What Moves the Dead

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What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

The mushrooms are swollen, puffy and clammy, growing like tumors, the deep-red color of muscle, unsettling for their likeness to flesh. Step back or poke them with a stick? The rider dismounts from their horse and despite being tired, the horse looks at the water in the tarn and rejects it. They’re close to the Usher’s gloomy manor house, the home of their childhood friends, one of whom sent a very troubling letter. 

As rider and horse cut through the grounds, a “woman of a certain age” with a British accent calls out to them and warns them not to touch the mushrooms growing everywhere. She doesn’t need to tell them twice! They’re redgills and very delicate, a light tap will release a red-violet viscera-like substance and the overpowering smell of rotting flesh from the gills. The lively Englishwoman introduces herself as Eugenia Potter, an illustrator by profession, and a mushroom enthusiast. The rider introduces themself as Alex Easton, a retired sworn soldier from Gallacia, a country near Moldavia and famed for its idiosyncratic language, (including a pronoun just for sworn soldiers, ka/kan, that will now be used throughout the summary). Alex explains ka is here to see kan friend Madeline and Eugenia confirms the news of her dreadful illness has spread through the town. They part ways, Eugenia to her fungus, Alex to the gloomy manor house. 

As Alex and kan horse Hob make their way through the Usher grounds, a creepy orange-eyed hare watches ka pass. It doesn't run away, just stops and watches. Finally at the manor door, Alex waits for a long time for kan knock to be answered by an elderly servant. Alex notes the inside of the house is as dreary as the exterior, and very cold. Eventually kan friend Roderick Usher calls out. As ka turns to greet kan old friend, Alex is startled. Roderick looks bone-white, emaciated, and hollow, his hair a white, spider-like silk and he has a feverish look in his eyes; ka would never have recognized him. Though Roderick is not unhappy to see his friend, he is shocked to see Alex and is surprised his sister Madeline sent kan a letter. Roderick takes Alex to Madeline, and ka is equally shocked by her appearance. Madeline is swathed in blankets but with the coloring of a drowned woman. Her bones can be seen under her skin and her hands look like claws. 

Sitting with Madeline is James Denton, an American army doctor and friend of the Ushers. After civilities are made, Madeline leaves to rest and moves like an old woman. Left alone, Denton and Alex mention how drastic Madeline’s deterioration is, Roderick’s  transformation as well, and the poor state of the house. Denton also asks Alex about being a sworn soldier. Later, when Alex and Roderick are alone, Roderick confesses he is feeling overwhelmed by everything. He also says that he can hear everything now: heartbeats, breathing, and even the worms in the rafters. Alex dismisses his worries, it’s holdovers from the war, but Roderick isn’t so sure. 

Eating alone at an early breakfast with few items on the sideboard and concerned about kan friend, Alex decides to go hunting for a deer or partridges, something to repay Roderick’s hospitality without it appearing like charity. When Denton walks in, Alex asks if he knows what is wrong with Madeline. The short answer is no, though she does present with anemia and catalepsy, a rigidity and slowing of the body, which is getting worse. 

Wandering the house for hunting supplies, Alex finds Madeline sitting on a balcony, looking worse in the daylight, admiring the lake. Lovely is not an adjective Alex would apply to that particular lake, thinking it would be made better with fire and holy water. Alex urges Madeline to leave, to come to Paris with kan and eat lemon ice, but she won’t have it and instead retires to lie down. Finally, Alex finds kan own rooms in the maze-like house and sees kan bagman Angus has arrived. Is Angus Scottish or Gallacian? Nobody knows and he ain’t saying as he switches between the two accents. Angus also reports the whispers in town, that the Usher house is haunted and that witch-hares roam the grounds, but most of the townsfolk are fond of Roderick and are saddened by Madeline dying. 

Perturbed by the Ushers’ situation and troubled by bad dreams during the night, Alex goes for a ride the next morning. Alex is sure the house is killing them, or at least, the mold around the place is. To rid kan friends of such a terrible place, ka considers kidnapping them or burning the manor to the ground. During the ride, ka encounters Eugenia painting a watercolour. Waiting while she finishes, Alex goes closer to the lake. Yeah, it’s worse up close than from a distance. Eugenia ambles over to where Alex is skipping stones and mentions there are algae mats in the lake making it thicker. She then explains about mycelium networks of mushrooms, which is fascinating and creepy. After their chat, Alex heads back to the manor.

Alex wants to put the plan of getting some meat for the Ushers’ dinner table into action and recruits Angus. They pretend to have gone hunting and accidentally shot a cow instead. Oh no!  It’s currently with the butcher being… butchered. Don’t ask questions. After taking some ribbing at dinner for kan “terrible shot,” Alex retires to bed but is unable to sleep, too concerned about the creepy hares that populate the lake the butcher spoke of. It’s then that Alex hears someone in the corridor. Rising to check it out, Alex follows whoever it is but they move like a ghost. Eventually ka goes back to bed, having not found the person leading kan around. 

The next day Alex and Denton take a ride together and happen upon Eugenia who demonstrates the redgills stinking and sticky ability, Alex keeping well back from it and enjoying Denton almost vomiting from the stench. Shortly after, Alex has a strange run-in with a hare. It’s another that just stands there like a statue as if it has no fear, even when Alex stamps kan feet and waves kan hands. Nothing, no movement at all. It doesn’t even blink or twitch its ears. When Alex looks away for only a second, distracted by Denton and Eugenia, the hare has gone. Weird. 

Back at the manor, the beef has arrived from the butcher and that evening they all sit down to a hearty meal. After Alex retires for the evening, ka hears a noise from the corridor and again sees the ghost-like figure disappear down the hall. Alex is able to follow this time and realizes it’s Madeline. Alex figures Madeline is sleepwalking and hesitates to wake her but since she’s heading to a 30-foot drop over the balcony into the creepy lake, thinks it best to intervene. Madeline makes a half-whistle sound whooo…? feels ice cold and is covered in very fine hairs. After guiding Madeline back to bed, Alex cannot sleep and looks at the disturbing lake. Ka can see little lights all over it like stars, but the lake seems to pulse and be hiding something. It really isn’t a pretty sight. 

The next day is a better day. The sun is shining, Madeline is singing, Roderick is playing the piano. They have fun. Then the nighttime comes and everyone goes to bed. Alex hears movement and noise in the corridor again. This time, it’s Denton, going for a walk, and Alex joins him. Denton confesses how since arriving at the manor his dreams are worse and he has nightmares of being back in the war surrounded by severed limbs that are still alive. The two stand next to the lake and neither likes it. It’s abnormal and doesn't reflect light right. This is when Alex finds out that Madeline nearly drowned in the lake a few months ago. Much later that night, or rather in the early hours of the morning, Alex finds Madeline sleepwalking again and making the strange whisper noises. She’s trying to speak, but it’s as if she doesn’t know how. Her walk is strange too, stilted and jerky. 

The next morning over breakfast, Alex mentions Madeline’s sleepwalking again, but also how much her hair is falling out. Denton, however, points out that it’s falling out but she always has more hair to shed. When Roderick calls the conversation to an end, Alex leaves for a ride. Hob is an excellent conversationalist and listens as Alex complains about the lake and the frustration at this mysterious illness killing kan friend. Alex’s theory is that Madeline has the same illness as the hares. They need to look into hares more. Time for research! 

The manor library proves unhelpful in Alex’s research because the books are completely waterlogged and moldy. Denton seems to listen to the theory and doesn’t dismiss it. They decide it’s time to catch a hare and take a closer look inside. They don’t need to set any traps because Hob nearly steps on one when it doesn’t even attempt to move out of the way of his hooves. Alex raises kan gun to shoot the hare when it suddenly moves with speed. Chasing it, the hare leads Alex to a small clearing where there are other hares in a circle. Standing. Watching. Alex shoots one and it crawls back to the others and sits with them as if nothing happened, but it’s definitely dead, half its head is missing. Alex turns and walks away. Relaying the story to Denton, he agrees, that’s weird. 

Alex wakes during the night twice, first when ka thinks ka hears a cry, but falls back to sleep. The second is to find Roderick playing the piano and the news that Madeline is dead. She’s already in the crypt beneath the house, but Roderick takes Alex to pay respect. The crypt is very cold and Madeline lies under a shroud. Alex says goodbye. 

After dinner later that evening, Alex gets drunk, Angus having to carry kan to bed. The next morning, feeling worse for wear, Alex heads to breakfast. Over black tea, Roderick tells Alex and Denton he hears Madeline knocking on the crypt door during the night. They think it’s only his nerves because the dead don’t walk. This plays on Alex’s mind all day when, at midnight, ka goes to the crypt. Alex finds Madeline under her shroud, quite dead, but her neck is broken and she has finger marks across her throat. 

Breakfast is very different when one of your companions is a murderer. Thank goodness there is tea! When things get awkward, Alex flees and goes for a ride even though it’s raining. Throughout the ride, Alex sees those creepy hares until ka spots Eugenia, sitting on a stool with her watercolours and an umbrella to keep her dry. Something clicks in Alex’s head when ka sees the mushroom on her easel. The fungus is making people sick, not a disease! Alex talks through this with Eugenia who confirms certain fungi certainly can make people sick. Take the fungus that can hunt worms and leave fine white hairs called hyphae on its victims as it takes over their bodies. Alex drags Eugenia to the Usher crypt to see Madeline’s dead body. Unfortunately it is gone. 

Alex is stunned, but Eugenia just thinks kan nerves may be overset. Madeline’s shroud is still there and Alex examines it and sees some of the white hairs. Eugenia confirms they are certainly not human hairs or threads from a cloth, but the hyphae a fungus would produce. Alex tells Eugenia ka covered Madeline’s body and thought her body hair was turning white but it seems she was covered in these hyphae. The dead don’t walk, so surely her body has been moved. Eugenia is worried, they need to stop the spread of the fungus. Touching the hyphae either on the shroud or Madeline herself is very dangerous. 

Together, Alex and Eugenia head to talk to the others. Roderick is asleep but Denton is there. They explain everything and the doctor listens. He finds it very possible they are right, but can only confirm with an autopsy on a dead body that isn’t there. They’ll have to get one of the creepy hares and thankfully Angus is up to the task. Well, he spotted one lying stuck in the lake water a day or so ago and fetches that one. When they slice it open it looks very, very wrong. A sticky white mess erupts from its chest cavity and something slimy and fibrous adheres to its organs. Then the hare starts to move. Eugenia pins it with her umbrella while Alex chops it in half. The head is still moving though, the mouth opening and closing. 

At first they’re going to chuck it in the lake, but Eugenia points out that would contaminate the lake. Too late. And they’re all contaminated with the fungus because the lake provides the drinking and bathing water. They decide to burn the hare instead. Alex sends Eugenia away on Hob, partly to keep them safe and partly so someone outside knows what is going on should the worst happen. 

As Alex and Denton burn the hare, Alex tells him ka knows Madeleine’s neck was broken. Denton shows Alex the letter Roderick sent him asking him to attend Madeline, except Roderick, when he describes the spells of madness she is having, he calls his sister “Not Maddy” implying he knows something. When Denton arrived, Madeline seemed the same, but then there was the near-drawing incident, and after, Madeline changed. It must be the fungus taking over her body. They need to find Not Maddy and burn the body without Roderick knowing because he wouldn’t be pleased. She must be in the crypt, so down underground they go. 

Except when they get to the crypt, the door is open. Not Maddy is gone and there are signs she moved on her own, fine white hairs on the wall where someone might lean if they were unsteady. The fungus must be puppeting Madeline. They rush up from the crypt to Roderick’s room. He is still lying in bed, but sitting on the bed near him is Not Maddy. Her head is bent at a horrible angle, flopping sideways.

Not Maddy has a strange breathy whispery voice as she addresses Alex, saying shooting her won’t work. Alex realizes all those times ka found Madeline sleepwalking it was actually Not Maddy controlling her body, learning to move and to speak on its own. Yikes. Not Maddy explains that the fungus is intelligent and that it only wants to live and now it needs a new host because the one it is in is a bit frayed around the edges. Madeline has been dead for at least a month now after all. Double Yikes. Not Maddy asks Alex to be the new host. Nah, dog. 

While Alex kept Not Maddy talking, Denton was able to get to Roderick and carry him out of the room. Denton then reaches inside the bedroom, yanks Alex out and slams the door shut. They block the door and evacuate the building. Roderick is awake now and apologizing profusely to his friends, he never wanted them involved, nor did he want any of this to happen. He’s a broken man. Roderick sends the few remaining servants to the village with Alex and Denton and resolutely declares that, as the Ushers allowed this monstrous thing to grow, he, as the last Usher, must put a stop to it.  

The house burns for two days and there is no sign of Roderick. To purify the lake, Eugenia has returned with twelve hundred pounds of sulfur. The village is quite happy to help as they never liked the lake. Thankfully they get all their drinking and bathing water from an unconnected well. As they watch the water, the sulfur works its magic. An eerie green light is emitted and gelatinous blobs under the surface pulse, then it all stops and goes still. Alex and the others ride away, away from the dead lake and the fallen house of Usher.