The Hollows, page 18
Just before they disappeared into the darkness, still tightly holding onto the Woman in Red, Ethan saw Maggie grasping her arm from the other side.
Chapter 10.5:
When the Heart Shows Its Face
“I just saw a man,” The unnamed girl said. Her eyes searched the corridor, looking for any trace of the toothless grin that had been there just a split second before. All that hung in the empty space where she looked was the circling moth looking as confused as she was that its perch had vanished.
Kostya was at her side, putting a hand on her shoulder, “Sometimes the Labyrinth can be overwhelming. You can start to see things.”
She looked at him sideways, “I know what I saw. It was not a hallucination. He was there.”
“Well, then where is he now?” Kostya asked from behind her.
Her eyes searched wildly, “I don’t know.”
“Then you’re seeing things. It happens. Now get up and stop wasting our time,” Remi turned and walked through the open door. Demi waited by the threshold.
Kostya helped her up to her feet and she brushed herself off habitually. With all the caked-on soot, there wasn’t any real reason except giving her something to do. She looked down the hallway once more. Empty.
“What’s Remi’s problem?” The girl said, turning around and walking to Demi’s side.
Kostya shrugged, “He has been here a long time. Longer than any of the rest of us, aside from his brother. He did not use to be this hard, though. But for obvious reasons, things change. He changed. Now he’s taken care of the boys and they look up to him, so he feels the need to play the part and try to keep everyone safe.”
When they reached the door, she stopped, “I did see hallucinations before I fell asleep. I am not denying that. But I could smell this man, see him. He was close enough that I could feel the heat off his breath. He was not a figment of my imagination, Kostya.”
He nodded, “Then you have come across something we have not seen here before. Usually, the things we come across are tangible and don’t disappear. Instead, they hunt you down and try to kill you.”
Demi poked his head out of the door, “Is everything alright?”
Kostya nodded and waved his hand, “Everything is fine, we will catch up in a moment.”
The girl smiled at Demi as he vanished around the door and turned her attention back to Kostya, “What could it have been, then?”
He shook his head, “A ghost maybe? A poltergeist of some sort? Maybe it’s a creature we haven’t discovered yet. The mysteries of the Labyrinth and all. What did he look like in case I come across him?”
The girl looked back and breathed deeply, “He had really long hair that was covered in something black and wet. He was missing practically all his teeth. He looked like he was wearing what was left of a burlap sack around him. And the smell, oh God, it was awful. Like rotten oranges. Oh, and his left eye was completely missing.”
Blood drained from Kostya’s face. He stared at her with pale, wide eyes.
“What is it?” The girl asked.
His breathing increased, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he looked like he was about to vomit.
“Kostya?” She said as she reached for him.
He shrugged off her hand and turned to her, all immaturity and joy gone from his face, “You cannot mention this to anyone.”
“What is going on?”
He looked back at the door, still open but vacant, “Just whatever you do, you can’t say anything to Demi or Remi. Just keep what you saw to yourself.”
“No, I want to know what is going on,” The girl said raising her voice.
Kostya looked at the door wildly then put his hands up to quiet her, “Shut up. Just shut up. If they hear you, you’re dead.”
“Please, Kostya. You’re scaring me.”
“You should be scared. Especially of the twins. When they were young, they were born without souls. They were born without the ability to tell right and wrong. Sometimes they joke about the things they have killed or the creatures they hurt. Did you know that there used to be more girls in The Hollows? Human girls. Well, they had their fun clearing out as many as they could in some of the most disgusting ways possible. Why do you think I have kept close to you? Towards the end, they started growing violent of people getting in their way. That man you described is the splitting description of their father, and coincidentally, the last person they killed before ending up in the Labyrinth. They are more dangerous than you can ever imagine. So please, for both of our sakes, keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Without another word, he turned and headed inside the door, leaving her standing there alone. She considered the fact that she should not follow. There were things digging at her brain that she could not put her finger on, and Demi’s reaction to her description intensified that feeling tenfold.
After the intense internal deliberation, she chose to trail Kostya towards the door. As she walked through the threshold, Demi appeared almost as an apparition. His eyes were hard on hers, full and glowering. She could see him swallowing hard before turning back into the room.
He couldn’t have heard, the girl thought to herself as she watched Demi walk. You didn’t hear. Please let him not have heard.
Her eyes traced the boys huddled around a room until the layout struck her as familiar. The oak wood bedframe and the small, hand-built drawers, the trinkets on the tables and the candle box sitting by the bedside. It was her room or, at least, one in almost complete likeness to one she used to sleep in just a few years ago. Four doors lined the wall on the opposite side, all the same, shapes, and color – small enough to not fit a fully-grown man and laced with a pale and peeling blue trim.
“This is new,” Remi said.
Demi looked as if his mind were far away, not taking in his surroundings. He kept his eyes down and walked to stand next to his twin. Seven boys huddled in a room, all taking their turn looking over the bed and the doors. And the quiet, the all too quietness was unpleasant. It made a ringing in their ears loud enough to cause visible discomfort among them. Kostya put his palms to his hears and squinted, trying to blink out the pain that was growing in his head.
Then the door behind the girl shuddered.
The handle began to turn when Remi lunged to lock it, knocking Kostya and a smaller boy to the floor. Once the door was latched, he turned and eyed the girl, “Always lock the doors behind you if you can. You never know what could be coming from the other side.”
The girl saw the moth hovering over the bed in the center of the room. How did you get in here? I just saw you shut out, she thought.
Kostya was already back on his feet. Looking around the room wildly as though he could not remember how he ended up on the floor.
Remi was thumbing his scar when he made his way to the boy that was still on the ground next to the bed seemingly unable to see, or merely ignoring, the winged insect. He reached out to the boy, “Sorry, Shiloh.”
Shiloh, a boy with bright red hair in curls and short, tattered khakis raised his hand to Remi when he stepped over to help him up.
Just before their fingers touched, Shiloh’s leg was yanked, dragging under the bed. There was barely time for Shiloh to yelp before he was halfway under. Kostya jumped backward, colliding with the girl and pushing them both to the door behind them.
The boys jumped to grab for Shiloh, his hands slipping between theirs as the force beneath the bed pulled harder. The girl could do nothing but watch on in horror as Shiloh dug his fingernails into the floor, ripping them from the quick and screaming. The girl looked down and saw the hand of a faceless creature reaching forward and digging its claws into the skin at Shiloh’s hips. The thing was black and green, with slimy skin around the muscular fingers. Layers of muscle bulged underneath the skin that was stretched to its fullest extent, nearly ripping.
Tears were welling up in Shiloh’s eyes as one final pull from the monster tore him from Remi’s grasp and dragged the screaming boy beneath the bed.
“Help me!” The scream tore from Shiloh’s throat in a high pitch wail. Then it was immediately cut off with a wet, sloppy gurgle from underneath. Remi dove down, stretching both hands desperately to where the boy disappeared. They all stood horrified as Remi rose back to his feet, both arms bloodied to the elbow, holding nothing but a soaked strip of khaki in his hands.
The door behind the girl vibrated and rattled against the hinges. Something clawed at it from the outside, scratches of pleading to be let in. She could not move. She could barely breathe.
“What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” Remi rounded and was instantly in her face. “Why did you tell us to go through that door? Did you know this was going to happen? This is your fault. Shiloh’s blood is on your hands,” He spat and threw the bloody shreds at her face, smearing the liquid in her hair.
Kostya stood between them, “Remi, it wasn’t her fault.”
“You damn well know it was! She picked this room. I don’t care if it was purposefully or not, she walked us into a trap,” Demi yelled inches away from Kostya’s face.
“She couldn’t have known, none of us could. Since when can anyone keep a track of what happens in The Labyrinth?”
He was about to scream more when Demi pulled at his arm, “We have to go!”
They charged for the four doors. Not even bothering to discuss which they should open, Demi pulled the door closest to him on the left. When the wind blew inside the room, the girl felt wrong. Confused. The thing beneath the bed, the room, all were a fear she remembered having. In the Hollows, The Boogeyman was real, but he was never actually pulled little children under the bed and murdered them! He was still a childish fear! How could this be possible?
When Kostya and the other boys had finally left through the door, the twins both turned to face her, both steaming with something on their mind.
Demi spoke first, “Remi, she knows.”
“Knows what?” Remi seethed.
“She saw our dad.”
“That’s not possible. He’s dead,” He spat.
Demi pointed at her, “I don’t know how it’s possible. But she saw him. She described exactly how he looked when we killed him, all the way down to the hole we put in his head. I told you we should have killed her when we had the chance.”
Kostya entered back into the room and looked between the girl and the twins, “What is going on?”
Remi looked at his brother, “We are in here because of what we did. We deserve to be. She will be judged just like the rest of us. I’m not going to have any more blood on my hands.”
Demi’s face twisted to loathing, “Not going to have any more blood on your hands? You have to be joking.”
“I cannot take back the things we did,” Remi said. “Those girls, those creatures, our parents, all of them haunt me here. Demi, I can’t do it anymore. I won’t. The Labyrinth will have her in time, if that is any consolation. But we need to stop wasting time.”
Demi glared at the girl, licking his lips. He nodded and turned back to Kostya, “Come on. We have to go.”
“Um, maybe I should stay,” he said.
Demi and Remi shoved him back to the door, “No. You agreed just like the rest. The boys will stay together, watch out for each other. Don’t make us make the choice for you.”
From some sense of loyalty, maybe just from fear, Kostya turned and looked at the girl. There was pain behind his eyes, regret even. He couldn’t talk, just smiled apologetically and tried to keep the tears from his eyes. Lowering his head, Kostya turned and disappeared through the door.
Remi grabbed his brother by the shoulder and hauled him through the opening just before turning around to the girl, “You can find your own way. If I ever see you again, I will kill you.”
When he slammed the door behind him, she was left alone, cowering back against the corner in shock. The scratches were still slowly getting louder from behind her, but all she could think about was how alone she felt. How alone she was. She had never feared being alone since she was a child. Why now? Why this?
And as the blood slowly pooled from under the bed, slinking its way towards her, just about to touch her bare feet, it dawned on her to move.
She would not follow the lost boys. She couldn’t. The girl reached out and grasped the furthest door away from the ones the boys took. When the knob was in her hand, the scratching from behind her stopped. She shook off the urge to turn and look at the room one more time.
The doorknob she held in her hand was warm. Inviting.
When she pulled it open and stepped through, a sound hit her ears that was one of the most beautiful sounds she had ever heard.
Chapter Eleven:
Chained and Loss
“Oh, my. Child? Are you hurt?”
For one disoriented second, that woman sounded heavenly, like a mother, with sweet and caressing concern.
Then I sat up with a start. Sevens was moaning just to my left on the tile. Tile? I turned and saw a small, dimly lit room covered in warm reds, browns, and golds, two beds on opposite sides the room, and a small, hip level table in the center. Behind it, an older lady stood in relatively clean, World War II hospital nursing scrubs. She even wore the bonnet with her graying brown hair tucked firmly beneath it.
“That fucking bitch! When I get out of here, I’m going to shove my foot up her rhyming ass,” I pushed myself up to my feet and looked around the room again before walking over and checking on Sevens. He twitched when I touched him, but after realizing it was me, he sat his head back on the cool floor and whimpered.
“I would ask you to watch your language, young lady,” the woman behind the table said calmly as she dipped a rag into a steaming bowl.
“Excuse me?”
“Very well, you are excused. Apology accepted. Are you hurt?” Her voice was so calming, so caring, that I was perplexed on how to answer.
Another woman entered from a door behind the table; she was carrying an armload of towels and warm blankets. I could almost smell the freshly washed linens. Suddenly, all my body wanted to do was curl up in one and sleep.
The second woman, wearing nearly identical attire, walked over to me hurriedly, “Oh, you poor dear! Are you ok? Look at the state of you. You must be famished and tired,” She said before turning to the first woman. “Martha, can we get these two some warm cloth and a bowl of water so we can wash their bruises and they can rest.”
The lady named Martha nodded, “Yes, Martha.”
Okay, now I was confused.
The first Martha left the room while the second Martha went and put the blankets on each of the beds, spreading them out and fluffing the pillows. She then walked over and gradually led me by the arm and made me lie down. The second Martha returned with two bowls of steaming water and several clean rags. She set a bowl down next to my bedside and then sat down next to Sevens, dipping the rag in the water. When she began to wipe him down with the warm rag, he shuddered and purred. She lifted his head and began to clean behind his limbs and under his belly.
Sevens moaned with every stroke against his skin, seemingly enjoying the experience. I couldn’t blame him, the beds were heavenly, finally feeling the slightest bit of warmth in my extremities like a warm liquid running to my fingertips and toes. I tilted my head back against the pillows as the other Martha walked over to my bedside.
“Hello, dear. I do hope you are alright,” Martha said warmly, dipping a rag into the water and starting to slowly pat down my arms and the top of my head.
“It’s been a long day.”
Martha nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rosary dangling from her neck. I should have inspected further.
“Well, dear, I can understand that. Things in the Hollows are hard to get used to. But, you do what you can to make do,” She said, dripping the water on my bloodied knees, wiping the dried blood away, making my skin sting.
“Just take a moment and relax,” She said. “Things will be okay, now.”
Upon her reassurance, I relaxed for the first time since waking to Sevens. I heard him groan with pleasure again. I was glad he was doing okay and not hurt from the force of the magic Cassandra had used. I was starting to understand why Day wanted me to be careful around her. She was more powerful than I gave her credit for. I couldn’t wait until I could rip her apart.
“You look tired, honey. Why don’t you close your eyes and get some rest,” Martha said.
I shook my head, “I have to find a way back.”
“Back to what, dear? There is nothing out there for you,” She said so quietly while doing such soothing strokes.
“I have something I have to do,” I said, but even as the words were coming out of my mouth, my head was starting to swim in the warmth.
Martha dipped the rag back in the water, “There is nothing you can do, child. You will realize this soon.”
If my head was not lost in the warmth, I would have caught her tone change, but I was absent. The room was spinning and my eyelids were drooping with the weight of the Hollows will.
“No, no,” I tried to slur out.
“Hush, dear. And remember to relax. Things will be better if you relax.”
I didn’t feel her hands trace my wrists with an unfamiliar weight. I didn’t feel her circle my ankles with the warm rag and leave something cool that chilled my skin. The world was changing from where I was to where I had been. My world turned, as though I was spinning, hanging from long forgotten rafters in a long-forgotten room.
Martha’s voice changed and all I heard was Joan Charpiot, whispering lovingly in my ear with a message laced with poison, “This is what you’ll want, dear.”
“What did you say?” I started to pull back to reality.
“You truly are completely ordinary, there is nothing you can do here. I was hoping for someone better. This is what you want. We were hoping for someone less ordinary. Yet, here you are. Pay attention,” Martha said with Joan’s voice.
