BUY THIS STUFF =
When it comes to correct postage, I'm somewhat obsessive. So it was that, while confirming for the third time that my bills were all properly stamped, Ethan slipped away.
Just around the corner, thank God, and not even out the door. Still, I panicked for a moment, flashes of kidnappers and police and will my wife ever forgive me numbing my brain, before I found him, staring up at the Postmaster's door.
My panic subsided, replaced with a muted, oily unease. In Norwalk, you see, we store our monsters in the post office, behind the door labeled "Postmaster".
Surely you've noticed that the Postmaster's door is far too large-- something like eight feet tall, and half as wide. Maybe you've wondered why the Postmaster never seems to enter or exit the door, or why in an otherwise shiny, modern facility, this one door reeks of antiquity and disuse. Perhaps you've even asked yourself, who is our Postmaster? Does anybody know?In truth, an imposing slab of oak and brass such as this has only one purpose: to secure, out of sight, our local crop of unspeakable horrors.Behind the door is a vault, and it is quite thoroughly impenetrable. Aside from two layers of stone and mortar behind a near-seamless envelope of blackened iron, the vault is wrapped in enchantment and sealed within the collective will of our Shadow Council. At each corner of the vault: the mortal remains of a fallen priest, bricked alive into the works centuries previous, long-dead souls paying an endless penance in service to the living. These eight spectres shriek and hiss at the vault's inhabitants, and though the imprisoned monstrosities rage at their captivity, they are afraid, and huddle far from the vault door.
Once every a few years, the guardians fall silent, the enchantments falter, and there comes a terrible pounding at the door. It is then that additional measures must be taken.
I have no immediate fear for Ethan's life. For now, the door and the vault behind are secure, and as the Shadow Council already took both of his sisters-- three and seven years ago-- they will not ask for my son's blood, even when the beasts inevitably challenge the door again.Still, I am afraid. It is clear that Ethan will come to know the vault… but from which side of the Postmaster’s door?
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