Thomasina stretched in bed and, with a gentle sigh, opened her eyes. Her neck felt a little stiff down the right-hand side, which made her stretch further. She noticed something odd brush against her hands as she brought her arms up to stretch for a third time, then decided to get up out of bed. She crossed her boudoir to the window, pulled back the curtains, raised the blinds, pulled the levers down the side of the window to open the shutters outside, and then opened the window itself.
The morning sky outside was cloudy and red. It had been raining overnight, but for now, it had stopped. Thomasina saw her bluebird friends chasing each other in the cool morning air and reached for her bag of breadcrumbs beside the window. She grabbed a few and held out a palmful for the friendly birds. She noticed her favourite, a large-eyed creature she named Plimsole, begin to fly towards her. As he approached, his eyes seemed to grow even larger, and he dashed away rapidly, squawking loudly, before flying behind a large bush. The squawking didn’t stop until all of the other bluebirds had moved away from the area.
With another sigh, Thomasina knocked the breadcrumbs off her hand, scattering them out into The Grinds, and walked back inside. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in her dressing room mirror and froze.
The perm she’d had done the day before had gone horribly wrong, and she had a huge nest of hair like a big ball around her head. As bad as that was, the colour had gone even worse… it was a bright cherry red.
Thomasina screamed a blood-curdling scream that echoed around the Mansion, out into The Grinds, and out into the wider world.
To be continued…
The Mansionic Perspective 
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