by Jon Sauve
Jacob looked at me again. "You're lookin' halfway toward shitting yourself, son. Can I count on you?"
I opened my mouth. A whole double lungful of air went out all at once.
"I want to get out of here," I said.
Jacob smiled. "Good enough for me. So let's get to it."
He planted his hands on his knees and stood up.
"What about the kitchen?" Mary asked. "There might be knives in there."
"Already checked. Nothing useful. They must have cleared it out during setup. But I'll bet they got up to some other tricks, too. Maybe stashed a few treats around the place, hm?"
Big chance of that. They wouldn't make it that easy on us. The only reason Mary got an ax is because she's five-two and has toothpick arms. The only other woman was Beth, and I'm pretty sure she could beat any of us guys in an arm wrestling match. Jeremy had probably gifted her with a popsicle stick.
I started to wonder what Jacob found in his room, and realized it was probably nothing, just like Luke. Or maybe the two of them were just terrible at finding things. Or maybe, just maybe, Jeremy was afraid of them. As for Jacob, I could totally see it. Luke... Well, he did have those big fists and a hell of a reach. He also seemed like the kind of guy who might meet a burglar at his door with a samurai sword. God rest his soul.
We went back through the ballroom or whatever the hell it was. Jacob sidled up to the door to the common area and swung it open to face the darkness. We stopped and stared for a moment, waiting for movement. Nothing. Jacob went out first. His hands were no longer in his pockets; they were clenched into fists at his sides.
Mary and I let him lead us out of the common area, back into the hall to the shattered front door. I found myself glancing down that way, but my eyes met nothing. Not even the glint of stars in the sky. It was like a dark throat leading into the belly of a huge monster. All death down there.
We went left. An arbitrary decision, I assumed. Jacob was pretty good at hiding his unease. I could only sense it due to the contrast with how calm he had been during our little meeting in the closet.
We crept onward. There was no avoiding creaks and cracks and loud noises whenever one of us kicked some piece of trash on the floor. When any of that happened, we stopped and listened for a moment before going on. All the while we were watching for any sign of life. All the rooms were dark and silent. There was almost certainly someone hiding in at least one of them. The thought of it made me resent the fact that I was at the back of the line, behind Mary and Jacob.
When we reached the end of the hall, where there was another boarded window, Jacob turned back around and flicked on his lantern.
All of us saw it. A door fifteen feet up, open by an inch, suddenly and silently shut.
Jacob's smile said "success." I felt slightly different about it. But of course I still followed as Jacob headed for the door. Being at the back no longer seemed so bad.
Jacob stopped a few feet from the door, flattened himself against the wall, and looked back at me. Some people are good at communicating by expression alone, and Jacob seemed to be one of those people. I understood what he wanted to say; get ready. I took out my multitool, struggling to unfold the blade attachment in the dark. My trembling hands didn't help.
Did you know that silence is loud? As Jacob reached out with one hand toward the door, the phantom noise in my ears screamed like a jet engine. It's a weird noise that you don't hear anywhere else, a fuzzy humming. Then Jacob knocked and all at once the noise vanished, replaced by the dull echo of knuckles on petrified wood. Even the humming was gone after that.
Surprise, surprise, the person inside the room didn't answer. I thought I could feel them, the way I could feel Luke when Max was out in the hall between us. They were more afraid than I was, probably hiding in the closet or desperately clawing at the boards over their window. Or maybe they were standing there just beside the door, head back, listening and waiting. Maybe they had a weapon.
Jacob knocked again. As far as knocks go, it was a pretty friendly one. It even seemed to have a musical quality to it, but I doubted the person inside would pick up on that.
"Just want to know who's in there," Jacob said. "We have a plan for getting out of here, if you want in."
There was a sound in the room. A thump, a scrape, a shuffle of someone crossing the room. A distant, muffled voice called out.
"Open the door and take one step in," it said. "And turn your lantern off."
It was a man's voice. I didn't recognize it.
Jacob reached out, turned the handle, pushed the door open. A wedge of light from his lantern infiltrated the room and grew wider as the door swung inward. From the angle I was standing at, I could only see the right wall of the room. Then Jacob switched off the lantern and I saw nothing.
"You two stay there," Jacob said. "I'll see who we're dealing with."
No complaints there.
Jacob moved over in front of the door, waited a moment, and went in. He took one step and stopped. I could see only his left flank; his face was outside of my view.
"Stop there," the voice said.
"I did," Jacob replied. "Now you wanna show yourself?"
"Who else is out there?"
"Two young folk who are scared half to death. The only thing the three of us want is to make it out of here alive."
A pause. "Bring them in here."
Jacob leaned back and looked at us. Again, I could tell what he wanted to say by his eyes. What do you reckon?
Truth be told I didn't have a swell feeling about the whole thing. But Mary made a move toward the door, and I followed without really thinking about it. Jacob stepped to the side to let us through, and we paused there in the dark like criminals in a lineup. I could feel eyes on us. There was a vague human form ahead of us, just a head and shoulders hidden behind something; I couldn't tell what it was.
But I knew who it was, now. Boogie. But where was Oogie?
Jacob had reached the same understanding.
"Where's the other one?" he asked.
"Around," was the answer. "Maybe he's looking right at you."
I looked around the room. Too many shadows. He could be hiding in any of them.
Jacob laughed. "Smart. Keep one guy hidden. But you don't need to worry yourself. We're here to make allies."
"Weapons?"
"None," said Jacob.
I guess he didn't know about my multitool. I didn't say anything, but I did slide it into my pocket real stealthy like.
"Shut the door," Boogie said.
I was the closest, so I shut it. I felt part of my soul die as the meager light from the hall, the result of starlight filtering through boarded-off windows, was cut off. I heard a thud, felt the vibration of the rusted latch grinding into place.
I heard Jacob's breathing, now. Just the fact that I could hear it gave me a bad feeling. Maybe he was having doubts, too.
"Take a few more steps," Boogie told us. "All of you."
Jacob grunted. "Listen. We ain't taking any more orders from you. Either come out and show yourself, or we're out of here. You can try and survive on your own."
I thought I heard something move off to my left. I could feel a presence over there, like a living shadow pressing against the side of my face.
"We don't just want to survive. We want the money, too."
"Then you can have it," Jacob said.
"Yeah, and how do we get it?"
"What do I look like, a banker? Beats the hell out of me. But I'll bet Jeremy knows real well."
"Okay. Turn on your lantern."
Jacob flicked it on. The sudden light made me squint, and it was a moment before I could see around the room. There was no one to my left. Other than Boogie, hiding behind a table that had been turned on its side, we were alone.
Or thought we were. That changed pretty quickly.
Jacob was stepping toward Boogie, raising the lantern to see better, when a shape rose up behind him. Something moved, something else fell to the floor
with a thump, and Jacob was suddenly as white as a cadaver. Boogie started to laugh.
The thing on the floor was Jacob's right arm. Jacob turned to his left, his intact arm holding the lantern. It was splattered with blood, and its light had gone pink. The stub of the other arm shot blood out like a ceiling sprinkler. It made a sound like someone had turned a hose on and aimed it at the carpet.
Mary tried to make herself gone. I felt the wind of the door opening, vaguely saw her darting through, and then she was hauled backward by the dark shape who the light seemed unable to touch. But then he turned, holding Mary against his chest, and I saw his face.
You never really think about it, not much anyway, but bad people are all around us. They look normal, talk normal, do normal things. They take walks in the park, push a shopping cart through the store like everyone else, hold a job, go to school. Oogie, much like Boogie, looked pretty normal.
Mary was screaming, but Oogie had his hand over her mouth. She struggled, but couldn't get away.
I was stuck there. I wanted to move, but Oogie was in front of the door and Boogie was already circling to my left. Jacob was still standing there but was starting to wobble. He had the expression of someone who has seen or heard something truly unbelievable.
Boogie blew past me and went to Jacob.
"You don't look like a banker," he said. "You look like a dead guy."
Then he shoved Jacob hard in the chest. The older man went over like an unstable Jenga tower, hit the bed, bounced, and crumpled to the floor. I could still hear him breathing, but it was more of a slurping noise.
Boogie turned to me. I'm very surprised I didn't shit my pants.
"One more down," he said casually, like he was crossing items off his shopping list. "How many others are dead?"
After a moment, I realized he was talking to me. I couldn't get a single syllable out. Oogie came to my rescue.
"The tall nerdy guy," he said, "The bald guy too. Maybe more."
"And Greasewood here." Boogie looked up at the ceiling, searching his memory. "So, seven left at most. Five, once we get rid of these two." He looked at me. "Hey, aren't you going to scream or something?"
"Scared stiff," Oogie said. "Got his hands in his pockets."
Mary was staring at me.
"What ya got in there?" Boogie asked, taking a step forward.
I pulled out both of my hands. One of them was holding the energy bar I'd found in my room. Boogie snatched it away.
He smiled. "Not much of a weapon."
"Like that Charlie Sheen movie," Oogie said, a huge grin on his face.
Boogie laughed. "Oh yeah! The guy from Red Hot Chili Peppers is in that too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He was in Point Break, too. Wonder why he stopped acting."
Oogie shrugged. "Drugs."
Boogie shook his head. "Fuckin' drugs. Okay, dude, it's time. Come on over here by the bed."
"Why?" I asked.
"Why?" Boogie said. "Because you need to be dead so we can get the money and get the fuck out of here. Nothing personal. Come on. I'll make it quick and easy. It'll be like falling asleep."
Mary screamed again. Boogie looked like the devil, covered in bloody pink light, reaching toward me with a charming grin on his face.
I went forward. My hand was back in my pocket. When it came out, it was holding the multitool.
I swung. It was a clumsy, stupid swing, but Boogie wasn't expecting it. He did react, swinging an arm up to deflect the blow, but it was too slow. The blade, even as rusty and dull as it was, buried itself completely in the side of Boogie's neck. My senses were humming at that point, and I could feel the blade bounce off his spine.
He let out a terrible sound, like a clogged garbage disposal. Blood starting spraying from his mouth as he stumbled backward and fell to his knees, hands batting at the rusty metal handle sticking out of his neck. Oogie seemed even more surprised than his compatriot. He hadn't even reacted yet. And apparently shock had made his grip weak, because Mary was worming her way out from behind his arms.
The moment didn't last long. Oogie remembered himself and grabbed Mary again, his grip even stronger than before.
I stood above Boogie. He stared up at me, but his eyes were already lifeless. Maybe they had been all along. I grabbed the handle of the multitool, barely realizing what I was doing, and pulled it out of him. Then I turned to Oogie. I didn’t see it before, but he was holding a machete in his right hand.
We stood still for a long time, staring at each other. I was shaking all over. I felt cold and terrified and completely helpless.
Finally, Boogie gave up his grip on life and fell down on top of Jacob. That distracted Oogie for a second, and I moved forward. He snapped his eyes back to me and lifted the machete.
"Stop!" he said. "Listen, you can have this bitch, and you can have the money. Just let me go."
It took me a whole minute to realize what he was saying. The guy was afraid of me. Of me.
"Okay," I said. "Go, then."
He shoved Mary at me, and was out the door before she had even gone a foot. I could hear him running down the hall.
Mary tripped over the bodies on the floor, and caught herself on my arm. Almost impaled her hand on the multitool blade.
She was sobbing and moaning, but I felt totally numb. I stared at the door, expecting Oogie to come back through and take my head off. But he wouldn't. Not yet. That's the thing about cowards like him. The fact that I had taken out his "friend" would mean little to him. The fact that I had scared him, had intimidated him, that would piss him off more than anything in the world. I knew he would retaliate now that he was back in safety. I also knew I had to be very careful. Nothing new, I guess. That had been the case for what, an hour now? Two? I had totally lost track of time.
"Jacob," Mary said.
The older man had stopped moving. Since he was under Boogie, the only thing I could see were his skinny legs and his moccasins. The carpet looked like someone had spilled twenty bottles of wine on it. The fact that none of it was mine was no consolation at the time. I had already killed two people, and if I wanted to survive I would probably need to do it again. Tough. That’s the way the world works. You learn to hurt other people, or you get shit on.
I do admit, though; feeling Mary against my body wasn't too bad, even if my shirt was half soaked in her tears and a large amount of blood. Gotta look for the silver lining, right? Right.
We were still alive, but there were still at least three assholes prowling the hotel. Maybe more. As weird as Boogie and Oogie seemed out in the parking lot, I had no way of knowing how bad they were. Maybe Ben and Beth would try and kill me next.
I had never been in a situation even remotely similar before. The closest thing was hide and seek. I had no idea what to do next. Stay or go?
Go, obviously. At least into the next room. The bodies were wigging me out. I started moving toward the door, but Mary anchored me in place.
"Wait," she said. "What if he's out there?"
I pulled away from her. At the time I didn't really consider my own mortality. It seemed totally unimportant. Maybe not a good frame of mind to be in, but it was probably a defense mechanism. Why should I worry and be afraid when I could just shut that part of my brain down?
There was no one in the hall. As I suspected. Oogie was probably on the other side of the hotel by now, nursing his wounded pride and planning my demise.
Fear started knocking at my door again, but I turned it away. Rather, I opened the door, screamed obscenities in fear's stupid face, and slammed the door shut again. But then fear was just going to find another way in; it would go around the back and smash through a window, or maybe hijack a bulldozer and bust through the wall. Anyway, there would be plenty of swell opportunities for it to get in later.
The thought of grabbing the bloody lantern freaked me out, so I decided to move in darkness. Mary stayed near the corpses for a moment, then came running like one of them had grabbed
her ankle.
"Where are we going?" she whispered.
I had no idea, and couldn't really summon the wit to make up a lie, so I just stayed quiet.
Something I'd experienced on all my long walks; even when I'm completely absorbed by my thoughts, my legs always know where to take me. It was no different this time. As soon as we reached the end of this stretch of the hall, where it turned left toward the hotel entrance, my legs turned me to the right and led me into a random room. It wasn't until Mary and I were situated inside with the door shut that I realized why. If anyone was going to respond to the noises of death from the Oogie-Boogie room, they would have to come straight past this door. And since the door was warped and didn't latch all the way, there was a permanent little gap for me to see through.
The lantern was still on back in the death room. It gave the hall just a tiny extra bit of light, tinged pink. It reminded me of The Masque of the Red Death. I kind of expected a tall, bloody figure with a corpse face to come walking down the hall. If it did, I certainly wouldn't go chasing after it like that moron Prospero.
Time passed. Again, I have no idea how much. It's easy to judge time when you are in front of a computer all day like me. Now, removed from my comfortable world, my sense of everything was totally fucked.
As I stared out into the hall, into darkness that never changed, I started thinking about some weird stuff. Maybe I had fallen asleep at home, and this was a dream. Maybe the bus had crashed and I was in a coma right now. Maybe I was already dead, Mary was alone, and my ghost was following her around the hotel. I touched my chest and my throat, feeling my pulse. I told myself that I was a person, that I was alive, that I needed to stay that way. Snap the fuck out of it.
Mary touched my shoulder. It was gentle, but it made me flinch. I looked at her. It was hard to read her expression in the dark, but I could tell she was looking straight at me. I was still alive. Phew.
"Hungry?" she asked.
I looked down. She was holding a granola bar out for me.
"What about you?" I asked.
"There were two," she replied. "I already ate one."
She might have been lying. Probably was. But I was definitely hungry, and part of me felt like I deserved the bar. I had saved our lives, after all. I had done the dirty work.
