Hell's Eyes

Chapter Three Hell’s Hound

E lliot Noblémyn woke slowly, blinking the blurry haze away until his vision resumed the clarity he’d once known. Light streamed in through the open window, dancing on the wooden surface of the coffee table and the soft pile of the sitting room carpet. Miss Elsie Hyacinth had left earlier in the morning, before even the weakest streams of sunlight had broken through the morning haze of mid-Harvum, but she had left a note which Elliot now found waiting for him under the vase he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Somehow, before Miss Hyacinth had left to see to her duties at the bakery, she’d managed to fill the forgotten vase with fresh flowers. He wondered briefly where she might’ve picked them, but his curiosity vanished as soon as it had come, replaced by the sudden wonderment at having slept his fill the night before. Jumping from the cozy seat, Elliot folded the blanket Miss Hyacinth had draped over him at some point in the night and threw it back where once he’d sat. Nearly dancing his way through the sitting room on light feet, Elliot had half a mind to go into work. Bounding up the staircase, Elliot hummed to himself, grateful for the dazzling sunlight streaming in through the open windows all around the house. A shadow flickered at the top of the stair. Elliot ground to a halt. Dread slithered into his veins like an icy chill. His breaths came in short, rapid gasps. In time with his pounding heart, one long-clawed

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