by Jared Ravens
He climbed the wet metal ladder up to the balcony and found himself soon lost in a maze of tunnels. He made chalk marks on the walls to help him find his way back but it wasn't long before he had lost these too. When he heard sounds he moved away from them but this tended to put him into the darker regions of the maze. He realized he had move towards them to see where people actually were.
He worked his way up through the waterworks, thinking that he could disguise himself as maintenance staff if need be. It was some time before he encountered anyone. The girl surprised him, running down the hallway in coveralls towards some emergency. He nearly fainted at the sudden sight of her but she didn’t notice him at all. He walked on, carefully, attempting to make his features appear more confident.
He snuck past a workers station and down a hallway. He was out of the water works but into what seemed to the sewage area from the rancid smell. He covered his mouth and pressed on, assuming the area would be void of guards because of the stench. He ducked into a dimly lit hallways and nearly fell back trying to return to the shadows. Three guards dark blue uniforms sat on benches, cleaning their knives and complaining about pay. He sat in the darkness, unable to move anywhere and listened to their complaints about prisoners. It dawned on him that he had wandered into the cellblock.
He waited, listening for sounds from both directions. The break was soon over and the guards stood up and put their helmets back on. He could still hear them further down the hall as he turned the corner and walked into the alcove where they had been sitting. There was bag of dirty laundry near some locked cabinets and he found suitable clothing that only mildly stunk. A dented helmet under the bench became his head gear and he walked off towards the sounds.
The prison was surprisingly empty. He skirted along the edges of it, stopping and doubling back discreetly if he saw any number of people in the hallways. He followed markings on the walls pointing him towards stairs and up to the castle. The empty cells dug into the walls made it clear that there were few prisoners and so few guards needed. The smell was indescribable, an acid smell that burned to inhale The guards he overheard complained about it and it served to distract them if they ever came into contact with him. One pair ran quickly past Dani, asking:
"When are they moving him out?"
He was making his way across a landing when he heard a noise, a rattling that vibrated the prison. The open doors of the empty cells moved. His first thought was that Spaulding must have triggered an earthquake while digging. Guards ran past him on the landing. He followed them, fearful that there might be an evacuation at hand. They descended shaky metal stairs suspended in the air over a large chasm and met up with a hole in a large rock wall. They ran into the cave and threw open a heavy steel door. The stench became stronger and each soldier drew back and covered his or her face before they ran into the room.
The room was a large cave lit by torches, illuminating stalactites and dripping water. Metal walkways hung from the ceiling, swinging as the boots of soldiers ran along them. The walkways surrounded a huge metal cage which housed the source of the smell.
Dani lost his breath as he stepped into the room and saw it.
Bautomet’s laugh shook the cage. He rose up and directed his foul breath at the ceiling of the cave, the sound reverberating like scraping metal across the rock. He pounded his fists into the ground and the walls of the cave shook. He was large but shockingly skeletal; his body was scared and he drug one of his legs as he turned.
As he moved closer Dani saw what had happened. The bars were slightly bent and on the floor a set of manacles and chains lay broken; he had busted out of them and then had decided to shake his cage. He was still chained by both his feet but was working on them when he wasn't being stabbed by halberts and swords. One particularly nasty jab came from a woman in thick armor whose thrust pierced his neck. He wailed and backed away, then laughed with glee towards the ceiling. He brought his fists down so hard that the room shook, dropping many to their feet. Dani fell back against the railing of the walkway and then fell over. The ground was only a body length away but was unforgiving; he landed so hard he nearly bounced.
He felt he lost his bearings for a moment. When he finally looked up the soldiers had moved in. Bautomet’s multiple hands were stabbed with spears connected to chains. They reeled these chains in until they could reach his wrists, then some brave soul slapped a manacle on it the size of a large person's waist.
Each of his hands were done in this manner until he was nearly incapacitated and his body was worn of energy. He was still at last, his eyes lazy but prodding and his body stretched out to the cage bars. He looked like some poor insect. The soldiers all cursed him, some spitting on him and telling him to stay put. Yet with each insult the monster seemed to smile a bit more through his exhaustion. The soldiers were all exiting the cave, rushing to escape the stench and bathe off the muck. Dani stood up but it was too late; No one could see him in the shadow below the walkway and the steel door above him shut. He scrambled up, yelling to see if there was anyone still in the cave.
There was still one.
Bautomet laughed, a low, amused growl.
"They left you behind?" he said.
Dani wheeled to face him, and walked sideways towards the stairs to the walkway, never letting the beast veer from his sight.
"Just... Momentarily..." He didn't know why he should feel the need to explain this to him.
"More than a moment," it said, then laughed, a sound that was halfway to a growl. "They didn’t remember you. Not at all."
Despite his condition of being nearly immobile Bautomet smiled as if he could pounce at any moment.
"I didn't cut you," Dani explained, backing up the stairs.
"You should have. It would have felt goooood."
"Just.... I'll be gone."
Dani stepped onto the walkway and suddenly Bautomet came to life. He pulled at the chains with tremendous strength and they gave some length. Dani saw they were not attached directly to the bars of the cage but to wheels of chain in the ceiling and floor. If he pulled enough he could get them to move. He cursed viciously at them before forgetting them and smiling at Dani again.
"What are you doing here?”
"I'm leaving."
"I hope you don't go back to where you were. It must not have been fun if you came here."
“I’m working” Dani said.
"Your pants don't match."
Dani looked down. Of course he still had on his regular pants. He had only found a shirt and helmet to pass as a soldier. He had an impulse to explain this away but its seemed foolish to lie.
"How are you getting out?" Bautomet asked Dani, noting Dani’s his lack of keys.
"I don't know. I hope the door is open."
Bautomet seemed delighted that they were in the same situation.
"You know, you're not the first to come down here. I am wanted. A girl came here here and demanded I have sex with her on the floor right here. She died soon. It's what she wanted."
He said this casually, as if saying he had completed an errand. Dani had to stop and consider if he was lying or not. It occurred to him that he might have eaten the woman, which repulsed him more.
“You don’t think it’s true? People want me, for a lot of different reasons,” Bautomet continued. “People want things. Everyone does."
"I don’t want you," said Dani, moving back to the steel door.
“Are you sure? What are you doing here, then?”
Dani tried the heavy metal door. Locked tight. He examined it helplessly when a tirade of emotion flowed from behind him.
"You will go to my temple and you will tell my people that I am alive and I will return! You have no control over me!"
The thing he turned to now was much different, red eyed and glowing with pure terror. Dani fell against the door. He'd never felt such energy.
"I'm not here for that," he yelled back. He wanted to be clear that he did no worship Bautomet and he did n
ot intend to have sex with him. Bautomet’s eyes turned narrow and he examined the boy.
"Who is here?" he asked. He had smelled something of his thoughts. Bautomet looked upwards. "They're doing things."
"I'm keeping tabs on my friend," he said. "Keeping him safe. You can't help with that."
"Who could help better?" He was back to smiling. "I wish to go back underground. Do you think if I dig far enough down I will reach it? Down where the dead people go? I know them all. They walk around without a thought in their heads. Do you think I could keep him from there? I know how."
"He's not going to die."
"If he's here, well..." Bautomet’s eyes went up and down as if pondering the question. "You never know. I do. My Master Waring does. You will find out soon enough."
Dani was baffled.
"He's not going to die."
"Do you think they are fair?" he asked, suddenly inquisitive. "Do you know why people come to me? Because they want to be equal. To them. Their masters on The Hill.” He shrugged. “Who would not want that?"
"You've lied to them."
"No," he replied, mildly offended. "Do you think I am worse than they are? I think not!"
"They don't destroy like you. They don't kill whole cities of people for sport."
"They don't? Maybe not yet. I am the sum of all anger. People hate me because they won't do what I do, not because they do not want to do what I do. Except the people that love me. I turn all pain in to happiness and all anger into action. Genesee only speaks of balance while going in one direction, but he knows it goes both ways."
"You can't blame people for massacres you commit. You're the one that does them.”
Bautomet became animated at this.
"You think them, I do them. I am the sum of all anger and all pain! I take it on my shoulders like anyone else's job! I am a part of the solution."
Dani turned and tried the door again.
"I can be a part of this one too,” He growled. "You want, I want. You need, you help."
"No."
"Eventually..."
"I'll just wait,” Dani said. “They must feed you sometime."
He laughed uproariously at this.
"What?" Dani asked.
"You are the meal," he explained.
Dani froze at this.
"Unless..."
"What?"
"Who is it?” Bautomet asked inquisitively. “Waring knows it is happening, and I know it is happening.”
"I'm not telling you."
"When they get done with your friend do you think they'll feed him to me? Instead of you being the meal?"
"Don't say that!'
"Oh, so it is a friend you have! And he's here, kept somewhere, but you confirmed he's upstairs."
"I did?"
"Just now. So. Soldier. They treat him well. For now. But Soldier. If they don't. If they change. Will they call him a demon just like they call me now?"
Dani was dumbstruck. How much did Bautomet know and how much was he trying to find out?
"They like power, except if someone else has it. Except if someone else does something with it. If your friend is liked now, maybe not so much later. Maybe you see then what he wants, and what I want are not so far apart? A little freedom."
"He's not like you,” Dani replied angrily. “You put him here!”
“Oh!” Said Bautomet, his eyes widening. “They picked one up off the battleground! They put him on a stretcher and brought him here to fix him. Tell him to try again! I’m still here! Better luck this time!”
Dani realized he was being goaded and he held back until he could chose his words.
“He’s going to be fixed up, and you’ll never be a problem again once he’s ready.”
Bautomet leaned forward, his yellow teeth gleaming.
“You think I am not ready?” He said, laughing slightly. “I know the other side of all things. You say there is a challenge to me? I say they cannot get rid of me. They do not want that. Who would they blame for problems if I was not here? So, I will have freedom again, and maybe you will too if you do as I say. But if not, good luck with that door!"
Dani looked again at the door. Before he could tell Bautomet to shut up, The Beast erupted again. It was a terrible, deafening roar of a thousand angry men. The screech bounced off the walls of the cave, reverberating a thousand times over. The veins of his neck stretched and he burst one of his arms free. Bautomet beat the cage bar with the free hand, bending the metal slightly. He pounded the floor with his shackled feet.
Ten men and women burst through the door in full armor. Dani, huddled to the side with his hands on his ears, crawled towards it and out of it, running until the awful roar became a whimper buried far underground.
The Two Men
Felix sat in his tiny chamber and stared at the brick walls, wondering how he was supposed to sleep or if he was even supposed to. Lifting his head up to the little window to see the back side of the palace yard he noted that it was made just small enough to prevent someone from crawling out. He opened the door and asked guard for a smoke of sugar root. The man told him he would see what he could do.
After a time there was a knock at the door and a thin man in a rumpled brown coat came in. He held glass bottles with pale colored liquids in them. He peered over his round glasses and explained that he was Wilcox and he was there to put him to sleep.
Felix thought this was perfect. He drank the sour liquids and lay down at Wilcox’s insistence. He t felt nothing, until a heaviness came. He felt he was nowhere, and the room faded. His mind snapped shut and he was gone from consciousness. He woke suddenly, jumping up with a start. It felt like days but Wilcox was still there. Wilcox rubbed his face and mixed something else into the jars.
"How long has it been?" asked Felix.
"A while," was all he said as he fed Felix the next one. "I don’t do much with humans so I want to see what will make your body go to sleep. For the night."
Felix thought that was odd. Wasn't everything Wilcox did for humans? His last thought didn't have time finish before he vanished again into some dark place. When he woke again he was alone but everything seemed to be tinted red and blue. He felt incredibly anxious and tired at the same time. He looked around, unsure of where he was. Wilcox came rushing through the door. He flashed a lamp into Felix’s eyes and peered into them.
“How do you feel?” He asked.
"Like a frustrated brick," he said, forming the best words he could to describe his state of mind. He wanted to jump and run but he was too tired to move. Wilcox rubbed his face again and walked out. When he returned he had a third set of liquids.
"What are you doing to me?" asked Felix. "This shit doesn't work.”
Wilcox didn't seem upset by tone. Hde took a moment to find the right response.
"You want to be your best tomorrow don't you?"
“Yes and this shit isn't helping.” He tried knock the bottle out of Wilcox's hand but Wilcox moved it just in time.
"What would you think would be the best emotions for you to feel when you wake up on that table?"
"Energy," Felix replied. "Confidence. No pain."
Wilcox nodded his head. "How do I get you to be confident? Sometimes you’re kind of agitated if you go too far in that direction."
"You're drugging me?"
"I'm helping you."
"I just want to sleep."
"Its not sleep that you need. Its strength, right? Mental strength."
Felix considered this. His mind was dragging just like his body but he word 'strength' seemed to affect him in a positive way.
"I just don’t want to feel sluggish."
"I don't want you to feel sluggish either,” Wilcox replied. “The opposite, really."
He had woken up so late that he feared they had forgotten about him. The light was burning bright through his miniature window and he felt an ache to escape the chamber. He got up very quickly and was pounding on the door. As they opened it he remember
ed what Wilcox had given him the night before.
"Is breakfast from a tube too?" he asked the stunned guard. It wasn't; a plate of thick cuts of meat was brought to his door. He was so famished he felt he was going to die if he didn't consume every piece.
The emptiness in his stomach was beginning to wane when a woman appeared at the door. She looked at the animal bones thrown on the flood and then to Felix. He remembered her: Martel. She took his hand and guided him out into the hallway and up the stairs. She detailed the process as they walked but the words were so heavy that Felix didn’t have the capacity to understand. His mind was elsewhere, consumed with fear and anxiety, but a robust energy flowing below it all. He felt he was plowing full speed with the brakes on. He was so torn between conflicting thoughts and energy that he didn't notice who was standing in front of him in the great hall.
The first words anyone would use to describe Celia usually referred to her height, so in her present condition she was difficult to recognize. She was only a head taller than Felix, and if she hadn’t been standing on a step she would have had to look him directly in the eyes. She had changed to a black skin tone and her hair was thick and curly. Her green eyes examined him, carefully moving up and down. He felt naked. He tried to introduce himself but only nodded. She looked to Martel, standing beside Felix, and shrugged. Then she turned and walked away.
"Its... good to meet you!" he called to her back, feeling ridiculous. She turned back and looked at him.
"It is always a pleasure to meet me."
"I look forward to... this..."
He couldn't find the words to describe the current situation. He knew from Theo he should do anything he could to get on her good side but he had no idea where to begin.
"I don't know anything about it," she said sharply. "No one's told me anything."
Then she turned and walked up a set of white marble stairs. Felix looked at Martel but she hadn't seem to have noticed anything unusual.