by Brian Harmon
“And how old do you think that is?” Nicole asked.
Albert shook his head. “No way to know,” he replied.
About seventy yards ahead, the tunnel forked. A florescent green line marked the way to the left. Albert’s heart was pounding, his adrenaline rushing. He was finally back. He was back underground, back in the tunnels, back at the door to the temple. It was just ahead.
In the glow of the flashlights, a wall materialized.
“What the fuck?” Wayne spat, and Albert almost laughed. Thirteen months ago, Brandy spoke those same words in just about the exact same spot.
The man with no eyes must have reassembled the wall after they left last time, because he and Brandy certainly hadn’t taken the time to do it.
“Relax,” Albert said. He walked up to the wall, the déjà vu of the situation sending shivers of excitement through his skin, and placed the palm of his hand against the wall. For a moment he stood there, relishing the adventure he was about to get a second chance at. He closed his eyes, too excited, too thrilled to be at all anxious. Then, finally, he opened his eyes and pushed.
Chapter 5
For one horrible second Albert thought that he was wrong, that the wall at the end of the tunnel would not fall down, that the temple would not be there at all. The bricks hesitated for just that instant, taunting him, making him wonder if such unbelievable things could simply vanish as mysteriously as they were found, but then the bricks fell. The temple was there, just as it was the last time, just as it had always been.
The first room of the temple was just as Albert and Brandy last saw it. The five statues still stood in their respective places, their smooth, featureless faces staring at nothing and everything all at once. Like the first time they saw them, they were transfixed by the lifelike detail in these stone sentinels. They looked as though they could step away from the wall and reach out to them, not stone at all but flesh and blood.
“Unbelievable,” Nicole exclaimed, a hint of unmistakable ecstasy in her voice. She never doubted her friends’ story about the temple and the statues, but seeing them with her own eyes was an awesome experience nonetheless. She felt as though she had just glimpsed Atlantis or the Loch Ness Monster. Her eyes drifted down one of the statues to its enormous penis. “Look at the size of that guy’s cock!”
Wayne glanced at her, startled.
“Wait ‘til you see him with a full-blown hard-on,” said Brandy and then giggled as she saw the look on Wayne’s face.
Albert chuckled.
“What are they?” Wayne asked.
“We don’t know,” replied Albert.
“Jesus.” Wayne stepped up to one of them, studying it, impressed by its powerful presence. “The detail…” he awed. “It doesn’t look possible.”
“I can’t believe I’m seeing them,” Nicole sighed. She touched one of them, ran her fingertips down its smooth, muscular chest to its hairless groin. She pulled her hand back for a moment, considering, and then she reached out again and touched its penis quickly, bashfully, as though to see if the faceless man might react.
“Okay,” Albert announced. “Listen up. This place is dangerous. Some of these statues do things to you. They affect you.”
“Affect us how?” Wayne asked.
“Lust, hate and fear.”
Wayne turned and faced Albert. “Lust?”
Albert nodded, embarrassed. “You’ll lose control. It’s… Intense.”
Wayne stared at him for a moment. He remembered Albert saying something to Nicole back in Gilbert House about a room full of statues that could make someone insanely horny, but he hadn’t elaborated. While explaining it to him, he’d only described hate and fear. But he supposed he wouldn’t have been eager to talk about something like that with a stranger.
After all that he’d already seen, he did not doubt that there were such rooms down here, but he had a hard time imagining that he could actually lose control just by entering one of them. “How?”
“Don’t know,” Brandy replied, as though plucking the two words right from Albert’s mouth.
Albert turned and shined his light into the left tunnel. He could still see the broken finger that marked the correct way, the only blemish on an otherwise perfect statue. Again, he wondered why someone would choose to deface such an impressive statue simply for the sake of giving him a clue. And why only this one? There had been no other broken statue pieces in the box. “Let’s go. We’ll all stick close together.”
Wayne walked up to the center statue and studied it, curiously observing its wild and erratic pose.
“It’s a warning,” Albert explained. “Without its face, you can’t tell what the pose means. At least that’s what I assume. He’s standing between the two passages.”
“What happens if we choose the wrong one?” Wayne asked. He eyed the two passages warily. Both were six feet lower than the floor of the chamber in which they stood, without the convenience of steps or a ramp. They would have to climb down to continue forward.
“Don’t ask.” Nicole wrapped her arms around herself as if cold.
Wayne glanced back at her and then turned again to Albert, who nodded agreement. “Okay. I won’t.”
“Come on,” Albert said. “Let’s get going.”
Albert dropped into the left passage and then turned and offered a hand to Brandy and then to Nicole. Wayne came last, not waiting for Albert’s kind hand. If he couldn’t drop six feet by himself he might as well just wait for them here.
When everyone was in the lower passage with him, Albert started forward. Ahead was the entrance to the sex room. He had no idea how the four of them were going to get through it, especially he and Brandy, who already knew what was in there. Last time they were here, they were unable to pass through it even with Brandy’s poor eyes blinding her to the statues. He had only barely managed to drag her back into this entrance chamber before succumbing to the room’s strange, sexual power.
“Oh my god.” Nicole gasped as she entered the room. She had imagined this chamber so many times, but her wildest dreams were not as fantastic as the reality of this place. Their flashlights did not nearly reach to its far end. On either side, the statues were lined up against the wall, ready as always to act out their silent message.
“It’s another warning.” Albert walked forward, shining his light on the statues along one of the walls. “As you look from one to the next, they change slightly, like frames in a cartoon.”
Wayne followed after him, studying the statues as they appeared, one-by-one, from the looming darkness before them. “They’re getting…um…”
“Yeah,” Albert said. “It’s the sex room. It’s just ahead. We won’t be able to look at the statues in there.”
“Are they the same as these?”
Albert shook his head. “No. They’re different.”
Wayne stared at each new statue that appeared, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. Each one was slightly more aroused than the last, its penis slightly more erect. Soon they stood fully engorged and jutting toward the ceiling. It was absurdly vulgar, and yet he found it difficult to tear his eyes away from those enormous appendages. “Do the ones in there have faces?”
“Yeah. They’re pornographic. They could be real people turned to stone.”
“Wow. And just looking at them makes you horny?”
“Out of control horny,” Brandy confirmed, and instantly began to blush.
“Yeah. Look.” Albert turned his flashlight straight ahead as they approached the far wall. Out of the darkness, the door to the sex room was appearing. The woman’s face was intense, the expression frozen in such severe lust that it almost hurt the mind to look upon it.
“My god,” was all that Wayne could think to say.
Nicole stepped up beside them, her eyes wide. “It’s unbelievable.”
“She’s…I don’t even know,” said Wayne. “I couldn’t even begin.”
The four of them shined their flashlights onto th
e face. Even Albert felt his breath taken away, as though he were looking upon her for the first time.
“How do we get through?” Brandy asked. She could not take her eyes off the stone woman’s mouth, the black opening that was the doorway into the sex room. She remembered the first time they went in there, remembered the statues that were in that room, that were still in that room today. She remembered what she and Albert did in there, the power of it, the intensity of it. She often remembered their experience in there, often thought of it when they were making love, and it always turned her on. Looking at the woman’s face, she realized with sick dread that she was already turned on. Unwanted warmth began to radiate from deep in her belly. It was like an overwhelming urge to do something bad, the way recovering alcoholics must feel when they want to take a drink.
“How’d you get through the first time?” Wayne asked.
“We didn’t,” Albert replied.
“Brandy’s glasses,” Nicole said. “She can’t see without them so she can get us through. That’s how they did it before. We can do it again.”
Albert shook his head. “Didn’t work on the way out.” He looked at Brandy and saw the distress on her face. It wouldn’t work this time, either. He already knew this much.
“It’s been over a year,” Nicole said. “It couldn’t happen again, could it?”
“I’ll bet it could.” Albert turned his eyes to the woman’s face. That same, sick warmth was burning in his belly as well. He felt a mild sort of loathing for himself as he realized that the crotch of his jeans was suddenly not quite roomy enough.
“Hey, guys.” Wayne turned off his flashlight. He was no longer looking at the face. He was looking back the way they came. “Kill your lights.”
Albert hesitated, exchanged a curious look with the girls and then did as Wayne said and turned off his flashlight. Brandy and Nicole did the same. Blackness swallowed them and for a moment Albert wondered what their new friend was up to. But then he saw. Not all was black, as he’d first perceived. A dim glow was radiating from behind them, far up the tunnel through which the four of them had just traveled. Albert had just a moment to wonder who or what was back there before he realized that Wayne was no longer beside them. He was a dark shape moving swiftly toward the other end of the room.
“What’s going on?” Nicole whispered.
Albert could hear the nervousness in her voice and did not blame her. “Come on. Get out of sight.”
As the three of them crowded into the sex room door, Wayne made his way to the far wall and pressed his back against it. For what seemed like ages to his pounding heart, he waited beside the tunnel’s entrance. The light grew steadily stronger and brighter, the intruder obviously cautious, but still in a hurry.
Wayne glanced forward again, toward where Albert and the girls were hiding, but he could see nothing but darkness. With the exception of the approaching light, it was utterly black.
He couldn’t imagine who could have followed them down here. Had they attracted the attention of the police? He knew the steam tunnels were forbidden to students, but if they hadn’t been close enough to catch them before they descended below the steam tunnels, what chance would anyone have of catching them all the way down here? And a malicious presence would almost certainly be more careful than whoever this was.
Finally, the source of the light came into view. It was a small flashlight, the kind one might keep in the glove box of a car in case of an emergency. An arm followed it and in the space of a heartbeat, the intruder was in sight and stepping into the room.
Wayne lunged, and even as he grabbed the intruder’s arms, yanking them painfully back, he recognized her.
Beverly Bridger shrieked as much in horror as in pain as Wayne lifted her off her feet. Her flashlight tumbled to the floor and winked out, swallowing them both in perfect darkness. But this darkness was short lived. Three more flashlights came to life and bore down on her from the other side of the room.
“LET GO OF ME!”
“You stubborn, thick-headed, ballsy bitch!” Wayne spat. He couldn’t believe this woman. The sheer nerve of her coming down here filled him with absolute rage. Was she stupid as well as crazy?
“YOU PUT ME DOWN!” She began to kick wildly and when one of her heels struck his shin, he did exactly as she demanded, hurling her forward and away from him. She sprawled onto the stone floor and let out a painful yelp.
“I don’t fucking believe it!” Nicole said as she, Albert and Brandy approached the pathetic figure on the floor.
“That stupid bitch,” Brandy agreed. Although Beverly seemed to be in pain, she was far too astounded by the woman’s audacity to truly care. Obviously, Wayne had been in an agitated and emotional state when he came out of Gilbert House. What did she think he would do when he caught her following them?
“If you ask me,” Nicole continued, “we should just let Wayne kill her. That seems to be what she wants.” The words were not true, of course. She would never abide anyone physically harming another person, but she couldn’t help but marvel over this woman’s nerve.
Albert said no such thing, although he wondered if that wasn’t the case. Her unrelenting persistence was astounding. He wanted to ask her if she was really this stupid. What he said to her instead was simply, “Are you all right?”
Beverly said nothing. She was curled up on her side, her eyes closed, her face pressed against the cold floor, softly sobbing.
Albert knelt beside her and observed the situation. She had not even bothered to change before following them into the tunnels. She was still wearing the black shirt from which Wayne had ripped the buttons. It was held closed by a knot at her belly and Albert found it amazing that Wayne’s angry roughness had not pulled it apart to again reveal the woman’s plain white bra, most of which remained clearly visible even with it tied. He could still see the scratch on her cheek from when Wayne threw her into the bushes outside Gilbert House, a shallow but rough gouge that he was sure still hurt. But this scratch did not seem to be the cause of her suffering. She was holding her left wrist, the same one she’d been holding to her bosom when they left her sprawled on the forest floor.
He reached for her arm, meaning to look at it, to see if it was sprained or even broken, but as he was leaning over her, she opened her eyes. What he saw in them was pure and utter terror.
“DON’T YOU TOUCH ME!” she screamed, startling them all. Her voice was shrill, like that of a young child who has become convinced that the boogeyman just wrapped its cold claws around her ankle. She scrambled away from Albert and right back to where Wayne stood frozen with astonishment. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” Her voice echoed through the empty chamber as she began to claw at his jeans. “DON’T YOU LET HIM TOUCH ME!”
Albert looked at Wayne, his eyes wide and startled, and Wayne returned the look. The woman was insane. She had to be.
She pulled herself up to her knees using Wayne’s pant leg as a handhold, and then actually clung to him. As she did this she opened her mouth and let out a long, wailing cry, one part scream, one part sob, in an odd sort of melodrama that was eerily frightening.
Nicole clapped her hands over her ears.
Wayne was too surprised to do more than gape at her.
As Albert got back to his feet, Brandy pushed her body against his as though to comfort herself from this woman’s insane fit. “What’s wrong with her?”
Albert shook his head. “I have no idea.”
For what seemed like a long time, Beverly clung to Wayne’s leg, sobbing in great, wet heaves. Wayne stood where he was, uncomfortable as hell, but almost afraid to move. Albert, Brandy and Nicole all stood where they were, watching with a horrified sort of fascination at the woman who’d had not only the courage but also the audacity to follow them into the Temple of the Blind, and then bawled like a terrified child when Albert tried to help her.
When she finally let go of Wayne’s leg and allowed him to step away from her, Brandy cautiously approached her. “Are you
okay?” she asked.
The woman looked up at her, her dark eyes wet and rimmed with red. She did not speak, but she did not shrink away, either. Apparently, it was only Albert who frightened her.
Brandy knelt before the woman and cautiously reached out to her.
Beverly did not stop her from taking the hand she held against her bosom, but she kept her eyes locked on Albert.
“Is it broken?” Brandy asked.
Beverly did not look at her. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Does it hurt bad?”
She shook her head. “Better now.”
“Can you move it?”
Beverly moved her wrist back and forth slowly, wincing a little as she did it. Brandy could see that it was swollen.
“I think it’s sprained. But I’m no doctor.”
“Maybe she should see one,” Wayne said, not really meaning the guy in the X-ray room.
Beverly shook her head. “I’m fine.” But the quiver in her voice suggested otherwise.
“What are you doing down here?” Nicole asked.
For a moment, it seemed that she was not going to answer, but then she softly replied, “I…didn’t get…what I needed…”
“Beverly,” Albert said, and although he came no closer to her, she cringed as though he had slapped her, “when we were in Gilbert House, Wayne found a girl hiding in the bathroom. She’d been there since Wednesday night, since you sent her in there. She had no food. She had nothing to drink.” The woman’s eyes grew a little, perhaps with regret or remorse, but he could not tell for certain. “That girl’s dead now, dragged off into some kind of dark forest. Does that mean anything to you?”
Beverly lowered her eyes to the floor, not wanting to meet his powerful gaze.
“It means a lot to Wayne, here. That’s why he did what he did to you earlier. I can’t blame him, honestly. Can you?”
Still, she said nothing. Though she looked twice their age, she resembled a scolded child on the verge of more tears.
“Albert,” Brandy said, urging him to stop.
“I just want to know why. Why follow us down here? You knew he would probably hurt you again. Why send us in there to begin with? Why the obsession with Gilbert House?”