He shrugged and let out a small rumbling laugh. “Everyone needs help sometimes. My friends call me Harvey.”
****
We were heading back the way I had come generally, though now there was a road that I was pretty sure hadn’t been there before. I almost asked about it, but then Harvey was talking again.
“The Mark is a woman. A woman from your world. Angelica Lamark. She is a terrible and evil creature that has exploited and enslaved many from this Realm.”
I glanced over at him questioningly. “Is this place called Incarnata?”
Harvey nodded and gave me a look of approval. “Very good, yes. That is just one name, and it is inexact, but inexactitude is common here. There are many worlds in this place, many lands, and they all ebb and flow like an ocean’s tide or the currents of an unending storm. We don’t talk or think about borders and labels here, as there would be little point. This is a place of belief and will, ideas and power.” His expression darkened, and his voice was deeper when he spoke next. “And it is that power that Lamark spent over a century trying to claim as her own.”
I glanced nervously around as we grew closer to the buildings where the bonfire had dwindled to smoldering embers. “Are we safe here?”
“You are safe so long as you are with me. At least relatively so. Incarnata is a dangerous place, especially for you.”
As we reached the hilltop, I thought I could see the dim outline of the hotel room door standing at the far edge of the next field. “Because I smell like her? What does that mean?”
Harvey seemed to hesitate a moment as though weighing how much to say. “I suspect it means you are blood-kin to her, though that is strange. My understanding is that she had the rest of her family line assassinated long ago.”
I stopped walking, something suddenly clicking in my head. “How long ago?”
Harvey slowed to a stop next to me. “I’m not sure of all the details—I only returned to Incarnata a few months ago after quite a long time away. But my understanding is that The Mark is several hundred years old. Her family is touched by something that grants them certain boons. Something that also makes her immune to much of the dangers and resistance that this place has to offer. If I recall correctly, it was over two hundred years ago that she took her first Incarnata and bent it to her will. Turned it into a hunter and assassin.”
I could scarcely think for the drumming of my heart in my ears. “Would it have been something that could change shape? Look like other people? Take people over?”
His large shoulders gave a strange bear approximation of a shrug. “It’s possible. There are many capable of such here.”
I felt my skin growing cold as I shook my head. “But why me and my family? I’ve never heard of her. And I don’t have any special powers or anything. Why would it come after us?”
“I don’t know, Samantha. Perhaps you are distant kin and it moved on to your family after it finished killing the main bloodline. Or it might be wholly unrelated. But while I am relatively young for my kind, I have seen enough to believe that nothing happens without a purpose, be it seen or unseen.”
We started walking again. As we approached the door, Harvey stopped. “It’s here now, isn’t it? The thing that hunts you? I can sense an Incarnata on the other side of that door.”
I felt my stomach drop. I was hoping it would be gone by now. “Yes, it’s there. It killed my friend and took his shape. It almost got me too. It’s waiting for me to come out.”
Harvey sat down and looked at me, speaking in a low voice that sounded like distant thunder. “Why doesn’t it come after you here?”
It was my turn to shrug. “It says it can’t. It’s bound or something and it can only get back here in my body. By taking me over and riding me across. Which I’m pretty sure will kill me.” I let out a sigh. “If it’s not lying or just fucking insane. This is all crazy anyway.”
The bear shook its head. “No, though I understand why it seems that way to you. All the strange things you’ve seen, both here and in the hotel, they are governed by rules. Rules for magic, rules for holiday lands, rules for you and rules for me. If this thing after you is Lamark’s assassin, she would have bound it with magic from your world so it would kill for her in your world. Magic that would likely be altered or collapse here. She could make it where crossing over without her permission would kill it, but that is where her binding spell would end. It sounds like it is working off a theory that if it is possessing you, it can survive the journey and break the spell.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. I guess that makes sense. But whether it worked or not, I think I’ll wind up dying. My best bet is to wait until it leaves and then get away from it. I can just keep trying to avoid it, and fight it off when I have to.”
Harvey stood up again. “No. That’s no life for you to have. You’d be a prisoner of your own fears for however many years you had.” He regarded me with his flickering, amber gaze. “That is a terrible way to live and I would not wish that for you.”
“Then what should I do?”
He rose again on his hind legs, and as I watched, he began to fall apart. Or not fall apart, but spin apart, as though some internal whirlwind was growing in his heart and sending the bits that made up the bear into the raging orbit of the maelstrom. Within seconds a small tornado roared where Harvey had stood.
“You should open the door so I can put this creature to rest.”
****
This is how one of my family’s curses was lifted.
I opened the door. The Jefferson-thing was waiting outside, its face widening into a smile as it finally saw its patience rewarded. At its feet, I saw the body of one of the other workers that had picked the wrong time to visit the twenty-first floor. I quickly stepped back out of the way, but not before I saw the Stranger’s eyes fall on the storm raging toward him. It began to scream in terror even as Harvey reached out invisible tendrils and began pulling it toward the door. It tried to resist, but it was using an approximation of Jefferson’s muscles and stamina. I think the only reason it took more than a couple of seconds was because Harvey was trying to be gentle.
As soon as its body cleared the threshold, the screaming stopped. The fighting was over. And as the unseen winds let the Stranger fall to the ground, it crumbled into dry autumn leaves and began to blow away.
Still holding the door, I realized that we were now in a massive suite. There were black candles and lit turnip and pumpkin jack o’ lanterns scattered around a room filled with bats and black cats, spiders and ghosts and witches. Even more than the Christmas Room, this place was filled with all manner of decoration, some of which I didn’t even understand or recognize. And in the center of it all was me and a strange little fox made of leaves and clay.
“Harvey, is that you?”
The fox nodded.
“Is it really gone? Am I safe now?”
The fox nodded again, and when Harvey spoke this time, it sounded like the rustle of the wind through tall grass. “It is. As for you being safe…I don’t know, Samantha. I don’t think you were drawn to this place by accident. I believe you are connected to this hotel, to Angelica Lamark. If that is true, then you may still have a role to play.”
I shook my head. “No. I appreciate all you did. I really do. But I just want to have a normal life. And you said she’s imprisoned or something, right?”
“She is. For the moment. But she has agents in Incarnata. And while I have never encountered her, from all accounts, she is ruthless and tireless. She would have to be to do all that she has done. I believe she will be freed at some point, and when that happens, there will be a reckoning one way or the other.” He licked a delicate paw before fixing me with his eyes again. “It may be that you would be helpful in stopping her. But I’m no soothsayer. And whatever may come, now you have the freedom to choose what your life holds.”
I felt a mixture of guilt and fear as I gripped the doorknob tighter. “I…I need time to rest and think. Get some
distance from…well, all of this.” I tried to swallow down my next words, but I couldn’t. “But if I wanted to help, how would I do it? How could I even find a way to help you?”
The little fox looked like it was smiling. “This hotel contains many doors to many places, many of which lead to Incarnata. Use one of them and I will find you.”
That gave me a new worrying thought. “But what about this place? Even if I don’t get arrested or something after all of this, how would I get back into the hotel after two people were killed here? And what’s to stop random people from just accidently going across like I did?”
Harvey stood up and stretched slowly. “Just like you wound up here this time, I don’t think you’ll find it difficult to return. Things will bend to pull you back if you want to return. As for the doors, I wouldn’t worry overly much. From what I know of the hotel, which is admittedly spotty, its magic only worked if Lamark willed it to work.” He turned to look at me meaningfully. “Given that she is trapped in Incarnata, and no one else of your world has just stumbled into my Realm from the hotel in the last few years, it would seem to me that the magic will only work for Lamark or her blood-kin.”
I let out a sigh. “Goddamnit. Okay. I get what you’re saying. But I really do need to get out of here. Is there something special I need to do, or can I just close the door? You won’t be trapped in the hotel room or something, right?”
The fox shook as it chuckled. “No, I won’t be. Thank you for asking. Be safe, Samantha, and good luck. I hope we will meet again.”
I stepped into the hallway and gave Harvey one last look before shutting the door. I was surprised to realize that, along with everything else I was thinking and feeling, I was going to miss him. “Yeah, me too, Harvey. Me too.”
****
It has been four months since I left the Imago Hotel. I was questioned by police, and I told them I was attacked by a man, but I didn’t know who they were. Never got a good look at them. And when they told me that Jefferson and one of the plumbers had been murdered, I tried my best to act surprised.
To his credit, Mike Bramford never blamed me. I think because he was too busy blaming himself. I’ve kept in touch with him, and for awhile I was very worried. I talked to him on the phone a month after the funerals, and he sounded drunk and so deep down a well that I thought he might never climb out again. But last week I found out he was moving his family closer to his sister and starting fresh. It wasn’t a happy ending, but maybe it was at least the start of a new happier beginning.
For my part, I spent the next few days after Jefferson’s funeral trying to figure things out. It wasn’t that I doubted what had happened, but I still needed to decide what it meant. What I should do with everything I had learned, if anything.
I was at a crossroads. On the one hand, I could go back to Aunt Becky or start a new life wherever, and just put all of this behind me. Let it fade into a memory that became a dream that became a ghost haunting some forgotten corner of my mind. It wouldn’t be hard to do. In fact, it would be an easier and more comfortable life than I had ever known.
On the other hand, I could live a life that mattered.
I don’t know where this is leading, but I don’t believe it was a mistake. And when I think of all my family has lost, all my father lost, I feel like it should amount to more than me just getting off the hook. Especially if this woman is as bad as Harvey thinks and there’s a chance she could get free again. If there’s something I can do to help, I need to do it, or I’m still just going to be running the rest of my life, even if it’s just from my own guilt.
That’s why I’m sitting in the probate court of Albion County, Colorado with the lawyer I hired two months ago. I had to convince him to take the job without a retainer, but he knows there’s money to be made. He may only be a bit older than me, and he keeps fidgeting nervously while we wait, but he’s smart, and has accomplished a lot in the last few weeks.
A woman comes up from the back and approaches us. After glancing at my lawyer, she turns her attention to me. “May I help you, Miss?”
I smile and nod. “Yes ma’am. I’m here to file a claim to property that was previously seized by the county by default. See, I recently learned I’m the sole blood relative through a combination of genealogy research and DNA testing. My lawyer Petey…Mr. Johanson, has the necessary paperwork to pursue the claim.”
The woman’s eyes widened and she held up her hands with a laugh. “Whoa, there. Too much information. I’ll leave all that to the judge. For now, can you just tell me the name of the estate and the property?”
I laughed as well and nodded. “Sorry, I’m a bit nervous. The estate’s name is Angelica Lamark. As for the property, I don’t know what it’s plat number or whatever is, but I can tell you what it is. Why I’m here.”
The woman nodded, her face already growing troubled at the mention of the Lamark name. “Okay, honey, tell me.”
“I’m here to claim ownership of the Imago Hotel.”
Incarnata Page 27