CHAMBER THE FIRST
THE FOYER hush.
ou enter, as one always enters such places, by accident — the door already half-open, a candle already lit on the console, and somewhere in the next room a pendulum that has been counting your footsteps since long before you arrived. Take off your coat. The hatstand is the third on the left; mind the umbrella, it has opinions.
Welcome to mysterious.boo, a house that is mostly nights and only occasionally a day. The clocks here keep an honest time, but not in a particularly straight line.
mysterious.boo
"Look thy last on all things lovely, Every hour."
— Walter de la Mare
×CHAMBER THE SECOND
THE PARLOUR be still.
vase of roses on the mantel does what a vase of roses, given enough time and unscrupulous lighting, will always do. The petals brown, then drift; the stems forget what colour they are. Look up, and they are fresh again. Look down, and the air smells of crepe.
CHAMBER THE THIRD
THE CABINET do not look directly at it.
he writing-desk is laid for a guest who has not arrived. A planchette circles its sheet of vellum in slow, considering ovals, leaving an ink-trail that fades before any sentence can finish itself. Whatever it is composing, it does not seem to want our help.
Bring your cursor near. The planchette is well-mannered, and curious.
CHAMBER THE FOURTH
THE CONSERVATORY between two breaths.
eyond the parlour proper lies a small glasshouse, kept warm by a single oil-lamp and the thermal patience of the orchids. Here the rain is constant but inaudible. A porcelain ewer steams quietly; nobody has poured from it in seventy years.
If you listen, you will hear the orchids leaning in. Do not lean back.
CHAMBER THE LAST
THE LANDING before you go.
t the top of the small staircase a door stands ajar, and behind it a colour we did not have anywhere else in the house. You do not need to walk through. It is sufficient that we both know it is there.
Won't you stay a little longer?
❦ mysterious.boo — a small house of five rooms.