The Nobleman's Masterpiece ✔

18 ANYWHERE

Thump.

Thump.

Midge felt the next strike and his eyes flew open. He caught Lydia's hand before it could come across his cheek again.

Tears streamed down her face but when Midge surveyed his surroundings, he felt more inclined to cry instead. Her ragged clothes and forlorn expression took him aback.

"You dragged me," Midge said.

Trembling, Lydia stared him down. "The ground started to get soft. You almost fell in. And you were so damn heavy, you almost took me in with you." She shrugged and another tear escaped her left eye. "I wished the house would get us."

It took a moment more for Midge to realize he could move. "And it did," he said, looking up and around. Maybe Lydia expected a thank you but that was a long ways off. She couldn't have known Midge wouldn't have sunk for long. Bringing a grounding E into another realm was less safer than juggling live bombs.

Still. He could move and he felt no pain.

One look at Lydia's face and Midge dragged her close. The tightness of her own grip on him broke Midge's heart. He hated feeling her shudder from the tears but equally welcomed the ability to hear or perceive anything at all.

When he tried to let her go, she held on. "Mr. Osbourne...."

Midge caressed her face with both hands as he leaned down to meet her. "You don't have to worry—"

Her lips caught his, leaving Midge speechless. He was too stunned to react to the second peck on the lips but by the third he closed his eyes. They kissed. He took the initiative but when she moaned into his mouth, he remembered himself and pulled away.

This wasn't the time nor the place.

She hugged him again and he pulled her in equally as tight.

Now for this damn house. How do we get out?

"You shouldn't be here...."

Lydia yelped and spun around.

Nothing.

"What was that?"

Midge swallowed down his fear and answered. "I'm gonna be honest. I don't know." He took her by the hand as he looked around. "This isn't just an E house. It's one surrounded by other houses. They could be interconnecting for all we know."

"So someone else is here?"

The all-white room felt daunting.

"It could be a computer." All surveys of the room yielded a constant result—no doors. "We can't get out the way we came. We have a problem, though...." He spun around and realized something else. "We're not in the second realm anymore."

Lydia had nothing to say but Midge wasn't finished.

He looked down at her and asked, praying he was wrong. "When you called for the house, did you feel like you were passing through a massive gust of air?"

The grim look on her face came with a grimmer answer. "Four of them."

Internally Midge's jaw dropped, but on the surface he stayed calm. He leaned in to give her another kiss to calm her.

"Okay," he said. "We're not stuck in that house at least. So that's good."

Relief washed over Lydia who closed her eyes and hugged him again. "So we're all right?"

Midge tried to sound jovial when he said, "Not quite. We've left our birth realm, something E's are forbidden to do with a Yule such as yourself. So that's a crime."