Brooke Beretta ^new^ Jun 2026

She never touched another Victorian again.

The man who had called himself Julian Cross smiled. It was the same smile Brooke had seen on the carved faces, too wide and full of too many teeth. "Clever girl. But if the house is dead, then I'm free. Truly free. And I've had a hundred years to think about what I want to do." brooke beretta

She noticed it on the fourth night, coming back from the portable toilet she'd set up in the garden. The carved faces—dozens of them, remember—had always looked vaguely tormented. But now some of them were smiling. Not all, just a few, and the smiles were wrong. Too wide. Too many teeth. She never touched another Victorian again

She went to the basement. She opened the book again. And she began to read. "Clever girl