“Because everybody that come to help out has the dreams.”
“Who all has come to ‘help out’? And what do you mean by ‘help out’ anyway?”
“Help out, like you have. Like the boy Marcus tol’ you when he gave you that flyer, you’re in the game now. She plays it like a game, but it ain’t no game at all. It’s a nightmare, as serious as the grave. Lots o’ folks over the years have been chosen to help.”
“What happened to them?”
“They died. She killed them all.”
“You keep saying ‘she’. Who is ‘she’?”
“The one that you don’ like.”
“You mean Roch–?”
Virginia quickly put her finger up to her lips and shook her head. Again, she looked scared.
She leaned into me once again. Were it not for the bitter edge to it, her tone of voice would have been one usually reserved for midnight campfire tall tales. “Don’ say it. She’ll hear you. She’s got her ears out for us.”
“You were skittish like this upstairs this afternoon. Can she hear us in here? Does she have the apartment bugged or something?” I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if she had.
“No,” she whispered to me eerily. “She don’ use that stuff. She would if she could, but it’s lucky for us that it don’ work here. That’s about the only luck we got goin’ for us. But she got powers, that one. Bad powers. I can only tell you what I tell you now ‘cause she ain’t listenin’ much right now.”
“You mean maybe she’s lost interest in me?” I asked, hopeful on the one hand, still a little skeptical on the other.
“Sorry, darlin’, that won’ ever happen. She not payin’ attention to us now ‘cause she thinks that there’s nothin’ I can tell you that’ll make any difference. In her mind, she won already. In her mind, you already joined all the others in death. But even more than that, she not listenin’ in on us now cause it takes concentration on her part an’ she either feedin’ or busy with other things right now.”
“Feeding? Other things? What kind of other things?”
“Bad things, things she got planned for you.”
A fierce chill ran through me. My worst fears were being confirmed. That horrid woman Rochere was far worse than I could have imagined; she was something malignant. Because of my experience in her office this afternoon, I needed very little convincing that Virginia’s story was true. I’d never hated anyone as immediately and as strongly as I had her. Whatever my gut reactions had been trying to tell me all along was making more and more sense.
Virginia continued, “But even when she busy with other things, busy hatchin’ her plans an’ settin’ her traps, she dangerous. The man in the paintin’ can keep her at bay for awhile, but not if you say her name or his too much. Specially now at the start when you not strong enough. It sets her ears to tinglin’. You ever been in a room full of people, all talkin’ at the same time an’ you can’t make it out much till somebody say your name over an’ over and then you start listenin’ real close to hear what they sayin’ about you?”
Enraptured in her story, I nodded my head. “Well it’s the same way with her. Say her name out loud too many times an’ she’ll come fast. An’ don’ use my name or the boy’s or the man in the picture upstairs either unless you really have to. Don’ even use your even own if you can help it anymore. Those won’ bring her as fast, but if you use ‘em too much, it’ll bring her just the same.” She spoke of Rochere with such a mix of real hatred, fear and exhaustion that I was now completely convinced that this woman sitting across from me was on the level. She shook her head sorrowfully, looking down, looking so very weary. “She be evil, that one, real evil. I been through a lot in my life an’ beyond, a whole lot. I done met the meanest, mos’ hateful people that ever walked the face o’ this earth. But that one, she be the meanest of ‘em all, cause she not just mean, she got the power on top of it, too. Them others, they brought me so much pain in my life, but I never, never know anybody could bring me as much pain as she did.”
I was dumbfounded at her story. Silence fell upon us for a few, long seconds.
“You said that lots of people have come to ‘help out’ and that she killed them,” I said finally, wanting insight into what could be my own fate. “How many?”
“Oh, there a few thousand by now.”
“Thousand?” I gulped. My odds of survival were getting lower by the minute. “Who were they? How did she kill them, how did they die?”
“All sorts of people tried to help. All sorts. We get people from all walks of life come to help. A few of us got real far in what the boy likes to call ‘the game’. I never seen it like a game, but it helps him to look at it that way an’ it might help you, too. Mos’ don’ get that far. So many don’ start at all. Some die before they get this far, before they even make it to this house. Too many get here, find out what you’re findin’ out now an’ jus’ pack up an’ leave, go someplace else in the city to stay or go home altogether. Don’ matter. They all die anyway, one way or the other. Only chance anybody has is to stay and try to win.”
“How do the ones that leave die?”
“Different ways. Depends on what’s wrong with them. She sucks the life outta people. If they got a heart condition, the heart goes; whatever else they got wrong, it just gives up an’ goes out on them. Some people have a stroke. If they young an’ healthy, they just get weaker and weaker. Folks always blame it on some kinda sickness or somethin’ the people was born with, but that ain’t it. She the one that kills ‘em, sure as if she shot ‘em.”
“Is that what happened to me in her office? Do you know what I mean?”
Virginia nodded. “That was real enough. Only difference is that she was tryin’ to kill you real fast, not slow. When she can get hold o’ people before they have the protection,” she pointed to my necklace, “she’ll kill ‘em fast so she don’ have to deal with ‘em much.”
“But how was it real? Was it an illusion? Mind control? I mean, the furniture didn’t actually come to life, did it? It couldn’t have”
“She got powers to make you see an’ feel things that ain’t there an’ she can kill you with them. But she can make real stuff happen with her mind, too.”
“What do mean, powers, like telekinesis? Can she move and change things with her mind?”
“Hon, I don’ know ‘xactly how she do what she do. But she got powers. Strong powers. With her, you never know what’s real an’ what ain’t. But it don’ matter anyway, you wind up jus’ as dead either way. With her, real, unreal, it just all one an’ the same.”
“If she’s so powerful, why hasn’t she killed me yet?”
“Whatchu think happened at her office? You think she was just playin’ wit you? She almost had you. Good thing for you that young man walked in when he did. God was lookin’ out for you. You was nearly dead.”
“How did you know about Troy?”
“If it’s in the ‘game’,” she said the word distastefully, “I know ‘bout it. Why you think you was so weak when you lef’ there? Course, she wasn’t gonna kill you dead on the spot, she don’ want you dead in her office. She not gonna have to explain that to the police. She was gettin’ you ready for somethin’ like a heart attack or a stroke, somethin’ that’d look real natural when you gave way on the street on the walk over to here. She especially wanted you dead fast.”
“Why?”
“Cause you one of the strongest ones come through here in a long time.”
“Me, strong? I’ve never been accused of that before.”
“It ain’t about you all by yourself. You strong with him,” she said, pointing up toward the room with the portrait. “That connection’s strong. He can help you a lot more than most of those he calls an’ she know it. She want you dead.”
I shuddered. “When I was in her office, I didn’t stand a chance, did I?”
She shook her head no.
“Can she still get me that easy?”
“Sh
e can still get you, but it ain’t that easy now. Not while you keep wearin’ that necklace. Helps keep her from findin’ you easy, helps hide you. Keeps her from killin’ you without puttin’ a whole lotta work into it. You take that off an’ she can get you easy an’ quick. It’s the only thing that protects you from her an’ from the grave.”
“What if I leave and refuse to play this game?”
“You just die, like all the rest of ‘em.” It was the same answer Marcus had given me.
“But I’ve got the necklace now. What if I just take it with me? “
She laughed a tired laugh as if she had heard that idea a million times.
“You can’ take it with you. It won’ let you get too far before it disappears right off you. It just go back into the box if you try that. Lots of people took it with them, you ain’t the first that’s thought of that! You don’ get too far an’ you look for it an’ it just be gone.”
“I’ll go upstairs and take the box with me.”
“Can’t. It ain’t there anymore.”
“Where is it?”
“It jus’ shows up ‘fore I get here an’ jus’ disappears once that necklace be put on a helper. I don’ know where it come from an’ I don’ know where it go. I ain’t supposed to know either. It’s a secret.”
“What if I stay in the city and don’t go far and continue to wear it?”
“He’ll call it back. The man in the picture upstairs. He’ll call it back if you won’ help. He won’ want to, but he’ll have to. He needs it. He can’t let you keep it. The box won’t let you keep it neither.”
“So there’s no other way?”
“No.”
“Okay, then, lets just say, for argument’s sake, that I stay and continue to play the game or whatever you people call it. I need to know what I’m up against. I know you say my odds aren’t good, but just exactly how many people have been in my shoes before me? Not the thousands you say were called, but the ones that stayed and played.”
Virginia sighed. “I done lost track of all of ‘em. Been so many over the years. But I guess it’s up into the hunnerts now that I know about.”
“Hundreds?” I gulped. “Did they all have the dreams before they came here?”
“Yes, that’s how he calls ‘em to help.”
“Were they all women?”
Virginia looked surprised at this question. “Why no, hon, it was men, too. What on earth would make you think they was all women?”
“It’s just that the dreams are so romantic. Well, so far not so much in what actually happens, because until today I kept waking up pretty much at the same spot early on in them; but they just feel really, really romantic. I can’t imagine most men having dreams like that about him.”
“The dreams, they always different for everybody. It’s like he makes a friendship with the people he reaches out to. You connect with different people in different ways. That’s how he draws ‘em here. They don’ see it, though. One way or another, they all think it was their own idea to come to this house. The romance, that’s good, that’s what makes you different. That poor man’s so worn out that it ain’t happened in a long time. It’s what makes your connection so strong that the witch to kill you real quick. Sure, she want to kill everybody the gentleman call, but I sensed in her a real panic with you that I ain’t sensed in a long, long time. You threaten her like not many people do.”
“I threaten her?” I found this concept more than a little ludicrous.
“You got more power than you know. Remember that. Tell me, hon, how long you been dreamin’ about him, about a couple of months now?”
“Yes. How did you know? Please don’t laugh when I tell you this, but I could swear that his personality feels exactly like a guy that I’ve been sensing on and off for over twenty years now, a fantasy man I’ve been longing to meet since I was about eighteen but never did. I know that can’t be, though, can it? I mean, it’s silly, isn’t it? In my dreams he’s so much younger than I am. It like I aged and he stayed the same. It couldn’t be possible, I know, but,” I trailed off as I looked down, starting to feel very foolish, realizing too late how much I sounded like a giddy, overaged schoolgirl. All the same it was worth asking. I realized that if she couldn’t shed some light upon the matter, no one could. “I was wondering if maybe, well, could it possibly be the man in the portrait? Could it possibly be that he and the man that I’ve been longing for all of these years are, well, maybe the same guy?” I’d never revealed my fantasy lover to anyone before, not even to Carolyne because it was both incredibly silly and intensely personal. No sooner had the words bubbled out of my mouth than I felt extremely embarrassed, as if I’d just shown up at a party in nothing but my underwear.
It became very quiet for a few seconds. Had I said something wrong? I looked up again at Virginia but I couldn’t read her expression.
“Sorry,” I said, feeling a little ridiculous, regretting now that I’d even brought it up. “It’s nothing, probably just my imagination. Just thought I’d ask. I guess that was kind of a silly question.”
“No, no, it ain’t. Not at all.” It was as if she had been deeply lost in thought and I’d just reminded her of where she was. “To be truthful, there ain’t no way for me to know for sure if it was him or not. But that’s not sayin’ that it wasn’t. It’s possible, it’s very possible.”
“But the years, they’re wrong, aren’t they?”
“No, they’re not. The age he seems, it’s how he remembers himself. What he’s showin’ you is what he was, not what he is now, though truth be tol’, he ain’t changed so very much.”
“How old is he now?” I asked.
“It’s hard to explain, hon. In years, he’s real old, almos’ two hunnert.
I was shocked. “Nobody can live to be that old!”
“That’s cause in the flesh, he ain’t much older than when she took him.”
“Who took him?”
“That witch, who you think?”
“But how, I don’t understand.”
“You don’ need to right now. I need to ask you somethin’ personal.”
“Okay.”
“Your bond with him, the romance, is it of an amorous nature?”
“Very,” I replied a little sheepishly. That really was a personal a question.
“Good. You got a real strong bond with him then. It’s been a long time since the bond has been a sexual love bond.” In her accent she pronounced the word with the accent on the last syllable, drawing it out as “sexuaal”, making it sound even more primal, “that makes for the strongest bond possible between two grown people, the strongest he could make with anybody. That’s good, very, very powerful. The stronger the bond, the more he can protect you, the more of himself he can give you.”
“So I won’t be in this all by myself after all?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes and no. He can be with you to help you, here on the outside, but only in your dreams.”
“The outside?”
“Here, in the real world. He can’t help you when you in her domain.”
“And by her, you mean…”
She nodded.
“What is her domain?”
“It’s a place she got control of. She make it, she rule it. More’n that, I don’ know. He can’t help you there, but he can help you out here, in what you might call the real world.
“His help to you’ll be powerful if your bond with him is what you say it is. He can give you real strength and some guidance. Me and the boy Marcus, along with Zachary, a helper you ain’t met yet, can only point the way, to let you know as much as we can while she’s busy doin’ other things. No way you can do it all alone, and I wish we could help you more, cause she’s real powerful, that one. But you’ll be on your own most of the time, I’m sad to say.”
“But how can I win if she’s so powerful?”
“That witch, she got her weaknesses. She be wantin’ you to think that she got none, but she real full of herself a
nd that’s her biggest weakness. Makes her sloppy in her work sometimes, her arrogance does. Remember that. With the strength of the bond the man’s got with you, well, who know, you might just be the one to make it to the end. Nobody’s won yet, but somebody needs to and you’ve got a better chance than most. If you don’ win, you might at least make it to the end and be around to help the ones that come after you.”
“Has anyone else ever made it to ‘the end’?” I asked, fearful she would say no.
“Only three in all these years come close. Me, Marcus and Zachary. It’s how we died.”
I felt the nerve endings along my entire body stand up and shiver as I looked at her in horror. “What? You… you’re dead? He’s dead?” My voice came out sounding shriller than I’d ever heard it. “What are you? A ghost?”
“Now, child, just calm down,” I heard her say as if far away. I could feel my heart pounding hard in my chest. “I ain’t no ghost, at least I don’ think I am.”
“What are you then?” I was backing away from her.
“Don’ rightly know. Ain’t a ghost, ain’t alive, either. Guess I’m somewhere in between. I’m solid, I can touch things, so can the boy and Zachary, but I can’t be nowhere for too long and neither can they. I come in here an’ do what I’m supposed to do but I can’t stay and I can’t be nowhere else, can’t do nothin’ else. I’m stuck where I’m stuck. Marcus be stuck where he’s stuck and Zachary be stuck where he’s stuck.” She reached over to touch my arm to comfort me but I was afraid of her now and pulled away.
“Honey, don’ be ‘fraid of me. I’d never hurt you. I’m only here to help you. You can’t scare that easy; you won’t ever make it through this ordeal if you do. You gotta be brave now. The evil one is out to get you an’ you gotta know what to be scared of and what not to be scared of. An’ you gotta figure out how to keep goin’ even when you’re real scared. There’s bad things, evil things that are gonna happen aroun’ you and prob’ly even to you. But you gotta stay brave, you gotta be strong. You can’t let that witch with her bag o’ evil overcome you.”
The Nightmare Game Page 8