Sandy felt dizzy. She put a hand to her damp forehead and swaggered. Jina’s phone chirped and Sandy collapsed to the floor.
Jina read the text out loud, “My Sandy’s still poisoned… Soon she’ll be buried… But every girl’s happy, when she agrees to get married. Signed S.A.”
Sandy groaned on the floor. “No,” she whispered.
Her world began to grow black. She started to lose the power of thought. Her insides burned up as if her belly was a furnace. Invisible ants crawled all over her skin, under her clothes.
She exhaled.
“Yes, I will agree,” she whispered.
“Now what?” Jina asked.
“What does your phone say?” Sandy stammered. She struggled to maintain consciousness.
“Oh, here it is… You’re supposed to… eat a chocolate.” Jina looked around the room, and spotted the box on the table. Most of the chocolates spilled out onto the tabletop as she yanked the lid off the glittery heart. She shakily pulled the gold, crinkly wrapper from one, knelt by Sandy, and held it to her mouth.
Sandy sat up and took the candy. She bit it in half, and as she chewed, she noticed a glint of gold within. She broke the chocolate up in her hand and found a diamond ring. It looked identical to the one she had been offered in the entryway.
Carefully, and with difficulty, she scraped off the bits of chocolate and pink filling that still clung to the gold. Looking up at the roses, she sighed despairingly, and slid the ring on her left hand.
Relief came instantly. She relaxed as the tension of having to keep herself upright vanished. Her vision cleared and her skin cooled.
The flowers, on the other hand, began wilting. The edges of the petals withered. As Jina helped Sandy to her feet, they watched the pristine white roses curl, the heads drooping. They began to change color as well. Wilting white roses became wilted red roses became long dead black roses on dry, brittle stems.
The candy on the table began to crumble. The tops caved in like empty shells, the filling having already been eaten out by rot. Chocolate turned to dust.
“How do you feel, Sandy?”
“Much better. But freaked out.”
“Then let’s get out this house. Now.” Jina helped Sandy to her feet.
They ran back the way they had come. But there were no stairs. Thinking she’d misremembered how far she’d gone, Jina led Sandy to the next room. But they still found no stairs.
“Jina, where are we?”
“I thought…”
There was still another doorway to try, but Sandy saw no sense in wandering around aimlessly. She walked up to a dusty window in the bare room. With the base of her palm, she cleaned a spot and looked down onto the backyard. It should have been the front yard.
“What the hell. Jina—”
A sharp creaking sound forced its way into what she had been about to say. It had a metallic feel to it, like an old nail was being pulled slowly out of a dry board.
The sound ended with a sharp crack of wood splintering.
“Ouch! What in the—” Jina held her hand up to look at her finger, and an inch-long wood sliver stuck out from the edge of her nail. A small drop of blood oozed around it.
There was a tug at her sleeve. Sandy was trying to get her attention.
A man stood, arms folded, in the corner by the door. He wore moth-eaten wool pants and a tuxedo coat in a mismatched shade of black. The suit was tattered, with bits of cloth and dirty white shirt sticking out in various places. A top hat with a wrinkled brim pinned down his frazzled black hair, and moist perspiration beaded across his pale forehead. The details of his face were difficult to make out in the shadow that he seemed to cast upon himself. More notably, his skin, while very pale, also had a slight, almost bluish tint.
“It’s high time we met,” he said, raising his cane and tapping on the floor.
“Fuck you!” Sandy shouted. She bolted through the next door, with Jina close behind. A cobweb brushed against her face.
This room was just as empty, but there were no other doors. A sound came from the other side. She turned. The door slammed shut.
Sandy started creeping slowly along the wall towards the only window. If she had to, she would jump.
Something flew towards her and stuck into the wall near her neck. She halted, but turning to look, she couldn’t see what it was. Something flew towards her again, as quickly as a bullet. It hit above her left shoulder, and this time she felt something graze her, not quite breaking the skin. She turned her head the other way and could see a rusty nail pinning her shirt to the wall. Cold brittle metal pressed against both shoulders.
She looked up and saw Jina pinned to the opposite wall in a similar manner.
A tickle grazed Sandy’s face. She lifted her hand to brush it away. A sticky cobweb clung to her fingers. Another swept over her hand. Resolving to rip the nails from the wall or her clothes, whichever gave first, she pulled forward. A force shoved her back into place as a spider web grew out of the wall to encircle her upper arms. More webs appeared, covering her elbows and forearms. They were common, inelegant webs, the plain looking ones that house spiders spin. Funnel spiders. Spiders.
With panicked strength, Sandy pulled hard against her bonds. Her arms could still move, but as she resisted, more webs grew, until she could move nothing. Her arms, belly, legs, feet. Even her fingers were wrapped in webbing. Her face tickled torturously.
Jina appeared in the same condition. Wispy, dusty webs covered her entire body, leaving only her face unburied. To Sandy’s relief, she saw no spiders on Jina. Hopefully that meant none of the creatures were on her.
Footsteps. Sandy couldn’t tell their source. They had left S.A. in the previous room, but the footsteps rang from behind her. Or was it above?
She looked back at Jina, who was staring at the ceiling. A large, brown, fuzzy-legged arachnid approached her unseen from below. The delicate spider was nearly an inch and a half long.
“Pssst! Jina!”
The spider put a leg on Jina’s hand. With the itch, Jina looked down. She tried to flinch, but couldn’t because of the webs.
Another spider skittered out from under Jina’s leg. One stood on her chest sensing the air with its feelers.
Sandy felt a tickle. There was nothing there. Another tickle. Nothing. She could see no spiders on herself, but Jina now had six on her and five more on the wall surrounding her. Why couldn’t she see the spiders she knew had to be there?
“Oh Sandy, please help me…” The timber of her frightened voice rose and fell. A spider touched Jina’s cheek and she let out a stifled scream. Sandy felt a tickle on her cheek as well. Panic arose in her such as she had never felt before. She pushed against her bonds, pulled, flexed. She had to run, get away, flee.
A spider stalked across Jina’s forehead. Another one on her neck. Sandy’s face twinged. Her neck itched. She could still see nothing, yet the need to scream filled her. She could not get loose. Her breathing grew faster. Her head got lighter.
She realized Jina was no longer conscious. The way things were going, the same thing would happen to her soon, too.
Ignoring the sensations, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to relax.
It will only get worse if you faint. Freaking out isn’t going to help. You’ve got to pull yourself together.
A tapping noise started in the room, but she forced her eyes closed and kept breathing. She continued the mantra.
You’ll figure it out. They’re only spiders. Relax, breathe, calm. You’ll figure a way out.
The tapping got louder but she pretended not to hear. She felt a presence in the room, but she ignored it.
Nothing here so far has hurt you. Nothing here can hurt you. Relax, breathe.
Tap tap tap.
That’s right. Nothing has hurt you. That sound can’t hurt you, the webs can’t hurt you.
The tapping seemed to slow and become uneven. Distracting.
It’s probably not even real
. None of this is even possible, so how could it be real?
The tapping stopped and she heard a sharp intake of breath. Her eyes flew open. S.A. stood in the center of the room, staring at her.
She could see his face more clearly now. She had expected an old man, but instead his skin was smooth. He had a narrow face, pointy chin, thin lips, and the arched eyebrows of a villain. Overall they were impish features that reminded Sandy of the demons portrayed in historical woodcuts.
He had a puzzled expression, and he held his cane poised halted in mid-tap.
Panic filled her. She slammed her eyes shut again and resumed her goal of serenity.
Relax, breathe, calm. Nothing here can hurt you, he can’t hurt you, he can’t hurt you, he can’t hurt you.
The tapping resumed.
None of this is possible. It’s an illusion. It isn’t real, it isn’t real, it isn’t real.
The sound of tapping seemed to grow a little more distant.
It can’t be real. It’s all in my mind. It’s an illusion. None of this is real. It isn’t real, it isn’t real, it isn’t real.
With each rejection of reality, the tapping got quieter, and soon stopped. The thought of opening her eyes to see that horrible face frightened her, so she kept at her mantra. Denial brought her a sense of calm.
After several minutes, she realized something felt different. Her skin didn’t tickle.
She opened her eyes slowly, expecting to squeeze them shut again. But S.A. was gone. The spiders were gone. The webs were gone. Jina lay in a heap on the other side of the room.
Sandy stepped freely away from the wall. The nails had vanished along with everything else.
“Jina, please wake up!” Sandy shook her until Jina opened her eyes. The light held an orange tint as the sun hung low in the sky.
“The spiders!”
“It’s ok now, Jean.”
“Did they bite me? Is that why I passed out?”
“No, I think you hyperventilated. I almost did, too. Listen, I’d feel a lot better if we found the stairs. Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Come on. I looked in the room we came from, and we missed a door on the far side. Let’s look through there. I don’t think S.A. will be coming around for a while.”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Jina shuddered.
They went back one room, where Sandy had looked out the window and where they’d first met S.A.
“You’re right Sandy. How did we miss that door before?”
“Not sure. Let’s check it out.”
The first thing they noticed when they stepped through was the dark wooden railing at the other end of the room.
“Stairs!” Jina ran toward them. She stopped abruptly, grabbing onto the banister to keep from falling into the room below.
The steps were missing. Only a hole remained, along with part of the railing. A decaying gold and crystal chandelier swayed gently over the emptiness.
“Damn!” Jina hissed.
Sandy let out a sigh as she stood next to Jina and peered down. She couldn’t see much in the room below, just some debris. The 10 foot ceilings in the house made it too far to safely jump.
“So now what? We go back?”
“I’m starting to think these rooms don’t always stay where we left them. If we’ve found stairs, maybe we should stay put for a while. Maybe we can find a way down.”
“What if S.A. comes back? What if bugs start crawling out of our ears?”
“Something happened in that last room, after you passed out. I’m not certain, but S.A. might have a weaknesses. Let’s sit and think things through. Do you have any snacks in that oversized bag of yours? I’m starving.”
Jina pulled out an arsenal of perfect munchies foods: Twinkies, potato chips, soda, and granola bars. They leaned up against the opposite wall, near the empty stair area.
“I got a good look at him when I was pinned to the wall with the webs. I’m not entirely sure he’s… human.”
“You mean he’s like a ghost?”
“No. More like, a devil? A demon? He looked human, but… not. It’s hard to explain. Anyway, I decided to close my eyes and pretend I was someplace else, like you do in the doctor’s office. Just when I started to calm down, I could tell he was in the room. But I pretended he wasn’t. When I told myself it wasn’t real, S.A. seemed… weaker somehow. I think I made him, and our bonds, and the spiders, all of it, disappear.”
“You mean, like through willpower?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
As she told her story, the ring felt cold and heavy on her finger. Sandy used the break in the conversation to look down at it. The gold was flaking off. She helped it along by prying a flake off. Under the gilt was a dark metal, black, like wrought iron. Even though this might have freaked her out, she took comfort in it. While it was a symbol of her unwilling commitment to a monster, it somehow made her feel safe.
“Hey. We’re on the third floor. Why don’t you try your cellphone?”
“Still no signal. Not even up here. I’ve been checking. We’re right in the middle of town, so I don’t understand. Sandy, are you seriously thinking this is all some kind of magic?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. Your hallucination theory just isn’t fitting any more. You have more experience with hallucinogens than I do. What do you think?”
“You’re right. This isn’t like psychotropics at all. Ok what about hypnotism?”
“Maybe. I don’t know anything about hypnotism. It might as well be magic. You’ve played a few video games. What do you know about magic?”
“Hmm, well you have to have mana, or some kind of energy. Then you use a staff or wand to shoot lightening at monsters.”
“That’s not very helpful. I was hoping you’d know what kind of magic is stopped by someone trying hard to believe it isn’t real.”
“I have no idea.”
“That’s ok, Jina. We’ll figure something out. Hey, that door over there, it’s smaller than the others. I’ll bet it’s a closet. Maybe we can find something useful. Don’t worry, I’ll kill any spiders I find.”
Sandy stood and threw open the closet door and dug through the musty overcoats and rotting boxes. A white moth flew out from its previous home and lighted on the window, ruffling its wings.
She tossed out a baseball mitt, plastic flowers, a box of Christmas tree decorations, and then found a cardboard box containing some badminton gear. Sandy flung the net into a pile she mentally marked as “useful”. She also put a couple of wire hangers, a small roll of twine, and a glass coke bottle into that pile. A few other things were interesting but useless: A large, faded painting of a hill with a house and a few trees, a bowl of wax fruit, a can of golf balls, and a music box that played Fur Elise.
The closest thing she found resembling a weapon was a rusty railroad spike. It made her feel comfortable, so she put it into the keeper pile. If she had to, she could stab something with it.
“I feel almost normal now that I have a bit of caffeine in me,” Jina said.
Sandy began untangling the badminton net. “Yeah. Things have been going smoothly. Maybe S.A. is gone for good. And I think this net is long enough—”
“Shhh…” she interrupted, “Do you hear that?”
Sandy listened. At first she heard nothing, then, faintly a sound like short, slow, rhythmic scraping on wood arose from the floor below them.
“What do you think it is?” she whispered.
“I don’t like it. Maybe—”
“Shhh… Listen.”
Between the scratching, there was a nearly inaudible sound of whimpering. Scratch, whine, scratch, whine.
It left the distinct impression of a neglected human child clawing at a coffin lid. Sandy shivered. Why had that image come to mind? Slowly, it grew a little louder, more despairing. The weary child had been crying for a long time.
“Sandy, we have to help whoever that is.”
�
��How do you know that’s not an animal?”
Jina shrugged. “I think we should at least look down there.”
“Just— be careful.”
Jina walked softly to the landing. She knelt and peered into the room beneath. Only the first few feet were visible, so she lay on her stomach and stuck her head down below the edge of the floor.
The dim room was partially furnished with couches, chairs, and a small table. A cloth covered the window, blocking the setting sun.
Another whine brought her eyes away from the window and to a shadow-shrouded corner. In the darkness she thought she could make out a human figure. It didn’t move, that she could tell, but it was whimpering, almost to the point of moaning. The scratching sound continued steadily.
Sandy had scooted up beside her and was peering into the same corner.
“What do you think?” Sandy whispered.
“I think we should find some way to get down there and help him.”
“Him?”
“Yes, it’s definitely a man.”
Sandy found herself wondering how Jina always knew so much about men. She gave Jina a questioning look.
“A woman wouldn’t whimper like that,” she stated bluntly.
“I wonder why he doesn’t seem to notice us. We’re whispering, but he should still be able to hear us up here.”
“Let’s try something.” Jina cupped one hand to her mouth and called, “Hey you!”
The scratching and whining stopped simultaneously, but the figure remained motionless. They waited for him to do something. Nothing happened. After a few minutes, the scratching began again. The whining filled the silent gaps as before.
“So that’s not going to work. I’m going to find a way to get down there.” Jina stood.
“What if it’s a trap?”
“Don’t be silly. S.A. doesn’t need to trap us. We’re already trapped. Besides, we were planning on going that way anyhow.”
Sandy stood and walked over to her treasure pile. “I think this will get us down there,” Sandy said, tugging on the badminton net between both hands.
“And then what? If he’s been there a long time, it may be because the door is locked.”
Jina smiled. “Don’t worry. I can get us out.” She began pushing on the remains of the railing to be sure it was sturdy. “Give me that.” She secured an end of the net to one of the wooden posts.
Make Willing the Prey (Dreams by Streetlight) Page 5
