The only sense she could make of hearing pan pipes playing near an abandoned house in the forest was that Seth was trying to create an eerie atmosphere, as if she wasn’t unsettled enough already. Tia turned toward the door and removed her boots. She knelt down on the mud streaked carpet. She knew that he preferred her to kneel when he entered a room. Only after she had settled herself did she notice the shards of glass littering the floor, glittering like starlight from the corners of the room. She hoped that Seth would be able to manage on the broken staircase.

The sound of pan pipes grew louder, with long notes that seemed to reverberate through the fabric of the house. The moon was reflected by a mirror in a wooden frame decorated with carved ivy, to the left of the door. As Tia stared at the mirror, the ivy began to grow. She was rooted to the spot as the carving came to life and the brown leaves became green. The fast moving, searching limbs of the plant pushed through the surface of the mirror which yielded like water.