In This Skin

by Simon Clark

  The guy carried the girl-only sort of twisted the top half of his body so he hunched over her, with his arms beneath her torso, and he was dragging her across the dance floor, her bare feet sliding on the timbers. Benedict saw that she was unconscious (or dead?) while the guy's face almost touched hers. But there was something with the face.

  The man appeared to be wearing a red dust mask… at least a kind of mask that covered the bottom half of his face. Then with a series of tingling shocks Benedict interpreted the information his eyes supplied.

  The arms of the man were unusually long and slender, malformed even (where were the hands?), while the figure's eyes were shockingly large (where were the eyelids?). Then he saw the mask wasn't a mask at all but a mouth… a huge red mouth that dripped saliva in silver threads onto the girl's throat. The mouth went down to the girl. Benedict saw the jaw move. Dear God, was it about to gnaw the girl's face? ”Hey!”Benedict's shout cracked through the silence with the power of a thunderclap. Instantly the man looked up-but, sweet Jesus, what kind of man? Benedict found himself looking at a face with a huge flowering growth of a mouth, while the eyes were glinting balls… hard, glassy, lidless orbs that chilled his blood.

  The creature froze like that only for a second, holding the woman in its arms, then lowered her to the ground. Stepping over her, it crouched on bent knees. Benedict conjured images of hyenas protecting their kill, ready to attack rather than allow some scavenger to make off with their meal.

  ”Hey! Leave her!”Benedict shouted again as he ran forward, blasting the creature with the light from the lamp so it flinched before its brilliance. Dropping down from the stage, he advanced on the creature, swinging the light as he did so, feeling the reassuring weight of its metal casing in his hand. The campers lamp hissed loudly The light filled the entire auditorium. The creature glared at him through the light, its eyes not narrowing but bulging, becoming even larger in that monstrously distorted head.

  ”Get away from her!”He swung the light as if to strike the creature.

  For a second the monster ducked forward, ready to lunge at him, but a close sweep with the hissing lamp forced it to reevaluate. Instead it sprang to its feet and bounded toward the stage, where it leapt with the agility of a baboon onto the boards before vanishing through the gap in the curtain.

  There was no doubt in Benedict's mind. Trying to follow the speeding creature would have been a waste of time. Besides, the girl needed his help now. Putting the lamp down on the floor he ran toward her. She looked young… late teens, he guessed. Her skin had a gray pallor while her hair was mussed. Bits of leaf and matchstick-sized twigs stuck to her hair. Mud painted dark stripes down her nightdress (not bloodstains, thank God), while her feet and knees were coated with filth.

  Worst of all, he saw that her face glistened with a silvery slime. That thing's drool had covered her lips. Had it been about to bite her? Or had it been sucking her mouth? He thought of that huge red mouth with what looked like a complex mass of lips and he shuddered. Dear God, another minute and…

  She stirred. A grimace twisted her expression.

  ”Are you all right?”

  ”Noel?”

  She opened her eyes. They were unfocused; she could see nothing.

  ”No. My name is Benedict West. Don't worry I'll get you out of here.”

  ”Noel?”

  ”Look, I'll have to carry you. Don't be frightened. I'm going to get you to a hospital.”

  ”No… I can't leave.”

  ”Tell me your name, miss.”

  ”Robyn… please help me get home.”

  ”That's what I intend. But I'm going to have to pick you up. OK?”

  ”Help me…”She seemed to be coming to. ”Get me home, please. Before he finds out…”

  ”Where's home?”

  ”Here.”

  ***

  The young guy in the pajama pants with the chili pepper pattern stared at Benedict in something that yelled out both disbelief and pure shock.

  ”You found her where?”

  ”On the dance floor.”

  ”Who the hell are you!”

  ”My name is Benedict West.”

  ”What have you-”

  ”Please, sir. She's very cold. If you step aside I'll carry her in… up the stairs?”

  ”Huh?”The young guy couldn't absorb what he was seeing in Benedict standing there at the door with the muddied girl in his arms.

  ”Upstairs? Is that where your rooms are?”

  ”Yeah. Sure. This way.”The guy got his act together. ”I'll follow you up. I need to use the flashlight so you can see.”

  ”Okay, keep it on the stairs in front of me. More to the left… your left…”

  ”Jesus. What happened to her?”

  ”Let me get her somewhere warm first.”Benedict cradled the girl in his arms as if she were a child. ”Are you her husband?”

  ”Partner. My name's Noel.”

  ”Okay, Noel, which doorway?”

  ”This one. It's the lounge.”

  ”I'll put her on the couch. Can you grab a blanket? Her skin's like ice.”

  ”She's cold?”Noel couldn't understand. ”It's more than seventy degrees tonight. How can she be cold?”

  ”I think she's been out.”

  ”Outside?”

  ”In a way?' Benedict laid her gently down, supporting her head on a scatter cushion. Behind him, Noel lit an array of candles.

  ”No electricity?”

  ”No.”

  ”You're squatting?”

  ”I guess.”Then Noel turned his attention to the girl. ”Robyn… Robyn?

  Are you hurt? Has someone attacked you?”

  Benedict noticed that Noel's eyes flicked down to her hips. No prizes for what the guy was thinking.

  ”Noel!”Robyn opened her eyes. For a second they held a light that blazed with sheer panic. Furiously she glanced around the room as if expecting to see… what? When she realized she was safely home she sighed and relaxed back onto the pillow. ”Noel, oh thank God, thank God.”

  ”Listen to me. Have you been hurt?”Noel crouched beside her, holding one of her hands in both of his.

  She shook her head. ”I heard a baby crying. I went to look for it when you said you were following me down onto the dance floor; only when I got down there, you didn't follow and I was alone then…”The words had burst from her lips; now she stopped, closing her eyes, shaking her head. ”Oh my God. I saw them, Noel.”

  ”Saw who, sweetheart?”

  ”I… I don't know. They were…”She shrugged, struggling to find the right words. ”Awful. Deformed. Monsters-I don't know…”

  Benedict saw the man glance up as if to ask for more information.

  Benedict shrugged, too. ”When I walked onto the stage I saw Robyn there.

  She was…”He winced, seeing the distress on the young guy's face. ”She was being dragged across the floor by this guy”

  ”A guy… what guy?”

  ”I don't know… only he… he… there was something about him.

  Something… wrong.”

  ”How do you mean, wrong?”Benedict sounded angry now, rather than concerned. ”You stood and watched?”

  ”Look, her skin feels like ice. Let me find a blanket. And a sponge and warm water so you can clean her up. Looks as if she's taken a bad fall in a lot of dirt.”

  Benedict didn't wait for the okay from Noel. He left him running his hand across the girl's forehead, trying to soothe her. But in truth it was the young guy that looked more worked up. For the next ten minutes, Benedict brought in the comforter, found a plastic bowl that he filled with warm water and then hunted around until he found a face cloth and towel in the bathroom. After a while beneath the comforter, Robyn became more alert and the color returned to her face. Her blue-gray lips pinkened. Her eyes were brighter. Benedict saw that she talked earnestly to her boyfriend, telling him what had happened. In the main, Noel shook his head doubtfully.

  Benedict
returned to the kitchen, where by the light of a single candle he boiled a kettle on the stove. When he couldn't find a jar of coffee in the larder he settled on hot chocolate. He spooned the mottled brown powder into a pair of cups, added more sugar as an antidote to the shock that the young couple must be experiencing, then poured the boiling water. By the time he carried the steaming cups back to the living room, it was almost one-fifteen in the morning. Through the apartment windows he could see the glow of downtown Chicago in the distance, while above it the stars burned like witch fire.

  ”It'll taste sweet,”he warned. ”But it'll make you feel a little better at least.”

  ”Thank you,”Robyn said, pushing herself into a sitting position. Leaves still adorned her hair.

  Noel took his with a ”thanks,”and Benedict noticed a sideward glance of suspicion.

  Benedict asked, ”How are you feeling now, Robyn?”

  ”Grubby Like I played football single-handed against the Chicago Bears…”She forced a smile. ”And lost.”

  Noel flexed his powerful fists; muscles bulged in his forearms. As he stood up he ran his fingers back through his hair. There still was an edginess there.

  Looking at Benedict he said, ”I don't understand what Robyn was doing outside.”

  ”I don't think she left the Luxor as such.” 'As such? What do you mean?”Noel ran both his hands through his hair as he paced. ”And what were you doing here?”

  ”Noel-”Robyn began.

  ”But you've been attacked, Robyn. I want to know how… I want to know by whom? When I went to sleep you were with me. Now I find you-”

  ”Noel, let me-”

  ”Attacked… and-and this guy says you went outside without leaving the building. It doesn't make one jigger of sense, does-”

  ”Noel.”Robyn took a deep breath. She gazed into the hot chocolate in the cup, seeing her reflection floating there. For a second she recalled terrible things; Benedict could tell from her expression.

  Gently Benedict broke the silence. ”It's a long story, but I'm trying to discover what happened to my girlfriend… ex-girlfriend,”he corrected with a grimace. ”Mariah Lee. One night she walked into this building.

  She never left.”

  ”We've seen no one else here,”Noel said quickly ”I don't doubt you,”Benedict replied. ”She disappeared ten years ago.”

  ”Ten years!”

  ”Yeah, I know. The trail's going to be pretty cold after all that time.”He shrugged. ”It got under my skin. I can't stop looking.”

  Robyn shivered. ”Lucky you did.”

  ”I guess so.”

  Noel shook his head. ”But what made you go down there, Robyn? You knew that anyone could have been wandering around the building.”

  ”Not just anyone.”A tremor sounded in her voice. She took a deep swallow of the hot beverage. ”Sit down, Noel. Here beside me.” She wriggled herself into a sitting position beneath the comforter, her legs straight out on the sofa. Then she nodded at the armchair. ”Take a seat, Benedict. I want you to hear this, too.”After taking another grateful swallow of hot chocolate, she began to relate events from the moment she had climbed out of bed at midnight.

  ***

  Robyn explained what had happened. How she'd heard the baby's cry and how she'd found no sign of an infant in the dance hall. Now she realized that it must have been a trick to lure her down there. As plainly as she could, she then described losing her sense of direction in the dance hall when the candle blew out. Then came the weird sensation of passing through some boundary into a forest where-just as she'd dreamt many times before-she'd encountered monstrous figures in a clearing. As she'd fled, the creature with a great crimson eruption of a mouth had pounced on her. That's all she remembered. ”I must have passed out,”she added.

  ”Then I woke up on the dance floor with Benedict helping me.”

  ”But you never went outside the building?”Noel was still struggling with what he'd been told.

  ”No. The forest was inside, but…”She struggled with the explanation.

  ”But not inside, if you see what I mean? I saw streams and open sky.

  There were hundreds of trees. Thousands.”

  ”Take it easy, honey,” Noel said gently. ”I guess you must have dreamt the trees when you fainted.”

  ”No, it was real-”

  ”But how can there have been trees inside this building?”

  Robyn looked at the man called Benedict. He nodded. ”There's leaves in her hair. Moss stains and mud on her nightdress-”

  ”That proves she went outside. There're trees and a river back there.”

  ”But look at the leaves… this one here.”Carefully Benedict untangled one from her hair. ”It's red but still supple; it's come from a tree in the fall.” He nodded at the billowing trees beyond the window, revealed as humpy silhouette shapes by starlight. ”This is spring.

  All the leaves are green. Besides…”He studied the star-pointed leaf.

  ”I reckon I've never seen a leaf like this before.”

  ”I don't know about that.”Noel began running his fingers through his hair again. ”But these people Robyn thought she saw. Obviously, she dreamt it… or it's the shock making her imagine she saw-”

  Robyn clenched her fists. She willed him to believe. ”I did see them.

  One attacked me.”

  ”And don't forget,”Benedict added. ”I saw him, too. And he wasn't what I'd describe as human.”

  ***

  They talked for another hour. Robyn had to repeatedly reassure Noel that she felt fine, that all she'd done was suffer from shock, which was true. A symptomatic effect of shock is that it affects the senses. Robyn found that the colors of her surroundings had almost faded to black and white, while objects on the periphery of her vision were fuzzy Benedict had no problem with her story From what he said, he'd been learning that the Luxor was a place with one hell of a mystery at its heart. Robyn watched the man talk. He had a pleasant crinkling smile but there was sadness in his eyes. He spoke more about Mariah Lee. Clearly she'd been the great love of his life; it pained him that he'd lost her.

  He also still loved her. He'd devoted his life to searching for the woman. He'd even moved from Atlantic City to be close to the place where she'd disappeared. Every few weeks the Luxor had drawn him back to sit in the lot and watch the door as if she'd magically reappear.

  At last, understanding emerged like sunrise on the horizon. Robyn's fingers tingled, shooting flashes of electricity up her arms. ”Benedict. You haven't said what you're really thinking,” she told him.

  ”Thinking about what?”

  She looked into those sad eyes. ”You figure what happened to Mariah nearly happened to me. Mariah Lee walked out onto the dance floor, where she found herself in that forest. Only for some reason she could never find her way back.”

  His cheek tremored as he spoke. ”In all honesty? That's the conclusion I've been reaching. She went in. She didn't come out.”

  Robyn glanced at Noel, who said nothing. She could see that two forces tore him. One made him want to cry out, ”Stop talking this nonsense!” The other, well, belief in what she'd told him was snaking its way into his brain.

  ”So you're looking for evidence of what happened to Mariah?” she asked.

  ”That's about the size of it. But I'm no great shakes as a detective. After all, I'm a freelance web designer by profession.” He gave a sad smile. ”The best I've got is a collection of old videotapes. The previous owner of the Luxor, one Benjamin Isiah Lockram, made a series of documentaries about the place. He shot them himself on a domestic video system.”

  ”So you do know what's been happening here?”

  ”Let's say I've had some tantalizing glimpses and mysterious clues, if that doesn't sound overly melodramatic.”He knitted his fingers together. ”But the problem is I have six videos, numbered one through seven, but-”

  Noel made the mental jump. ”But one's missing?”

  Benedict no
dded. ”Volume five. I figure that's the one that contains one god-almighty revelation.”

  ”Videotapes?”Robyn echoed.

  ”Yeah, that's all I could find. They're the obsolete Betamax cassettes that are about-”

  Robyn guessed what he was going to say. ”So big.”She held her fingers apart, showing the span.

  ”That's it. Big clunky old things, they are… hey,

  Robyn you should be sitting down. You've suffered a-”

  ”No… I'm fine.”Robyn stepped away from the couch.

  ”Take it easy, you're-”

  ”Noel. Let go. I'm fine.”She felt a burst of triumph. ”I found a box of old videotapes in the larder yesterday I put them through…”

  This time a wave of vertigo pulled her back. Both Noel and Benedict caught her as she crumpled.

  CHAPTER 18

  Robyn understood the moment she saw Noel. He laid the revolver down on the bedside table and began to untie his sneakers. She glanced at the little travel clock she'd brought with her from home. The time was four a.m. Beyond the windows it was still dark. Her eyes were drawn to the handgun. In the candlelight it gleamed a blue-black, reminding her strangely of bat skin. She shivered.

  ”Noel?”

  ”It's OK, honey Go back to sleep.”

  ”You've been down to the dance floor, haven't you?”

  He blew out the candle. ”I didn't mean to wake you, sorry.”She heard him slide under the comforter beside her. ”How are you feeling now?”

  ”I'm fine.”She felt his lips find and kiss the side of her face in the darkness. ”Noel?”

  ”Hmm?”

  ”You went looking for the man… that thing… that attacked me?”

  ”After what happened tonight, I thought it best to check that there was no one around.”

  She tried to make a joke of what she said next but her voice came as a nervous laugh. ”You didn't shoot anyone, did you?”