“So if you were headed to a music school, how did you end up here?” Lou asked. “I found an email printout in your bedroom. It was an invitation from someone named L. Delphinium. It was addressed to your mom, but when I showed her, she didn’t remember seeing it.”

Marcus scoffed. “How could she not remember?” he said to himself with a shake of his head. “You’re right, Louise. I came to Larkspur thinking it was a music school. Mom put me on the bus herself. When I got here, I found four other kids who arrived the same day I did. All of us had been invited for different reasons.” He bent down and righted the piano bench. “Sit,” he instructed, “and I’ll explain what happened to us.”

Marcus told the tale as he recalled it, though he admitted that some pieces were harder to reach than others. It had been a gathering of five: Poppy, Azumi, Dylan, Dash, and himself. Poppy had come to live with her great-aunt, Azumi for boarding school, Dylan and Dash to star in a scary movie, and Marcus for the music academy. None of these reasons were real. Something in the house had tricked them into showing up. “After we all stepped inside, the doors locked,” Marcus said. “We found that the windows were unbreakable.” And worse, a group of creepy children wearing animal masks pursued them relentlessly through the house. Marcus and the others ran from them, but they could not hide, no matter how hard they tried. Eventually, the five managed to find their way into the yard, but … “I can’t remember much after that.” Marcus paused. “I woke up at the edge of the woods sometime later. The other kids had left me. Alone. I scoured the property but I couldn’t find the gate. It was like there was no way out. So I came back to the music room. The instruments were still here. And playing calms me down.” He wiped at his damp eyes. “I thought … I thought I’d be alone here forever.” Glancing at Lou, he frowned. “You shouldn’t have come looking for me. Now you’ll be stuck here too.”

“But we’re not stuck here,” said Cal. “Lou has an idea about how to escape. We’ve been searching for chimneys. We’ll climb up and out and then just scoot on home.”

“The only thing is,” said Lou, “the house keeps changing shape.”

“Oh, yeah.” Marcus nodded. “It tends to do that.”