, it was hard to make out any details. The thing had creases that contained slimy green water, and folds craggy with moss, but most of its bulk was smooth and grey. Horace pointed out what looked to be a long neck folded alongside the body, and to where the head probably was, tucked out of sight. They tentatively ran their hands over the “skin.” It was smoother than stone, almost leathery. Was it a kind of huge snake? A lizard? A smooth-skinned crocodile? Whatever it was, it had taken refuge in the water of the pool, and it had been there a long, long time.
“So it came here before any of you did. How long have you all been here?” asked Willa. They pondered this question, brows furrowed.
Horace waved vaguely. “It’s rather hard to say. I’m never sure about how fast time is passing here....”
Willa was confused. “Well who’s been here the longest?”
Belle shook her head. “Not me. I arrived last. I’m ...” and here she started to cackle, “... the baby of the group.”
Horace spoke again, looking pained. “I can’t remember for sure, but I might have been the first, although I remember Miss Trang from those days.”
Willa was getting impatient. “What days? How long ago?”
Horace shrugged. “It could be decades. Or centuries. Or millennia. I’m sorry, but they all feel the same to me.” He gestured to the house. “Places like this ... Where we come from time moves differently. When we retired the only way we could live in your ... time ... was to come to a safehouse with a special time-regulating dispensation....”
Willa gave up trying to understand. Horace was being strangely unhelpful, going on and not making sense when they had this ... this thing in front of them. This monstrous thing.
“So what is it? Is it dangerous? Should we get it out of there?” Willa asked. No one had an answer.
A sudden loud screech echoed around the yard, making them jump. It was Fadiyah, up above them in her cage. Willa had put the bird out on a third floor balcony so she could get some air. She’d never heard Fadi make a sound like this before. Everyone stared up as Fadi screamed, each squawk increasing in pitch, volume, and intensity until they had to turn away and hold their ears. Willa thanked her lucky stars that the Hacketts weren’t home. They would not like this racket one bit.
It felt like the sound was drilling right into Willa’s brain. She pressed her palms hard into her ears and dropped to her knees. When she thought she couldn’t take another moment, the earth rumbled and the bird went quiet. The shape in
