Through the Gate and Beyond
This is a continuation of an ongoing story. It begins with Part One, so if you’re wanting to start out at the beginning , I recommend you go there. Or go to the previous section, Part Ten.
Chapter 31: A Palace by the River
The trail took us out of the wilderness and back out onto open plains. Around noon, we stopped and ate a bit of our food. I wanted a meal, not the light snacks we’d been allowing ourselves since we left Murdoch. I wanted a real bed. I wanted to not be scared all the time. The self-pity was hard to keep at bay. Brad and I had been here for something like fifteen or sixteen days, if I was remembering it right. Keeping track of time was difficult in this world.
I still marveled at Amber’s strength. She’d somehow survived roughly three months now, much of that on her own. I wasn’t sure how I would keep my sanity that long, especially if we had to stay on the run the whole time. My brooding thoughts left me in a sour mood as the afternoon stretched on. “You okay?” Brad finally asked. I looked up. He was watching me intently. I’d been walking along, my eyes on my feet. I hadn’t even noticed we’d stopped.
“Yeah. Just in a dark mood,” I replied. I tried to sound cheerful, but it didn’t work.
“There’s a river up ahead, and I think maybe a town. Maybe we can find more food there?” Amber said hopefully. I wasn’t sure if she really was hopeful, or just trying to cheer me up.
“Maybe,” I replied, with all the hope I could muster. It wasn’t much. Brad gave me a worried look. “I’ll be okay. Just in a funk.” I flexed my arm, trying to work out the stiffness and soreness from yesterday. It didn’t work.
He wrapped me up in a hug. Amber joined in. I just stood there. After a few seconds, I started crying. There was no reason for it; I was just crying. I could feel Amber’s and Brad’s tears on my shoulders, as they joined in after a moment.
“Hey, we’re okay. We’re alive, and we’re together. Come on. Let’s see what we can find,” Amber said. She still had tears on her cheeks, but she gave me this huge smile.
Brad looked at her smile and said, “Yeah! I bet there’s a pizza place just down the road!”
I almost laughed. “And I bet they’re having One Day Only, All You Can Eat, All For Free event, too!” I added.
“Oh, you know it!” Brad said with a grin. Amber giggled.
The tears were still drying on our cheeks, but somehow we found a bit of humor in there. It wasn’t really funny. I knew that. But I let Amber’s giggles banish my foul mood. I hugged them again, this time happily.
“You guys are dorks, but I love you. Both of you,” Amber said.
“I love you both, too!” Brad and I both said at the exact same time. I looked at him, and we started giggling again. It felt good to giggle.
“Okay. I’m okay now, really. Just, this place,” I kind of waved my hands, taking in the trail and land around us. “It gets to me.”
“I know. Me, too,” Amber said. I took her hand. We started down the trail again, side by side. Amber gave my hand a squeeze. The trail turned and started down a shallow incline. As we neared the bottom, I could see a river stretching out before us. The river was wide but slow moving and calm. The trail turned to follow the river along the banks.
We stopped for a few minutes. All three of us took our shoes off and sat with our feet in the water. For just a moment, I let myself imagine we were skipping school to play at the river, like some cheesy 1980s coming-of-age movie. But then I remembered that Amber was from the early 1980s and so that fleeting moment was gone. Still, the cool water made my feet feel better, at least.
All too soon, we forced ourselves to get up, return to the trail, and continue on. We found a small patch of blackberries and we ate all of them. Our fingers and mouths were stained black, but the berries were the most delicious thing we’d eaten since leaving Murdoch’s court. I hoped there would be more patches.
About an hour or two after coming to the river, the trail topped a small hill and we all stopped in wonder. Across the river from us rose a palatial mansion. It had some smaller houses near it, but this thing dominated the landscape. One round annex rose to five stories tall. It had several towers and balconies. The place was beautiful.
I saw movement at one of the balconies. “There! See?” I said, pointing. We all watched as a humanoid shape stepped out to the edge of the balcony. Whoever it was seemed to look out over the river. I couldn’t tell if they were human, but they were a dark gold or bronze in color from head to toe. We crouched down, hoping to avoid notice. Then something flew around the house from another balcony. It was small, but had wings. It, too, was gold colored. It swooped near the first person, who reached up to grab the smaller shape. The flying thing darted out of reach and circled back around.
As we watched, the humanoid spread bronze wings and leapt into the air. We gasped as it swooped down to build speed, then swooped up above the mansion’s roof. The smaller creature’s wings beat hastily as it tried to pull away from the larger creature. I could see now that the smaller shape was also humanoid. If the larger was the size of an adult, then this must be the size of a small child, perhaps a four to six year old, maybe? It was difficult to be sure at a distance.
The child flew out over the water, its wings beating hard against the air. The adult soared up, losing speed as it climbed higher and curved out over the water. I remembered a falconry demonstration I’d seen once, where the falcon would get altitude on a smaller bird, then dive bomb it from above. I shuddered, hoping that’s not what the adult was setting up.
The child flew above our heads, so low we could see his face. He was naked and small and terrified and pushing himself to exhaustion. As he flew by, he finally saw us and terror turned to glee. He suddenly veered, diving at Amber. Amber let out an involuntary cry and rolled to the side. The boy tried to pull out of the dive but badly misjudged the distances. He crashed, hard, into the ground beside Amber and rolled toward me. I flailed awkwardly with my staff as I danced away from the boy. I hit him with a glancing blow to the back. It was enough to knock the boy away from Amber. He squealed in anger and turned, glared at me.
We’d seen his kind before. That day we saw one of the adults drop a baby from the walls, in our first week here. The boy was grinning maliciously at us, showing razor-sharp teeth. His ears came to a point; not like elves or Vulcans in television, but slightly pointed. He was naked and had no body hair at all. His eyes were red instead of white, with rectangular, black, pupils like a goat. The teeth and those horrifying eyes were the only parts of the creature that weren’t golden and shining in the sunlight. His wings weren’t feathered like a bird’s; instead it was more like a bat’s, with a golden membrane stretching between some kind of rib-like bone.
With a hiss, the boy charged at me, scooping air with his wings to boost his speed. Before he could cover two steps, Brad hit him with a sideways sweep of his hammer. The boy went airborne without a sound. He came down in the river with a splash. Before I could shift from that sudden charge, a shadow suddenly appeared over Brad and grew with terrifying speed. I frog-leaped towards Brad, knocking him aside, and crouched there. My staff was planted against the ground. I braced it, trying to use it as a spear against the quickly approaching adult.
The adult was far more skilled at flight than the child. What had been a bullet-fast power dive suddenly just stopped. I looked up. The adult had flared out his wings and was now descending at a slow, controlled, pace. This was a man and also naked. He stared at me and Brad. Amber was crouching to our right, his left, trying not to be noticed. He hissed at us. Anger painted his bronze face. His manhood was fully erect and longer than any humans’ could ever be. My focus kept switching between the raging, fang-filled face and the pulsing thing between his legs.
I crouched, holding my staff out before me as the man hissed again. Brad lifted his hammer. The man lifted both arms up to shoulder height. Instead of fingers, he had sharp talons that gleamed in the light. He grinned at me. His tongue shot out between those teeth a good six inches. That tongue was sharply pointed and black. He just stood there, watching us and tasting the air. That tongue was somehow as obscene as his exposed manhood. Drool oozed down his tongue and collected on the tip in big drops before falling the ground.
There was a splashing sound that pulled my eyes from the man. The boy had pulled himself from the river. He shook himself, sending water spraying out on the ground. Then he started walking up the bank towards us. The adult hissed at the boy, who hissed back in return. The boy was clutching his arm to his side. I’m not sure if Brad hurt the boy’s arm or his ribs or both, but it was obvious he was injured. The boy came towards me. I don’t think he was used to humans with tools, because he got within reach of the staff I was holding. Drool oozed from his mouth as well, or river water, I wasn’t sure which. He gnashed his teeth at me with a loud clacking sound.
I panicked. I don’t know why or what triggered me, but without any forethought at all, I swung my staff at the boy’s head with all the force I could muster. The staff hit his head with a solid, hollow-sounding, crack. I saw the boy’s head jerk sideways. The boy crumpled like a sheet and lay, unmoving, on the ground.
The man let out a sound almost like a cat’s purr. I turned quickly to face him. Lord, I wish I hadn’t. The man’s grin spread even wider. More teeth came into view, all of which were terribly sharp. He spread his wings in a way that was quite imposing. I took a half step back in fear as he spread those wings. The purr continued, pulsing to the same beat as his manhood, faster now than a moment ago.
He took a step towards us. “Get the fuck back!” Brad said. Terror made his voice higher-pitched than normal. From the corner of my eyes, I saw him wave the hammer.
The creature raised his leg to take another step. Then his left wing fell to the ground. Black blood spurted from the man as he fell to the ground in convulsions. Amber stood behind him holding her sword, the tip of which was stained black and almost touching the ground. Her eyes were huge with fear and she was almost hyperventilating.
Brad stepped up and hit the man with his hammer. There was a sickening crunch and the convulsions faded instantly to twitching. Brad hit him again. Black blood splashed up. The creature didn’t move anymore.
I rushed to Amber. She dropped the sword and we held onto each other for dear life. I looked up as Brad splashed into the river. It took me a second, but I realized that he washing the gore off himself and his hammer. I almost threw up. But I shut that down and focused on holding Amber. She was shaking and sobbing. Brad came out of the water. He ran to us, but stopped just short. I looked up. He stood there, arms out, dripping wet.
I almost laughed. But the situation hit me hard enough to drown the humor. Instead, I just jerked my head to signal him. He held his dripping-wet shirt out to indicate his wet clothes. I shrugged and jerked my head again. So he came in. We stood there, hugging and crying, for a long time. Not long enough for Brad’s clothes to dry, though. Or ours, where he got us wet.
“Those things,” Amber said, struggling through the tears as she walked up to the man’s body. “Those things are what killed Fiona.” She sounded pissed off. She picked up her sword and stood there, staring at the dead man. “You killed her!” she yelled, stabbing the man through the chest. “YOU KILLED HER!” she screamed so loudly the words were hard to make out. She stabbed him again and again as she raged and sobbed.
Brad carefully took the sword from her hands and pulled her away from the body. “You killed her!” she screamed again, then gave up on words and devolved into sobs. Brad and I shared a look. I shrugged. He shrugged. We started hugging her again. We didn’t know what else to do. We didn’t know how to help. God, I hated feeling so helpless.
Finally her sobs quieted down. I stepped back and looked at her. Her face was a wreck from crying. “That’s two down,” she said with more hate than I’d ever heard from her. I was shocked at the tone. But she’ll never know how shocked.
“Come on, let’s go,” Brad said softly.
“Just a sec,” Amber said. She went down to the river and go to her knees. She washed her face in river water. When she returned, her knees were wet and a bit muddy, but her face looked better.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said in a pleading voice.
“Let’s,” I said. We headed down the trail, leaving the mansion and the bodies behind. I didn’t look back. None of us did. I could tell Amber was still working to fight back tears. I tried to hold her hand, but she shrugged me off. Brad and I shared a quiet look, but we let her have her space.
After half an hour or so, she stopped suddenly in the middle of the road and clutched her arms tightly around her stomach. “I’m sorry,” she said, looking first at me and then at Brad. “I lost it back there, and I’m sorry.”
I glanced at Brad, but he was staring at her and didn’t notice me. “Amber, honey. It’s okay. Really,” I said.
“No, no it is not okay. I can’t afford to lose control like that. Not here. Not ever. I’m sorry. I know that… that thing isn’t the one who took her. I know that.” She shuddered.
“You’ve been through hell, A. For real. We aren’t going blame you for that.” Brad said, not taking his eyes off her.
Amber started crying again. “I just miss her, you know?”
“If you didn’t miss her, it wouldn’t have been love, A. No shame in that.” Brad said quietly.
“One of those things tried to kill me. I got damned lucky. You really don’t need to apologize for killing one of them. Seriously.” I said, wrapping my arms around her. She cried into my shoulder for a few heartbeats before pulling herself together.
“Come on. I want to get away from here,” she said, sniffling and trying to suppress a shudder as she looked over my shoulder, back towards that palace.
Chapter 32: Through the Night
As we kept going, the trail continued to follow the river, but the banks kept getting steeper. The far bank drew closer to us, forcing the river to flow fast enough to form rapids. Eventually, we were up high enough that getting to the river would have been risky if not impossible. Not that we wanted to; the rapids looked like nothing we wanted to mess around with. But still we kept going. We were looking for somewhere to camp, but the riverbank was too rough, too steep, and the trail too narrow for us to safely or comfortably sleep here. So we kept on. Maybe we should’ve gone back to less rugged terrain. But I didn’t want to see those gargoyle-men again.
“It’s going to be dark soon,” Amber said. I didn’t like how nervous she sounded. It too closely echoed my own feelings.
“I know. But if we turn around, it’ll be dark long before we get to anywhere safe,” Brad said.
“Yeah, we have to hope we find somewhere up ahead. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to stumble onto those bodies in the dark. Not here.” My voice betrayed my fear.
“I know,” Amber said. She sounded testy. “I know. I’m sorry. I just,” She paused to take a ragged breath and reign in her emotions, “I don’t like the idea of being out here in the dark.” She waved a hand to the drop-off that led down to the river. The idea of falling was just another layer to the afternoon’s tension.
We trudged on in silence, trying to hurry, but not really succeeding. The trail veered sharply around a rock outcropping and away from the river. We paused while Amber checked the map. With a shrug, she said, “This map is almost useless. The trail is a straight line on here,” Brad and I looked, and sure enough, our line didn’t follow the map.
“We didn’t miss a fork somewhere, did we?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Brad said.
“Did the world change, or is the map wrong?” I asked. “Given who gave us the map…”
“Who knows?” Amber said. Despair filled her words. She slumped her shoulders a bit.
I tried to muster something encouraging to say, but nothing came to mind. With a sigh, I started walking again. Brad and Amber followed in silence. Beyond the rock, the trail got even rougher. But at least it didn’t look like a fall would send us plummeting to our deaths in the river. Yay for that.
The light began to fade as we trudged through the rocky terrain. As I had feared, there was simply nowhere to stop. Nowhere with any hope of safety, at least. So we kept going. I wished we had found some oil for Brad’s lantern somewhere along the way.
“Wish in one hand, shit in the other. See which fills up faster,” I mumbled.
“What?” Amber said in shock.
“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize I’d said that out loud. It was just something my grandmother would say whenever we’d whine about wishing for something.”
“Oh, Okay. That’s… I was afraid you needed to… and… I don’t know what I thought,” she said.
I stared at her for a second before bursting out in laughter. Brad and Amber joined in. It wasn’t anywhere near that funny, of course, not really. But it was just funny enough to break the tension. God how we needed that. God how I hated that we needed it, but the laughter helped.
Finally, the light faded to the point that I was stubbing my toes on rocks and almost tripping. “Guys, we have to stop,” I said and sat down in the middle of the trail. Amber and Brad sat down in a line behind me. Amber was in the rear, and I noticed she turned so her back was to us. So if anyone came from behind, maybe we’d have some warning. I just sat there, wearily, and tried not to think about comfy beds and pizza.
“What now?” Brad asked.
“I dunno. Think there’s any hope of moonlight?” I said, looking up. There was no moon. Just stars that didn’t look right. None of the constellations looked like anything I remembered. I blinked. Then blinked again.
“What the fuck?” I said.
“What?” Amber asked.
“The stars. They’re moving?” I pointed up, but it was almost too dark to really see my hand. But above us, the stars were clearly moving around. “Oh, they aren’t stars! Lightning bugs?”
“First insects we’ve seen,” Brad said in amazement. He stood up and took my hand as we watched them dance.
Amber stood too, dusted her hands off, and took Brad’s other hand. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they,” she asked in wonder. For a moment, we said nothing, just taking in the blinking white lights as they danced. For just a moment, I was a little kid again, playing in the back yard without a care in the world.
Then the lights stopped dancing and began to drift down to the rocks around us. There was no sense of urgency, but they were clearly coming towards us. Tens of them, then hundreds, settled onto the rocks. Fear once again raised its hand from the back of the classroom as I watched the insects drift in.
“What?” I whispered. But at the sound of my voice, the fireflies light up in a wave traveling out from us to the edges of the mass that had settled. The wave even rippled through the bugs still in the air. It silenced me instantly.
I wanted to run, but I didn’t know where to go. The insects had blanketed the trail and the rocks around us. Then the carpet of insects convulsed. There’s no other word for it. A chunk of the mass just shifted up for a second then settled down again. There must have been hundreds of thousands of them all around us. The convulsion happened again, and this time a cloud of fireflies lit up and shifted, flying in a tight cloud over a rock.
The cloud split into two smaller masses. And then they split again into four small clouds of fireflies buzzing frantically around. I stared in awe as the four clouds stretched out. More insects joined in and the fuzzy cloud shapes settled into four humanoid outlines of light.
I looked back at Brad and Amber. Their mouths were hanging open, too. Good, at least I wasn’t imagining this. The fireflies pulsed brightly and I turned back. The four figures stood on the rocks just above the trail. Somehow, the insects kept the shape so clean I could even count the fingers on their hands. Their light pulsed together as a unit, giving off dim and then bright flashes of light.
Four humanoid shapes. One of the four “sat” down on the rocks. The other three moved around as they adjusted to the new fireflies still merging with their clouds. I saw that one of the shapes had the same wavy ponytail as Amber. And one had the same rough haircut as Brad. They both needed trims. And then I saw one that could only be me. But who was the fourth? Was that Fiona? Someone we hadn’t met yet? I couldn’t tell. What the fuck was this?
The fireflies pulsed brightly for a moment, then the cloud-people drifted apart. Having seen us in the shapes, it was quite unsettling to watch them split up like that. Then the clouds flew to flank us on two sides and reformed back into people-shapes again. The four figures drifted forward along the trail, so the back two figures were parallel with me. Then they stopped. The four heads turned to watch us. It was damned creepy. Tentatively, in the light from the fireflies, I took a step forward. Reluctantly, Brad and Amber followed.
The fireflies drifted forward again and waited. We took another few steps. The bugs moved up. It was all very awkward, but after a dozen or so steps, we got into a rhythm of walking at the same speed the fireflies were flying. It was slower than our walking pace, but not by much. But the absolute strangeness of it all never faded.
“Where are…” Amber started, but the fireflies blazed her down into silence. So we kept walking, quietly. Presently, the trail widened out into something that was almost a road. The ground got smoother. By the light of the fireflies, we walked and we wondered where they led us.
I’m not sure how far we walked by their light. It felt like forever, but it was probably only a mile or so. Before us rose an old burned out house. The chimney was clearly defined against the dim night sky. Part of the roof remained, and some of the exterior walls. But one whole corner was gone and we could see extensive damage to the rest of the structure.
The fireflies led us until we were at the point where the trail was closest to the burned out house. Then the four cloud-people burst into a scattering, flickering, chaotic mass of fireflies that soon faded away. We stood there in silence for a long time, just watching the insects return to their random dance in the sky. It was truly beautiful.
“Why did they do that?” I said breathlessly.
“I don’t know. I can’t even guess,” Brad answered in awe.
I looked around. “That house, think it’s safe enough to sleep in?”
“No. Not really. But behind the house is out of sight of the trail. Given how late it is…” Amber said with an involuntary yawn.
“Yeah, we can at least hide out until we have light again,” Brad agreed.
We carefully made our way around the house. It was too dark to see inside. Behind, grass rose to almost our knees. I was grateful to sit down in that grass. I groaned as I pulled my shoes off and wiggled my toes.
“What were those firefly things, anyway?” I asked as we settled in. No one responded. I guess they didn’t have a clue, either. Still, it was nice to see that not everything here wanted to kill us on sight.
“I’ve got first watch,” Amber said.
I stood up and kissed her, then kissed Brad. Blanket in hand, I stretched out on the ground. I think I was asleep before the blanket had settled onto the grass beneath me.
Brad woke me up some time before dawn. Part of me missed having a clock, so I could tell what time it was. The rest of me was glad I didn’t know. I stretched and yawned and tried to force my brain to start working again.
“See anything?” I mumbled to Brad as I slid my shoes back on.
“What?” he said as he unrolled his blanket.
I shook my head and asked again, a bit more clearly. I wasn’t really awake yet.
“No, not even any more of those fireflies,” he whispered with a yawn.
Those things had been strange, even for this world. I walked off a ways to pee. When I came back, Brad was already snoring in his blanket. With a sigh, I walked in a circle around him and Amber, knowing that if I sat down, I’d fall back asleep.
Soon, false dawn began to light up the world. I sighed and leaned against the burned out house to watch the sunrise. There were worse ways to spend the morning. Though some hot tea or coffee and a stack of donuts sure would have been nice. My stomach rumbled at the thought.
To distract myself, I got up and looked through into a burned out section of the house. Inside, I could see charred wood and broken glass. It didn’t look like much had survived. I walked slowly around the house, looking in. From one window, I saw what must have been a kitchen. There was a little bit of cabinetry left. In another, I saw a fireplace. Surprisingly, it still held some partially burned logs. The fire hadn’t completely destroyed the furniture there. The sofa and chair looked old fashioned and uncomfortable. From another window, I could make out the remains of a canopied bed. The canopy and bedding had burned, but the fire died before the bed’s frame could be completely consumed. There was a half-burned armoire, but I couldn’t see if anything was left inside.
But what stopped me cold was the wall at right angles to the one I was looking in through. There were three doors on that exterior wall. Three doors that shouldn’t be there. Each was painted white, the paint chipped and faded. Just to confirm what I thought I remembered, I walked around the corner. There were 2 windows on that wall that looked into the same burned out bedroom. I went back to the other wall and checked again. No sign of those windows. Instead, the three doors.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I noticed that now there was writing on the center door. “Scary,” it said in bright red paint. I looked in carefully, but could not see anyone or any red paint. Scary. That was the right word. I’d seen enough.
“Guys?” I said at a volume level loud enough to awaken them but, hopefully, not frighten them. “Something’s happening.” I was standing at the corner of the house now, where I could see the window into the bedroom and Brad and Amber at the same time. To their credit, they both woke up and almost instantly were on their feet with weapons in hand. We were getting better at this. I hated that we had to get better. But I was glad that we were. I described what I’d seen. Together, we went back over to the window.
Now the door closest to the exterior corner had “Not Scary At All” written on it in the same red paint. If the intent was to make me trust that doorway, the author was failing miserably. “Wait, so the doors weren’t painted, and then the middle one was?” Brad asked.
“Yeah. And if you look around the corner, those doors don’t exist,” I answered. The hairs on the back of my neck were still standing up. I was getting used to that feeling, unfortunately.
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll try any of those doors,” Amber said in a low voice. I glanced at Amber and then back at the doors. “Very Scary” was now visible on the third door in the same paint. I gasped and took a step back at the sudden appearance of the words.
“Fuck,” Brad said under his breath.
“Can we get out of here?” I said. My voice was shaky with fear.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Amber agreed.
We grabbed our gear and speed-walked away from the house. As the trail rounded a corner, I swear I heard the high-pitched squeak of old door hinges. But I didn’t look back. Whatever it was, I didn’t want any part of it.
“Any idea what that was about?” I asked. “Or just more of this world’s brand of crazy?”
Brad shrugged. “Think those firefly things were trying to lure us into the house, and those doors were the next part of the trap?”
“God, I hope not. I want those things to have been on our side. I want something in this godforsaken place to have been on our side,” Amber said with more emotion than I’d expected.
“We really need to come up with a word for this world,” Brad said.
“I think just another brand of crazy. Probably gates onto yet another trap or another, even worse, world,” Amber said with a shudder. “And yeah, we need a word.”
We bounced some ideas around for what to call the world, but nothing really stuck. “Hell” came as close as anything, but even that didn’t feel quite right. Hell would be worse, we agreed. “Nightmare” didn’t seem to fit either. People wake up from nightmares. We’d long since given up on that happening. If there’d been even a single yellow brick, we probably would’ve accepted Oz, but the trail here was nothing like a brick road. Still, trying to name the world gave us something to talk about, at least.
The terrain gave way to low, mossy grass as the day wore on. We kept walking. Sometime in the afternoon, we came upon a fast-moving creek, bubbling over pebbles. We stopped there for a drink. After drinking enough to almost make me sick, I took my shoes off and just sat there, staring off into space and letting my feet soak in the cold water. Amber came up and sat beside me. I grinned at her and splashed at her with my foot.
“Hey!” she said in a mock-angry tone, and splashed back, but neither of us really had the energy for a water fight.
Instead, I stood up and quickly undressed. Before I could chicken out, I waded out into the creek, naked. God, the water was freezing! I turned to face Brad and Amber, who both looked surprised. “You coming?” I said to them and sat down in the water.
It was all I could do to not squeal at the cold. But I pretended it wasn’t cold as hell and gave them a look. They took the bait and got into the water, too. “What the fuck?” Brad said as the water hit his knees. But he refused to let me show him up. So he sat down, beside me. Amber did too. The cold quickly made her lips turn a bluish shade.
I quickly soaked myself and got out. I watched as they rushed to get clean as well. The cold water was unbearable, but it felt good to get the dust and sweat off myself. “Why did I let you talk me into that bit of torture?” Brad said as he waded out.
I just smirked at him. Amber quickly got out as well, wringing water from her hair. She pouted at me. I winked and stepped in to kiss her blue lips. The kiss went on long enough to bring color back to her lips. But then she spanked me. “That’s for making me get cold!” she said. Brad grinned at me from behind Amber. I stuck my tongue out at him. Amber kissed me again, engulfing my tongue. Suddenly, I wasn’t cold anymore.
Later, the three of us, still naked, washed our clothes and stretched them out on the grass to dry. I contemplated digging dry clothes from my pack, but decided I wasn’t quite ready to be clothed. Not yet. While our clothes dried, we… well, we kept each other from getting bored.
“It’s getting late enough that we should head on,” Brad said, with obvious reluctance.
“It sure would be nice to have somewhere safe and warm for a few days,” I said wistfully as I played with Amber’s hair.
“We did. Murdoch’s place, remember?” Amber said.
I made a face at her and started getting dressed. My clothes were still a little damp, but I felt they’d dry better on me than folded up in a backpack.
We drank from the creek and started walking again. The trail seemed to follow the creek upstream, at least for now. As we walked, I tried not to think about those doors and what was behind them. Or, for that matter, what had painted those words on them.
Chapter 33: The Summer House
The path took us up a small hill. At the top, I saw something glinting not too far ahead. “What’s that?” I asked, trying to see what was shining back at us.
“Can’t tell,” Brad said. We kept going, but more slowly.
Soon, the bright light resolved itself into an oval shape. It looked like a mirror. As we drew closer, I saw that it was in fact a mirror, mounted on something pale green in color. The mirror was set up a few yards off the trail and angled towards us. Well, it was angled towards the trail, at least. Then the glare on the mirror suddenly faded, leaving a solid black oval in the glass. That sent a shiver down my spine.
“The three! I’ve been waiting for you! You travel so slowly,” said the deep rumbling voice of Murdoch from the mirror.
“What’s he doing here?” Amber whispered.
“So, how is your journey is going?” Murdoch asked with a jovial tone that sounded anything but sincere. We approached the mirror. Sure enough, there was his face. But that wasn’t the strangest thing about the setup. The mirror was floating above a pale green chair. A pair of hands held the mirror, but there was no person, just the hands. I couldn’t tell if the hands connected to the chair or not. The hands swiveled the mirror to point toward us as we approached.
“We’re having a great time, Murdoch. Got any pizza?” I asked in a neutral tone. The wide smile dropped instantly from his face.
“I prefer you not use that name. Not out here in the wilds,” there was no mistaking the threat implied in the hissing tone he took. But just as fast as his anger had flared, it vanished.
“So, safe and sound, I see! That is good!”
I wasn’t impressed. “Sorry, sir. Whatever can we do for you, sir?” I said. I tried to keep the overt sarcasm out of my voice, but I failed miserably. Murdoch glared at me, proving that, alien as he was, even he knew I’d failed. Ignoring his glare, I went for it. “Why do you love creepy chairs so much, anyway?”
“They are a convenient tool. And they are a convenient way to dispose of troublemakers,” Murdoch snarled.
“Shut. Up,” Brad whispered to me in a commanding tone.
“I do apologize. I have let your youthful exuberance get under my skin,” Murdoch said with his normal false-happy voice.
I sighed, rolled my eyes, and responded, “I am sorry, sir. You’ve been kind to us, and it was rude of me to speak to you that way.” He nodded, then turned from me to Amber and then to Brad. The pause was long and awkward.
“Not far from here, you will find a large home. This dwelling belongs to me, sort of a… a summer getaway, you could say. But I fear that something,” he paused, “Something has occupied the residence. I ask that you look into this for me. Be careful, of course. But I would be most grateful if you could do this. It saves me time and effort.”
“What sort of something?” Amber said with a dubious tone.
“I do not know, precisely,” he said, but something made me think that wasn’t quite true. “Feel free to stay at the home, though. I rarely go there these days. But it should be well stocked with food and drink, or at least it was when we last came through the area.” He looked at me, “No pizza, I’m afraid.” I had the sense to keep my mouth shut this time.
“You know anything about a house with three doors?” Amber asked.
Murdoch looked thoughtful for a second. “Scary, not scary, or something like that?” he asked with a puzzled expression.
“Yep, that’s the one.” I said.
“We burned that place down,” he said with some confusion.
“It still stands. Or at least partially. And the doors are still there. Where do they go?” Brad said.
“To other worlds. I haven’t explored those worlds, but the things that came through were… unpleasant. But when we left nothing remained but the brick chimney and fireplace.”
“The house was burned badly, but it still stands. Enough to tell which room is which. The doors are in the bedroom, next to a canopy bed,” I said quietly.
“It has been long since I traveled that road or seen that house. If the house stands, then things are changing. I would be careful. I would not enter that house,” Murdoch said with a thoughtful tone.
“You’ve been watching us, haven’t you?” Amber said suddenly. “That’s how you knew we’d pass this chair.”
“Oh, this chair has been here for a long time. I have markers on all the roads. But yes. I’ve been watching,” Murdoch answered with a voice that almost dared us to complain.
I opened my mouth to say something rude, but bit back the words that first came to mind and instead asked, “Were the fireflies yours?”
Murdoch raised an eyebrow. “Fireflies? I am not familiar with this word,” he said.
“Small insects. They fly around and they glow in the dark,” Brad said.
“I have seen no such insects here. Not in this world. Perhaps they came through one of those doors.” He looked away from us, to something wherever he was. Then turned back to us and said, “Farewell, Travelers. Fare well and do try to stay alive.”
Before we could respond, his face disappeared from the mirror. For a split second, we could see the chair and mirror repeated over and over again in the glass. Then the mirror’s surface clouded over before once again reflecting the trail behind us. The hands holding it lowered a bit, but the mirror and frame still hovered above the chair.
“Great. I’m glad we didn’t go inside that house, but this is just great,” Brad mumbled.
I looked at him and cut my eyes towards the mirror, “Let’s go. I don’t want to be here when it gets dark.” He took my hint and nodded.
We walked on for another twenty minutes or so without talking. “Why would he want us to do his dirty work?” Amber asked.
“It seems like he never really does any ‘dirty work’ of his own. Not when he can con someone else into doing it for him. He’s like a mob boss or something; making sure his hands are clean,” Brad said.
“Notice how upset he gets when we mention his name? I think names have power here, somehow. I suggest we call him Mur, when we’re alone. Just in case his name lets him hear us or something,” I said.
They both looked at me. “What? You’ve never read a fantasy novel where the big bad can hear when their name is mentioned?”
Amber said, “Oh! I thought that only happened with gods?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. Has he really been watching us this whole time?” I asked, thinking about yesterday at the creek and trying not to blush.
“If Mur knows all and sees all, why doesn’t he know what’s in this house he’s sending us to investigate?” Amber asked.
“Yeah. Or where the fireflies came from. I don’t like it,” I said. Brad nodded in agreement. “But do we go in and help him, or skip it and hope he doesn’t get pissed at us for that?”
No one answered for a second. “Maybe we wait and see what the situation looks like?” Amber said hesitantly. “But yes, he’s an asshole for not giving us more information before throwing us out to fight his battles for him.”
“Agreed,” I said.
“You think,” Brad said, then stopped.
I looked at him. “Think what?”
“Never mind. It was stupid,” he said, sheepishly.
“No, go on,” Amber said.
“You think we’ll ever be powerful enough to claim an area and run it like some kind of king or whatever Mur is?” Brad sounded like he didn’t really want to ask the question.
I sighed, thinking about it. “Maybe? Who knows? I’m still just thrilled we’re all still alive. One day at a time and all that.”
“I don’t want to become him. I really don’t. Having a safe haven and not fighting to survive? Yeah. But not if it means becoming… whatever he is,” Amber said in a serious tone.
“Definitely. He’s an ass. I don’t want to be him. But having a little corner of the world that we know is safe and clear of evils? I think I’d be okay with that,” I said.
We walked up a gentle hill the next hill. The trail dropped down the other side and climbed up a steeper, larger, hill maybe a quarter mile away. At the top of the second hill, we saw some kind of stone building behind a wall. At first, I thought it was some kind of gothic cathedral or maybe the fantasy version of a castle. I could see a tower rising above the surrounding wall, along with several chimneys rising above the dark red roofline. Smoke drifted up from one of the chimneys. Trees surrounded the complex, except where the trail passed through. It looked like the brush had been cleared back from the wall for several yards.
“Is that the house Mur meant?” Amber asked in awe. “It’s really looks more like a castle.”
“I think so,” I said.
“That place is huge,” Brad muttered, “How will we find anything in there?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “Let’s get closer and see what we can see.” We started walking again, towards the mansion. I could feel our tension mounting as we drew closer. There was nothing in sight to give rise to that tension. But we felt it, all the same. When we got to the bottom of the building’s hill, I stopped us. “Before we go up there, let’s see what we can find around back. Before we get too close.”
Brad nodded and led us off the trail and into the trees. We moved slowly, circling our way around and in towards the wall. We came to the edge of the woods along the back wall of the property. Here, the building merged with the wall, so we could see the windows of the upper floors. There was no door on this wall of the fence/building, though. The trees stopped about twenty feet or so from the wall.
Staying in the trees, we circled the rest of the way around the property. There was only one passage through the wall, near the trail we’d been following. The trees had been cleared on both sides of the trail, cutting a line through the woods here. As we got to the trail on the far side of the house, I saw something glinting white in the sunlight just on the edge of the trees beyond the trail. Wordlessly I pointed. Brad nodded and we darted across the clearing. I’m sure we looked like idiots as we tried to be stealthy.
The white thing was a long narrow bone. A human arm bone, maybe? It was hard to tell. I kneeled down to look more closely. That’s how I saw another bone, mostly buried under the leaves. Very carefully, I cleared the leaves with my foot. It revealed a human-like skull.
I shuddered. I shot a glance back towards the property, but saw nothing.
“Something’s watching us,” Amber whispered. So she could feel it too, then. I nodded. Then jerked my head towards the open gate at the property wall. Brad and Amber nodded. Together, we walked out of the trees towards the gate. We were all looking around, afraid something would jump out at us.
“Down!” Brad suddenly yelled and fell flat on his face. Without thought, I followed suit. Amber did as well. The next second or so happened faster than words can describe. There was a dark shadow. I felt a sudden sharp wind. Something touched my shoulder as I fell to the ground, something sharp and bronze-colored and moving so fast.
One of the gargoyle-things swooped past me, screeching in anger. I saw a second, just a few feet behind and to the side of the first, dive and miss Amber. Both swooped back up, wings beating hard to give them more lift. Adrenaline coursed through me. “The trees!” I yelled. I got up on my feet and, while crouching, ran towards the trees. I could hear Brad and Amber behind me.
Death screamed overhead as I plummeted between the low trees. I stopped myself, almost skidding into a trunk, and turned. Brad and Amber rushed past me on either side. The two gargoyles were pulling up from aborted dives. I could see their eyes glaring hate at us for just a moment before they rose above the tree line.
“Holy shit,” Amber said, hands on her knees and gasping for air. “Oh, fuck me.” I turned from her to Brad. He was breathing hard, too. A shadow cut across his face as the gargoyles circled overhead.
“Are you okay?” Brad asked with concern.
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine?” I said.
“Your shoulder,” he pointed.
I looked down. Where the gargoyle had swept past, my shirt was torn. In fear, I clutched the torn edges and peered inside my shirt. My heart was pounding hard.
“No, they didn’t cut me,” I said.
“Oh thank god,” Amber said, staring at me with huge eyes.
“So that’s what he meant by ‘something’ in his house. That shit-fucking asshole,” I said, venom dripping from my voice. I hated Murdoch so hard at that moment. But we had bigger problems. “What do we do?”
Staring up into the trees overhead, we could make out the dark shadows as they circled us. There was no way we could get to the house without getting attacked. But we couldn’t stay hidden forever. I mean, eventually, they’d come down into the trees after us, wouldn’t they? I felt certain they would.
“We can try to run for it. Maybe we can outrun them?” Amber said. She didn’t sound confident.
“They’re already in the air. No way,” Brad said.
“Shit,” I muttered. “How smart are they? Can we lure them down and then attack them?”
“I don’t see what choice we have,” Amber said. She drew her sword and squared her shoulders. I wiped my hands to clear the sweat from them, and tightened my grip on my staff.
“Leave the packs here? It’ll make us a little faster.” Brad was already removing his backpack.
I nodded at Brad and shed my backpack. Amber followed. “Okay. Let’s do this before I chicken out,” she said.
“On three…” I started counting, staring up at the shadows overhead.
At one, we took off for the clearing around the property. We burst out into the opening. The gargoyles screamed. I wanted to throw up from fear as my heart pounded in my ears. We ran a few feet into the clearing. I yelled something that was supposed to be “stop” but really had no words at all. We drew to a halt and turned.
The gargoyles were right there. I stabbed at the one diving at me with the tip of my staff. I missed, but it threw off the thing’s dive. He swooped past me. A feather on one wing brushed my cheek as he went by. Somehow, I yanked up on the other end of the staff and hit the thing in the ankle as he passed. Then he was gone, rising up behind me with a scream.
There was a terrible, loud, call from my right. I turned. I could see the blackened tip of Amber’s sword sticking through the wing of the second gargoyle. It was down on the ground, thrashing and convulsing in pain. Amber was under him, trying to fight her way free. I felt more than heard something behind me. Instinctively, I fell to my knees and dove sideways. The gargoyle pulled up from his failed dive and landed in front of me. With an angry sound, he turned to face me, wings spread wide at his back. Just like before, this one was fully aroused and completely naked. I jabbed at his face with my staff. He pulled back out of my staff’s reach and slashed at me with his talon-tipped arms. Thankfully, he was too far back to hit me.
From nowhere, a shoe appeared in the gargoyle’s crotch. Brad had kicked him from behind. The kick had enough force to lift the creature off the ground. The high-pitched, terrible, scream he emitted was enough to almost make me drop my staff. I’d never heard anything so dreadful in my life. The gargoyle fell to the ground and scrambled to get away. I slammed him in the head with my staff. Before he could recover, Brad’s hammer caved in his skull.
I rushed over to Amber and helped pull her to her feet. The gargoyle was still convulsing, but it was beginning to slow. Amber had blood on her, but it was all the black blood of the gargoyle, not hers, thankfully. We stood there, panting and circling, making sure there wasn’t a third creature, for a long moment.
“Think there’s more?” Brad finally asked. The question sent a chill down my spine. I looked up at the building, but I couldn’t see anything.
“Yes. Yes, of course. I’m sure there are. There always are. And they’re going to wish they’d never been born,” Amber said angrily. Brad and I both looked at her in surprise.
“Okay then. Let’s get our stuff. I’d like to get this over with,” Brad said. Amber and I rolled the dead thing over so she could retrieve her sword. Brad trotted off to the woods. He quickly returned, wearing his pack and carrying both of ours. Amber started for the house. I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She looked at me questioningly.
“Hey, you,” I started. “Just a sec.” I grabbed a piece of cloth from her backpack and wiped the blood from her face. “We’re doing this together, right?” I held her gaze until she nodded. “Okay then. Be careful, yeah? I’m not done with you yet.”
She gave me a half smile, then wrapped me in a far-too-brief hug. Together, the three of us walked through the open gate, weapons in hand.
The story continues in Part Twelve.
