The Fall (30 page)

Small cracks slither over the surface, and the vines fall away as the stone and mortar disintegrate.

A figure appears, running amid the destruction. He trips when the ground beneath his feet drops; on his hands and knees, he crawls a few paces, desperate, and then picks himself up and begins to run again. Finally he can run no more, and so he walks with his head bowed.

Now there is silence. The fissure disappears, leaving nothing but a long, jagged scar in the dark earth.

He turns and looks, taking off his hat.

A wolfhound chases after him and puts her nose into his hand. She wags her tail and follows him for a few steps, and then she turns. She runs back to the barren earth where the house once stood, as though someone has called her. After a long moment, the young man joins her. The wolfhound shakes the tarn water from her thick fur, and side by side, they begin to dig.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Bethany Griffin
is the author of
Masque of the Red Death
and
Dance of the Red Death
, a two-book saga that reimagines another of Edgar Allan Poe's classic stories. She lives in Kentucky, in a house that is just a house . . . as far as she knows.

www.bethanygriffin.com

 

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

C
REDITS

Cover art © 2014 Nikki Smith / Arcangel Images

Cover design by Paul Zakris

C
OPYRIGHT

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

 

The Fall

Text copyright © 2014 by Bethany Griffin

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Griffin, Bethany.

The fall / Bethany Griffin.

pages cm

Summary: A retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher' in which Madeline and her twin brother, Roderick, suffer from the Usher family illness but she hears the House talking to her, filling her dreams, controlling her actions, and ensuring she never leaves the property.

ISBN 978-0-06-210785-5 (trade ed.)

EPUB Edition AUGUST 2014 ISBN 9780062107879

[1. Horror stories. 2. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 3. Twins—Fiction.] I. Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809–1849. Fall of the house of Usher. II. Title.

PZ7.G881327Fal 2014    [Fic]—dc 23    2014019511

14 15 16 17 18 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION