by Brian Harmon
Up ahead, Nicole shouted, “I think I see it!” Before her, in the midst of a tangle of formless gray, a dark opening appeared.
“Thank God!” Brandy sighed. With her eyes firmly closed, she was still thankfully in complete control of herself (if more than a little uncomfortable) but she was intensely relieved to be out of harm’s way if only for Beverly’s sake.
Nicole stepped through the doorway and into the small chamber that waited beyond it. As she slipped Brandy’s glasses off her face, the others exited behind her.
Wayne stepped through the opening behind Albert and, still gripping her wrist, jerked Beverly out of the sex room hard enough that she stumbled and fell to the floor.
“Wayne, that’s enough!” Brandy scolded. It was one thing to be angry, but there was no reason for this sort of roughness.
“I’m sorry!” Wayne said, his voice still sharp with anger. “But what the fuck was that?”
“I’m sorry!” Beverly cried, nearly weeping. “I didn’t know!”
“Yeah. Just like you didn’t know the people you were sending into Gilbert House were probably going to get their brains squeezed out?”
“Wayne, don’t,” Albert pleaded.
Beverly began to sob. “I didn’t choose this!” she wept. “I never wanted to be this way!”
“What way?” Nicole asked.
“Psychic,” Albert answered for her.
Beverly nodded miserably.
Brandy and Nicole looked at each other, surprised.
“That’s how she saw us down here the first time. In her dream.”
She looked up at him through her tears, surprised. “Yeah.”
“And someone like her would probably feel Gilbert House from miles away.”
Beverly nodded.
“Probably because of that forest. Gilbert House stands in a different world.”
She looked up at him, considering. Yes, that could be it. That would make perfect sense. If Gilbert House stood in a different world and acted as a gateway to that place, then perhaps it was something on the other side that was calling to her. She was not being drawn to Gilbert House but through it, yet she was unable to approach it for some reason. That might also explain why she felt the same pull so strongly down here. This place might be connected to that same world.
“If you ask me,” Wayne said, seemingly uninterested in the conversation at hand, “we should just leave her.”
“How can you say that?” Brandy asked, actually appalled by his lack of sympathy.
“He may be right,” Albert said.
Brandy and Nicole looked at him, surprised.
“She almost didn’t make it through the sex room. What if she doesn’t get through the hate room?”
No one offered a reply to this question. The hate room was more dangerous than the sex room and not merely because of the spiked pit at its far end. If she, or any of them for that matter, were to be affected by the statues in the hate room, the rest of them would be in danger.
“But we can’t just leave her,” Brandy said.
Beverly stared at them, her wet eyes now wide and afraid. She did not want to be left alone in this place. She had nowhere to go but back and she would not be able to get through the sex room a second time.
“Well, she doesn’t have to stay here,” Albert decided. “The hate room’s a long ways ahead.”
Brandy nodded, at least temporarily satisfied. “Okay. Let’s get going.”
Chapter 7
“How long is this maze?” Nicole asked. She remembered Albert and Brandy telling her that the first time they came here they’d been forced to continue from the sex room without their clothes. She could hardly imagine treading these cold, stone corridors barefoot, much less stark naked.
“I don’t remember exactly,” Albert replied. He had wondered for a moment if he’d be able to remember the way. He did not mark it the first time he came through because he’d lost the paint can along with his backpack, but as he walked, he found that the path was burned perfectly into his memory. It was as though he’d only been here yesterday. “If I remember right, this last passage was pretty long.”
“Just as long as we don’t get lost,” Nicole replied.
“I don’t think so,” Brandy said. “This feels right to me. I’m more worried about what we’re going to do when we get to the hate room.”
“I know,” said Albert. It seemed to be true that those rooms relied on vision in order to affect people. Brandy had been able to navigate the hate room safely without her glasses, both on the way in and on the way out. And for a time it had even worked in the fear room, until her fear got the better of her. But the trick failed her in the sex room, where she’d already been exposed to the perverse statues on her way in. But by using Brandy’s glasses to encumber her own vision, Nicole had been able to navigate the sex room much as Brandy had done the hate room. That told him that the trick ought to work for any one of them, assuming they weren’t already familiar with the statues in the room he or she was attempting to navigate. But Beverly’s psychic abilities apparently allowed her to see the room even with her eyes tightly shut.
He wondered how her abilities worked. What was it, exactly, that had allowed her to see the sex room? “Beverly,” he inquired, “when you said you dreamed about us coming down here last year, what exactly did you see?”
For a moment, he wasn’t sure she was going to allow him a reply, but she did. “It was…only half a dream, I think,” she explained. “When I saw you go in, I’m sure I was dreaming, but by the time you came out, I was wide awake in bed, staring up at my ceiling, but also directly at you. I saw you like I was there with you.”
“I see. What did you feel when we went into the sex room?”
“I…I saw you having sex in there,” she said bluntly.
Brandy’s breath caught in her throat. The thought that this woman—or anyone, for that matter—had seen them down here at that precise moment, when they both had lost control and given into unjustified lust, was mortifying. She had felt pity for her, but at that moment she felt violated. At that moment, she almost hated Beverly Bridger.
“I was turned on,” Beverly went on, a little embarrassed, “but not by the room, I don’t think. I was more turned on by the two of you, the furious passion of it all, by the suddenness of it. It was so…unexpected.”
Albert nodded. He was neither mortified nor angry. His interest did not lie there, but in more important matters. “Could you see the room? Could you see the statues?”
She considered this for a moment and then shook her head. “I don’t remember exactly, but I think so. I’m pretty sure. When I was in there just now, I could remember the statues from my dream. It was like I knew everything that was around me. I didn’t have to see it.”
Again Albert nodded. It was similar to how Brandy had remembered the sex room when they passed through it the second time. She fell victim to the lust again simply because she could remember it from the first time. “And what about the hate room? Did you see it?”
Beverly opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it again. She had been about to say yes, of course she had seen it, just as she had seen the sex room before it and the fear room after it, but that was not quite true. “I don’t know,” she confessed instead. “I feel like I did. I saw you in there, but…” She shook her head. “But I don’t remember seeing the statues…or any of that room for that matter. It’s like…it was dark or something.”
Again he nodded. “Is it possible that you saw the temple through us? Only through us?”
Beverly considered this. “Yes. That’s possible. It’s likely, actually.”
“Because we saw the sex room. But we never saw the hate room. Brandy wasn’t wearing her glasses. If your vision was based entirely on ours, then you won’t have any memory of the things in there.”
“And she’ll be able to cross the hate room!” Nicole exclaimed.
“You really think that’ll work?” Wayne asked, doub
tful.
“No, I don’t,” replied Albert. “It’s just a theory. But we have to try. The only other option is to abandon her between the two rooms.”
Wayne glanced back at Beverly as he imagined leaving her behind in these dark corridors, abandoning her the way she abandoned Olivia to her awful fate within Gilbert House. He saw her face pale with dread, and was a little surprised at the lack of satisfaction he felt. He still blamed her for what became of Olivia and her friends. He still hated her for what she did. He would never trust her. But neither could he be so cruel as to leave her behind in this cold darkness with no way out.
They turned the final corner in the passage and found the praying sentinel. This time, no one seemed startled by its appearance.
Albert paused and gazed upon it, remembering the last time, when he and Brandy were fresh from their intercourse, cold and naked. She was so beautiful, so angelic. A part of him almost wished they were like that again, alone and naked, intimate and vulnerable.
“Faith,” he said, chasing the thoughts from his head. Without explaining himself to the others, he went on.
The other four followed, traveling ever deeper down the gentle slope. Along the way, something appeared on the path before them and Albert paused to stare at it. It was the green cap from the spray paint can they used to mark their way the first time they came down here. He remembered passing it on their way out without bothering to stop and pick it up. At the time, they were still desperate to put distance between themselves and that thing that chased them into the water. He took the time to gather the paint can, which was still at least half full, but the lid had seemed irrelevant at the time. Now, as he stared at it, the familiarity of the scene struck him with a chill.
“What is it?” Wayne asked.
“The lid from the spray paint can,” Nicole replied. It was such a small detail, such a minor thing, but it was just another part of Albert and Brandy’s amazing story that was unfolding before her eyes in brilliant reality. She could still scarcely believe she was actually here.
Brandy bent and picked it up. “It feels like ages, but it’s like we dropped it here yesterday.” She ran her fingers across it. “No dust.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any dust down here,” Albert said. “It’s amazingly clean.”
“No cobwebs either,” Wayne said.
“I know.” Albert started walking again. He remembered Gilbert House and how it had been void of cobwebs, as though spiders and bugs were afraid to go inside. Could it be that bugs could feel what Beverly did when they approached Gilbert House? Could they feel the burning? But if that was true, then what kept them out of these tunnels?
Brandy lingered. She started to drop the lid, to just leave it where they found it, but somehow that seemed wrong. It was like littering. She removed her backpack instead and slipped it inside. There was no reason to leave it behind again.
Ahead of her, Albert stepped up to the water’s edge and stopped. For a moment he stood and stared out over the still water, into the shadows beyond. On the other side was the round room with the dying sentinels. That room was where they found that creature last time. It came out of the darkness of one of the other tunnels and chased them. He never saw what it was. He hadn’t dared take the time to look back. Not a day had gone by since that he hadn’t wondered what that thing was. What was the peculiar noise it made? Why did it stop chasing them?
“We have to swim,” he said when the others had gathered around him.
“What?” By the tone of Wayne’s voice, one might think that he could not swim, but it was surprise rather than panic that gave an edge to his words.
“It’s going to be cold as hell,” Albert warned, “but we have to go.” He removed his backpack and unzipped it.
“I brought suits,” Brandy said. “But only for three of us.”
“I should have planned better,” Albert apologized. “I was in a hurry to get back down here. I should have stopped and made sure we had supplies for everybody. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Even if you had,” pointed out Nicole, “you couldn’t have known Beverly would be here.”
“That’s true,” Albert admitted. “But we could have bought some food and water to bring with us.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t think about it. I’m better than this.”
“You were distracted over what happened in Gilbert House,” Brandy soothed. “We all were. We didn’t think about it either.”
Albert shook his head. He was smarter than this. The sodas and candy bars Brandy packed had been exactly what they needed when they found Olivia. That alone was reason enough to at least restock her backpack. But he had merely driven everyone straight here in his haste, not once even thinking.
He opened the box and removed Beverly’s envelope from his bag. He intended to stuff it inside so that it would stay dry.
Beverly caught sight of the envelope and had to resist an urge to snatch it from his hand. “How did you get into my apartment?”
Albert looked at her. “What?”
“When you took that.”
Albert looked down at the envelope. He remembered the accusation she made outside Gilbert House, that he had somehow stolen the envelope from her. She had even called him a liar when he told her about Andrea Prophett. “I told you how I got it.” He looked up at her, curious. “You’re really telling me that it wasn’t you who gave it to that girl?”
“Why would I want you to have that?”
Albert stared at her, not understanding. “If you didn’t want me to have it, why did you write my name and address on the front?” He held it up and showed it to her.
Beverly stared at the writing on the envelope. “I didn’t write that.”
Albert turned it and stared at the writing. “But if you didn’t…then who did?”
“It wasn’t me,” Beverly insisted. The tone of her voice was turning defensive. She truly seemed to believe that he was trying to deceive her.
But Albert wasn’t listening to the venom in her voice. He was staring at the envelope, thinking. “If you didn’t write it…” he said, his thoughts whirling inside his head. “That means somebody else knew we were down here.”
Now Brandy was also staring at the envelope. “But who?”
Albert had no chance to answer. Behind him, Nicole shattered the empty silence of the temple with a startling scream. He twirled around, almost stumbling in his haste to see what was wrong.
For just an instant he did not see what had frightened her, but then he did and suddenly he felt a sick dread fill him as he realized that he knew nothing about these empty passages. All those months ago, he had stalked these tunnels so carefully, cautiously watching both his front and back, making assumptions and calculated judgments, but he was not so clever. He was a fool, in fact. He was stupid. He had looked back often, but how many times had he looked up?
It came not through the water but over it, clinging to the stone ceiling like a giant, pale spider, a swift, hairless thing scurrying toward them. For a moment its form remained a mystery, but then its shape caught up with the eye and Albert recognized it for what it was just before it dropped to the floor in front of them.
The five of them stood motionless, staring at the strange new arrival. Not one of them knew how to react.
The naked man seemed to stare back at them, yet it was physically impossible for him to see at all. Like the night Albert and Brandy first looked upon him, he had no eyes with which to see.
He took two deep sniffs of the air, as though he found their odor curious, and then immediately turned his eyeless face on Albert. He took two steps forward, closing to within an inch of Albert’s face, and drew deeply of his scent. “You,” he said, his voice hoarse and raw, as though his larynx were a rusty machine. He turned slightly and sniffed quickly three times in Brandy’s direction. “And the woman.”
Albert and Brandy exchanged an uncertain look.
The blind man took another deep inhalation of the ai
r around him, slowly turning his head from left to right as he did so. He paused for a moment, as though considering the others who were there. He was facing Nicole, as if she was of particular interest, but then he turned his bald and eyeless face back to Albert. “Hurry.” He stepped back, giving him room. “Remove your clothes.”
“What?” Nicole sounded horrified.
“You must continue naked,” the eyeless man explained. “Give me the ones closest to your skin. Leave the rest where you stand.”
“No way!” Wayne felt suddenly trapped. A rush of anger toward this blind freak boiled up from deep inside.
“Why do you need our clothes?” Brandy asked.
“The clothes smell,” the blind man said simply. “Leave them and bathe in the water or the hounds will smell.”
“The hounds?” Albert felt overwhelmed.
“Hurry now!”
Nobody moved. Albert stared at the blind man for a moment, puzzled. Could he really be serious? “Are the hounds those things we heard last time? The things that make that noise?”
“Yes,” replied the blind man. “They are deaf and blind but they smell.”
“I see. And our underwear? The clothes closest to our skin?”
“I will take them ahead, to draw the hounds away.”
Now Albert understood. This was why their clothes had been stolen the first time, why their underwear had been hung in that strange maze.
“Hold on,” said Wayne. He felt overwhelmed. Hounds? This was the first he’d heard of such creatures. “This doesn’t make any sense. If those…whatever they are…have such a good sense of smell, then how are we going to be safe just by being naked? They won’t just be able to smell our clothes. We smell too.”