House of Glass Read Online Free Page B

torches.”
    “It’s okay,” I said. “That’s quite a job to have.” I leaned a bit over the edge, noticing the white froth of the ocean before looking back quickly.
    “Hah, I’ll say it is.” I couldn’t tell if she was joking or scared, but she had high emotion, an almost nervous agitation. The color was reddish on her cheeks. “And you? You are going down to the house? To her house?” She looked genuinely confused.
    “Mrs. Amber asked me to return something.”
    “Oh.” She thought for a moment and added sheepishly, “I suppose since none of us will go into it.”
    “You won’t, either?” I asked.
    “Oh, no. I won’t go any farther than the bottom lamp. Even then I have to force myself not to look at the house.”
    “Why? Is it haunted?”
    “No. It’s just…just a bad feeling that I have.”
    “Oh.”
    “You better hurry,” she said. “I’ll see you on in a bit then?”
    “Yes.” I left her at the top of the rise, and stepped over the cliff. The stairs were crude and roughly hewn, and I knew that they were very old. The air was salty and pungent. A bolt of terror struck me at the steep scale of the stairs. I looked up toward the horizon and saw the other end of the island as it curved away. I thought of my home, somewhere over there. There was no return. Everything was gone. I had to make this job work. There was no choice.
    Down the steps I went, and the moist wind from the ocean fought against me the whole way. It was a precarious descent and I traveled with one hand on the wall in order to give me balance. The drop was steep and cragged, with pointed stones that waited patiently for a missed step.
    I came to the cottage, built on a natural shelf in the stone, and hanging over the edge. It was a bold design, with simple lines and a broad, sweeping form, almost like a wingspan. It was vermillion in the gathering dusk.
    I unlocked the double doors. Heat swirled out. It curled around my body, licked at my skin, and cajoled me to step inside. I gave in to it, to the warmth. I closed my eyes and savored it for a moment before I stepped over the threshold. And when I stepped a thrill went through my body. The bliss started somewhere deep inside me and bloomed like a flower, a precious desire that I wanted to last and last.
    I was only one step inside and already I was soaring. Wall-to-wall windows overlooked the sea and gave the impression of flight, of hovering in the heavens above the Earth. Standing perfectly still, I let the smells, the sights, the warmth of the house welcome me, chasing away any hesitation, any emotion other than rapture.
    The dining room was just beyond the entry, and a large teardrop chandelier hung over the table. In the center, facing me was a golden statuette. It was a nude, a reclining woman, whose long hair fell along the curve of her hips and skimmed the line of her breasts. She was reaching, her hand extended and open. The expression on her perfect face was expectant, waiting.
    The shadows were growing long. I needed to hurry. I could see the door to the bedroom and went down the few stairs into the sunken room. But when I saw what was beneath me, I stopped again, for my breath was sucked away.
    I stood on a floor of glass, and underneath, twenty feet below, were jagged rocks. A tiny strip of beach was there, and white-capped waves rolled onto the sand directly underneath me. “My God,” I breathed. There was only a thin plate of glass between myself and oblivion. I reveled in it, in the danger.
    I boldly stepped closer to the ceiling-high windows and looked out. There was a small deck that stretched away from the house, but I felt no need to step outside.
    I saw the whole world spread before me like a painting. I was enthralled.
    Reaching up my hand, I traced my finger over the glass. It was like velvet, and my fingertip left no trace behind. Everything that I ran my finger over— the island, the houses that dotted it, the waters below—it all seemed within