Free Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault by Adam-Troy Castro Page B

doing.
    The story also reported that Penny’s husband, Hans, after having been notified at home of her death, collapsed in shock and had been taken to a local hospital for observation. Howard Philip October, a “family friend” who had been staying with the couple, gave a statement instead, telling the newspaper, “Penny was an extraordinarily good person with a kind heart and a gentle soul. The worst part of this tragedy is that she would have been a terrific mother.”
    There was that phrase again.
Would have been
.
    But that wasn’t even the startling part. Fernie read the sentence three times to make sure she’d read it correctly, and then looked up at Gustav, feeling dazed. “She didn’t die after you were born. She died
before
.”
    “I told you,” Gustav said with a petulance she had never seen in him. “She wasn’t my mother. She
would have been
my mother. She died three months too soon to be my mother.”
    “B-but…how is that even possible? You’re standing right there, in front of me, and—”
    “My father was in the hospital for three days,” Gustav said without answering her question. “He returned to the Gloom house, hating the place for the first time in his life, because it was even bigger and emptier without her, and because there were reminders of her, and of the child who would now never be born, everywhere he looked. He was heartbroken and saw no reason to go on living in the house inside the house. He told his good friend Howard Philip October that he’d spend a couple of days gathering up his things, and hers, and then leave town forever.
    “From what I’ve been told, Howard Philip October just smiled sadly, put a hand on my father’s shoulder, and told him that he understood. He said, ‘Stay as long as you like.’”
    Anger burned in Gustav’s black eyes. “October said it like it was his house, not my father’s, and it was up to him to give permission. My father didn’t even notice. He barely had enough energy to think. The packing that should have taken a day stretched to three, and then to four…before everything changed.”
    Fernie didn’t want to ask Gustav the next question. “What happened?”
    “Somebody who witnessed her death toldmy father what had really happened to Penny. She told him that Penny had been in full control of the car and paying full attention to everything she was doing when the gas pedal suddenly pressed itself to the floor, the steering wheel ripped itself out of her hands, and the car headed for that ravine on its own. A truck passed by in the other lane, with its headlights on high, and lit up the inside of Penny’s car for a second, long enough for her to see that the car all around her was filled with shadows, fighting her for control of the car. Penny recognized one of them as October’s. She was still begging October’s shadow for the life of her baby when the car went over the edge.”
    Gustav fell silent and lowered his head, just as if he were remembering that day himself, even though he hadn’t been there and could only report what he’d been told.
    Fernie didn’t understand who could have told Gustav the story in that much detail, and was about to ask. But then a more terrible thought occurred to her. She realized that the future Gustav actually
had
been there, inside Penny, and that killing her had also been, by definition, an attempt to kill him.
    Her mouth was so dry that her voice broke even as she asked the next question. “What did your father do when he found out?”
    “What any husband in that situation would do,” Gustav said. “He went off to find and confront the man who had pretended to be his friend.”
    He took the album from her, closed it with an audible
snap
, and tossed it back onto the bed.
    He said, “I wish I could tell you what happened next. I don’t know what happened between October and my father. I don’t know how October wound up becoming a shadow eater. I only know that after that day, neither