Digging the knife into the thing’s right shoulder, I plunged the arrowhead into its left. Deep enough, but not too deep, just like I’d learned. There was no laughter this time.
The Jefferson-thing staggered forward with a grunt, giving me just enough space to shoot past it as the doors began to open onto the twenty-first floor. Finally some luck, but just a little. I had to either finish the ritual or get away from it, and I was liking the second option better. There should be stairs at both ends of the hallway, and there were people working in the right stairwell earlier, so it seemed the better option. I started down the hall, glancing behind me as I went.
It was behind me, walking fast but not running. I wanted to say it was because I had weakened it, but its expression worried me. It didn’t seem angry or anxious. Jefferson’s face looked determined but placid as it pursued me.
Well, whatever. Fuck it and fuck…
I made it to the stairwell door, but when I shoved against it, the door barely budged at all. It wasn’t locked, but something was blocking it. I tried again, but it didn’t move any further. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to move in time. I looked back up the hall and saw it start to smile.
It had blocked the door. This was its plan all along. To trap me up here and take me when we were alone. I wasn’t sure if I could complete the blade ritual without the element of surprise, but I would have to try. I didn’t want to die or get taken over or whatever in this weird fucking…
I dug my hand into my pocket and my fingers closed around the key there. I still had the key to these rooms, and we had closed and locked the Christmas Room back when we split up. Looking to my right, I saw there was a door just a few feet away. The brass plaque on the it said “The Halloween Room”.
Yanking the key out of my pocket, I dove toward the door and jammed the key in. I saw in my peripheral vision that the Stranger was moving faster now, but I couldn’t worry about that. Only motion and will. Turn the key, open the door, get inside.
A handful of heartbeats later and I was closing the door as the Stranger reached it. I expected it to bang against the door, to try to open it before I locked it, if I could even lock it from this side, but for several seconds there was nothing. And then it spoke in Jefferson’s voice.
“You would be better off to let me have you, Samantha. What I do doesn’t hurt. You just go to sleep. I can’t promise you’d be the same after I left you, that you’d even survive it, but it wouldn’t hurt. It would be far better than staying where you’ve gone.”
I felt a blade of anger pushing up through my fear. This thing had hunted my family for generations. Had ruined our lives, maybe killed my father. And now it thought it could talk me into something? Trick me?
“Fuck you.”
I heard a bitter laugh through the thick wood of the door. “Very articulate. Very clever. Your family is so very clever. I wonder how clever you’ll feel when you look behind you. See where you are now that the door is shut.”
My skin began to prickle, not just at his words, but at the cool wind that was lazily feeling its way along my back and arms. I glanced to turn on the lights, but there was no wall there. In fact, aside from the door itself, there was no room at all.
“Oh God.” I stepped back, turning around to see that I was at the edge of a dark field, the night-time angles of the land before me only dimly visible by the light of a moon overcast by a scrim of clouds. The Stranger’s voice was behind me, it’s tone cold and mocking through the door.
“Yes, I think you’ve seen it now. You are not in your world. Once you shut the door, you went to another place, a terrifying place that you will never understand and you cannot hope to survive.”
Swallowing, I looked for any features beyond the nearby rolling landscape and the dim trace of what might be a forest in the distance. “What do you know about what I’m seeing?”
It laughed again. “Because I’m from that place. And I want…need…to get back there. I would never have hunted your family as I have if it was my choice, but it was not. And I cannot get back there in my own form. Only one of your bloodline can give me safe passage, or so I believe.”
I started backing toward the door as I saw a large shadow moving out in the distance. What was that? What the fuck was that? “So you’re wanting to take me over to get over here? Why don’t you just walk through the door?”
This time I heard anger under the placid tones of Jefferson’s voice. “Because I cannot. The magic that binds me does not allow me to travel to where its shackles would fail. I tell you this so you understand I am not an evil creature, and I mean you no harm. But I must be free. I must go home.”
I had lost track of the moving black shape in the pools of shadows before me. I didn’t like the look of this place, but I liked the idea of opening the door even less. “Sorry. But I don’t believe you, and even if its all like you say, I’m still not going to help you after all you’ve done.”
Now the door did thud as it struck the other side. “Fine then. You can die over there. Or you’ll open the door eventually, and I’ll be here waiting. Either way, you aren’t going to be any freer than I am until you give me what I want.”
Feeling a new flare of anger, I rapped on the door in the rhythm of “Shave and a Haircut”. I did it spontaneously, and as I finished, I remembered when my father taught me the knock as a little girl. “That’s okay. You wait right there. Because one of two things is going to happen. Either I’m going to die here and you won’t get what you want. That’s good, because fuck you. Or I’m going to survive long enough for them to find Jefferson’s body and start searching the hotel. And then you’re fucked again and I can try to get back out.”
A moment of silence and then. “They cannot stop me. I’ll hound you forever.”
Gripping the knife, I stepped back from the door. “Oh? Then come on in. Get me right now.” Silence. Leaning forward, I smiled bitterly toward the monster in the hall a world away. “No? Then shut the fuck up.”
Turning away from the door for the last time, I began walking deeper into the field. The moon had come out more now, and at a distance I could see the dim outline of what looked like a stone fence. Where exactly was I? Had I been teleported to another part of the world or was it really a different place entirely? Aside from the shadowy figure I had glimpsed earlier, there were no signs of life other than the buzz of insects in the cool air and the occasional rustle of something moving in the dark. But there were signs of civilization at least—that fence had been built by someone, and as I drew nearer, I got the impression it was relatively new.
Just past the fence I crested a hill and saw two building hunched down in the next valley. Between them was a large bonfire with several figures standing and dancing around it. I felt a new flutter of uncertainty. They could be nice helpful people down there. They might tell me I’m in some rural part of Europe. Or some kind of hallucination or dream. And they might offer to help me escape back to some form of safety.
Then again, the Stranger might be telling the truth. The figures I saw around the fire, their shadows writ large across the buildings and night landscape as the flames crackled and jumped, might be like it was. Might be something worse.
So I kept to the shadows as I worked my way down the hill, crouching as I drew near to the buildings. On closer examination, the buildings were crudely but solidly made wooden cabins of a sort. I smelled the faint aroma of sap and cedar as I eased around the corner to see the small crowd surrounding the bonfire.
There were a dozen of them, and at first, I thought they were simply people wearing animal skins and masks, performing some kind of ritual or ceremony. Creepy, yes, but something I could possibly work with. I didn’t see any signs of them hurting anybody. They were just dancing and murmuring in some strange language. Still, something held me back.
Part of it was what they were saying. It didn’t sound like French or German or anything else I knew. Another thing was the people themselves. They…they weren’t m
oving right. It was hard to define, and maybe it was just how they were dancing, but it reminded me of videos I had seen of bears and dogs standing on their hind legs while doing a trick. They managed, but it didn’t look natural or particularly comfortable. I was still having that thought when one of them let out a squeal and turned to look in my direction.
Oh fuck. It wasn’t a mask at all.
The creature, whatever it was, had a face that looked like the strange marrying of a boar and a lion, with deep-set red eyes that seemed to be searching for me in the dark as its keen snout worked in the air. It had fucking smelled me. They were going to find me and who knew what they would do then?
I gripped my knife as I began to look for somewhere I could hide or escape to. I could just run, but for all I knew, they could run me down easily. The only place I might could hide was in the small space between the ground and the bottom of the house I was hiding behind, but I didn’t know if I could fit and it would essentially trap me under the building for them to grab at their leisure. I glanced back up and the creature was still sniffing, but now it was starting to move in my direction. Stowing my knife, I started working my way under the house when I heard a loud roar in the distance.
It was hard to judge the noise’s direction, but it wasn’t coming from the group around the bonfire, and judging by the barks and squeals I heard from there, they were as terrified by it as I was. I froze for close to a minute, and when I heard nothing, I eased back up. The pig-lion and the rest were all gone as though they had never been there at all. As for the thing that had scared them off? I wasn’t sure what or where it was, but I didn’t intend on sticking around to find out.
I debated heading back toward the door, but decided against it. I really did believe that my best shot of surviving was either finding help in this place or at least staying alive long enough that the Stranger had to leave the door. It should be early afternoon back at the hotel, so if I could hold out five or six hours, it would probably be safe, at least assuming it didn’t just decide to slaughter everyone in the hotel so it could wait for me without interruption.
I felt a stab of guilt at that last thought. Jefferson had already died because of me, and now everyone else there was at risk. Maybe I should go back and try to stop it, but I just doubted I could. And from what I knew, the Stranger didn’t tend to do mass killings, if it even could. If it really was limited to what Jefferson was capable of physically, it seemed unlikely it would try taking on seventeen other men.
I was still trying to convince myself of the merits of that argument when I realized I saw electric lights in the distance. It was a town, or at least a suburb. I almost broke into a run at seeing something vaguely familiar, but I made myself go slowly and carefully. As I drew closer, I saw that it really was the edge of a small town. There were cars, and lights, and people moving to and fro, many of them carrying bags and sacks marked with pictures of monsters and ghosts.
They were trick-or-treating.
Okay, it wasn’t October back at the hotel, but clearly here it seemed to be Halloween. Which made sense from the standpoint of getting here via “The Halloween Room”. It did not, however, make any fucking sense in any other way, shape or fashion.
“Where am I?” I had said the words aloud without thinking or even realizing I had verbalized the thought until I got a response from a small nearby voice.
“You’re in Incarnata, lady.”
I looked down to see a little boy—a little, human-looking boy—looking up at me with some mixture of mild amusement and consternation. He was wearing a very detailed devil costume, but he had pulled his mask up to reveal a shock of blonde hair and the face of a probably nine-year old boy. I glanced around and saw that two more of his trick-or-treating cohorts, a witch and a werewolf, were drifting up as well.
“Incarnata? What’s an Incarnata?”
Devil boy shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s where we are. You’re not from here though, are you lady?”
The witch stepped up, her pale, green-tinged mask twisted by a hideous cackle as the little girl inside it spoke. “You know she’s not. She smells wrong. She’s from the other place.”
Devil boy glanced at the witch and back at me. He looked her over seriously for a moment before breaking into a laughing grin. “I’m just foolin’ with you, lady. I know you aren’t from here.” He paused a second before adding. “You want to go trick o’ treating with us?”
The witch tugged on devil boy’s sleeve. “No. She’s a stranger. And she smells bad.” The devil boy pulled his sleeve free and gave me an embarassed look.
“Sorry. It’s my sister. She can be funny some times. Not funny, ha ha. Funny like I want to kill her.”
I crouched down on their level. I didn’t know what was going on, but I needed help. Answers. Not to be caught up in some weird Halloween when it’s not Halloween bullshit. “Can you help me? Take me to your parents or the police or something?”
Devil boy laughed again. “You’re silly, lady. We don’t have that kind of stuff. But we have a lot of other, better stuff we can show you.” He trailed off. “She’s right though. You do smell funny, no offense. Funnier than most people that come over here from your place.”
The werewolf raised his mask to reveal another little boy that looked around seven. He wore thick, brown-rimmed glasses under the mask, and his face was pale as he looked at me. “She stinks like The Mark.”
Devil boy’s eyes went wide as he began to move away from me. “You’re right. Dang it, you’re right! She smells just like that mean ol’ Mark.” As he and the others put some distance between us, devil boy started to scream, “Help! Help! The Mark! The Mark is here! The Mark!”
Though I didn’t understand anything that was going on, it was obvious that they were suddenly scared of me. It also quickly became clear that more people were coming up, both children and adults, some with makeshift weapons in their hands. I felt like Frankenstein’s monster as the villagers began to gather. I could tell my mind was getting dangerously close to some edge…teetering closer and closer to the point where it wanted to just shut down and go into some uncontrolled fight or flight mode. I couldn’t afford that. I had to stop this now.
“I’m not some kind of mark. I don’t know what that even means. I’m just lost. I’m not trying to hurt any body.” As the children continued to back into the swelling crowd, I decided I was better off just running for it. Finding a spot to hide until I thought it was safe to try and get back into the hotel. But as I turned, I saw that more people were coming up behind me. And they didn’t look right. I thought they were wearing monstrous masks at first, but as I watched their faces continue to change, I realized it was all real. These people were all some kind of…something, and they were going to kill me.
That’s when the giant bear charged toward us.
I call it a bear, but it was more like a small mountain covered in moss and vines, shot through with branches and smaller stones, all of it impossibly alive and moving as the bear-shaped thing ran through the encircling crowd and put itself between me and the mob. I took a step back in fear and surprise, but the crowd only paused before continuing to draw closer. Then the bear-thing stood up on its hind legs, towering over the rest of us. I saw it had a broad head set with two glowing amber eyes that froze me to the spot as its gaze swept past. It had the same effect on the others. I expected it to attack or to roar, but instead it spoke in a deep, rumbling voice.
“She isn’t what you think. She is not The Mark, or The Mark’s agent. The Mark is still imprisoned, at least for now.”
One of the people that still looked mostly human took a step forward. “I knew The Mark. I was one of the taken. For forty years I served her will. I know she is not her, but she smells the same. She is of her blood, and she must die.”
At this, the crowd began to surge forward again. Without warning, the bear-thing leaned forward and slapped a massive paw down, knocking two people to the ground with the blow. I didn’t think they were
dead, but they didn’t stir, and after a moment of stunned silence, several of the children came and began dragging them back.
“She has done nothing wrong and is under my protection. Or do you mean to contend with me?” A low, rumble like the sound of an avalanche echoed from its deep chest as it went back to all fours. Before it had time to turn and face me, the crowd had already melted back into the night.
Its face softened as its glowing eyes found mine. It was so strange—its expressions, its entire body, was made up of so many disparate elements, so many things that shouldn’t make sense or fit together. And yet it did. I could see the intelligence and strength in its face, the kindness and sadness in its eyes. I knew it was good and honest, and that I had finally found a friend in this strange place.
“Sorry about that.” It rumbled. “They are not bad people in this place, not most of them at least. But areas like this, so close to the wounds the hotel has created, they have suffered the most. They were the most impacted by the cruelty, the slavery. They cheered the loudest when word spread she was gone, and they fear the most that she will come back someday.”
I frowned, trying to ignore the part of my mind that was dwelling on the fact that I was having a conversation with a magic moss bear. Too much was happening for me to worry with details like whether this was real or just a colorful psychotic break. I had to just go with it. Motion and will.
“Who are they afraid of? Who is The Mark?”
The bear glanced around. “Better we move while we’re talking. I don’t want them deciding to make another run at you.” He raised a large paw made of branches and river rocks bound together with grass and dark earth. “Good to meet you, by the way.”
I found myself smiling as I shook his paw. “Same here. My name’s Samantha. And thank you for saving me.”
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