Stepmother 5: ((top))

The house had five rules.

Clara learned to run. She learned to steal. She learned that the thing in the master bedroom was not her stepmother at all—not entirely. Iris would sit by the window as the sun bled out over the hills, and her shadow would stretch the wrong way, growing fingers it should not have. stepmother 5

Clara stood in the hallway, the slip trembling in her hand. The grandfather clock at the bottom of the stairs began its warning chime. Four. Four-thirty. Four-forty-five. The house had five rules