That one Staci recognized, it was Niamh, who sidled over to her. “I’m Queen Isabella, also known as the She-Wolf of France,” she giggled. “When Isabella got competition from one of her husband’s special friends, she had him tried for treason and killed by being impaled on a red-hot poker, so the murder wouldn’t leave any outside marks. And Caelen is Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary.”
“Isn’t she the one that’s supposed to be like a female Dracula?” Staci said, thinking she remembered a movie about that—vaguely.
“Oh, Bathory was much better,” Niamh whispered. “She not only drank virgin’s blood, she bathed in it to stay young.”
“Trying to scare my girl, Niamh? It’d be better to wait until after the movies, when everyone is good and jumpy.” Sean walked calmly up to them, towering over everyone and interspersing himself between Niamh and Staci, putting an arm around Staci’s waist.
“I just thought she’d enjoy a little history with the cosplay,” Niamh pouted. “It’s not as if we were being so lazy as to dress up as Eddie and Bella. Caelen and I put a lot of work and thought into our outfits! You could say,” she continued, her eyes shining oddly, “that we know those time periods so well, it’s almost as if we lived then.”
Staci did her best to just laugh along with Sean and the others.
For the next hour, everyone made their rounds of the party, sampling the food and drinks—strictly non-alcoholic for Staci and her friends, though she did see several of the townies partaking, and heavily at that—talking with the cousins and some of the other guests, and enjoying the production value of the decorations. Seth, Jake, and Riley got to be as nerdy as they could, talking trivia about old horror movies. Wanda was a little more reserved, staying near Staci and the Goth Blackthorne cousin, Mori. Sean whisked Staci to and fro between the different groups, making her feel included in every conversation and having nothing but good things to say about her. Thankfully, neither Finn nor Meaghan were anywhere to be seen; apparently Bradan’s chastisement had caused the pair to go off somewhere to lick their wounds.
After everyone had a chance to eat and mingle, Sean called the partygoers over to the theatre. It was going to be a triple feature tonight: first, Evil Dead, followed by the original Hellraiser, then one that Staci hadn’t heard of before, The Descent. From the way Seth and Jake were talking about it, it was supposed to be gory and scary as all hell. The gang took their assigned seats, with Jake and Riley paired up, Seth and Wanda next to each other, and Staci in a loveseat with Sean. Or perhaps it should have been called a “double tomb” since that was what it looked like.
Evil Dead, even though it was made before she was born, still managed to scare her plenty of times. She found herself clutching against Sean’s chest more than once. She didn’t even touch her popcorn during the second half of the film. When the screen finally went black and the credits started to roll, Jake, Seth and Riley were all whooping and clapping, along with a few of the other cousins. They had seen the movie before, of course, and didn’t get as freaked out as Staci did.
“That was intense,” she said, blowing out the breath that she had been holding in anticipation of another scare.
“Can’t beat the classics, sometimes.” Sean peeled himself out from under Staci, standing up and facing the crowd. “I think it’s time for a little break in the action. Say, half an hour? Everyone can stretch and get something more to nibble on or drink. Then we’ll dive into Hellraiser.” A few people started stretching in their seats, but most of them got up and made their way to the buffet tables. The gang did the same, Seth leading the way.
But then a servant, incongruously not in costume, intercepted Sean. The servant whispered something in Sean’s ear that made him frown. He turned to Staci.
“Something’s come up that Father can’t handle. I need to deal with it. Nothing terrible, but it is urgent. You’ll be all right until I get back?”
She wanted to say she would go with him, or that she really didn’t want to be left alone, but that would sound awfully clingy. Plus…she had promised Dylan to do some more snooping, and so far she’d been sticking so much with Sean that she couldn’t. This might be the right opportunity. For instance, she was feeling more and more certain that the gazebo at the heart of the maze wasn’t what it seemed to be. Now that she knew how to get to the center and out again, this would be the perfect time to have a closer look at it.
So she smiled and said, “Of course!” And as soon as he was out of sight inside the house, she made her way as obliquely as possible to the entrance of the maze. The rest of the partygoers were otherwise occupied; her gang was distracted by the food, so they wouldn’t be any trouble. If they noticed she wasn’t there, they’d probably assume that she had gone off somewhere with Sean for a little “private time.”
Entering the hedge maze, Staci was wary. She kept her hand inside of her shoulder bag, clutching the cell phone charm that Dylan had given her. She didn’t want to be taken by surprise if she could help it; one run-in with a Red Cap was enough for a lifetime, but she was ready to defend herself if it came down to it. The sounds of the party grew faint the deeper that she went into the maze, but the mist from the pool had drifted over the ground here, too, and added to the spooky atmosphere. It didn’t take her long to retrace her steps from when she and Sean walked through the maze; she arrived at the small clearing with the gazebo. It still looked beautiful in the pale moonlight, but also…sinister. As she got closer, she felt the hair standing up on her arms, and her breathing became shallow.
Because…when she looked through the gazebo, she didn’t see the other side of the clearing, and the hedges on that side.
Instead, it was as if the arches of the gazebo framed the entrance to another world. It was a world of moon and forest, trees with bone-white limbs dripping dark moss, a world with no stars in the sky, and between the floor of the gazebo and the edge of the forest stretched an expanse of silver sand.
Despite the fear that made her shake, she felt drawn to that place. She didn’t want to go there, but somehow, she could not keep herself from putting one foot slowly in front of the other, until she was mounting the three shallow steps, then crossing the floor—
Then she felt for a moment as if she had been struck by lightning.
The shock drove her off the floor of the gazebo, stumbling, then falling onto the sand on her hands and knees. It should have been soft, like the sand of the beach this afternoon, but it felt…harsh, as if every grain was made of sharp edges. She got to her feet and turned around.
It should have been the gazebo that was standing there behind her. But instead, there was an arch of bones, intricately fitted together to form a sort of macabre lacework. And framed by the bone was the clearing of the maze and the hedges she had just come through.
Before she could even think of stepping back through the gazebo-portal, she heard a blood-chilling howl. The howl was close. She whirled around to where she thought it had come from, and felt all the blood drain from her face. A pack of gigantic dogs, their shoulders easily coming up to her head, were charging towards her. There was no way she could make it back to the gazebo before they reached her; their path was going to cut right past the gazebo. Staci didn’t think; instead, she ran for all she was worth.
She could hear the dull thud of the dogs’ paws hitting the dirt, hear them panting and barking right behind her. Still she ran. Ahead of her, she saw a young man; his clothing was ripped and he was bleeding from several places. She recognized him as one of the townies who had been at the party earlier. He was looking around frantically, and his eyes bugged out of his skull when he caught sight of Staci and the pack at her heels.
“Run!”
The young man didn’t need the encouragement; he was already back on his feet and sprinting by the time she caught up to him.
“Oh god, we’re going to die! Shit, we’re going to die!”
He was limping, and Staci could tell that his wounds were slowing him down; sh
e was getting ahead of him, and there was no way he could go on for much longer. He’s not going to make it. I can’t carry him, and if I tried we’d get overrun by those…whatever they are. But I’ve got to help him! Staci swallowed her own fear, grabbing the boy by the shoulder and forcing both of them to skid to a stop.
“We’ve got to keep running, you crazy bitch!” He tried to wrench his shoulder free from her grip, but she had a handful of material from his shirt in her fist.
“We won’t make it! I’m going to try something, but stand behind me!” Frantically, she dug in her purse until her fingers found her cell phone. She withdrew it from the bag, and just in time. The dogs had caught up with them, pulling up short and growling. They want us to run. They want us to be afraid, to chase us…Staci started to focus on her emotions, her feelings and memories; all the pain, the fear, the terror. She let it build in her chest until she thought it was explode, her hands shaking with the effort. One of the dogs in the middle had grown tired of waiting, and launched itself straight for her, jaws snapping and spittle flying. She couldn’t hold the energy any longer, and thrust her cell phone out, charm in her palm.
“Fuck off!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. It was the first thing that she could think to say; her mind had scrambled for the magic word she used for the light charm, or even the defensive “whammy” that Dylan had taught her. But, in her panic, she couldn’t remember either one.
The energy that had been building up inside of her released in that moment. The light from her charm went off like a small bomb, with a deafening thundercrack and a flash bright enough to cause spots in her vision. The dog that had been coming at her was in mid-leap when she released her magical energy; now, it was smoking on the grass in front of her, whimpering and trying to crawl away from her. The other monstrous dogs were all either on their backs or sides, baying and clawing at the ground, obviously dazed. Staci made a split-second decision.
“Come on, we’ve got to go! This is our only shot!” She pulled on the boy’s shoulder, trying to urge him to run back through the pack of dogs with her, towards the gazebo.
“No! No, no, no!” He pushed her back, the fabric of his shirt finally tearing away. He gave one final horrified look at the dogs, then began running—in the opposite direction of where the gazebo was.
“Wait!” Staci yelled after him, but it was already too late. The dogs would be up again in seconds, and if she chased after him, she wouldn’t be able to get enough energy to stun the dogs again; she didn’t even know where that magical blast had come from in the first place. She didn’t have any choice; she took a deep breath, then ran through the pack of gigantic dogs. One swiped a paw at her, but she was able to easily evade the confused and befuddled attack. The dogs were definitely starting to come to, shaking off the shock and pain from her magic. Staci couldn’t afford to look back, running with everything she had left back in the direction of the gazebo.
Please say I’m not lost, please say I’m not lost…
She heard howls and barks behind her. There weren’t as many as before, and she soon understood why; there was a very human scream off in the distance behind her, and it very suddenly cut off. She couldn’t afford to think about the young man she had found; the part of the pack that was after her was gaining. Her lungs were on fire, and her legs felt like limp spaghetti. She didn’t think she was going to make it until she saw the gazebo in the distance. The sight gave her a little extra drive, a little more energy. She was almost there when one of the dogs caught up to her…and then she was at the gazebo.
She stumbled and fell across the bone threshold, felt a second terrible shock, and landed on her hands and knees.
Not on sand, but on that strange, pale substance the gazebo was made of.
Dazed, she still looked back over her shoulder for the dogs, ready to run again. If they should chase her through the portal, whatever it was, they could still catch her before she could get to help!
But all she saw behind her were the hedges of the other side of the clearing. Whatever passage to whatever strange world had been there…
It was gone.
* * *
It took Staci a few moments to calm down and catch her breath. Dylan would want to hear about this, for sure…but she had to make sure she actually was able to get to him with the information in the first place. That meant not giving herself away, not to anyone, since there was no way of telling whose side who was on right now. So she waited until she thought she had everything under control, straightened out her clothes and hair, and walked as calmly as she could out of the maze.
Or rather, she was calm right up until the moment, one turn from the end, that she almost literally ran into…someone. Someone tall, and dressed as the head guy from the Black Riders in Lord of the Rings. The Liche King? Something like that.
She yipped and jumped back a step, and he turned. “Ah, hello, Staci. I cannot tell you how happy I am that Sean has brought you into our circle. I think we are going to enjoy having you with us very much, and for a long time.”
She recognized the voice as that of Bradan Blackthorne, Sean’s father. She swallowed hard, and looked up at the…dark, fathomless space under the tattered hood. “I’m really honored that you think so, sir. I need to get back to the party. I was just taking a walk while Sean handled something.”
“Of course you were.” The voice sounded amused, and moved aside. “Please, rejoin your friends.”
She scuttled past, trying not to look as if she was in a hurry, and with relief, came out onto the garden paths again. Something was itching in the back of her mind about the exchange, and she felt her skin begin to crawl at the memory of looking up into the darkness of Bradan’s costume hood. She didn’t have time to think about it at the moment; she needed to get back to the party before she was missed. If someone noticed her absence and thought it was unusual, it would raise questions about where she had actually been.
What were those monster dogs? That poor, poor boy…
There was some sculpted shrubbery—tall stuff, actually, taller than Bradan with the costume on—that was between her and the flower beds of the garden. Mist curled in the pathways between the shrubs, and it had gotten awfully chilly. As chilly as it had been on—in—that place the gazebo took her to. She was passing one of the biggest shrubs, when she heard Sean’s voice from the other side.
“…you were given a single task. And that was to watch her!” Sean sounded angrier than she had ever heard him before, even though his voice was kept low. There was something in his voice now that made her blood go cold; fighting against her every instinct to keep walking and pretend she didn’t hear anything, she crept closer to where she heard him talking, trying to be as silent as possible. “She is mine. If any harm comes to her, I will use everything in my power to make you suffer the worst and most lasting pain imaginable. Do you understand me, Hunter?”
She found a tiny gap in the hedge, and peered through. Sean’s back was to her. Towering over him was an enormous, heavily muscled man, like Andre the Giant from Princess Bride. He was dressed all in black leather, but not like motorcycle leathers, more like what you’d think to see on people at a Renaissance Faire. His face was hideously scarred, his hair was pulled back tightly into a braid or a ponytail, and he was carrying a bow and arrows. His head was bowed slightly, and his posture was submissive.
“I do, Master. I have my beasts looking for her at this very moment. My hounds never fail me. She will be found.”
Staci’s breathing stopped, caught in her throat. Hounds? Were those dogs in that other…place, were they after me specifically? The thought horrified her, that she might have been partially responsible for the boy dying, at least in some small way. Whether or not they were the same ones that Sean and the Hunter character were talking about, she didn’t want them to find her here, snooping. As quietly as she could, she snuck away, making her way back to the party. Everything was as it had been when she went investigating; it seemed unreal, tha
t these people were all laughing and having fun when one of them had just been brutally murdered not too far from where she stood. No, that’s not right. Wherever that place was…it’s a far way away from here. She gathered herself, putting on her best smile before walking back to the buffet tables, where the rest of the gang was.
“That was a short pee break,” Wanda smirked. “You took less time than Seth.”
“Hey!” Seth protested.
I…what? Staci reached for a soda so she could turn her wrist and covertly check her watch, and was shocked to discover she’d been gone less than five minutes. It had seemed like thirty, at least!
“I had to get back in time for the next movie,” she said, feeling breathless and cold. And just that moment, Sean came up behind her and slipped an arm around her. She managed not to jump and squeak.
“You’re going to love this one,” Sean promised. “Well, maybe not love, exactly, but it is a fantastic movie, and very well done. Definitely stands out from the others.”
They made their way back to their seats with gourmet popcorn and sodas, as the big screen began a countdown to warn everyone still at the buffet that the movie was about to start. She settled down into her seat with Sean, and did her best to relax, but she couldn’t stop her shoulders from tensing up. Sean pulled her closer as the movie started to roll.
Silence - eARC Page 23