by Sara Clancy
It was enough to get him moving. In their haste, Mihail completely forgot to ensure that Esther and Duncan could see. They barreled down the hallways, Abe always a step behind and the woman at their heels. No matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t escape the high-pitched shriek of the blue woman. Mihail’s lungs burned, his skin on fire under his drenched clothes. His fingers clenched at the items in his hands, the phone and the Taser, but his mind still didn’t register they were there. The only point of contact he felt was the pressure of Abe’s hand. Every so often, it would fall upon his shoulders, indicating which way he wanted Mihail to turn.
A scream lodged in his throat when they turned into a hall that was lit by the silver gargoyles. They consumed his attention until a black mass emerged at the end of the hall and blocked out the light.
“Bunica!” Before he could tell her to run, something glistened in the light that inched around her.
Gun. The word exploded in his head, making his legs lock and his lungs seize. A thunderous crack rattled the walls, covering the woman’s screams for a split second. It made his ears ring until he almost didn’t hear Abe’s cry. Spinning around, he saw Abe hit the ground.
“Bunica, no! Stop!”
Dropping to his knees, Mihail lifted his hand to try and stave off another shot. Abe groaned through his teeth as he tried to get onto all fours. His blood was ebony as it poured from the gash across the side of his neck. Instead of grabbing for the wound, Abe smacked his hand against the center of Mihail’s chest and pushed.
“Go.”
“Abe–”
“I’m fine,” he assured. But his words were strained and his arms shivered as he tried to get up. “Go. She’s coming.”
“But–”
“Go!”
Abe shoved harder, forcing Mihail off his feet. As his back slammed against the wall, the woman’s arm slashed where he had been crouched. Mihail couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. He could only watch as the blue woman came for him again.
“Get your grandma out of here!”
Abe’s command snapped him back into motion. Scrambling onto his feet, Mihail raced towards Bunica Draciana. Another clash rocked the walls around him. A shockwave slammed against Mihail’s back, throwing him off his feet and sliding him further down the hall. Pushing himself back up, he glanced over his shoulder to see Abe braced against the woman in blue. The ghost released an ear-piercing wail as she slashed across his back. With every swipe, the fabric of his shirt was ripped open and blood erupted from his torn skin. It wasn’t enough. Refusing to release her, he braced his feet and started to push her back.
“Go!” Abe snapped.
Mihail started running again. He had been so fixated on Abe that he hadn’t noticed Draciana shooting off more rounds into the gargoyles. It was only as he tried to grab her arm that he remembered the items in his hands. So he looped an arm around her waist and pushed.
“Run,” he said breathlessly, praying that she knew the word.
Caught between trying to shove him off and reload, she failed to do either correctly, and Mihail used the advantage to lift her up. It was just as awkward as her efforts, but he managed to get her into a new hallway before losing his grip. The moment her feet hit the ground, she turned around and shoved him. Words left her mouth but he didn’t understand a single one. Does she not see what’s going on? He wanted to shriek the question at her but knew it wouldn’t do any good. So he latched onto her slender wrist as best her could, the phone trapped between their skin, and kept running.
But finding his way back to the entrance seemed impossible. There were too many shadows. All of the hallways looked alike. It was when he found himself on a staircase with no idea if he was going up or down that he remembered the gremlins. They’re not letting us leave, he realized, breathless and exhausted. At his hesitation, Draciana took the lead. With a few more turns, she somehow found their way back to her room. They barreled inside and slammed the door shut behind them.
Silence encased them the moment the door closed. Mihail crumbled onto the floor, panting heavily as fear simmered under his skin. Draciana dropped the gun and slumped onto her bed, using one of the posts to keep herself upright.
“Why did you do that?”
Screaming the question robbed him of his breath, forcing him to pant again. Draciana didn’t answer but someone did. As he flinched, Mihail remembered Abe’s parents and the Skype call. He brought the phone up and twisted it around to look at their worried faces. They talked over each other but both asked the same question. Mihail struggled to explain what had happened in a way that wouldn’t result in panic, but it was harder to admit that he had left their son behind. Recovering impressively quickly, Draciana came to his side and scooped slightly to see the screen. It forced him to make quick introductions. Shifting the topic away from Abe made him feel all the worse.
“What didn’t you tell him?” Esther snapped.
Mihail’s jaw dropped. “I told him everything. I mean, he did say that this would be dangerous, but I didn’t know it would be like this.”
“It’s not as if all you have is a haunting,” Duncan said.
“What do you mean? The gremlins? I didn’t know they were here.”
“What about the demon interference?” Esther asked.
Completely baffled, Mihail shook his head as he stammered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really,” Esther laughed bitterly. “Ya think that most buildings are constructed out of souls? What the hell did you lure our son into?”
“I didn’t know!”
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Duncan said.
Esther glared at her husband. “Like hell it doesn’t.”
“We need to help Abe first. Then we can berate Mihail,” Duncan said.
Esther reluctantly agreed and the questioning began. The barrage continued until Mihail could barely take it. It felt like he was being torn in a dozen different ways. Help Abe. Save Bunica Draciana. Hide. Flee. Find grandpa. His skull was pounding when they stumbled across the topic of the doll. Mihail’s breath hitched.
“Are you suggesting I released something when I opened the doll?”
Bunica Draciana pressed against his shoulder, suddenly interested in the happenings.
“Doll?” she asked, struggling to wrap her tongue around the world.
“I found a Russian nesting doll and ... damn it, how do you say that in Romanian?”
Both Esther and Duncan were quick to answer, leaving Mihail with the unsettling knowledge that he was the only one present who couldn’t understand. Stuck on the sidelines, he tried to keep up, but it was impossible. The more they talked, the harder Bunica Draciana’s hand squeezed his shoulder, until she pulled him around to face her. Mihail’s confused expression was enough to make her snarl.
“What is she saying?” he asked Abe’s parents.
“She’s calling our boy a problem,” Duncan said, with a hint of disdain.
Mihail twisted around to look at his grandmother, searching her face for some sign of how she had come to that conclusion. But all he could see was anger. A fiery rage that flooded her eyes even as she tried to keep it off of her features.
“I don’t know what to do,” Mihail admitted in a weak voice. “Can someone please just tell me what I’m supposed to do?”
“Find the doll,” they both said in unison.
He blinked at them and Esther released an annoyed sigh. It was Duncan that explained.
“If opening that doll released something, having it in your possession is going to be the easiest way to trap it again. Having it is your best way to help Abe. Do you know where it is?”
Mihail nodded. “My room.”
“Good. Go and get it.”
“What about my grandmother?”
“Any way you can get the doll while getting her out?”
“Maybe, if you explain it to her.” He twisted around but was confronted with an empty room. “Bunica?”
&n
bsp; Scrambling to the feet, he instinctively held the phone up, letting it scan the room with him.
“Bunica Draciana!”
The room remained silent. Empty. Almost frantic, he turned back to the screen.
“She’s not here. Could they have taken her? Can they do that? This room is smudged–”
“Calm down,” Esther cut in.
“Are you kidding me?” Mihail said. “Abe is missing. Bunica is missing. And I’m stuck in a castle full of dead people trying to attack me. What part of this situation should I be calm about?”
“If ya don’t, ya probably gonna die tonight,” Esther said.
Mihail narrowed his eyes. “That’s not helpful.”
“Hold up,” she said quickly. “Scan back.”
Before he could protest, Duncan repeated the request. Mihail turned around, slowly moving the phone about until they told him to stop. He hadn’t seen it until they pointed it out. There was a slight seam running along the wall. Crossing the room, he ran his fingers over it and felt a slight breeze.
“What the hell?” he asked.
“Is that a false wall?” Esther said.
Duncan’s smile was evident in his voice. “Mihail, you said that you were in a castle, didn’t you? Hidden passages littered old castles to give the nobility an escape route in the event of a siege. Good catch, sweetheart.”
This is how she got out, Mihail realized. Heart hammering in his throat, he looked around. She took the gun. Did she go find Abe herself? The idea propelled him forward and he hooked his fingers around the edge of the wood. It opened silently into a long thin hallway lit by a few silver disks reflecting light from some unseen opening.
“Should I go in?” he asked, silently praying that one of them would disagree.
“Do you have a weapon?” Duncan asked.
He held the Taser up as he stared at the hall. It hit him a moment later that they wouldn’t be able to see it, so he told them.
“Not exactly the perfect weapon against demons,” Esther muttered.
After asking Esther to let him handle it, Duncan began to talk directly to Mihail. It was easy to see which one of them had taught Abe his charm. Duncan kept his voice calm but sure as he coaxed Mihail down the corridor. Keeping the Taser high, like it could somehow help him, Mihail used the light of the Skype call to see by.
His footsteps echoed out before him. Small creaks and groans rattled through the stones, somehow sounding close and far off at the same time. All the while, Duncan continued to urge him on, offering small bits of praise when he was sure that his fear would take over and render him motionless. The pathway twisted down until he was sure that he was within the depths of the castle. The odd sounds grew louder until he could almost feel the vibrations within his chest.
“Does anyone know what those noises are?” Mihail asked.
Duncan’s voice crackled through the speakers and the reception began to fail. Fear spiked through him as he looked at the screen again. With a little beep, the Skype call cut off.
“No,” Mihail repeated as a mantra.
He hit the buttons, already knowing that none of them would reconnect the call, none would bring them back. Darkness pressed in around him. Everything felt colder than it had been before, and his insides twisted into barbed knots.
“Please,” he whispered desperately, staving off the realization that he was actually alone. And that he would have to decide what to do next on his own. The doll, he decided. They said that could help Abe. So find the doll.
Turning on the phone’s flashlight, he continued down the hallway. Although it didn’t seem like he was going in the right direction, he wasn’t strong enough to turn around and retrace his steps. It was a few moments before he approached a door. Pushing against it, he was both disappointed and relieved to find it open. Hesitantly, he slipped out, expecting to find another room that looked like every other. His knees almost buckled when he found himself someplace familiar.
No, I went down. Retracing every step in his mind, he was sure of it. I only ever went down. But the logic couldn’t compete with the fact that he was now standing in the passageway that lead to the observatory. The highest point of the entire castle. The gremlins. They’re on me. They have me. Mihail swiped at his arm like he might actually be able to feel them. Nothing brushed against his fingertips, but he couldn’t believe that they weren’t there. Touching him. Leading him. He clawed at his skin like there were a thousand bugs crawling through his flesh.
The phone and Taser made it hard to properly claw at himself, and his failure sent him careening towards the edges of hysteria. It was the scream that stopped him. The agonized roar slammed into him, undeniably coming from beyond the door to the observatory. Abe. His hand trembled as he lifted the phone. The weak beam of light found stone and wood but nothing else. Nothing he could see, at least. Cold sweat glistened across his skin as he crept towards it. Silence settled over him once more, forcing Mihail to watch his every step.
Biting his lips and adjusting his grip on the Taser, Mihail strained to hear even the slightest whimper. The stillness that met him was crippling. He hated himself for longing to hear Abe bellow again, but at least that would be a sign that he was still alive. Finally, he reached the door and carefully checked the lock. The click of metal sounded like drums to his noise-deprived ears. Mihail flinched, choked down a few curse words, and gently forced the door open.
Snow instantly rushed in through the gap, carried by a blistering wind. Pressing back against the wall, he fumbled to close his jacket and told himself that he was just preparing to face the elements. He knew it wasn’t true. He didn’t want to go out there. Terror made all of his muscles stiff and useless, his lungs solid blocks within his chest. His hands shook. Boiling tears rimmed his eyes, dripping down as he trembled. Something was out there. Something strong enough to overpower Abe. Mihail had never been more aware of how small and weak he was.
Smacking the back of his head against the wall, he choked down a deep breath. Abe is out there. Go help him. Forcing the order upon himself made it possible for him to move. He pushed the door open just wide enough to slip through the gap. Snowflakes gathered around the edges of his clothes and ravaged every bit of exposed skin. A few patches of light drifted around from the other side of the central pillar. It caught against the ridges of the gargoyle faces, giving the illusion that they were moving. Everything else was lost to the shadows. There was no way to tell where the floor ended.
Smothering the phone light against his jacket, he lifted the Taser and slowly began to inch around the circular wall. His hands were painfully numb by the time he got around enough to see where the light was coming from. A small fire burned within a metal barrel, the flames crackling as the snow brushed across it. Mihail pressed against the stone and craned his neck to get a better look. He had to stifle a cry when he spotted Abe.
His shirt had been shredded into little more than rags. Drenched with blood and sweat, they twisted on even the slightest breath of wind, offering him slight glimpses of the damage below. Claw marks crisscrossed his torso, the blood coming from them as dark as the tattoo ink. Thick, coarse rope twisted around his battered arms and shackled him to the gargoyles on either side. Forced onto his knees, his exhaustion made him waver. He slumped forward and the rope around his neck pulled tight. Thick, wet gasps rattled out of him as his body twitched. It seemed to take mammoth effort, but Abe managed to straighten enough to loosen the cord.
Mihail took a step towards him but Abe’s sharp glare made him pause. Even in the dim light, they were still a staggering blue, but there was something different about them now. Something that set his teeth on edge and birthed fresh tendrils of fear. Never tearing his eyes away, he opened his mouth in a smile that flashed his fangs. Blood dripped from his lips and sunk into his beard.
The click of a shotgun loading made Mihail jump, breaking his attention away from Abe and the grotesque smile. Draciana came, crossed the room and lifted the weapon, training
the barrel to Abe’s head. Without a hint of fear, Abe tipped his head back and met the woman’s eyes, defiant and smiling.
“La revedere, Sarina,” Draciana said as she shoved the tip of the barrel between his eyes.
“No!” Mihail burst forward, his desperate cry making Draciana turn.
He tackled Draciana, forcing her back and tearing the shotgun aside. She still fired. The pressure rocked in Mihail’s chest as he heard the bullet crush into stone. He couldn’t bring himself to look. To see if it missed Abe or killed him.
“Let go,” he roared as he ripped the weapon from her aged hands. “Have you gone insane?”
Draciana wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was fixed over his shoulder, back towards Abe. Grabbing handfuls of Mihail’s jacket, she hurriedly pushed him.
“Go,” she whispered anxiously.
“Not without Abe.”
She met his gaze with a vicious glare. “Not Abe.”
Glancing over his shoulder, Mihail found that the shot had hit the edges of the rope and chipped away at the gargoyle. It didn’t create much slack, but more than enough for someone with Abe’s strength. His teeth clenched and muscles strained as he ripped his arm free. The rope snapped and Draciana’s hands tightened in Mihail’s jacket.
“Go.”
Abe pulled his other arm free and tore at the rope around his neck. There was nothing in his movements that were reminiscent of Abe. Mihail couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was there. Within his movements, his gaze, his smile.
It wasn’t Abe.
“Go!” Draciana screamed as she pushed again.
This time Mihail moved. Keeping his grandmother close, they barreled towards the only exit. Their feet slipped over the little patches of ice and the wind blew against them as if trying to shove them back. He chanced a glance behind just before the curve would block his side. Abe was on his feet, shoulders hunched and face low. Blood dripped from his lips as he tossed the noose aside. Mihail slammed the door shut behind them, but it didn’t stop Abe’s laughter from following them into the darkness.
