The staff worked on to the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, until it would be difficult for one to believe that anything unusual had ever happened in the House. In this time, the inhabitants of the House began to relax. They began to ignore the House. They began to forget about what it had done. That was their mistake.

        Then the music began to play once more, but the House’s staff ignored it. They no longer cowered in fear of what the House could do. The maids brazenly walked from room to room through the slamming doors. Not a one considered or possibly even remembered the earlier victim. A chief of the House even halted the cracking of a cabinet door to put dishes away. The only one who seemed to pay the House any notice was the young man. He accompanied the House as he had since he learned how to summon the music from his wooden box. Just as it happened before, the House’s music sped up. This time, the musician was prepared. He tirelessly attacked the keyboard. Every time the music increased in speed he followed it. The House was not finished. Even when it seemed that the cabinet doors would fly off of their hinges, the House was not finished. The music quickly became more and more deafening, until it drowned out the young man’s playing.

        The House then chose to make its move. As a newly hired maid reached into the master’s closet to put away his freshly cleaned clothes, she was pulled into the dark recesses of the closet. No one missed her. It was common for new employees to run away in fear during the first week. Besides, this was also her first experience with the House’s music.