“Okay, so why the big deal?”
“It’s a gym class. The shadows seem to be preprogrammed to go about their day until we are spotted. That means a giant room full of them.” Mike flinched when a door slammed in the distance. “I’m not sure how we could make it to the door…wait, I know! The first five minutes of class are when we change clothes, so the gym should be empty.”
“But not a real five minutes.”
“No, but maybe it will give us enough time. We need to get close to the gym and find a hiding spot so that…” A flash of movement caught Mike’s eye through the gap, but all he could make out was a flash of blonde hair disappearing around the corner.
“What is it?”
“Thought I saw something. Or someone.” He shook his head, focusing on the task at hand. “There should be a set of recycle bins across from the gym. If we can hide in those, we can wait until the bell rings.”
“Then let’s do it.” She helped him stand, and they quietly pulled open the doors. The long halls of the school had taken on a sinister presence, and the two of them slowed whenever they neared a set of windows. They crawled beneath the large windows that looked into the computer lab, and he could hear the shadows within clicking away on their keyboards.
Nearing the gym, they spotted the large bins but had to wait. Baba Yaga was limping around near the entrance, sniffing through her giant nose. Clearly tracking something, she frowned, her whole face shifting down, and then stormed off toward a nearby set of stairs. Once she was out of view, Mike and Ratu scrambled down the hall and stood in front of the bins. They were about four feet tall and full of plastic bottles. Mike helped Ratu in, careful not to make any noise. Once she had her footing, she braced him as he slid across the top, and they lowered the lid on top of them, leaving a tiny gap through which to see.
Some time passed, and the bell rang. The hall filled with shadows again, shadows with fiery eyes. They milled about in fast-forward, keeping up with the distorted time. Mike wondered if their movements were random or if every shadow had a schedule it would follow for all eternity.
The bell signaled the start of class.
In their haste to get out, Mike and Ratu tipped over the recycle bin, scattering cans and Gatorade bottles across the ground. They picked themselves up off the floor but heard Baba Yaga holler with rage above them.
“Go!” Mike entered the gym, his feet pounding against the polished wooden floors. The bleachers were folded away, giving them a clear line to the door at the far end. Behind them, Baba Yaga hollered once more, and the doors to the locker rooms filled with shadows that chased after them. Mike tipped over a cart full of basketballs, hoping it would slow their pursuers. His heart was in his throat, and he could hear Ratu gasping just behind them. He chanced a look back. The swarm of shadows was close on their heels, and Baba Yaga’s ugly visage had appeared in the entrance, her lips curled into a snarl. Looking ahead, he grabbed at Ratu’s hand, sprinting forward for the last ten feet.
Shoving the bar down, Mike pushed on the door with his whole body. He hollered in triumph when it opened, expecting his feet to hit the concrete of the outdoor basketball courts on the other side.
What he didn’t expect was for the world to tip over. Clutching the bar with one hand, he held on to Ratu with the other. The gym rotated, Mike and Ratu dangling over open space. The shadows fell against the back wall, splattering into dark mist.
“What’s happening?” Mike yelled. He could barely hear himself over the world folding in on itself.
“The artifact!” she yelled back. “This is where Baba Yaga’s magic intersects with it!”
Straining to hold on, he looked down again. The back wall of the gym collapsed, the school folding in on itself. Doors, halls, and stairwells closed in on one another, the wood of the gym splintering and floating around the room. Desks crashed around them, windows shattered, and Mike could hold on no longer.
His fingers slipped free of the bar, and he and Ratu fell. Gravity warped, and instead of crashing to the ground below, they fell at an angle. Striking the hard surface of the gym floor, Mike let go of Ratu and watched her slide away in a completely different direction.
Colliding with a pile of desks, Mike slid to a stop. He was in a giant cube made of the entire school folded up. Stairs and doorways were scattered in every direction with no logic in their orientations.
“Mike?” At his name, Mike looked up. Ratu was standing on the ceiling, which was at least thirty feet up.
“What sort of David Bowie bullshit is this?” Mike muttered, disentangling himself. Surveying the room, he saw that the gym door was now halfway up the far wall and turned sideways.
“That’s still the exit,” Ratu said. “If we can get through the door, then we will be out of Baba Yaga’s spell.”
“That is correct.” The thick voice made them both look back. Standing in a large doorway was Baba Yaga. She was upside down to Mike, on the same floor as Ratu. “But bad little children must be punished.”
“Get to the door, Mike!” Ratu ran away from Baba Yaga, the old witch’s metal leg clunking against the ceiling as she followed behind. Mike tried to keep track of them, but Ratu disappeared through a doorway.
Mike ran across the floor, passing through a doorway of his own. The room inside had a slight curve to it, and Mike realized by the time he was climbing through a broken window that the door was now at a forty-five-degree angle to him.
“So fucking weird,” he muttered, careful not to cut himself. He was on a flight of stairs now that terminated on a small platform. A doorway was within jumping distance, so he leaped across. Beneath him, Ratu was on the wall, hiding behind a column. Baba Yaga was sniffing the air, moving in on her.
“Hey!” Mike waved. “Hey, over here!” Baba Yaga stopped just short of Ratu’s pillar, her watery eyes focusing on Mike. “Anyone ever tell you that you look like a potato fucked a big bag of ugly?”
Mike expected a lot of reactions, but Baba Yaga ripping up a floorboard and hurling it at him like a javelin was not one of them. He moved away from the ledge and ran up a flight of stairs as Baba Yaga gripped the ledge, pulling herself into his reference frame.
“Oh shit.” Mike was at the top of the stairs, and it was a wall. With Baba Yaga closing in, he leaped off the side toward another platform below. The platform turned out to be the ceiling of another part of the room, and he ended up crashing into a pile of toppled lockers, the muscles in his back and neck tightening up.
“Mike!” Ratu was on the wall above him. “She’s right behind you!”
Moving quickly, Mike was barely on his feet when the witch crashed into the lockers, her meaty hands clenching and then opening, revealing dirty fingernails. The air was thick with the smell of stale tobacco. Running away from her, he saw a sideways door in the wall. Using a desk, he climbed into the doorframe and pushed open the door. As soon as he crossed the boundary, gravity shifted, and he fell onto the floor of the newest room, his stomach protesting.
“Urgh.” Covering his mouth, he stumbled forward, trying to regain his bearings. Baba Yaga’s ugly face appeared in the door, but a trash can fell from above her, knocking her to the ground.
“Keep moving!” Ratu cried out, and he heard the pattering of her feet and then the slamming of a door.
Passing through another door, he then ran up a twisting flight of stairs and ducked through a window. Baba Yaga was now twenty feet above him, shaking her fists as he disappeared through a set of double doors. He spotted Ratu through an open door, but she was sideways, trying to fit between a pair of lockers. Baba Yaga came close to nabbing him when he opened a door that she was on the other side of, but he was able to climb the stairs behind him faster than she could. Another time, he spotted her below him, and he dropped a trash can on her. It arced through the air, gravity shifting, before colliding with the witch and knocking her down. Mike was getting
the hang of this place but still had no idea where the fuck he was going.
Descending a set of stairs that terminated over open air, he realized that he was looking down at the exit. The door was thirty feet straight down from him, and Ratu was almost there.
Baba Yaga dropped down in front of Ratu, nearly crushing her. Ratu screamed, falling backward onto the ground, and the witch grabbed her by the front of her dress, her huge hands nearly encircling the struggling girl.
Baba Yaga sniffed Ratu, a toothy grin spreading across her face. Opening her mouth wide, she lifted Ratu into her maw, the naga’s head easily fitting between her teeth.
Ratu screamed.
There was no time for thought, only action. Mike jumped off the stairs, arms across his chest and feet down, his body a human missile. His stomach jumped into his throat, and the distorted gravity of the room fought over which direction to take him. His fall provided plenty of velocity, and he collided solidly with Baba Yaga, knocking her and Ratu onto the hard wood of the gym floor. They slid across the floor together, the witch’s hands grasping for purchase.
“Go!” he cried. “Get out!”
Ratu stood up on wobbly legs. Baba Yaga was only a few feet away, struggling to get her metal leg under her. Ratu grabbed onto his wrist, her legs pumping hard to pull him toward the exit. Mike’s whole body was numb from the collision, and all he could do was watch the witch rise and the naga strain, wondering who would be faster.
“I’ll use your eyes in soup,” Baba Yaga mumbled, shuffling toward them. Mike’s legs twitched, and he started pushing against the floor with his heels, allowing Ratu to pull him even faster.
“I will tan you and use your skin as a blanket. I will make sausage out of your guts.”
His eyes stuck on the witch, Mike heard the clicking of the gym door’s bar behind him. Focusing all his attention on his arm that Ratu wasn’t pulling, he lifted his hand and flipped Baba Yaga the bird.
Freezing-cold air flooded the room when the gym door opened. The witch covered her face against the blast, and Ratu pulled Mike through. The world distorted all around him, and they both tumbled through space.
Mike blinked. It was dark again—or had he actually gone blind this time? He tried to snap his fingers, but he had something lodged in between them. “Ratu?”
A little ball of fire burst into existence in front of him, slowly expanding to light the room. They were inside the ice cavern, and Mike was holding the silver tongs. They had melted almost to his fingers. Surveying the room, there was no trace of the box or the dangerous artifact within it.
“Did…did we win?”
“Yes.” Ratu lay on the other side of the chamber, her body limp against the wall. “We escaped. You grabbed the artifact and held it in the candle’s flame, and it was consumed, blasting us apart.”
“I don’t remember any of that.”
“And you might not. Even through the goggles, viewing a part of an Ancient One is dangerous.” Ratu closed her eyes. “We have been unconscious for some time. The tunnel has collapsed. I think I hear the others coming for us, but they will have to follow the path we made.”
“Are we going to run out of air?” Mike asked. He hugged himself.
“No. I can feel a cool breeze through here.” Ratu sighed. “But I am afraid that we will freeze.”
Mike nodded, his teeth beginning to chatter. “Can’t you make us some fire?”
“I am exhausted. This ball above us is all I can manage.”
“Why are you so exhausted? Is it because of the fight with Baba Yaga?”
“No. It’s because I’m a snake.” Ratu smiled weakly. “I am cold-blooded. We have been here so long that my temperature has dropped, and we are surrounded by millions of pounds of ice.” She waved her hand, the ball of fire drifting toward Mike. “It isn’t enough to keep me warm, but it might help you last until the others come. It will keep burning for a while.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Mike stood, his legs wobbling. “I did not just rescue you from Baba Yaga to have you die of hypothermia.”
“There’s nothing you can do.”
“There are three things I learned as a Boy Scout that will always stick with me.” Mike wobbled across the chamber. “The first is to spread out your arms and legs in case of quicksand. The second is to cut away from yourself when using a pocket knife.” He sat down next to Ratu, wrapping an arm around her. “The third is that you can beat hypothermia with skin-to-skin contact.”
“It’s not that simple. I don’t generate any heat. Your body isn’t warm enough for both of us.”
“It’s worth trying.” Mike pulled off his shirt.
Ratu smiled weakly. “I didn’t think you had those in the real world too,” she said, looking at his scars.
“Some wounds are spiritual and physical.” Mike pulled off his pants. “I think we can use our clothes like blankets to keep warm.”
“You certainly aren’t shy.” She fiddled with the ties on her clothes. “You don’t find it odd to be undressed like this in front of me?”
“Please. I’ve known you since we were kids.” This elicited a laugh from Ratu. “Here, let me help you.”
“It’s so cold…” Ratu’s lips were blue in the fire’s light, her fingers going limp. Mike opened up the front of her kimono, revealing that she wore nothing underneath. The scales of her body were dark, the pattern shifting constantly across her stomach and breasts.
“How big is this thing?” Mike asked, unfolding the kimono further. It was easily the size of a king-size bedsheet, and it kept getting bigger.
“It’s magic. It becomes part of me when I’m a snake so stretches to…”
“Ratu?” Mike shook her, then slapped her cheek, her crown falling off her head. “Wake up! Shit…” He laid out a portion of the kimono and folded it onto itself several times to keep them both off the ice. Grabbing the naga by her arms, he pulled her into the middle of the folded cloth, then yanked everything in, layering the fabric all around them.
Ratu’s eyes fluttered.
Mike rubbed her arms and sides quickly to warm up her skin. “C’mon, stay awake. I can hear the others; they’re getting close!”
Ratu smirked, her eyes closed. “That’s a lie.”
Mike swallowed the lump in his throat. “Now why would you say that?”
“Because I was lying to you when I told you the same thing. To give you hope.” She sighed. “You feel so warm against me.”
“I’m a hot-blooded American, that’s me.” Her skin was freezing. Mike pulled her against his chest, her rigid nipples brushing his skin. “You don’t think they’re coming?”
“I don’t know.” She buried her face in the crook of his neck. “Mmm…so warm.”
“I’m glad you think I’m warm.” His teeth chattered. “You should wrap your legs around mine, maximize contact.”
“Or I could do this.” He felt her legs shift, melding together and wrapping around him like a giant rope. Her body elongated, pressing against his thighs and all the way down to his feet. Her cool skin quickly chilled Mike’s legs, making him feel like he had been submerged in ice water. He pulled the kimono in tighter, hoping to lock in even more heat. As it was, only his face and the top of her head were exposed. The little fireball hovered over them, casting a soft glow on the walls of ice around them.
“Is that b-better?”
“Much.”
“G-good.” Mike squeezed her. “B-but we should k-keep talking.”
“What about?”
“A-anything. We c-can’t fall as-sleep. Gotta k-keep busy.”
“Tell me more about the house. And the others.” Ratu’s voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.
Mike rubbed her arms vigorously and told her all about how he had come to the house. He would stop frequently, and she would ask him questions. Neither of
them spoke for very long, making sure that the other hadn’t dozed off. The ball of fire slowly diminished for a while but eventually stabilized. Mike’s limbs finally warmed up a bit, and Ratu responded by coiling around him even tighter.
“How much of you is a snake?” Mike asked, his chattering teeth finally under control.
“My waist down. Why?”
“Just curious. Can it be any combination? Human head, snake body? Snake head, human body?”
Ratu laughed at the last one. “I suppose. Naga don’t spend a ton of time experimenting with transformations that serve no purpose.”
“So why not all snake? You could have wrapped yourself all around me, warmed up even faster.”
“I could have. To be honest, though, it felt really good to be held by somebody else. I’ve been on my own down here for years, but before I came here, I was always alone.”
“Why?”
“All sorts of reasons.” Ratu rubbed her face on his chest, her long hair brushing against his sides. “It made me think of happier times is all.”
“Uh…” His body finally warmed up, Mike experienced a rush of blood somewhere else. “Yeah, I get that.”
“Asterion is nice enough but not very good company. And those damn fairies drove me nuts.”
Shifting coils around his legs felt like giant hands massaging him, causing his cock to twitch beneath his underwear. She raised her head, her eyes meeting his. “I don’t know if we’ll survive this, but even if we don’t, you saved my soul from Baba Yaga. That’s a pretty big deal.”
“Not really. I mean, you would have done the same for me. You did do the same for me. You dragged me out the exit.”
“Only because I needed you to destroy the artifact. An act of survival on my part. You took a big risk for my sake, and now I owe you.”
Mike chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I just did the right thing.”
“Interesting.” Ratu moved her face closer to his. “You are an interesting man, Mike Radley.”
Mike opened his mouth to respond, but Ratu’s lips found his. Her tongue slid along his upper lip, and he realized that it was forked.
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