The Nightmare Game

by Martin, S. Suzanne

  I began to pace, more nervous now than I was before Ben’s visit. I put my hand to my upper chest to touch the necklace, hoping to find some reassurance from it, but there was none to be found. It was still buried deep within my flesh, hiding in the form of exotic body art, a form in which it was safe from accidental removal.

  With nothing else to do, I walked into the closet and stared at my old clothing, thinking for a moment that I might put them on again so that I could at least die wearing my own clothes. The knit top was a little too big but still wearable, but when I pulled my jeans off the hanger they were on, I realized that it would be impossible for me to fit into them now. I’d lost such an incredible amount of weight in the very short time that I had been here that there was no way that I could even keep them up. Even the belt that I’d worn here was so large on me now that the notches ended long before it would fit. No, I wouldn’t even attempt it. My old jeans would be just too uncomfortable and cumbersome for me to wear now. Whereas normally, I would have been thrilled, it depressed me now, because it was living proof that Arrosha had tampered with my body.

  Dismay filled me as I realized that it was probably just a matter of a few hours at most that I’d have to live before Arrosha killed me. The game was up and I doubted that the water would have much effect on me anymore. Its effects had already become weaker before Geoffrey got his claws in me tonight. I remembered deciding earlier tonight to join the group and I shuddered. In his own psychotic way, Geoffrey had done me a huge favor by forcing my trip down memory lane and I could not imagine Arrosha being happy about that, for he had ruined her carefully constructed ruse.

  I wondered if Ben, Illea or any of the others would remember me at all later. Probably not, at least not for long. The miniscule, barely existent immunity they had from the water seemed to stem from excessive essence consumption, something I was sure would cease now. Without any long-standing immunity to the water, it would surely soon wash away any memories of me and it would be to them as if I had never been here, as if I had never existed.

  I was being silly, I knew, but I wished that I had my driver’s license on me right now. If I did wind up dead somewhere in the real world where someone could find my body, I’d like to be known as more than just another “Jane Doe”. It would be nice if someone could notify my family and let them know that I wasn’t coming home any more. Maybe Carolyne could help them sell my house and settle my estate. I knew my mom would give Samson and Delilah a good home for the rest of their lives. Was anyone missing me yet and I wondered how long I’d been gone. My four-day vacation was surely over already. Had Carolyne called my family on their cruise and had they been forced to cut their vacation short on my account?

  Despondency began to wrap itself around me tightly until it became a prison within a prison, and soon even pacing the room became too much effort. I lay on the bed for a few seconds, trying to calm my mind, but that exercise in relaxation was less than futile as I soon became even more agitated and anxious than I’d been before. With nothing to occupy my mind, I felt like screaming. I couldn’t stay in this room another moment. It was driving me mad. So I got up, unlocked the door, and after checking to make sure that no one was out there, stepped out into the hall, wondering if I would be able to overhear anything the others were saying. If I saw or heard anyone coming this way, I could still run back to my room and lock the door. But all was quiet. Even the artworks had returned to their inanimate state and I could hear nothing from where I stood. As the minutes passed, I grew braver, inching my way closer and closer to the elevator and the gallery, straining to hear any conversation, hyper-vigilant of any changes to the stillness that surround me, alert as a prey animal to any sights and sounds, any movement, to anything that might signal danger.

  I then heard a sound, a whisper so soft that I questioned whether it was a real sound and not just my imagination working overtime. Cautiously, I tip-toed up to the balcony railing and leaned over, thinking it must be coming from the hookah room below where the others were gathered, discussing my fate. But if anything, the sound grew even softer there. I wondered, could it possibly be the same voice that had called me earlier tonight? It was too soft to tell. If so, why was it so much harder to hear than it had been earlier? I carefully and noiselessly walked through the gallery, hiding underneath the spiral staircase lest the voice belonged to Geoffrey as he spoke to Arrosha, and again strained to hear it. It was slightly louder here, the whisper coming from the same place that it had before, the third floor. Once I heard it a little more clearly, I could tell that it was indeed the same voice, for it was distinctively different from Geoffrey’s. Only then did I slowly and quietly sneak up the steps, and the voice, still so soft, grew ever so slightly louder as I ascended, once again, up to the third floor.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  After I’d arrived upon the third floor, the once-tiny voice became clear and audible, almost a stage whisper now. The door to the storeroom that Geoffrey had dragged me into was closed tightly, but one of the huge double doors that dominated this floor was slightly ajar. That was a surprise, for when Ben told me that this exit was locked, I had assumed he’d meant these doors. Apparently, Geoffrey was so confident in my complete and utter inability to leave that he didn’t even bother to shut one of them completely.

  I walked up to the entrance of the temple, thankful that the little ballet-style slippers I now wore were so quiet. I peeked inside shyly, for a moment terrified to enter this forbidden chamber, the room from which the voice calling my name seemed to originate. While the voice was urging me forward, my fear held me back and I smiled sadly at my hesitation. Whether I entered the room or not, surely my fate had already been cast, and it was by no means a sunny one, of that I was certain. I could get into no worse trouble than I was in at the moment, for my death sentence had already been most probably passed now that Arrosha’s plan was ruined because I’d finally built up an immunity to the effects of the water.

  The realization that I had nothing left to lose gave me a new courage and, silently and stealthily, I entered the temple of Arrosha. It was a large, circular conservatory engulfing the lion’s share of the entire floor. The domed ceiling was a monstrous skylight. The room was sparse, with only one huge object dominating it, a massive mirror in a frame reminiscent of my amulet.

  The floor and curved walls were reflective, highly polished white marble. Other than the mirror, the only other objects in the temple were a group of lamps which illuminated the room from along its circumference. Larger than life white marble satyrs were they, standing in silence along the circular walls, upon their heads were large, shining globes. Their hands, palms up, arms outstretched before them, each held a smaller globe, also lit. No eunuchs these satyrs; it was apparent that their only reason for existence in this profane temple was to serve their goddess, their enthusiasm for their duties overtly visible.

  I looked toward the mirror, because the soft voice, still just a whisper, was emanating from it. While from a distance, the mirror looked like nothing more than a mirror, the closer I got to it, the less and less it resembled one. It began to change, so much so that as I approached it, it took me a few minutes to realize what it was becoming. No longer a single mirror, it seemed instead to have turned into a multitude of mirrors, each reflecting off of the objects in the room and off of each other in a prismatic way. Not at all static, these mirrors were each moving, shifting, swimming within the frame, making the unit as a whole seem now to breathe as if alive.

  I approached it cautiously, tentatively, because it now seemed like a monster poised to reach out and swallow me whole. But as I grew close to it, its center began to cloud, then come into focus, and instead of my own reflection, I saw a man in front of me that I recognized immediately from one of the photographs that Geoffrey had shoved at me. It was Zachary Preston, the chemist, the helper that Virginia had told me about but that I had, until this moment, not met. He was standing in another room, a room on the other side of this doorway
. This was it, this was the door, this was the gate.

  “Ashley!” he said, and while his voice was now only a loud whisper, I could tell by looking at him that he was not whispering.

  “Zachary?” I asked. He nodded. “Why can’t I hear you better? I barely heard you calling me. I could hear you much better earlier tonight.”

  “The passageway is locked and that muffles the sound. But that’s not important, what’s important is that you’re here now. Thank God for that. You’re in extreme danger. Arrosha has given up on her plan and decided to have you killed instead.”

  “The plan to have me join her group?” I asked.

  “Yes. You have to get out of there now.”

  “How? I thought this exit was locked.”

  “It is. But it’s not the only way out. There’s another one, a back door, Arrosha’s emergency door. None of her followers know it can be used. Do you know where the reflecting pool is?”

  “Yes.”

  “Run to it. Now. Go up to the reflecting pool and wait for the amulet to let you know that it’s safe to jump in. Then dive in and swim toward the bottom. It’ll take you back.”

  “How? The liquid in it is caustic. I won’t survive the trip.”

  “The amulet on your necklace will protect you long enough for you to make it back. You have to trust it. It will protect you.”

  Something must have suddenly happened at his end because he startled and looked back at me with panic in his eyes. “I think she may have heard me. I need to leave. They’ll be coming for you, Ashley. Go, now! It’s your only chance. Run!”

  He then disappeared into nothingness the same way that Virginia and Marcus had. I turned around and quickly ran out of the room but there, in the hall, stood Ben.

  “Ashley!” He said, a scolding tone in his voice. “I specifically told you not to come up here. You deliberately disobeyed me.”

  “Ben! Ben! You’ve got to help me! Geoffrey’s on his way back now! He’s going to kill me!” I pleaded. I was pretty sure that I could trust Ben, although his appearance here was not my first choice. The fact was that at the moment, I had no other option except to trust him. “Please, Ben, I have to make it to the reflecting pool! I have to!”

  “Why the reflecting pool?” He asked, his anger turning into concern.

  “I can plead my case directly to Arrosha from there!” It was a lie, but I had no choice. “Please, Ben, please! Help me!”

  Ben had no time to react to what I had just asked of him when Geoffrey’s voice came from the other side of the mirror, growing louder. While still muffled, his voice was easier to hear than Zachary’s had been, for Geoffrey’s tone indicated that he was speaking rather loudly. Ben grabbed me, pulling me to the other side of the double doorway, the side farthest from the spiral staircase. He stood in front of me, peeking into the room, listening intently, his expression inscrutable as he clasped his hand tightly upon my wrist so that I could not escape. I could not tell whether he had decided to help me or turn me in.

  “Don’t worry about a thing, my dearest Queen,” We overheard Geoffrey saying. “I’ll take care of everything for you.”

  “You’ve taken care of enough for me already.” Even though it was muffled and somewhat younger sounding, the cold voice with its angry edge was unmistakably Rochere’s. “You’re to keep her contained, under lock and key and that’s all, until you hear further from me. Give her nothing but the water in quantity and make sure she drinks it, even if you have to force it down her throat. I haven’t yet decided what I am going to do with her. Do I make myself understood?”

  “Yes, my Queen,” Geoffrey’s voice came back, greatly humbled.

  “Tread lightly, Geoffrey.”

  “Yes, my Queen,” he replied, even more humbled.

  It was only a matter of seconds before Geoffrey would be stepping through the gateway. Afraid to make a sound, my eyes implored Ben as I mouthed broadly to him, “Help me”.

  Once again he pulled me by the arm, this time the short distance to a small, nondescript door at the other end of the hallway that I had not, in all this excitement, noticed, for it was painted the same color as its surrounding walls. He opened that door, which led into a plain, white wooden stairwell, pushed me gently onto the landing and whispered, “Stay here and don’t make a sound,” before closing it again from the other side.

  Fearful of what would happen next, I stood near the door, straining hard to hear what was happening on the other side. I would have been down the stairs in an instant, but I didn’t know where this stairway would lead at the ground floor and I didn’t want to bolt and run only to face a locked door, a dead end or worst yet, an endless hallway for my efforts.

  An equally important reason for me to stay put now was to keep Ben’s trust. I was pretty sure that I had won him over and that he would help me to escape, even though, in his mind, he was only helping me to a place where I could request a personal audience with Arrosha. Considering the reflecting pool was the second holiest place in the entire complex, my lie to him was an educated gamble, one it seemed might actually pay off. If I blindly headed downstairs now, Ben would lose all trust in me and, if that happened, he would not help me further. I was depending on his help very much right now.

  “Ben,” I heard Geoffrey say. He was now back on this side of the portal, I could tell, because even through the closed door, his voice was much clearer than it had been only a moment before. “I didn’t expect to see you up here. Waiting for me, my love?”

  “We’re all waiting for you, anxious to hear your report, Geoffrey,” Ben answered, a coldness in his voice I had never heard him use before when speaking with the man he loved. “The others are downstairs, gathered, waiting for word from you.”

  “And you decided to escort me, how sweet, dear Ben,” he replied, suspicion mingled with flattery.

  “Well, not exactly. I have some questions of my own to ask of Arrosha.”

  “Anything I can answer? You know she won’t unlock the gate yet. You can’t go through.”

  “I know, Geoffrey. I was there when she informed us, remember? I just need to ask her a few quick questions concerning this matter and how it affects the group and I can do that from here. It’s administrative stuff, do you want to help me with it?”

  “Oh, no, and I can’t believe you even asked me. You know how much that stuff bores me.”

  “Fine, then,” Ben said matter-of-factly. “Then go on down ahead. Like I said, the others are waiting for you. They’re in the hookah room. Tell them I’ll be down in a few minutes and you can catch me up on what I missed.”

  “Ben, you really need to be in this meeting from the start.”

  “Geoffrey,” Ben insisted, using a short tone I’d never heard him use with his lover before. “What I really need is to make sure that this situation is handled absolutely correctly and I want to get those instructions from Arrosha personally. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Loud and clear, Ben,” Geoffrey sounded defensive and hurt. “Loud and clear.”

  “Good. We’ll talk about this more later, in private.”

  “That we will, dear Ben, of that you can rest assured.”

  It was silent then. I stepped away from the door and a few moments later the door opened and Ben entered the stairwell.

  “He’s gone,” Ben announced.

  “Thank you, Ben,” I whispered.

  “Hey, everybody deserves their day in court. Listen, we only have a few minutes. I can call Arrosha from here. We don’t have to go to the reflecting pool.”

  “No, no, I can’t,” I answered, fearful now that even Ben would try to stop me. “The sounds are too muffled with the gateway being locked. I’d have to talk too loud and then everybody’s going to know that I’m up here. Ben, I need to speak with Arrosha without interruption, without the others around, and especially without Geoffrey. I can’t make my case with him around.”

  “I understand,” he said. “We’ll need to hurry, then. Once they find
out that you’re not in your room, they’ll come looking for you. Let’s go down this way. This is part of the old service stairs. No one in the group ever uses it.” Swiftly and quietly we ran down the plain wooden steps, past the second floor where I’d originally been quarantined and out into the garden through a side door on the ground floor. I followed Ben as we turned sharply left and ran past the hedges that hemmed in the tennis courts, past the central fountain and onto the path that led to the reflecting pool.

  We ran down that center path, the stone guards signaling the entrance to the meditation pool looming closer and closer. I would make it. My heart leapt as I realized that I was, indeed, going to escape. Ben had just run up to the steps leading onto the platform and I was right behind him when Geoffrey suddenly jumped out from behind one of the pillars.

  “I thought you might try something like this. Ben, Ben, my dearest one, why? I thought I could trust you.”

  “You’re one to talk, Geoffrey. I wouldn’t be having to help Ashley if you had handled things correctly.”

  “Everyone! Everyone!” Geoffrey yelled. “May I please have your attention! “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

  From various places behind the hedges, the group emerged, shocked and disbelieving looks upon their faces.

  “See, everyone,” Geoffrey smirked. “I told you our little Bensy was helping the traitor escape.”

  “Ben,” said Robert, stepping forth. “How could you?”

  Agreeing murmurs from the rest of the group joined in the accusation.

  “Geoffrey’s wrong, guys. He’s done everything he can to try to railroad Ashley into the role of the bad guy. All she wants is a chance to tell Arrosha her side of the story without his interference.”

  Again, the others murmured, this time less angrily, this time considering Ben’s point of view.

  “Isn’t that just sweet, Ben,” Geoffrey said. “If that’s true, why come here, then, why not just stay upstairs for that?”