The four of us fell silent. The whole house fell silent with us.
Once it was quiet, the footsteps started up again.
Downstairs, upstairs, even right beside us, unseen people walked.
The footsteps followed no pattern. I couldn't connect them to Mrs. Winter's ghostly aura, or to the two versions of the Rena couple we'd seen in our dreams.
My first theory might have been right. The footsteps weren't made by Mrs. Winter, but by Han Yun and the little ghosts under his command.
Creak—creak—
A noise came from downstairs. It wasn't footsteps, but it sounded as if something was pressing down on the wooden floorboards.
Mrs. Winter's ghostly aura gathered downstairs.
"Let's go," Wu Ling said.
Liu Miao headed downstairs first.
There was no point in trying to walk quietly, so Liu Miao rushed down and jumped over the last two steps.
The noise was coming from the small living room. It hadn't stopped.
We hurried after him.
Looking over Liu Miao's back from the stairs, I could see what was happening in the small living room.
Several chairs had been pulled out, and a teapot, teacups, and a plate of pastries had appeared on the table. It looked just as it had when Mrs. Winter had hosted us before. The only difference was that she'd received us in the main living room back then; we'd never sat in here.
There was a rocking chair in the small living room. It was the one making the noise now.
Creak—creak—
The rocking chair swayed back and forth, pressing against the wooden floorboards with a steady rhythm, like a lullaby.
Mrs. Winter wasn't sitting in it.
The ghostly aura had gathered around the cupboard nearby.
With a soft click, the cupboard's glass door opened.
In its reflection, I could see what