The king held his arm out for his queen. They linked arms and began their stroll down the red carpet, waving to their guests, who bowed as they passed. When the royal couple passed in front of us, Noah nudged me to bow with him.
As soon as they entered the mansion, the guests formed two lines, following them into the house and then to the grand ballroom where the main celebration was to be held.
“Where are Miles and Ruby?” I asked.
“They’re here. They were on the other side of the carpet, in the back,” said Noah.
I meant to keep an eye out for them as soon as I entered the ballroom, but I was immediately distracted by the radiance of the vast room. Great golden columns stood as sentinels in each corner. A majestic, crystal chandelier hung suspended from a stained glass ceiling latticed with golden slats to hold each panel of glass. The floor was white Italian marble. In its center was a water fountain that could rival those of Italy. It was topped with golden cherubs, reaching upward toward Heaven.
“Who’s their decorator?” I whispered to Noah. He ignored my quip and took me by the hand, leading me to one side of yet another red carpet. It seemed a repeat of the spectacle outside. Guests lined either side of the carpet which stretched from the entrance of the ball room to the other side, where two royal thrones sat upon a small stage.
I handed Noah his jacket as the King and Queen strolled the carpet, waving to their subjects who once again cheered and applauded. The royal couple took their seats in their thrones. The only things missing were crowns, but they were soon brought out by two masked attendants, each cradling a bejeweled coronet in their hands. They walked in synch down the carpet toward the King and Queen. Behind them was a man wearing a tuxedo and a black-and-white checkered mask that was made to look like an angry pig. The man grinned as the servants reached the King and Queen and then kneeled, holding the crowns before them.
“Are the Grigori doing it now?” I whispered to Noah.
“No,” he whispered back. This is all for show, just to lure everyone in. They’re going to do their real damage later. But that guy in the pig mask is one of them.
“How do you know?”
“Just a hunch.”
“What about the King and Queen?”
“I don’t think so. Not yet, but soon everyone in here will be, so keep your guard up.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” stated the man in the pig mask, “I present to you the Krewe of Grigori’s new King and Queen, Edward and Anastasia LaBeaud!” The crowd erupted as the King and Queen arose, and the servants placed the crowns on their heads. The couple took their seats, and the servants left.
“Now, please enjoy the evening!” said the man in the pig mask. He signaled to the back corner of the room where a string quartet had set up. They began a lilting song as guests broke off into couples and began to dance.
Noah turned to me, lifted one of my hands and put one of his arms around my waist. In one swift, graceful step, he whisked us into the crowd, and we began to dance. I hadn’t danced ballroom-style since my class was forced to at my high school cotillion. This brought fresh memories of Lucas, who was my date then. I quickly put him out of my mind as I tried to concentrate on the steps, but it was easy, as Noah was an excellent leader.
I noticed Miles and Ruby dancing on the other side of the fountain from us. Miles was handsome in his tux and a half-faced gold mask that revealed only his mouth and chin. Ruby wore a lovely short, black dress made of Chantilly lace that puffed out at the bottom. Fittingly, she wore a half-faced black cat mask. I nodded in that direction and Noah took the hint. He danced us closer to the fountain.
When we got closer to Miles and Ruby, Noah said to them, “What have you found out?”
“Nothing yet. Just keep your eyes open,” said Miles. “The two of you work the other side of the room. We’ll stay on this side.”
Noah and I danced and chatted with the other guests for the better part of two hours before I realized the crowd was thinning. It was difficult to tell at first because there were so many people, but the gaps in the crowd had been decreasing for the past hour.
“Where’d everyone go?” I asked.
“I noticed that, too. And Ruby and Miles are gone.”
“Do you think they’re in trouble?”
He shook his head. “But we should look around a little more.”
We walked around the ballroom, looking for anything suspicious. I saw the man in the pig mask had returned. He was in one corner of the room, talking with one couple. They laughed as they sipped from their wine glasses. After a few moments, he took the lady by the hand and started to lead her away. He motioned for her suitor to follow.
Noah was behind me, looking in the opposite direction. I reached out for his hand and gently pulled him along with me.
“Where are we going?”
“Pig Mask is taking that couple somewhere,” I said.
We stayed far enough behind them to keep out of their sight. We followed them out of the ballroom, through one of the large hallways that ran along either side of the grand staircase in the main entrance. We saw them round the corner into a large kitchen with white-and-gold checkered flooring. The light was off, but we could see well enough from the light emanating from the hallway and the moonlight pooling around the French door that led to the expansive back yard. From where we stood, I could see the lake in the distance through the matching French window over the sink. We peeked into the kitchen and watched as Pig Mask led the couple through another doorway. We kept our distance, but tried to hurry to keep up with them.
Through the doorway was a smaller hallway that had only two other doors—an open half bathroom on the right and, at the end of the hall, a closed oak door. We quietly went up to the door. Noah cocked his head, listening. He put his finger to his lips. I nodded, and he turned the knob.
Inside was a wood-paneled game room with a pool table in the center. The only light in the room came from a pair of dimly-lit sconces on the other side of the threshold where we stood. We quietly entered. Noah closed the door behind us.
“Where did they go?” I whispered.
Noah shrugged.
“Maybe there was a secret door in the hall.”
He shook his head. “I can smell them. They were in here.”
“They couldn’t have just disappeared,” I said.
He started inspecting the room, looking under the pool table and then feeling behind a shelf of CDs on one of the walls. The room was modest in size with the pool table the largest item. The carpet was soft and black and made a soft swishing sound as the hem of my dress grazed across it. I lifted a dart board from one wall, looking for a secret lever or some other silly thing I had seen in a movie. I was beginning to feel foolish. I put the dart board back in its place and looked at the pool table again.
With an exasperated huff, I shifted my weight to my left foot and noticed that, across the room, one side of the wall didn’t quite match up to the other side. The black vertical lines of the wood paneling were too close together on one side. When I shifted my weight again, they were proportionate again. “There’s something off here,” I said softly, almost to myself.
“Off how?” He followed my gaze.
I walked across the room and, facing the wall, stuck out my hand to touch where it didn’t line up. It threw me off balance momentarily as my hand kept going forward where it should have stopped on something solid. I took another step and shifted my weight again.
“What is it?” he asked.
I stepped forward again and found myself behind one half of the wall. To the right of me was a very narrow secret hallway. “Come see,” I said. He joined me at the entrance to the hallway.
“A secret passage? It’s like I’m stuck in a bad Hardy Boys story.”
“Or Nancy Drew,” I added, as I started walking down the hall.
He gently grabbed my arm. “Wait. Let me go first.” I stopped and, before he took another step, he sniffed the air and cocked his he
ad, straining to hear. Satisfied, he cautiously began to move forward. I followed closely behind.
The further we went, the darker it got, until it seemed as though there was a thick curtain of black velvet before me. I stopped short and reached out on either side of me, but only felt unoccupied space. I was quickly becoming disoriented, even though I could still hear Noah’s footsteps ahead of me. “I can’t see a thing,” I whispered. I heard him turn around and come back for me. He delicately grabbed my hand and led me through the darkness.
After walking a few more yards, he said what I was thinking. “We’re going down.” Even though I was totally blind, I could feel a gradual downward slope. This continued for several minutes, and it started to feel like we were far below ground.
“How can we be this far down? There’s no way they can dig this deep and not be flooded,” I said. “How far down do you think we are?”
“About eight feet, I guess. I can hear the water on the other side of the walls. Must be concrete on the outside. Sharp turn coming up. Go slow.” As soon as we rounded a corner to the right, I saw a faint glow a little ways down. Noah stopped, used his senses and then we continued. The slope leveled off and soon there was enough light for me to see, and I let go of his hand.
“Do you hear music?” I asked.
“It’s not music, exactly.”
“What exactly is it?”
“Chanting.”
“What are they chanting?”
He lightly chuckled. “Something about the dark angels rising up to rule the world.”
“Yeah. That’s real funny.” Although I couldn’t see his face, I could tell he was smirking. “We can’t just walk right into whatever they’re doing.”
“We’re not. You’re going to hide while I check it out.”
“Fine by me.”
As we approached the place with the chanting, the light grew brighter and I could see the walls on either side of me. They were covered in silk wallpaper which, at first, seemed to depict Renaissance-like scenes from the Bible. A closer look revealed glorious angels battling demonic creatures with gargoyle wings; cherubic humans engrossed in massive orgies; masked individuals with bloody tears streaming down their cheeks as dark angels whipped and beat them.
Noah noticed my breathing had become unsteady. “You okay?”
“Are you seeing what’s on these walls?”
“Leigh—”
“Don’t be scared, right?”
He stopped and turned to me, his eyes both stern and worried, peered through his mask and bore into mine. “No. You need to be scared. You need to trust your instincts. You could very well die here tonight. All of us could. This is why I didn’t want you here. But Miles has his reasons. I just don’t see what they are. I don’t think you’re ready.”
I bit the corner of my lip. “I know. I know how dangerous this is. I’m here to help in whatever way I can because, believe it or not, I do understand the stakes here.”
He shook his head, not believing me. “You shouldn’t be here right now.”
“Yes I should!” I hissed. He angrily shushed me and cocked his head over his shoulder to hear if trouble was coming. The chanting had ended, and we now heard refined ball room music and light laughter. He turned back to me.
“Okay. C’mon.” He took me by the hand again, and we continued on to the lighted area.
As we got closer, the silk walls gave way to rows of large, full-length mirrors, separated by concave gaps. Noah stopped again and, from here, we could peer into a big room, lit with candelabras in every corner. The main focal point was an enormous chandelier that hung about twelve feet from the ceiling. It was covered in cascading crystals and lit with white candles. The room looked to be the size of the ballroom upstairs, but was adorned with multiple lounges and antique chaises.
Standing near one of the chaises was a pair of ballroom guests. My eyes found them instantly because they looked to be the most peculiar of the bunch; they were dressed as twin peacocks with teal feathers and beak masks. Despite the slight chill in the air, they were barely clothed with just feathers covering the important areas, but their mid drifts were bare. They sensually clung to each other, looking out at the other guests, delighted by the scene before them. I noticed the other guests were a bit looser here, more sexually liberated with kissing and groping and lustful smiles all around.
“Nancy Drew never found anything like this,” I whispered.
“Someone’s coming,” he said. He quickly led me over to one of the concave gaps in between the mirrors. We watched quietly from our hiding spot as four more attendees were led into the ballroom by a man in a green mask and cape. We stayed there for about twenty minutes, watching more and more guests being led into the ballroom. The man in the pig mask had brought down seven more couples. Five other men and a woman had brought down about three couples each.
After another fifteen minutes of stagnant activity Noah said, “Stay here and hide. I’ll stay in your line of sight, but don’t come out of here under any circumstances, okay?” I nodded and hid in the shadow of the wall. He hesitated for a second, looking at me with much concern, and then a faint desire, so slight I almost didn’t recognize it at first. It was so unexpected, but I realized how badly I wanted him in that moment. He pulled away and suddenly couldn’t look me in the eyes. He turned and headed for the room.
I watched him go, and for a second I was so unsure of myself. I should have been uncomfortable with him, but I wasn’t. For a moment, my mind went to Lucas, but I didn’t want it to go there at all. Why was I fighting so hard not to think of him? I started to laugh at myself. I was practically in the pit of hell, and all I could concentrate on was some childish love triangle.
I saw Noah casually stroll through the masquerade of guests. He bowed politely to one of ladies wearing a floor-length red dress with a matching mask. She smiled provocatively back at him before moving on to another suitor. He continued his nonchalant search around the room.
My neck started to stiffen, so I turned it around and rotated my shoulders. I gazed across the hall into one of the large mirrors and, after my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I admired my dress in the reflection. As my eyes became accustomed, I noticed with growing horror that something was behind me in the dark.
I froze, holding my breath, and could only stare at the mirror as the outline of the image came more into focus. It was a masked figure behind me; a tall, billowy thing cloaked in black. Its black mask covered its entire face except for the eyes, which shone luminescent amber. I quickly stepped out into the middle of the hallway and turned around to find nothing there. I looked back at the mirror which had cast the ghostly reflection, but the figure was no longer there.
Still frightened, I glanced back at the room. It was somewhat of a relief to see Noah there, knowing he was only a few yards away. I hesitantly retreated to my hiding spot. As soon as I did, I felt something pulling at my hand. I went to jerk my hand away, but I could not free it. Something grabbed my other hand and then my legs. I looked down in horror to see rotting, body-less hands extending from the wall behind me.
They clutched at me, and I tried to scream, but they wrapped bony fingers around my throat. I shut my eyes and in that instant, I felt them no more. I opened my eyes and saw nothing except the solid wall behind me and the passageway in front of me.
I wanted to scream because I felt like I was losing my mind, but I dared not. I would have given away Noah and myself. I let out a shuddering breath instead and felt dizzy. I leaned my head against the wall and tried to control my breathing.
In the ballroom I heard the music—classical violins and cellos—rise to a crescendo. They should have faded, but they kept rising, swelling, louder and louder, joined by tympanis and horns and, no longer the delicate, lilting music as before, but now a dizzying array of folly and recklessness. It was the music of madness, and there was no stopping it.
I put my hands over my ears and peeked out from my hiding place. The couples dan
cing seemed normal; their rhythm did not match the crazy tune I heard. I saw masked musicians near a small stage with a red curtain far back in the ballroom. The tempo of what they played did not match what I heard. The music was louder by the second, nonetheless.
I felt myself grow as frenzied as the tune that was being hammered into my brain. My hands were not enough to drown out the feral music. I again stepped out into the passageway. With my hands still to my ears, I hurried toward the dark, away from the ballroom, trying to get as far away as possible.
I got maybe twenty feet down, with only a soft glow behind me, when the music suddenly stopped. I stopped too, releasing my hands from my ears. I heard nothing and that terrified me more than the maddening tune. The silence would not last, though.
A moment later, I began to hear the loud, thundering peal of a church bell. It rang throughout the passageway. Every ring brought with it a flash of light, and every flash of light illuminated an ungodly scene before me.
DONG!
Ghouls, crouched low to the floor, feasting on human bodies, some still alive.
DONG!
Heads impaled on stakes lining the sides of the passage.
DONG!
A procession of hooded figures, carrying upside down crucifixes. They slowly marched toward me.
DONG!
The procession came closer. As they neared, I could see their alabaster eyes, looking at me, but not seeing me.
My breath caught in my throat. I was too terrified to scream. I ran back toward the ball room and stopped short of the entrance. Before me, what should have been the grand, beautiful ballroom was now a crumbling ruin, run amok with rats and spiders and insects of every kind. The guests still wore their formal attire, but their clothes were rotted and tattered. All the men had giant black or red wings that stretched from their shoulder blades. They laughed and howled with pleasure as they savagely fornicated with the women; some of the women enjoyed it, others were screaming.
I stood, wide-eyed with terror as one of the winged men approached me. I turned to run, and he chased me. He reached me in no time and whirled me around. I started to scream, but he put one decayed hand over my mouth. I shut my eyes, unable to look at his skull-like face.
Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival Page 16