Lilith's plan to showcase the miracle of the water-swallowing floor, and to prove her sanity, fell through. Disappointed, guests turned to Gustav. There were exclamations of delight, the pushing of chairs, the shuffling of feet. The entire assembly got swallowed by anticipation frenzy. Amidst the chaos, Alfred peered at Lilith and cracked a smile so wide that she wished for Rosehead to burst in and swallow him whole.

"Lilith." Ed nudged her urgently.

She stared blankly, in a trance. "Why didn't it work?"

Panther pawed at her leg, blinking in a way that implied, It's incredibly simple, silly, if you care to entertain that thing you have over there called a brain?

Lilith only gaped.

"Need. To show you. Now." Ed flung his arms about, sending his fork flying.

"You can tell me, you know." Lilith frowned. 

"Now!"

Before Lilith could say anything else, before her father and mother reached her, Ed pulled her away from the table, tugging on her hand. They broke into a run, Panther gamboling at their side, narrowly avoiding Agatha who carried a mop and a bucket. "Little miss shouldn't go into ze garden tonight," she said sternly.

Wiping her hands on an apron, Monika came out of the kitchen, evidently to see what the commotion was about. "Meine kleine Prinzessin!" she called after Panther.

Somebody shouted Lilith's name. She paused to look. Ed snatched her arm. "No time. Please."

Lilith's heart hammered. "Where are we going?"

"Your room."

"What for?"

But Ed didn't answer, his face set on the task of escaping. They hopped two steps at a time, sprinted along the corridor, and stopped in front of the last door on the left. Ed pushed it open, ushered them in, and locked it.

"Hey! Where did you get the key?" said Lilith breathlessly.

"Agatha." Ed wiped his brow. "Gave me."

"She just gave it to you? Just like that? Wait, is there something you know that I don't, something I need to know?"

"Long story." Ed scrunched his face in concentration.

"Not to worry. I have all the time in the world," said Lilith, crossing her arms and eyeing the door.

"Not now." He touched Lilith's bag. "Please. Don't be mad. I looked. At your book. Sorry. Okay if I...?"

"Well, if you already looked, I don't see why you're asking for my permission now. Go ahead."

Panther glanced from Ed to Lilith, and from Lilith to Ed, following this exchange with interest.

"Thanks," said Ed. He lifted the flap, took out The Hound of the Baskervilles, and leafed through it.

A knock on the door startled them.

"Pup, you there?" Daniel's voice came from the other side.

Lilith, Ed, and Panther froze.

There were a few more knocks, the hushed voices of Lilith's parents, and then the doorknob rattled a couple of times. At last, their voices and footsteps trailed off into the corridor.

"They'll be back, I'm sure of it," said Lilith, letting out her breath. "Wait, guys. Before you do anything, there's something important I need to test." She disappeared into the bathroom.

Ed and Panther exchanged a glance and a shrug.

Lilith came out with a glass of water, marched to the door, and upended it onto the knob. Nothing happened. She stood, waiting.

"What. You doing?" croaked Ed.

Lilith stubbornly shook her head, ran off, and came back with another glass, spilling it onto the floor.

Ed looked at Panther. "Why water? Dinner hall? What. She doing? Calling heads?"

Panther nodded to ascertain his knowledge of the mystery at hand. He cleared his doggy throat and growled, "Er...may I say something?"

Lilith didn't pay him attention, busy with her task of making the room completely and utterly wet.

Panther tried again. "I know I promised not to call you madam again, but I wish I didn't, as this occasion requires it." He trotted after his friend, tail curled, while Lilith tried surface after surface, pausing by her bed and dowsing water on the wall after a brief hesitation. "We're all aware of the fact that this floor drinks water. You may also well remember that the third floor sucks blood, and the black room ate the doctor. Whole. Now, we have never determined what the first floor feeds on, did we?"

"Easy. Air," stated Ed.

Lilith stopped in her tracks, staring.

"Why didn't you say so before? I looked like a complete idiot." She was too flustered to continue.

"Why didn't you ask?" It was by far the longest sentence Ed produced without stuttering, and he gazed at Lilith, beaming. "I tried. Stopping you. I wish. You'd share your plans." He huffed and puffed, a trifle exhausted from the effort of talking.

Lilith only moved her lips soundlessly. She wasn't used to having friends, wasn't used to sharing her thoughts and ideas with anyone, even Panther.

The whippet raised a paw. "If I may add to this observation?" he growled. "When you, um, conversed with the heads upon offering yourself as a sacrificial lamb, I recall you asked them not to do anything naughty."

"Did I?" said Lilith uncertainly.

"Well, you didn't specifically use the word naughty, but that's how I understood it. In any case, that must be it. The mansion's currently pretending to be a normal house, like you asked it to. At least, that's the explanation that comes to my poor doggy mind. I might be wrong, of course."

"Sounds legit," said Ed. "Your dog. Is genius."

Panther proudly stuck out his chest.

Ed petted him. "Why not. Ask it?" he said.

"Ask who?" said Lilith.

"The mansion," chimed Ed and Panther as one.

"Oh. Right. The mansion. Er, dear mansion? Is this true? Are you behaving like a, well, like a normal house? I suspect it's hard to move around all the time when you're built of stone, isn't it?" said Lilith almost affectionately.

The mansion passed a tremor. Not a menacing tremor that warned them they were about to become dinner, but a nice tremor of agreement, as if someone understood it at last. It even sighed.

"Obviously. I'm losing my mind," said Lilith, and then sunk onto the bed, thinking that her brain must have taken a hike due to recent events.

There was a clacking of claws and an awkward growl. "I understand that this is the worst moment for a confession, but I must admit that I was a coward." Panther hung his head dejectedly.

"What?" Lilith looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Not speaking up in front of your parents?"

"Oh, that." Lilith slid off the bed. "My dear Watson, everyone makes mistakes. I'm being a prime example at the moment. It's perfectly okay." She petted Panther's head. "And, to be honest, I don't blame you. I'd be afraid too. I wouldn't want to be paraded into a dog show like an otherworldly miracle either, trust me. I don't think dad would ever do something like that to you, though."

"You're absolutely and unquestionably certain?"

Lilith nodded.

Panther sighed. "Okay, I promise I'll talk."

"You will?"

"Yes. Friends again?"

"Positively." Lilith kissed him. Panther purred.

Meanwhile, Ed finished leafing through the book. He stuck his finger in and proudly professed, "Found it." His face exuded excitement, his eyes danced with the fever of adventure.

Lilith studied him, suddenly wishing herself sick. She hoped her parents were right, that indeed she imagined things, because right this second everything felt normal. She didn't want it to end. She wasn't going to die tonight; she was simply visiting a friend in Berlin. They'd pore over books, take Panther on a walk, and watch the sunset. Then they'd visit Ed's cottage and maybe he would draw a portrait of her. She'd sit on a chair in her festive red dress, inclining her head ever so slightly...

Panther woofed. The room darkened.

A gigantic face pressed against the window, its bloody eyes rotating wildly, its foul breath fogging up the glass. Lilith swallowed. She wasn't crazy after all.

"Duck!" Ed grabbed her arm.

"I don't think I need to, do I?" Lilith struggled against his hold. "She can't touch me, can she? Since the mansion is going to eat me and not her?" It sounded strange speaking it aloud, as if she was talking about someone else. She shuddered.

The mansion bristled at Rosehead.

She grimaced and took a thunderous step back.

"Incidentally, this crumbling stone-brain of a house never told you how—um, how to say this politely—it plans on eliminating your glorious presence. Don't you want to find out?" growled Panther.

"Does it matter?" threw Lilith. "The end result will be the same anyway. I'd rather not know."

"What, you don't care how it plans to kill you? What kind of a deal is that?" yapped Panther crossly. "I wonder if it will, in the unfortunate case of me extricating something rather unpleasant..." He sniffed and lifted his leg.

"Panther, no!" cried Lilith.

"Lilith! Guys! Plan!" Ed snatched her arm, pointing inside the book.

"And...all hell breaks loose," commented Panther.

The doorknob jerked.

"Still locked. I can hear her," said Gabby. "Missy? Open the door at once!" A pair of fists pounded on the door.

There were muffled mutterings. 

"Pup? We know you're in there. Please, let us in?" said Daniel. He hesitated for a while. "We have the key. We'll wait for a few minutes, in case you're, um, taking a shower or something, then we'll come in, okay?"

"That's just great," Lilith breathed.

"Bathroom," ushered Ed.

They dashed inside and locked the latch. Immediately, Ed opened the door leading to Trude's room. A strong whiff of soap and elderly possessions that tend to gather dust, and an odor of mold, washed over them. 

"Clever. I didn't think of that. This is better," whispered Lilith, "if not for the smell. We won't be able to stay here for long, before they figure it out."

"Long enough," said Ed, as he quietly clicked the door shut.

As much as Lilith's room was clean and airy, Trude's room was stuffed with everything frilly, from pillows to blankets to slippers to suitcases, covered in flowery patterns of such tastelessness, Lilith thought her eyes would go berserk.

The muffled voices of Gabby and Daniel reached them. They tried the bathroom door with no success.

Rosehead appeared in the window, mouth opened wide.

"I can't believe I signed up to conquer this foliage- covered, plasma-sucking imbecile," growled Panther. "I must truly love you more than steak."

"Your exquisite descriptions never cease to astound me," said Lilith. "There she goes again."

Rosehead struck the glass with one heavy fist. The window merely stretched inward without breaking.

Lilith let out a breath. "Honestly, I think being crushed by a mansion is a better way to go than to be sucked dry by that thing."

Ed shook his head. "Don't have to."

"I don't see what choice I have," said Lilith. "If I stay in the mansion, it will eventually eat me. If I try to get out, the garden will eat me. Let's say I manage to get out—which is highly unlikely, given the fact that I promised my life to it— how do you propose I fight Rosehead and a million of her little mutant babies?"

A strange smile played on Ed's lips. He gave the book to Lilith and said, "Fire."

There was a pause. Then another pause.

Then Panther growled, "Bloody brilliant."

The mansion passed a tremor.

Lilith remained silent, dumbstruck. The idea was so simple yet so ingenious; she wished she came up with it herself.

"Fire," she repeated, thinking back to the Bloom family history. No stories of fires came to mind. Did that mean that the rose garden survived for seven centuries without being touched by flames? And if it was, would it burn to the ground and die, never to regenerate?

"How did you—" Lilith began.

"Your method." Ed placed the tip of his finger on the page, tracing several sentences.

"May I remind you—" Panther started.

"Ahead of you, dear Watson," said Lilith, and read the entire passage aloud. "Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smoldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog."

Lilith shut the book. "Genius," she gushed. "Will it work?"

Carried away by their conversation, they didn't notice a slew of dangerous noises. The walls shifted uneasily, followed by soft footsteps, metallic jiggling, and a snap of the lock.

Without a warning, the doorknob turned and Alfred entered the room. "Ah! I thought I'd find you here." He towered over them. "Lurking in guest's rooms, are we? Up you go, my dears. Your parents are worried sick, wondering where you went."

Panther was the first to act. He yapped and lurched at Alfred's arm, locking his jaws. A paroxysm of hate contorted Alfred's features. "You little..." Attempting to shake the whippet off, he made to snatch Lilith. Ed yanked her out of reach, and her grandfather's hand closed on empty air. With a grunt, Alfred bashed Panther on the bedpost. The whippet let go, whimpering, and slid to the floor, immediately biting his ankle. Alfred cried out and leaned to hit the dog, but Ed bumped him from behind, sending him sprawling.

Fuming, Lilith commanded, "Mansion, don't let him up, do you hear me?"

It grudgingly obliged, sinking Alfred into the floor with an earsplitting creaking, trapping his body under the boards and leaving only his face visible.

"Gustav! GUSTAV!" he bellowed, coughing up dust.

"Herr?" came from the door. Gustav appeared out of nowhere, as usual, perched on his shaky legs, his watery lips pressed into a smile of servitude. Arms behind his back, he stooped, awaiting instructions.

"Get me out of here!" Alfred sputtered.

"Herr?" Gustav pressed a hand around his ear.

Muffled cheers and jeers erupted outside. There was the distinct trumpeting of an elephant, calls of animal trainers, and the general commotion that sounded so unmistakably circus- like.

Lilith looked at the window. "The carnival!"

Rosehead was gone. Lavender dusk settled itself over the garden. The setting sun gave it an ominous reddish glow. Everything stood threateningly still.

Lilith had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. The guests were surely already outside, sitting down to watch the performance. With Rosehead and her rosebushes on the prowl, the entire spectacle could easily turn into a massacre. It shouldn't, if the mansion held its promise; but who was to say they didn't conspire against her together? It must have heard them talking about the idea of a fire just now. And how exactly were they going to set the garden on fire with all those people out there? Lilith's palms felt clammy. Who was to say the mansion wasn't carrying news to Rosehead this very minute? After all, the entire property must have been possessed by the same spirit of Rose Bloom, wasn't it?

Lilith bit on her lip. "Guys? We have a problem," she whispered, too quietly for anyone to hear.

"Gustav..." Alfred wiggled, a layer of sweat glistening on his forehead. "Lilith? My dear girl. Ed? Help me out of here, will you? Hey, puppy." He chuckled uneasily.

The boy and the dog stood over the old man, watching him with disgust.

"Brute," said Ed with force. "You. Deserve it. For my dad." He balled his hands into fists.

Lilith touched him. "No. Not worth it. Let's leave him; we have a bigger problem on our hands."

Panther cleared his throat. "Ed?"

Gustav's eyes popped. He ogled the whippet, launching into a series of prolonged wheezing coughs and gurgling noises. Apparently, he had never seen a talking dog before.

"I'd like to show you my support," continued Panther. "I disagree with Lilith. I think you should pummel this moron into a juicy pulp. Lilith, it's one of those cases where what I'm about to do will piss you off."

"Excuse me?" said Lilith.

Panther, tail curled, sauntered over to Alfred's trapped head and sniffed it. "You filthy, stinking, money-chasing, dung-eating, repugnant face of an ape. I, Panther Bloom Junior, am a proud whippet, and I will piss on you!" He lifted his leg.

"Panther!" Lilith made to snatch her pet, but this time it was Ed who stopped her, an evil grin playing on his face.

There was a hissing noise, a spitting noise, and a string of malevolent German curse words. The mansion protested by quivering in revulsion.

Panther slapped a paw on Ed's outstretched palm.

"Boys." Lilith narrowed her eyes. "I suppose it would be wise to get out of here before the room spits us out."

Gustav held the door open. As they passed he winked, his first attempt at friendliness.

In a rush of hope, and the promise of a dangerous adventure, they ran along the corridor, Panther in the lead.

"Guys, we have a problem," panted Lilith.

They halted.

"I think the mansion heard us." She fixed her festive beret nervously. "Of course it heard us, why didn't I think about this before. We can't openly talk about it, you know. About the thing we just talked about, that gave us the idea to use that other thing, on that big thing?"

Ed stared at Lilith uncomprehendingly.

"Wait, where are we going to get it? The...you know. The thing? It's, um, red? Well, orange and yellow sometimes." Lilith hesitated to say the word.

"She means, conflagration," interjected Panther. "Inferno? Pyre? The sea of devouring incandescent petals that swirl with incredible warmth, sparks, and glow?"

It took Ed a minute. Then his face cleared. "Agatha. She's got it," he said.

"Oh, Agatha again. Can we trust her?" Lilith hesitated.

Ed nodded and put a finger across his lips.

They crept down the stairs. The first floor was deserted. Distant laughter and applause indicated that the circus performance had started.

"Where are mom and dad?" said Lilith, her heart pounding.

"Maybe they got bored looking for you and decided to ride the elephants?" Panther yapped innocently.

"Not funny. What if they're in the garden? Looking for me?"

"I thought you made a deal with this new friend of yours? What's the name. Manure? Manor?"

Ed shushed them.

They inched along the wall and slid into the kitchen. The place was usually full of clinking dishes, clanking glasses, and banging pots, but was now eerily quiet.