Read Online Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault by Adam-Troy Castro - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Adam-Troy Castro
Ads: Link
who
would have been
my mom flew home, met with October, and decided that he seemed like a good man and that it wouldn’t do any harm.”
“Of course,” Fernie noted, “it might not have been easy for them to tell, since he wouldn’t have been a shadow eater yet.”
“No,” Gustav said, “he wasn’t a shadow eater yet, though he was already an ice-cream man, in a way, since his own family fortune comes from a company with a line of ice-cream trucks. I didn’t know until now that he was the shadow eater, but it kind of makes sense that as long as he had to become a monster, he would still take a form that was familiar to him.”
He stared at his hands some more and said, “The point is that my dad and the woman who
would have been
my mom—”
Fernie didn’t think she could stand to hear that terrible phrase spoken one more time. “Why don’t you just call her Penny? It’s faster.”
Gustav thought about it for a moment. “Allright. That works.” He took a deep breath. “My dad and
Penny
let Howard Philip October use the house for a couple of years, while they were out in the world doing other stuff. They visited from time to time, to see how he was getting on, and after a while came to think of him as a friend.”
He took another deep breath.
“And then, one day,” he said, “they found out that they were going to have me.”
The way he said it, you’d think they’d received some terrible mortal news, like the diagnosis of a fatal disease. He stood up and circled the room twice, as if there was so much anger attached to that part of his story that pacing was the only way to get past it without exploding.
Wanting to make him feel better, Fernie said, “That must have made them very happy, Gustav.”
“I’m sure it did,” Gustav said, in the tone of a boy who believed that they would have been mistaken to feel that way. “Nobody’s ever bothered to tell me that part of the story, but I’m sure they took the news the way moms and dads are supposed to. I’m sure that if they decided to settle down anywhere else, it would have been as happy a thing as they wanted it to be, and I would now be a normal kid with a normal family like yours.”
Fernie refrained from pointing out that a mom who traveled all over the world having adventures and a dad who knew all the ways people had been seriously injured by pencil erasers didn’t make hers fit anybody’s definition of a normal family. She guessed, “But instead they came back here to live.”
“Yes,” he said, and then repeated the single word:
“Here.”
She looked around at the room, with all its pictures of the happy young couple, all the little souvenirs and knickknacks on the shelves. And suddenly, feeling stupid for having taken so long to figure it out, she understood the importance of this place to Gustav’s life.
“Here,”
she said. “In the house inside the house.”
“Yes,” Gustav said forlornly.
Fernie felt a chill. It was already noticeably colder in the house than it had been only a few minutes earlier, maybe a sign that the shadow eater was drawing close.
“Why would they move here? I thought you said your dad wanted a normal life.”
“He did,” Gustav said, “but from what I understand, the two of them weren’t planning to stay here forever, just for a few months whilethey looked for a normal place to live. It was his own childhood home; he didn’t think staying here for a little while would be a bad thing. Especially since he and Penny had
this
house, the house inside the house, to stay in while they waited.”
She scratched her head. “That’s another thing. Why would there even be a house inside the house?”
He sighed. “Because you’ve seen how endless the big house is. It goes on forever; it’s so big that you could never explore it all, not even if you had an army marching down every hallway and knocking on every door.”
Fernie had gotten that impression. “So?”
“Well, it’s worse
would have been
my mom flew home, met with October, and decided that he seemed like a good man and that it wouldn’t do any harm.”
“Of course,” Fernie noted, “it might not have been easy for them to tell, since he wouldn’t have been a shadow eater yet.”
“No,” Gustav said, “he wasn’t a shadow eater yet, though he was already an ice-cream man, in a way, since his own family fortune comes from a company with a line of ice-cream trucks. I didn’t know until now that he was the shadow eater, but it kind of makes sense that as long as he had to become a monster, he would still take a form that was familiar to him.”
He stared at his hands some more and said, “The point is that my dad and the woman who
would have been
my mom—”
Fernie didn’t think she could stand to hear that terrible phrase spoken one more time. “Why don’t you just call her Penny? It’s faster.”
Gustav thought about it for a moment. “Allright. That works.” He took a deep breath. “My dad and
Penny
let Howard Philip October use the house for a couple of years, while they were out in the world doing other stuff. They visited from time to time, to see how he was getting on, and after a while came to think of him as a friend.”
He took another deep breath.
“And then, one day,” he said, “they found out that they were going to have me.”
The way he said it, you’d think they’d received some terrible mortal news, like the diagnosis of a fatal disease. He stood up and circled the room twice, as if there was so much anger attached to that part of his story that pacing was the only way to get past it without exploding.
Wanting to make him feel better, Fernie said, “That must have made them very happy, Gustav.”
“I’m sure it did,” Gustav said, in the tone of a boy who believed that they would have been mistaken to feel that way. “Nobody’s ever bothered to tell me that part of the story, but I’m sure they took the news the way moms and dads are supposed to. I’m sure that if they decided to settle down anywhere else, it would have been as happy a thing as they wanted it to be, and I would now be a normal kid with a normal family like yours.”
Fernie refrained from pointing out that a mom who traveled all over the world having adventures and a dad who knew all the ways people had been seriously injured by pencil erasers didn’t make hers fit anybody’s definition of a normal family. She guessed, “But instead they came back here to live.”
“Yes,” he said, and then repeated the single word:
“Here.”
She looked around at the room, with all its pictures of the happy young couple, all the little souvenirs and knickknacks on the shelves. And suddenly, feeling stupid for having taken so long to figure it out, she understood the importance of this place to Gustav’s life.
“Here,”
she said. “In the house inside the house.”
“Yes,” Gustav said forlornly.
Fernie felt a chill. It was already noticeably colder in the house than it had been only a few minutes earlier, maybe a sign that the shadow eater was drawing close.
“Why would they move here? I thought you said your dad wanted a normal life.”
“He did,” Gustav said, “but from what I understand, the two of them weren’t planning to stay here forever, just for a few months whilethey looked for a normal place to live. It was his own childhood home; he didn’t think staying here for a little while would be a bad thing. Especially since he and Penny had
this
house, the house inside the house, to stay in while they waited.”
She scratched her head. “That’s another thing. Why would there even be a house inside the house?”
He sighed. “Because you’ve seen how endless the big house is. It goes on forever; it’s so big that you could never explore it all, not even if you had an army marching down every hallway and knocking on every door.”
Fernie had gotten that impression. “So?”
“Well, it’s worse
Similar Books
