Hell & Ice

by M A Roth

  I didn’t reach him. Something hard struck the back of my head. I stopped as my vision blurred, my hand going automatically to my head. My hand came away covered in blood. I turned to the woman. She still held the stick high in the air, ready to strike again. I plunged for the old lady, taking her to the ground. She hit me with the stick again, this time across my arm. I hissed in pain while trying to get it out of her hands lucklessly. Somehow, she was stronger than me.

  “Did she not drink your tea, Ethel?” Maud asked from a door that had appeared.

  This was my chance. My only chance. It was now or never.

  “Siebel tried to warn her.” She must have meant the cat—so, he was trying to help.

  While Ethel was looking at Maud, I elbowed her in the face. Hearing her nose break, I took a run for Cathy, but Maud closed the door. I watched in horror as it disappeared. My fists banged the wall as I screamed Cathy’s name.

  I turned as Ethel rose. “Where has he taken her? Why are you doing this?” I demanded, advancing on Ethel. None of this made sense to me, only that we were in hell.

  Ethel didn’t answer me as she was too busy holding her nose. I grabbed her hair, yanking it back. She laughed as she moved away from me, her wrinkling scalp showing. Clumps of her hair sat in my hand. I dropped them, wiping my hand on my trousers. “What the fuck are you?” I roared with fear and anger. “Where did he take Cathy?” I asked again.

  Ethel smiled at me. “He only wants to play with her,” she said.

  My stomach tightened at her words. I watched as her nails grow long and thick, the ends like the tip of a knife. The light seemed to glint off her nails with menace. Once they had stopped growing, she took a swipe at me.

  I jumped back as her nails slashed air. I needed a weapon, or I wouldn’t last long against Ethel. I looked around the room, my eyes scanning everything as a potential weapon, but I couldn’t see anything.

  A hissing at the window drew my attention to the cat Siebel. “Help me!” I screamed as Ethel’s claws came at me. I jumped away in time, but she was getting ready to swipe again. I moved back quickly and stood beside the fireplace, where a lump of charred wood covered in spider webs rested. I reached in quickly as Ethel advanced on me and pulled it out.

  I swung around as Ethel charged for me and hit her square on the head. She stood immobile for a moment before she crumbled to the ground, her fingers twitching. I still held the wood and stood over her, waiting for the crazy bitch to get back up, but she didn’t.

  The room started to shift, the doors reappearing. I had to get to Cathy. I dropped the wood and moved towards the door. Siebel’s scratching at the window made me stop. His paw rose, pointing at the front door.

  “This is crazy,” I mumbled. I left the sitting room as quietly as possible and let Siebel in.

  “You fools,” was all he said. He moved swiftly past me and up the old wooden stairs. I didn’t respond, nor did I close the front door as I followed him up the stairs.

  Every step seemed to creak loudly under my feet. My heart pounded rapidly against my chest. I was terrified of what I might find, in case I was too late, and another person had gotten hurt because of me.

  Siebel’s head sharply turned back to me, a low hiss coming from his mouth. I paused on the stairs and looked at him. “What?” I whispered. He looked at my feet before shaking his head and then proceeded up the stairs. I must have been making too much noise, but what the hell could I do? I tried to be lighter on my feet, but the steps still creaked loudly under my weight.

  Siebel didn’t stop again, but I could swear his back arched several times when the stairs creaked too loudly. The stairs felt like ten flights. When we finally got to the landing, I felt some relief. It was short lived. Siebel stopped. His ears perked up as his head tilted from left to right. When he started to move again, I followed, and he moved to the last door on the right. The door was closed, but he sat outside it, his ears still raised.

  I stood beside him, unsure what to do, and then I could hear Cathy’s voice. “He, he, he, he.” she sounded like a broken record, repeating just one word. Then a bang came like something hitting the wall. “He pushed my head into the pillow.” her voice caught on a sob.

  I reached for the door handle. Siebel dug his claws into my ankle. I wanted to kick him for that, but I needed him. “Wait” he whispered.

  Cathy continued to tell her horrific tale of being abused when she was a child. I was on my last nerve, and my stomach had twisted itself into knots. “For what?” I mouthed back. Siebel took off running down the stairs, without an explanation or a backways glance.

  A moment later, I could hear his loud hisses and Ethel’s voice. Shit, she was up.

  I didn’t think about it; I just pushed the door open. I needed to get us out of this house.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Cathy lay on a bed, the sheets stained and yellowed. Her face was coated in sweat, and tears flowed from her eyes. She was still talking, telling her tale, and Maud was grinning. Rubbing his hands together, he knelt down beside her, listening to every gory detail in glee. Cathy’s head rolled back on the pillow, and I could see a pool of blood. I had heard something hitting the wall. Now seeing the blood, I could assume that it was her head.

  I let out a scream of anger and jumped to kick Maud in the back of the head. He stumbled to the ground. As he turned to face me, I could see his shock, but I could also see a bulge in his pants.

  “You sick fucker,” I said. I drove my foot into his manhood. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. I kneed him in the face as he curled into himself, blood gushing from his nose. He crumpled over on his side, but I couldn’t stop. My boot crashed into his face again and again until he stopped moving entirely.

  I stood there breathing rapidly, pushing my hair out of my face. I didn’t feel satisfied, but I needed to get Cathy out of here. I lifted her carefully off the bed, and she followed my lead, but she didn’t stop talking. Her tears continued to flow. I took her hand and walked down the stairs with her.

  Seibel sat at the bottom, cleaning his paws.

  Once we cleared the final step, he looked at us with no emotion.

  “Is she dead?” I asked, and hoped she was.

  “No, but she won’t stay down for long.”

  I nodded and moved around Siebel.

  “Since I saved your lives, I need you to do something for me.”

  My shoulders tensed at his request. Why did everything come with a price tag? “What?” I asked. Cathy’s mumbles and tears kept penetrating my focus. I was trying to ignore her, but it was getting harder.

  “There is a person locked in the basement. I need you to let her out.”

  I stared at Siebel, trying to decipher any deceit. “Why can’t you?”

  “Stupid human,” he mumbled. “I am unable to open doors. My height and the fact that I have paws are not in my favor.” He sounded utterly bored with his explanation.

  “So what, just open the basement door?” I asked.

  “No, you need to go down and get her.”

  I left the house, and Siebel followed. “She may be locked in a cage. If it’s anything like the last child that they took, she will be in a cage.”

  “What is wrong with these people?” I asked as I made Cathy sit on the curb outside the house. Unease gnawed at my stomach. I didn’t want to leave her, but bringing her into the basement wasn’t an option. I glanced at Siebel feeling his eyes on me. “This is hell” He answered simply. Cathy continued to talk she wasn’t functioning and hearing her mumble her story would murder any focus I had. Besides, I couldn’t let this girl stay in their basement to be tortured. I wasn’t sure I’d killed Maud, and I knew Ethel was still around…

  “Fine. I’ll do it.” I turned to Siebel, ready to tell him to stay with Cathy, but he raised a paw.

  “I know. I will watch your friend. Now, you best go before they wake up.” I didn’t think Maud was going to wake up anytime soon, but the thoughts of killing someone made my sto
mach tighten. I pushed the thought away as I entered the house, I didn’t have time to waste.

  “Oh, don’t look her in the eyes,” Siebel called out behind me.

  I wanted to ask why, but time wasn’t exactly on my side. The only door that was visible was the door into the sitting that was closed over; I looked at the stairs and could make out a small half door.

  I opened it. I wasn’t sure if it would lead to a basement, but I would find out.

  Dark stone stairs greeted me. I couldn’t see past the first few steps. It was too dark. I looked back out the front door, only seeing the top of Cathy’s head. Taking a deep breath, I descended into the basement.

  My foot touched the concrete floor, and I felt the wall behind me for a light. I found one. The dimness showed me some of the room, it flickered on and off, but it didn’t show me much of the basement only the center. There didn’t seem to be anything down here. My heart pumped in my chest. It had been pounding hard since I stepped into the basement, but I was trying to ignore it. Now it was the only sound filling my ears.

  “Relax, breathe,” I spoke out loud, and flexed my fingers. I needed to calm myself. I moved deeper into the basement, my heart rate slowing as I focused on breathing. “Hello,” I whispered, hoping someone would answer me so we could get out of here.

  No reply. As I moved out of the circle of light, I felt the temperature drop.

  The hairs rose on the back of my neck. I sensed the girl more than saw her. She was in the corner of the room.

  “I’m here to help you,” I said, steadily considering the pounding of my heart. The light went out, and I closed my eyes. Sometimes it was better not to see. “I’m only here to help you,” I said again.

  The coldness touched my arm.

  The light was back on, but I didn’t dare open my eyes. I could see the difference in color behind my eyelids. My shaking legs moved backwards in the direction I hoped was the way out.

  The slam of the basement door had my eyes shooting open. I looked into the eyes of a girl. She didn’t move, but stood only a foot away from me, her head tilted to the side.

  I swallowed my trepidation while taking a step backways. “I’m here to let you out.” As I said the words, I wondered if it was really the best thing to do.

  The girl was filled with darkness. Too much darkness. Maybe she was better off down here in the basement. Maybe she was left here for a reason. I took another step back, and the girl glided forward, the tips of her bare toes rubbing the concrete as if she was a puppet on strings.

  My stomach sank even lower. Whose strings? I wondered. I cursed Siebel. He had told me not to look in her eyes, but since I was down here I hadn’t looked away from them. It was as if I couldn’t. I continued to take small steps back. The flickering light was making me want to race into a corner, close my eyes and curl up until it was all over, but I couldn’t. The only thing keeping me semi-calm was the fact I could see her, and I was getting closer to the steps.

  With every step I took, she glided forward, dead eyes focused on me, her head still tilted to the side. Her hair had been recently shaven because I could see scabs and some dried blood on her scalp. The gray nightdress reminded me of a mental institution.

  My foot hit the bottom step, and my heart leaped. I was nearly there.

  “Hello? Is someone here?” The small voice of a young girl came from my left. The girl in front of me smiled. I shivered, filled with dread. I couldn’t look away from her, not even as I heard the basement door open and close.

  The heavy footsteps stopped right behind me before a hand gripped my shoulder painfully. “Good girl, Cordelia,” Maud said behind me, his breath brushing the top of my head. Cordelia smiled again. A chuckle filled with madness threaded out from her closed lips. She moved back slightly, and it wasn’t until she looked at Maud that I was released from her stare.

  Now I was captured by Maud’s large hands. I tried to turn in his arms, but they grew tighter around me. I was airborne but landed quickly on the stone floor; the wind knocked out of me. Maud had thrown me nearly halfway across the room.

  Blood from a cut over my eye splashed on the floor.

  I could see Cordelia’s feet in front of me, but I didn’t look up.

  “I think I might have fun with you. You’re a bit rough around the edges, but my hands have a way of softening things.”

  I looked at Maud and could see the evil shining through him. My fists clenched. I wanted him dead. He moved towards me slowly. He was enjoying my fear, getting off on the fact that I was bleeding on the ground.

  I stood even as my body protested. Cordelia was behind me, but I tried not to think about that. I wanted Maud to know I wasn’t afraid of him.

  I smiled when I saw the disgust on his face. I wasn’t a victim. I wasn’t a helpless little girl. Maud’s eyes flickered behind me, and I wondered if I had made a mistake by turning my back on Cordelia. My mind said Maud was the bigger threat, but still.

  “Cordelia, I can help you. You don’t have to stay here and be controlled by Maud. You can be free.” I said, still looking at Maud. I hoped Cordelia’s hesitation to touch me was from my words, not something else.

  Maud laughed deep in his throat. “Cordelia is my pet. She doesn’t want to leave me.”

  “Cordelia is a girl, not a pet,” I told Maud, hoping my words would penetrate the darkness that I had seen in Cordelia.

  Her hand clamped around my forearm. Her breath brushed my neck as she spoke. “Maybe you have it wrong. Maybe I keep Maud and Ethel here. Maybe I make them do things that I like to watch.” Her voice was a mixture of a girl’s and a man’s. I closed my eyes briefly at her words. I had read the situation wrongly.

  Maud wasn’t keeping her here, but she wasn’t keeping Maud here either. It was the house. With my eyes closed, I could feel it like a living, breathing thing, and it wanted pain and suffering. It was everything that was wrong with the world. It was cruel and evil. It pulsed all around us, even in the floor.

  Cordelia’s hands tightened around me, and when I opened my eyes, Maud stood in front of me. “Let’s play,” he said, and Cordelia chuckled.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I fought against her, but her grip was like iron. I could hear the whimper of the girl in the room. Why hadn’t she answered me earlier when I had called to her? Maybe I wouldn’t be in this mess. We could have been out of this house and back to Cathy and Siebel. I hoped Siebel would come when I didn’t return.

  Maud clamped down on my other arm. Between him and Cordelia, they dragged me deeper into the basement. I fought, but it did no good. It only made them laugh more. I tried to keep my panic at bay, but I could feel it clawing up my throat. This can’t be happening; I thought as Maud placed me on a table. Cuffs clamped around my wrists so quickly that only the click of steel alerted me.

  Cordelia moved to my feet and reached for my ankle. I kicked out and connected with her face. Blood instantly poured from her mouth. Maud struck me. Blackness took away my vision as my temple thumped, crippling me in pain. I could feel the steel around my ankles now. I fought to stay awake. I wouldn’t surrender. Large hands stroked my face, and I screamed with anger before clamping my teeth around flesh.

  Maud roared. My vision returned. Maud tried to get his hand out of my mouth, but I tightened my bite. Blood filled my mouth. Cordelia stood at my face. Maniacal laughter filled the basement. Maud hit me several times across the face with his free hand; the next slap ended with his nails digging into my skin. The pain had me letting him go. Once he was released, he moved backwards, cradling his arm.

  Cordelia’s laughter stopped, and she moved to where Maud had stood. I didn’t look her in the eyes; my gaze only went as far as her chin. She leaned in close to my face. I closed my eyes as she inhaled deeply. “You smell alive.” She seemed frozen for a moment. Then she took in another deep breath. I could feel the house pulse again. It was speaking to Cordelia or controlling her. Either way, I was grateful when I felt the cuffs being removed from
my wrists.

  “What are you doing?” Maud’s anger-filled words rang out around the room.

  I sat up as Cordelia undid my ankle cuffs. I didn’t question what was going on but got off the bed as quickly as possible. I didn’t see it coming when Maud tackled me to the ground. My head bounced off the floor. Stars danced before me. I jumped up, swung out, and connected with Maud’s stomach. He hadn’t expected it, and I knocked the wind out of him. I didn’t pause but rugby-tackled him to the ground. Before he fell, his hand grabbed my arm, taking me down with him.

  My elbow took the brunt of my fall, and I could feel the blood inside my top. Maud rolled towards me, and I kicked him in the face before getting up.

  He roared, “You bitch!” holding his face. I got ready for an attack.

  “Enough, Maud.” Cordelia’s words had Maud throwing a tantrum. Normally, it would have been funny watching a small girl reprimand a ninety-year-old man, but there was nothing funny about it now.

  My body ached, and whatever was controlling Cordelia was letting me go for some reason. My foot touched the bottom step when the young girl spoke. “Please don’t leave me.” Her whispered cry reminded me why I was here in the first place.

  I glanced at Cordelia and Maud. He was still giving out, trying to reason with Cordelia, who stood perfectly still with her head tilted to the side. I wondered if her neck was broken. I didn’t have time to think. I moved under the stairs, and could make out a hunched form in a small cage. Thankfully there wasn’t a lock on the cage; only a bolt that I slid across.

  Once the cage door was open, the girl practically sprang out. She was up the stairs before I could see her properly. I didn’t hesitate, but climbed the steps two at a time. I looked back when I was at the top. Cordelia stood staring at me, a smile directed at me that made me hunch.

  I stumbled out of the basement and landed on my backside. I quickly kicked the door closed and got to my feet, making my way out of the house and into the drizzling rain. My head rang from all the knocks it took. I tried to ignore the pain while wiping the blood out of my eye, the cut over my eyebrow had started to bleed again. I looked around for the girl I had just saved, but only Cathy and a very displeased Siebel waited for me.