In This Skin

by Simon Clark

  I'll show him, he thought. I'll show the weird little stutter monkey…

  With his fury as much alight as the Luxor now, Logan jumped down from the stage. Illuminated by the fire that engulfed the entire curtain, he raced across the dance floor toward the lobby. As he ran he dragged back the bolt of the submachine gun, his finger snaked sensuously around the trigger. With a yell of exultation he burst through the door.

  Shit…

  What the hell were they doing? What the hell were they?

  Anywhere between a dozen and twenty men and women clustered around the far side of the lobby. Men and women! Freaking hell, they weren't people, they were monsters. They were misshapen things with weird manes of hair, bulging eyes, axe-slash mouths… some didn't even have arms, but limbs that coiled like serpents. And they weren't beating a party drum but wrecking a door, clearly aiming to break into what must be a locked room.

  They didn't pay attention to Logan when he stood there aiming the submachine gun at them. All their attention was nailed tight to that door they were assiduously tearing to pieces. Boy there must be some treasure and a half beyond it.

  Logan called out to them. ”Hey”

  They carried on working at the door, tossing aside chunks of timber behind them.

  ”Hey!”

  Still they worked without even glancing back.

  ”Hey I said look at me!”

  Enraged by being ignored, Logan let the motherfuckers have it. The whole clip. The entire thirty rounds. A yard of fire spurted from the muzzle.

  Its clatter snapped at his eardrums. In the gloom of the lobby he even saw the 9-mm slugs speed toward their monster targets. Fiery meteors, shooting awaaa-aaay… Keeping his finger tight on the trigger, he raked the crowd. Seconds later the ammo clip emptied. Silence rushed back. Gunsmoke hazed the air blue. In front of him the entire pack of creatures had fallen.

  Awed by the killing power of the weapon, Logan took two paces toward the dead and dying creatures that lay in a growing lake of their own blood.

  Hell… he'd downed the lot. Not one left standing.

  But where's Ellery Hann?

  A crash sounded from the dance floor; Logan glanced back. Dirty rivers of smoke poured through the lobby doors. The whole place was going up.

  With the front entrance boarded shut, there was only one way out. Logan decided to retreat to a safe distance and watch Ellery Hann emerge when the heat got too much for the stutter monkey Then: Bingo!

  ***

  Benedict had advanced down the stairwell as far as the tangled plug of assorted furniture that formed the barricade to keep the creatures at bay when he heard machine-gun fire. Instantly it put a stop to the sound of the door being smashed. The downside was that after the clatter of the gun died away the smell of burning grew stronger. Mingled with acrid gunsmoke was the aromatic scent of burning wood.

  Damn, he thought. The Luxor's on fire.

  Sitting in the apartment waiting for everything to get better by itself wasn't an option. A second realization hit him: Mariah Lee's still under the stage…

  Benedict ran back to the kitchen where Robyn and Noel sat side by side on the floor with their backs to the wall. Both gazed in wonder at the bundle in the towel. Ellery and Nathaniel sat on the chairs at a respectful distance, watching the baby's arm wave in the air.

  Noel said, ”We need to get Robyn and the baby to a hospital. They've got to be checked over.”

  ”No.”This came with a steely firmness from Nathaniel.

  Benedict noticed Noel glance at the revolver he'd put down beside him.

  The king and queen of all arguments was on its way, but Benedict had more pressing news. ”We've got to get out of here.”

  ”There w-was gunfire,”Ellery said, cocking his head to one side, perhaps realizing that the hammering on the door had stopped.

  ”There was,”Benedict agreed, his words coming out in a hurry ”But don't ask me who was shooting. Listen: The Luxor's on fire. I'm sure of it.”

  ”On fire?”

  ”Where, I don't know. But the only way out is through the stage door at the back of the building. If we don't move now, we'll be trapped.”

  Noel looked stunned. ”But what about those things downstairs? They're not going to let Robyn stroll out here with the baby”

  ”We'll have to fight our way through if need be. It's either that or stay here and fry.”Benedict saw Ellery's eyes stray to the window.

  ”Don't even think about exiting that way. It's a thirty-foot drop to hardtop. Jumping twenty feet to the ground's lethal in most cases. That kind of distance is the same as a bullet in the brain.”

  Noel checked the gun. ”Fully loaded. Robyn, can you walk?”

  ”Yes, but help me up.”

  Benedict turned to Nathaniel and Ellery. ”See if you can find weapons. A knife or hammer”

  Nathaniel spoke doggedly, ”Robyn must not leave here with the baby. The baby is a healer. He is needed by my people.”He nodded with conviction.

  ”The baby stays here.”

  ”The baby's going to die if he stays here. Come on.”

  Neither Nathaniel nor Ellery chose a weapon. Benedict chose a carving knife from the drawer. New and wickedly sharp. As Ellery took the baby Noel helped Robyn stand. Meanwhile, Nathaniel pounded through to the stairwell, where he began dragging out the furniture. The giant moved with speed and controlled power. Benedict stood back to allow him to dismantle their barricade so they could descend the stairs and confront whatever waited in the lobby

  ***

  Noel insisted on going first. He moved down the stairwell holding the handgun in front of him. He paused at the shattered door, then glanced out into the foyer, his head turning in rapid twists as he shone the flashlight. Then he looked back up at them as they waited at the top of the stairs.

  ”Come on down,”he told them. ”It's not pretty, but it's safe.”

  As soon as they reached the foyer Benedict saw what Noel meant. There'd been a slaughter here. That machine-gun fire had killed the creatures where they stood. Benedict judged there to be fifteen or so corpses lying clustered about the doorway. Gingerly, he stepped over the gory bodies, feet squelching into blood-soaked carpet.

  ”The smoke smells stronger down here,”Noel said.

  ”My guess is that someone's set fire to the building to drive us out.”

  ”Those?”Ellery asked, nodding at the dead creatures.

  ”Could be. Or whoever killed them.”

  ”A m-man called Logan,”Ellery said. ”He… he's promised to kill me.”

  ”Looks as if the guy's gone on a whole killing spree.”Noel helped Robyn through the swamp of crimson grue. She held the baby tight in its towel shawl. Remarkably, her expression was calm. She knew her priorities.

  This bloodshed wasn't going to faze her. Her son came first now.

  ”We have to exit through the stage area,”Benedict said. ”I'll bring Mariah out.”

  ”I'll come with you.”Nathaniel's eyes blazed with a cold fire of their own.

  There was something unreadable in the giant's expression. There's a secret hidden behind that blue-white face, Benedict told himself. The man is planning something Noel's opening the doors released a wall of dirty black smoke into the lobby. ”We're going to have to move fast,”he shouted. ”The whole place is going up!”

  Mariah… Benedict thought of her trapped beneath the blazing stage.

  Smoke… heat… she can't survive this.

  In seconds they were through the doors onto the dance floor. They no longer needed the flashlights. The inferno filled the room with white light. The entire wall that backed the stage appeared to be blazing.

  More pools of fire formed on the timber stage itself. The heat was nothing less than a physical presence scorching their skin, stinging their eyes. Smoke rolled like a weird black sea across the ceiling, sending waves of poisonous fumes from one side of the room to the other.

  Acrid gases irritated the backs of their thr
oats. Coughing, they made for the side of the stage, where the flames were smaller.

  ”You're not going to make it that way,”Nathaniel rumbled. ”You'll burn.”

  ”It's the only way out,”Benedict told him. ”We have to cross the stage, then head through the corridors to the stage door.”

  ”You won't make it.”

  Benedict turned to Noel. ”Lead Robyn and Ellery through there… there's a break in the fire. Get out of the building.”

  ”You'll need a hand.”

  ”No, take Robyn and the baby out of here. Nathaniel will help me get Mariah out.”If she's alive, was the unspoken thought he tagged onto the sentence.

  There was no other exit. They psyched themselves to enter the firestorm that raged in front of them.

  ***

  The burn on his left cheek hurt Logan, It made him angrier than ever.

  He'd just gotten through the burning stage area in time before the timber stage itself caught light. Even so, a hunk of stage curtain had fallen like a blazing meteor to brush the side of his head. As well as the burn on his cheek, his ear had been seared, too, and a chunk of his hair had gone in one singeing flash.

  Man, was he pissed.

  Now Logan crouched in the corridor that ran back from the stage toward the back doors. Common sense told him to wait outside where it was safe.

  But fuck common sense. He wanted to see Eh-Eh-Ellery burn, or go down with a couple of hot slugs busting his gut. The heat from the fire was intense, but he could bear it here. What's more, he could watch the dance floor in the brilliant light cast by the inferno. If they came this way, he'd see all right.

  Three minutes later, Logan grinned. Man, oh man, good call. He'd been proven right. 'Cause here comes the stutter monkey and posse.

  Comprising: one girl with a baby, two regular guys and one giant… the giant seemed to have weird feet, but with the fog of fumes Logan couldn't figure it out. He grinned. Not that it mattered: in another sixty seconds he'd have Eh-Eh-Ellery in his sights, then he'd start shoe-shoe-shooting…

  ***

  The sheet of flame that was the stage curtain covered the entire wall behind the stage. Benedict heard coughs from Robyn and the rest develop into hacking rasps. The heat had become nothing less than a physical barrier that they had to push against, their faces stinging.

  Benedict feared for the baby in Robyn's arms. Robyn, too, was exhausted.

  Nine months pregnancy crushed down into a matter of hours. Giving birth.

  Now this. How much more could she take before she collapsed?

  They were halfway across the dance floor when Nathaniel stopped them.

  ”You're not going to make it through the fire.”

  Noel's face blazed with fury at their way being blocked by the firestorm. ”That's the only way out!”

  ”There's another route.”

  Nathaniel had barely spoken the words when Benedict felt a sudden wash of cooling air that was fresh as woodland mists in the fall.

  ”No. We're not going through there.”Noel shook his head.

  ”What choice do you have? Think about your woman and your child.”

  A hole had appeared in the smoke. Ringed by mist, it contained a cool gray light in its center. Nathaniel must have opened the portal by whatever mysterious process he employed.

  For a second it seemed the firestorm fought back against the cooler currents of air from that other place. Smoke rolled over them in waves.

  The heat intensified. Sparks drifted down onto their heads from the blazing stage curtain.

  Robyn glanced at Noel. ”We don't have a choice.”Not waiting for him to reply, she hunched herself over the child in a stoop to protect him from the falling sparks. Then she ran at the ten-foot halo of fog that hovered just an inch above the dance floor. Without a flicker of self doubt on his face, Ellery followed, too.

  Nathaniel gripped Noel by the elbow. ”Take care of them.”

  For a moment Benedict wondered if Noel would turn the gun on the giant.

  His eyes burned with fury. He figured that somehow Nathaniel had planned all this, so they'd be forced into that other gray world, where men who were monsters waited for the coming of the healer. Half the blazing curtain fell with a soft whump sound. It covered the stage in a carpet of fire. Sparks flew, ferociously stinging any exposed skin they found. Noel jerked his elbow free of Nathaniel's massive hand. A moment later he vanished, following Robyn and Ellery into that other realm.

  Benedict turned to the fiery stage, then shot a glance at Nathaniel. ”I don't know if she will have survived.”

  ”I'm bringing her out.”

  Benedict disagreed. ”We're bringing her out.”

  Running to the front elevation of the stage, where the dwarf door was located, Benedict saw smoke curl out where the door met the jamb, and he dreaded what he'd find in there.

  CHAPTER 37

  Logan blinked against the inferno's glare. He'd seen Ellery Hann and the others start running. Then they disappeared into the smoke, never to come out. The big weird guy and his buddy raced at the stage as if they were going to take their chance hopping over the flames, only they ducked down beneath the edge of the stage and vanished, too. What crazy shit were they aiming to pull? When no one appeared, Logan decided he'd have to go to them. Clearly they weren't going to come running to him, waiting here ready and rarin' to go with his fully-loaded SMG.

  Inconsiderate bastards.

  ***

  Robyn didn't know how she did it, but she did it. She kept her footing as the hard, flat dance floor dissolved under her feet to be replaced by uneven ground, covered with a slippery mat of rotting leaves. Instantly the smoke vanished. Cool, damp air washed across her hot face. She ventilated her lungs, expelling the toxic fumes from the burning Luxor.

  After blinking away the tears caused by the smoke, she saw that she walked through a small clearing in the gray forest. All she saw were tree trunks, branches without leaves and a bone-white sky above her head. There were none of those menacing figures that she'd encountered before. Carefully, she eased the flap of towel away from her newborn son's face. He was unscathed by the inferno. Sleeping untroubled, his lips were a healthy pink, while his hands, bunched up near his face, twitched a little as he dreamt of… of what? This world? His prophesized destiny? Healer of its monsterized inhabitants?

  With her legs weak and trembly now, she made it to a fallen log and sat down. Seconds later she watched as Ellery lightly stepped through the twist of fog in the clearing. He was followed by Noel, who slipped and dropped to one knee before pulling himself to his feet. Noel's face was dark. The man was troubled and perplexed by this strange world of gray dripping trees. On the other hand, Ellery appeared calm, relaxed even, as if he'd stepped into a reassuringly familiar environment.

  Noel came up fast, his eyes radiating concern. ”Robyn. You okay? The baby…”

  ”We're both fine.”

  Ellery glanced around. ”We're alone. We haven't been seen yet.”

  A tingle of astonishment ran through her exhausted body. Ellery spoke without hesitation, or even a suggestion of a stammer. His words possessed a silvery clarity that she'd not heard from him before. ”This is where you want to be, isn't it, Ellery?”

  ”This is the way that leads to it.”He smiled. ”Beyond the wood there's a town on a hill.”

  ”Home?”she asked.

  His smile broadened. ”Home,”he agreed. Once more secret understanding seemed to pass between them as they looked at each other.

  Noel sounded prickly. ”We can't stay here long. For one, we need to get you to a hospital. You should get checked out by a doctor”

  ”I feel fine.”

  ”You've just given birth, Robyn. You need a medical examination. And then there's the baby. He will need feeding.”

  Ellery shook his head. ”Not here. I don't know how it works, but all the nourishment we need is in the air… in the fabric of the world. It will feed us.”

  ”It he
als, too,”Robyn said. She repositioned the baby in her arm so she could rub her stomach with her free hand. ”I can feel it… it's repairing the damage caused by the birth… one hell of a fast birth,”she added with feeling.

  ”What now?”Noel asked.

  ”Wait for Benedict and Nathaniel.”

  ”But wait with caution,”Ellery said, glancing about him. ”They might already know we're here.”

  Ellery didn't need to specify ”they, Robyn didn't doubt that the occupants of this gray world would not delay in finding them.

  ***

  Logan leapt over clumps of fire on the boards. By this time the stage timbers were alight. Fires snapped and popped all around him. The smoke was blinding. Holding the submachine gun in both hands, he dropped from the stage onto the dance floor. Golden sparks fell like burning snowflakes. Logan ran through swathes of smoke, hunting down Hann and his cronies, only the place was deserted. Maybe another door exited to the parking lot? If so, where the hell was it?

  His eyes smarted as he scanned the walls, searching for an open door that would mock his failure to catch Hann. No door. No window. So how could they escape the Luxor? He doubled back through blinding fumes toward the stage. He couldn't stay here; the atmosphere was choking.

  Clumps of black smoke haunted the dance floor like ghosts. He tried to avoid their toxic presence by dodging between them. And when he found himself confronted by a patch of gray vapor, he figured it would be less poisonous than its dark siblings, so he chanced dashing straight through the heart of it, determined to reach the backstage area that was, for present, free of fire.

  The world pulsed around him. Fiery atmosphere vanished, to be replaced by a cool wash of backwoods air. Beneath his running feet the floor softened into mush. He skidded, regained his balance, and ran into a world very different from the one he'd known before.