By Kevin J. Phyland
Kettering slips on the woollen gloves and tests the door handle.
The door refuses to budge, and Kettering sighs to himself and removes the forked metal pry bar from the calico bag he is carrying. The rumours of the high levels of security in the house are overwhelmed by his need for funds. The stories of the riches kept in the house are legendary.
Talk in town usually circled back to the three previous attempts where the miscreants had never been apprehended. The mysterious occupant of the house seems to have been content to chalk the thefts up as insurance claims, and Kettering makes the logical assumption that the security must have a flaw and makes his plans accordingly.
He pauses inside the front door that he has carefully pushed partly open. Light from a distant streetlight shadows the dim interior, and no sound of stirring can be heard. He waits a few minutes. No hint of an alarm. He is sanguine about the possibility of a silent alarm but gives it an extra five minutes anyway.
Nothing but the gentle whispering of stirring leaves mars the quiet of the night.
He proceeds inside. He turns on the tiny penlight he carries, surveys the large foyer and enters the lounge room on the left. Expensive furniture, which Kettering assumes must be tasteful, is placed at appropriate places around a central dining table. He has no real understanding of opulence. He assumes if it is gaudy but in a rich person's house that it must be somehow appropriate.
The dining table is large enough to seat a dozen people, and Kettering idly wonders about all the dinner parties that could have happened here. He is unaware of any in the time that he has lived in the town.
Kettering's eyes gradually adjust to the gloom and he sees expensive silverware on a sideboard. He is headed toward it when he is distracted by an enormous dollhouse on a table against one wall. It appears to be a replica of the house he is in, and the detail is incredible.
He pauses and aims the penlight into the windows at the front of the dollhouse. Peering inside, he sees a replica of the huge dining table and looks with interest at the three figures seated there. Two men and a woman. He peers even closer at a strange detail. They are all wearing masks. A ski mask and two with clown masks.
Odd, he thinks.
Then he notices a detail that chills him to the bone. The front door to the dollhouse appears to have been forced open with tiny wooden splinters. Something has broken the lock.
Kettering turns at a sudden squeaking floorboard. A bright light shines into his eyes and he loses consciousness.
***
When he comes to, Kettering is seated at the dining table but is unable to move his limbs. There is another person seated beside him and two others opposite — all wearing masks, all with only their eyes visible — and their eyes are terrified.
At a noise he swivels his gaze through the front window and sees an enormous face looming there. Cold eyes the size of each picture window blink slowly.
A voice like rolling thunder washes across the room as the giant outside says simply, “Four!”
Kettering realises to his horror that he is in the dollhouse.
He wonders what happens after all the guests arrive…
About the Author
Kevin J. Phyland
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.
Retired now from teaching he amuses himself by reading, writing, following his love of weather and correcting people on the internet.
He’s been writing since his teens and hopes he will one day get it right.
He can be found on twitter @KevinPhyland where he goes by the handle of CaptainZero and his work is around the place if you search using google or use the antisf.com.au archive.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
Jessie Atkin writes fiction, essays, and plays.
Brian Mahon is a former cook, lab technician, submariner, and now-and-then writer.
Bryan is a writer, activist and retired-barrister based in Melbourne, Australia. He appeared in the High Court in significant constitutional, native title and refugee matters including the Mabo litigation, Bryan has published numerous legal articles, and the book "A Mabo Memoir" (2013).
Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author from Melbourne, Australia. She writes short stories, novellas and novels across the darker spectrum.
PS Cottier is a poet who lives in Canberra, with a particular interest in speculative poetry.