The Nightmare Game

by Martin, S. Suzanne

  “Serve yourself better, you mean,” I added, trying not to sound as frightened as I was.

  “One and the same, my dear, it’s all one and the same. I took my time exploring the room’s objects and found little of any real help to me. I saved the trunk until last because it was locked.”

  “I would think that would have made it the first thing that you would have gone to.” I said, distaste rife in my voice.

  “Under different circumstances, you’d be right, but at the time, I was in no hurry. I wanted to savor the experience. And then you showed up. I must admit, even though I’d been expecting you in a way, I didn’t expect your arrival to be quite so unceremonious. I thought I’d run out of time to explore the trunk in anything more than a haphazard way. But, fortunately for me, you were a lot sicker than anyone should be and still be alive. In fact, we thought you were going to die because you kept refusing the water.

  “Great stuff, isn’t it, our water. It makes you so strong, so young, so beautiful, so pliable, so forgetful; and blissfully it keeps you that way. Don’t be so surprised, Ashley, I noticed it, too, just very recently. It’s funny that I should, after all of these years. It turned me into such a goody-two shoes that, looking back on those days, it just makes me want to puke.”

  “Ben’s didn’t mention a word to me about the water having any side effects.”

  “He doesn’t know. Sweet, loveable, huggable Ben. Dear old Ben’s so much smarter than me. I realized that when I first met him so many years ago. But he’s only book smart and that never did him a whole lot of good out in the real world. Me, I’m street smart, and it’s the only kind of smart that really counts in the end. I’m quicker, I’m more clever. I look for all the angles, all the in’s, know how to find them, know how to use them.”

  “Why?” I asked. “To take advantage?”

  Geoffrey smiled, “Why sure, baby, why else? Don’t go looking for any real answers from Ben. He doesn’t know a thing about our water. I didn’t either until all the extra essence opened my eyes. It made me even smarter and I started to see what a schmuck I’d been for decades without even realizing it.

  “Ben’s changed lately, too, but because he keeps drinking our marvelous water, the shifts in him have been much more subtle, almost too small for the average person to see. Good thing I’m not average. As a matter of fact, I’m sure that I’ve noticed more changes in him than he has in himself lately.”

  “What kind of changes?”

  “For one thing, he hasn’t been nearly as patient with or forgiving of my foibles of late. Poor, poor Ben, he’s just too much of a conformist for his own good. It’s his nature to be kind, good and loveable. It isn’t mine.”

  “So I’ve noticed.”

  My comment received only a self-satisfied smirk. “Those aren’t the qualities I value; they’re for saps. I’d rather be smart, savvy, one step ahead of everybody else. I’m not the person getting played, baby, I’m the player.”

  “Good for you, Geoffrey,” I said in my most loathing tone.

  “Damn straight, good for me. That’s why when Arrosha takes us public, I’m going to be the one at the top, I’m going to be the most powerful man in the world, not Ben.”

  Fearful that Geoffrey would go on another egomaniacal rant that might lead to his threatening violence again, I tried to steer the conversation back on course.

  “Have you noticed a change in anyone else besides the two of you?” I asked.

  “Illea seems touchy these days. She’s been watching me a lot lately. She hasn’t said anything, but I’ve been catching her just watching and disapproving. She’s really been pissing me off.”

  “Anybody else?”

  “Nope, nobody else, baby, except for you and you don’t count. You see, everybody else is too new.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Of course you don’t. Arrosha didn’t transform you yet. You weren’t worthy of that. You see, when you get transformed, it’s sudden, your whole molecular structure gets changed in an instant. It discombobulates you. Then just add the water and it becomes a real mind-fuck! Whammo, you’re livin’ in la-la land. Even after all these years, I’d probably still be there if it weren’t for the extra essence.”

  “What about the essence?” I hadn’t told Geoffrey the effect it had had on me and I wasn’t about to. He was in the mood to talk and I was in the mood to listen. Even if I didn’t make it out of here, even if Rochere managed to kill me, if I wound up like Virginia and Marcus, the more I learned here, the more I hopefully could help the next poor schmuck that got sucked into this game.

  “The essence is wild, but you know that. It’s different every time. Most of the time it makes you hornier than a goat and most of the time you trip out on it in one way or another. We usually don’t get it very often because it keeps you full for such a long time. We used to get it about once every two months. But for some odd reason, in the last three months, we’ve been feasting often. It was right about then that I started noticing some of the more, let’s just say less desirable aspects of the water and decided to do something about it.

  “That’s always been one of my talents. I can pick up on things and pinpoint them; I can put two and two together faster than anybody else around. You see, usually, we transport some water back and forth through the city.”

  “Ben mentioned it.”

  “The only thing is, we take our water into the city and we bring back the empties. But for the last few weeks, I’ve been bringing in empties and filling them up in the city with tap water.”

  “And nobody noticed?”

  “The extra essence kept me looking healthy, camouflaged any nasty tell-tale physical effects. Even so, though, Ben started to suspect something was going on, nosy bastard that he is. That’s when I raised a big stink with Arrosha and got my own room.”

  “She didn’t think that was odd?”

  “Something was ready to go down then. I could feel it and she could too. I told her that I could keep a lookout for you better without Ben breathing down my neck. Besides, she trusted me.”

  “And look how you repaid her.”

  “I caught the traitor in our ranks. I should get a fucking medal for it. I’ve done a lot of work in exposing you. I’ve taken one for the team and my contribution’s gonna be recognized as soon as I expose you for what you really are.”

  “Exactly what did you take ‘for the team’, Geoffrey?”

  “I’ve been sucking down nasty outsider water for the last two months.”

  “Nobody told you to do that.”

  “You’re right. They didn’t. That’s because I’m a leader, not a follower. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to go back to regular water again? It’s horrible, it’s nasty, disgusting, especially after thirty-plus years. It’s worse than drinkin’ diarrhea. No wonder Arrosha tells us that nothing is denied us in the outside world. It’s like telling us that the dog-shit on the street is not denied to us. No matter how excellent the food, how fresh, how well-prepared, no matter how rare the wine or brandy, it all tastes putrid after you get the water and the essence in your system. And I don’t care if it’s the purest water from some fuckin’ unspoiled mountain stream in Tibet, it all tastes like crap to us. That’s why we stick to the drinks at The Crypt when we’re in the city. They’re like the water here except with a little extra buzz.

  “I guess that’s the real reason that nobody suspected I was smuggling the full bottles in from the city and smuggling the empties out to refill. They would have thought I was crazy. Drinking that shit was hard, let me tell you. The first few times I tried, I threw it all back up. It took me over a week to find the perfect mix of our water and outsider water that I could keep down and still keep some clarity at the same time. After that, it was over a month before my tolerance was up to allowing me mostly outside water, another two weeks before I weaned myself onto it alone. None of this would have worked on any level whatsoever, I never could have gotten away with any of it had
it not been for the frequent essence feasts we were having then. They kept my looks and my youth from going downhill, they camouflaged my activities. I went into the city alone frequently, telling everyone that I had some new lovers there and in a way I did, for my new lover was the outside world’s water.”

  “Didn’t Ben get jealous?”

  “Ben? No, I told him it was a group of women and he only ever got jealous when a lover on the side was another man. The women never bothered him because he knew they were mere dalliances to me. Unlike Ben, I need a great deal more sexual variety than he does.”

  “So I’ve been told,” I said, heavy sarcasm in my voice. “Didn’t it bother Arrosha?”

  “I minded my manners around her and kept her up-to-date about the activity going on in the Toulouse Street house. She appreciated that. I don’t think it would have bothered her for me to go a little above-and-beyond.”

  “Don’t you think you may have gone over her head just a little?”

  “What? Just wanting to be able to think for myself once again? Hey, if I hadn’t been able to do that, I never would have come to know about you and find out what you really are.”

  “Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked. I did want all the information that I could get because I’d come too far in knowing too little, but his motives puzzled me.

  “Because like I told you before, you don’t matter. You see, Ashley, you’ll be dead soon and then you’ll be just like all those people in the trunk and in the box. They didn’t matter either. At least not in the end. Nobody that matters cared about them and nobody that matters is going to care about you either.”

  “Ben will care, Illea and Robert will care,” I protested.

  “Not once I expose you as the fraud and traitor that you are, not once Arrosha executes you for being one. They’ll see you then the way I see you now. And they’ll remember you like that forever.”

  “No they won’t. I’ll tell the others everything you just told me.”

  “It would be only your word against mine. And I’ll tell everybody that you decided to make up nasty lies about me. But this is moot, because when I get through with you, you won’t be in any position to tell anybody anything.”

  “Are you going to kill me anyway?”

  “No, you convinced me not to do that. You’ll die soon enough, I’ll see to that personally. But I will make sure that Arrosha executes you while every single one of us watches.”

  “There are those who will believe me.”

  “It doesn’t matter, cause I’ve just decided that you won’t be telling anybody anything. I’m going to silence you without killing you by filling you so full our special brand of water that you’ll forget everything that just happened. That and a few well-placed suggestions and I’ll give special meaning to the term ‘brainwashing’. Do you honestly think I’d be so stupid as to tell you everything without having a plan to make you forget it all again?”

  “No! No, I’m not drinking that water again, I won’t do it!”

  “You won’t have a choice, bitch. I’ll do it like we did it the first time. I’m going to strap you down, stick an IV tube in your arm and let’s just say that the term ‘intravenous’ comes to mind. It won’t be long until you won’t remember a damn thing any more.”

  “No, you’re not! I won’t let you!”

  I bolted up off the floor and tried to run but Geoffrey had stood up as well, grabbed my arm hard and pulled me too close to himself.

  “Let go of me, Geoffrey,” I screamed at him. “Let go of me!”

  “Why, so you can do something stupid and deprive Arrosha of the honor of executing you?”

  “It’s no more than what you were going to do yourself only a little while ago.”

  “Yes, but then you showed me the error of my ways, didn’t you, Ashley? Quit struggling and I’ll do you the honor of returning that favor.”

  Still tightly holding my arm, he walked over to the cord that hung from the light and turned it off. It was dark for only a second or two until my eyes adjusted to the lower light level and the room once again became illuminated, this time by cold moonlight streaming in from the attic room’s single window, which Geoffrey roughly pulled me toward.

  “You see, my dear, the beauty of it all is that you’re as good as on death row right now. This mansion is nothing but a prison for you from now on. You have to stay here and await your fate. You have nowhere to go, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. You see, I never told any of the others, but I know what you were running from the day you banged so frantically upon our front door. When I opened that door, I saw those creatures that were right on your heel, quite literally, I might add. I had a feeling that just one more touch would kill you; I also knew that I was safe, for the moment they saw me they retreated. Arrosha would never have allowed them to touch me. So you see, Ashley, if you make any attempt to leave the mansion and its grounds, you lose the protection it affords you and even before Arrosha gets the chance to do away with you, those lovely little creatures out there will make sure that you wind up dead along some unmarked roadside where you so deservedly belong.”

  “You’re bluffing,” I said as defiantly as I could, but it was hollow, for I knew that in fact it was I who was bluffing.

  “You think so? Fine, go ahead, look out the window.”

  When I didn’t do as he instructed, he took his other hand, the one not holding my arm in a vice grip, and forcefully turned my head until I had no choice but to look out of the window.

  “Okay, toots, now you tell me if I’m bluffing or not,” he said harshly. “What do you see?”

  Where, when I had previously peeked out of the curtains of my room, the night sky had been black, it now contained a moon so full and so bright it illuminated the grounds below with its soft, cold light.

  “Why is it so bright now?” I asked, genuinely confused. “It was such a dark night before.”

  “Because I asked for it. I put it in what you could call our ‘suggestion box’. Haven’t you learned by now that if we want something, we usually get it? Arrosha’s very generous to us that way, something you’ll never get a chance to experience. Now if that answers your question, I’ll say it again, what do you see out there?”

  I searched the view, looking for whatever it was that Geoffrey wanted me to see. The window faced the front of the house, whose landscaping was so different than that to the rear of the house, and revealed to me only its obvious, the lush lawn, the path leading up to the mansion, which I barely remembered, lined with large, old, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. It all seemed so otherworldly, so icy-blue, bathed as it was in nothing but cold moonlight.

  “I don’t see anything, only the grounds,” I said truthfully.

  “Look closer,” Geoffrey commanded, leaning into me, whispering into my ear as if he were performing the darkest seduction.

  Having no choice, I did.

  My vision, now better than perfect, revealed the danger in a way it could never have before. On the outskirts of the grounds I made out a figure, almost still but not quite, moving slowly back and forth, swaying in place as if lying in wait for someone to come into its territory. I gasped audibly and turned my head away from the window. Theorizing that those creatures would still be out there was bad enough. Actually seeing one with my own eyes was quite another.

  “Oh, don’t stop looking now, Ashley,” Geoffrey continued to whisper in his diabolic manner. “That fellow out there is by no means alone, my dear. Oh, no, he’s brought his friends with him. Keep looking.”

  I did as he said and true enough, the perimeter of the grounds was littered with more of the ghoulish monsters all simply standing in place, slowly yet clumsily swaying, doing nothing except waiting patiently for someone to come out for them to suck out the life. Waiting for me.

  I could take no more of this. The night had been far too bizarre a reality for me to be able to absorb anymore. I had to get away from Geoffrey and his cruelty. I needed protection, I needed t
o find Ben. Geoffrey had let go of his hold upon my arm while he was gazing out of the window, gloating, so I seized the opportunity, jerked myself away from him, bolted toward the door and ran. He lunged for me and missed, but rather than pursuing me, I just heard him laugh.

  “Go ahead, Ashley, run!” he taunted. “Run away, run out of the house, run to your little ‘friends’!”

  I reached the spiral staircase and for a moment glanced back. Geoffrey was just outside the store room door, smirking, walking toward me slowly with no intention of catching me, only making sure that I remained within earshot.

  “You saw them, they’re still out there, they’ll always be still out there. You can’t run, Ashley,” he shouted. “There’s nowhere for you to run, there is no escape. They want you to join them, Ashley. They’re hungry and they want to have you over for dinner. I know how you’d hate to disappoint them!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Geoffrey’s jeers and cruel laughter followed me as, frantic, I headed down the spiral staircase. Midway, I stumbled and was forced to seize the banister, holding on tightly in order to keep from tumbling down the steps. Regaining my footing, I continued running down the stairs to the second floor gallery and then toward the only place I knew to run, my room. At the end of the gallery, turning the corner, I slammed into Ben.

  “Ashley! What’s going on? I heard an argument,” he said.

  All of the composure I had worked so hard to maintain while I was at Geoffrey’s mercy, all of my bravado, crumbled in a flash as streams of tears ran hot down my cheeks and my breath became so fast and shallow I could not speak.

  “Ashley, calm down. You’re starting to hyperventilate. What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Consolingly, he took my hand, but I felt trapped by even this gesture. I jerked my hand free and managed to spurt out “Geoffrey!”.

  “What about Geoffrey?” Ben asked, alarmed. “What happened?”

  I forced myself to gulp in a few deeper breaths so I could speak.

  “He’s after me! He wants to kill me!”