Ibrahim hissed something to the ghoul, and immediately he withdrew his hands and hovered back toward the warlock.
“Sure you’re done?” Ibrahim asked, with a cock of his head.
“Yes. I believe so,” I replied.
“All right. Well, when you’re ready, we should go see Jeramiah. It’s best to do it as soon as possible while everything is still fresh within our friend’s mind.”
“We’ll go now.” I shot to my feet and gathered my cloak again. Then the three of us left the room, setting off down the corridor toward my nephew.
When we opened the door and stepped inside with Herbert, the sheer look of terror in Jeramiah’s eyes was quite a precious sight to behold. I doubted he’d ever seen a ghoul before. He looked tenfold more afraid now than when I had accosted him back in his apartment.
We moved closer with the ghoul, who set his eager eyes on his victim. I bent down so that my face was level with Jeramiah’s. “Given your attempt to murder me and my family, consider this a light, uncle-ly slap.”
I stepped back, indicating to Ibrahim that he move forward with the ghoul. Jeramiah growled another round of curses as he tried desperately to distance himself from Herbert. Pathetic. The ghoul reached him in a matter of seconds and closed his hands around his head. Then my nephew’s yelps subsided, reducing into nothing but heavy breathing as the ghoul began coursing my memories into his skull.
Jeramiah’s face contorted and he gripped the sides of his head, as if the gesture alone would rid him of the ghoul. Then he began to whimper. Whimper like a child.
“No. Stop. Stop! Please!”
It actually became uncomfortable to watch, and I backed out of the room while Herbert finished his work.
Once Ibrahim called to me that the ghoul was done, I returned to see my nephew curled up in a ball on the floor, locked in a fetal position, his whole body shaking.
I was staring down at a broken man.
A lonely, broken man.
Ben
It was the strangest feeling to be crouched down behind the boulders, perched between two people I’d believed to be dead.
Real life sure is stranger than fiction… at least in my case.
So much had happened to me in the past months, much of it seemed to be a blur now. Even after everything, I still found it hard to believe that it had all been real and not some kind of prolonged, twisted nightmare.
My life before I’d left The Shade—before my father had turned me into a vampire—seemed so distant, it was almost as though it had been lived by somebody else. I’d been so far removed from that time of wandering through our redwood forests, of homework and classmates, of afternoon walks along the shore with Abby and Shadow…
I found myself playing back my former life over in my head as the three of us remained watching the entrance. Lucas and I had wisely stopped conversing, and I was left to lose myself in my own thoughts… until another group of fae came streaming down through the vortex. Each carried white coffins—the same as the last, although there seemed to be fewer of them this time. Two batches within less than twenty-four hours. They’re serious about this ghost-snatching business.
I caught sight of the copper-haired Sherus at the front of the group, his sister noticeably absent. His mouth was set in a grimace, his face surprisingly ashen for one who had a natural aura about him.
The same thing happened as last time; they transported the coffins along the tunnel, and then returned without them barely a minute later. They shot out of the tunnel—which was not far away at all from our hiding place—and zoomed into the base of the vortex. Watching the fae during this second visit, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was any way… any way at all… that we could tag along with the next crowd that exited and somehow pass through with them.
It seemed like an insane idea. The moment we tried to approach, the fae would grab us and hand us right back to the ghouls—after all, we were part of their bounty quotient, and the fae would not want any of the numbers reducing.
Still, I wanted to discuss the notion with Lucas and Kailyn. But I didn’t want to speak anymore in this chamber. We had already pushed our luck enough. Catching their attention, I gestured toward the tunnel. They followed after me along the winding canal, and as we emerged on the other side, I dove deeper into the water, where the three of us could converse in greater safety.
“Those fae…” I began.
“They’re the only means of escape,” Lucas finished for me, a stoic expression on his face. It was quite uncanny how much he resembled my father in that moment.
But how? The question whirled behind all of our eyes.
I was surprised that Lucas didn’t look more terrified at the mere notion of such a harebrained idea. After all he’d been through, he should be utterly petrified to get caught again. Then I reminded myself that he was, after all, still a Novak. And tenacity—or perhaps just downright bullheadedness—ran in the Novaks’ blood, no matter how much somebody tried to beat the life out of them. Now that I thought of it, maybe that was why he’d been in a better state than all the other ghosts in his pool. They’d all given up long ago by the looks of it, but there had still been a spark in Lucas that had separated him from the rest. It had just taken my appearance in his pool to remind him what he was, that he still had things to survive for.
Kailyn interrupted my thoughts. “I just don’t see how that could ever be possible. I mean, if those coffins the fae bring with them were penetrable by ghosts, we could make a wild attempt to pass into one as they shoot from the tunnel toward the roof, but they leave the boxes behind.”
Apparently, they had a massive supply of them to keep leaving dozens behind each time they visited.
The three of us fell silent for a while, none of us knowing what to say.
I was about to suggest that we return to the entrance cavern and continue observing when a thought struck me.
“What if,” I began, looking from Kailyn to Lucas, “just one of us tries to escape?”
The two of them furrowed their brows as they eyed me.
“What are you saying?” Lucas whispered. “Each of us has already tried to escape on our own.”
“Yes, on our own,” I replied. “But we are not on our own. There are three of us. What if two of us caused a distraction, a big enough distraction for the ghouls to divert their attention from the exit? Whichever one of us managed to escape would promise to get help and come back with reinforcements to free the rest of us.”
“What kind of distraction?” Kailyn murmured.
“I don’t know. Something. Anything.”
Lucas let out a deep sigh. “This kind of thing has been tried before.”
“I don’t care if it’s been tried before,” I said, turning on him. “We could try it. It’s not like we have any better ideas.”
There was a pause as the two of them considered my words. “Then… who would be the one to escape?” Lucas ventured, and I could see in his eyes that he was volunteering himself.
I looked at Kailyn. It seemed only right that she should be the one—ladies first, after all. I trusted her enough to know that she wouldn’t desert us. She could hurry back to The Shade and try to communicate with someone via a dream, the way I had. Maybe the dragons could even help to storm the place, break through the opening and free all these lost souls. We also had witches, and I was sure that they could be of help against ghouls. I recalled that the ghouls who’d once trespassed on our island had been the slaves of witches.
“I was thinking you, Kailyn,” I said, looking steadily at her.
She looked uncomfortable about accepting my suggestion, though it was obvious from the look in her eyes that she was leaping inside at the thought of escaping this place. Who wouldn’t?
She nodded, still looking uncertain. “If… that’s okay with the two of you.”
She eyed Lucas hesitantly. His face was stony, but he nodded stiffly. I found his reaction interesting. I’d half expected him to protest, the
old Lucas rising to the surface, but he didn’t. He had been here longer than Kailyn—far longer—and should be ten times more desperate to escape, but he remained a gentleman, at least on the outside.
Kailyn caught my eye again. “But how exactly are we going to do this? You two would get caught again and—”
“Yes, we would almost certainly get caught.” I shot Lucas a pointed look. “You don’t have to try this,” I said to him, a part of me feeling oddly protective of him. I’d seen what state he’d sunk into, I didn’t want him to return to that… or something even worse. “I’ve only had one visit to the coffin room so far,” I went on, “I can’t say it’s something I’d like to repeat, but… I will run the risk if there’s a chance of Kailyn escaping and making it back to The Shade to fetch help for the rest of us… But you, Lucas, you’ve visited the torture chamber several times before. I would not expect you to volunteer for this. You could go back and wait in one of the ponds, and I could ask for some other volunteer. Perhaps Nolan would—”
To my surprise, Lucas held up a hand and shook his head. “No,” he murmured, clenching his jaw. “I’ll do it.”
Again, I felt unexpectedly uncomfortable. It didn’t make sense for Lucas to have to do this when there were others who had been here much less time and had fewer strikes against them. I recalled what Marcilla had mentioned about ghouls not usually surviving more than five trips to the coffin room…
“How many times have you been to the coffin room?” I asked Lucas.
He tensed. “The memory is… hazy. But I think three or four times.”
Three or four. That meant that, at a very maximum, Lucas had two strikes left. Two strikes to last him for the rest of his existence in this place, in case our mission was unsuccessful. I could hardly believe that he was willing to offer up one of these strikes for this mission when I was offering to look for another volunteer. Then again, perhaps he didn’t know what Marcilla had known…
“A werewolf back in the pool told me that generally, ghosts don’t last longer than—”
“Five visits,” Lucas said thickly. “I know.”
“And you say that you don’t even remember exactly how many times you’ve been in there before—it could be three or four, which means that you could only have one left.”
I stared at him in astonishment, even as he looked back at me, unfazed.
“I know,” he repeated.
And that was all the explanation he offered.
“This could be suicide for you,” Kailyn added to my uncle.
He didn’t repeat that he knew again, just crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw set firmly, his eyes stubborn as ever.
Well, if he wants to risk it, that’s up to him. Heck, I would be the same way after having been through what Lucas had been through for so long. His life was already leading to death… to whatever happened to those ghosts who were thrust down into The Necropolis. He might have been stronger than the rest of his companions, but he wasn’t infallible. It was only a matter of time before he met with his end. At least here he could go out fighting for freedom.
And so it was decided. Lucas and I would attempt to cause a distraction while Kailyn fled. What kind of distraction was what we had to decide next.
Still afraid somebody would overhear us, we sank further into the darkest corner of the lake and began to mull over the challenge. We discussed and debated back and forth, but after fifteen minutes, we were no closer to any kind of conclusion.
I huffed in frustration. “Maybe we just have to improvise.”
The problem was, none of us could predict how the ghouls would react exactly. All we knew was that Lucas and I somehow had to draw their attention away from the gate all at once—just long enough for Kailyn to slip into the vortex and make it to the top without anybody noticing and flying after her.
“I guess I should wait in the same hiding place as before,” Kailyn said. “Until I sense a window of opportunity.”
“And you’d have to be fast,” Lucas muttered. “Very fast.”
I wished that we knew more about these creatures. What their weaknesses were. I wondered if there was some way to insult them, to enrage them to such an extent that they would all come shooting after me and Lucas at once, forgetting to watch the gate.
“Uh, so what are you two going to do? You’re just going to… what, whizz around? I’m not comfortable with you two improvising at all.” At this point, Kailyn looked even more uncomfortable than Lucas. I guessed it was only natural. After all, we were putting ourselves on the line for her to escape. She didn’t want us to get caught without good reason. We couldn’t waste this chance. We had to give it our best shot. Especially because this might be Lucas’s penultimate strike, maybe even his final strike…
I breathed out heavily. As ghosts, Lucas and I were extremely limited in ways we could cause a distraction. We couldn’t touch or pick anything up. All we had was our movement and our words.
“How about this…” I began, trying to order my thoughts as I spoke. “I will emerge first from the tunnel and move as far away from the whirlpool’s entrance as I can. I’ll attract their attention and lure them toward me. Hopefully, more than one ghoul will come after me.” I realized as I was speaking that Chantel and Nolan would come in handy right now. Though I doubted that he would be daring enough to try it, and certainly Chantel, who was a bag of nerves, wouldn’t be. “So,” I continued, “I will try to lead them into one corner… but if I fail to distract all of them, that’s when Lucas needs to emerge.” Lucas’ expression was doubtful. “Even if we can’t get all of them away from the whirlpool,” I went on, hoping to address his doubts, “we just need to somehow divert their attention long enough for Kailyn to slip through. What do you think?” I finished.
Lucas nodded. “All right.” Hardly much encouragement from his corner.
Kailyn looked unsure as ever, but we had been going round and round in circles and she should’ve understood by now that this was the closest we were going to get to a plan.
“Okay,” she replied in a croaky voice.
Twisting in the water, I looked toward the direction of the enclosed canal in the far corner, leading to the entrance cavern.
“Okay,” I murmured, steeling myself. “Here goes nothing…”
Ben
We traveled back through the tunnel and emerged once again on the other side. As planned, Kailyn left the water to make her way cautiously back to our former hiding place among the rocks. That left Lucas and me alone. We stayed underwater, exchanging glances, before our eyes turned upward to the speckled surface of the lake. We raised ourselves slowly and looked up at the swirling mass of water in the ceiling. The ghouls were just as present as ever.
Shooting a glance at Lucas one last time to double-check that he understood that he was to wait here, I drifted out of the water and began lifting myself upward—all the while keeping close to the shadowy walls—until I was almost level with the ghouls. I was deliberately traveling slowly, and sticking to the edges of the cavern, because I did not want to attract their attention just yet. I wanted to get to the furthest corner away from the vortex first; I needed them to focus their attention as far away from the portal as possible. But since I was traveling in the open now, I was only halfway across the cave toward my destination corner when a ghoul spotted me. He shrieked, while another cackled, as though they took delight in seeing me here. Delight no doubt in envisaging the torture that would soon follow… if I let them.
Improvise. Improvise! The task had seemed simpler when we were still in the safety of the lake. Now that I was here in the open, my mind froze and I didn’t have the first clue what to do. So I stopped thinking, and just started doing. I began spinning in circles as two of the dozen ghouls began approaching me.
Thankfully, they appeared to be in no particular hurry, and as I zoomed around in circles, doing somersaults in the air, they slowed their pace, almost seeming to be enjoying my display. This gave me the encouragement I
needed—desperately needed. I began moving faster and tried to execute other kinds of acrobatics in the air—most of which I was sure looked rather pathetic, but the ghouls were still watching me. And that was all that mattered. Now… these ghouls just needed to keep their distance from me for long enough…
I dared not avert my eyes even for a moment toward Kailyn. I was dying to see where she was now—whether she might have even dared to start approaching the portal—but I couldn’t risk drawing the ghouls’ attention to her. I kept my gaze firmly away from her corner of the cavern and continued to put on my display of bizarre acrobatics.
My heart plummeted as the ghouls began to move forward again. They were seeing through me; I was nothing but a one-trick pony. I had to mix things up a bit. I racked my mind frantically for my next move. Movement and speech were the only two things I had. I could use my voice next. But say what? Again, I silenced my thoughts and just did the first thing that came to me, discarding any semblance of dignity I still had left in the process.
I began to sing, even as I mocked myself. I was a musician, but I’d never been fond of singing. I didn’t think I had a particularly bad voice, but it was an unpracticed one. And the first thing that spurted from my mouth? A country song. I don’t even listen to country music. The strange things that surfaced in times of desperation…
At least the ghouls seemed to take delight in their frolicking monkey again. They stopped approaching so quickly and paused, hovering in the air. Then they began to clap. Ugh. I shuddered at the creepy gleam in their eyes. It reminded me of that of a dog owner after seeing his beloved pet perform a trick. I was half expecting them to throw me a treat. Their beady eyes were filled with admiration, almost pride.
My “song” went downhill fast. I ran out of words and manically tried to scrape together some made-up lyrics in my head, making the tune sound all the more horrendous. But the ghouls were still watching my train wreck, so I would keep it going. I ended up resorting to non-words, but they didn’t seem to like the adjustment. I had to change things up again. I changed song, to one I knew a bit better—soft rock, this time. But to my disdain, my audience didn’t appreciate rock as much as country music. They began approaching again. They were now discomfortingly close, barely ten feet away.
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