by Castle, Jack
After what they had seen on the security camera Becca was certain B.L. was still in danger. “That doesn’t change the fact that we need to warn Big Leonard about Peyton.” Turning to Wally Becca asked, “Which way did you say the boiler room was?”
“According to the map on the wall,” he said, pointing to one of those map placards in every motel, “it’s across the interior parking lot in the big building on the other side.”
Becca led the two of them down the hall with her firearm drawn. She wasn’t happy about having only three bullets left and kept reminding herself over and over, keep breathing evenly, and check your target before firing. But if someone even so much as looks the slightest bit out of character, you shoot first and figure it out later. Leaving the lobby behind they soon entered the corridor that led to the interior parking lot. Becca sighed audibly when she saw the exit door at the other end.
“Wait, wait. Don’t you see it?”
It was Calvin who had stopped them in their tracks.
Front sight of her barrel leading the way Becca scanned the hallway before them. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. She turned and looked back at Calvin. The man had been frightened before but now he seemed outright terrified. “See what, Calvin?”
Calvin, still staring off into space, was shaking his head when he answered, “You don’t see all the black snow in the hallway?”
Becca turned around and stared at the exit at the end of the hall and saw… nothing. It was really creeping her out the way he kept staring into thin air like that but there really was nothing there. Wally must’ve seen the same nothingness because she heard him say, “Calvin, I don’t see anything.”
Becca wasn’t about to take any chances. “Calvin, what is it you see, exactly.”
Calvin kept shaking his head in disbelief, not tearing his eyes from the hallway. “I can’t believe you guys aren’t seeing this. It’s like, I dunno, like the inside of one of those snow globes, only instead of white snowflakes, they’re all black flakes. And there’s like this dark…” Struggling for the word, he finally managed, “Yechhhh, all over the wall.”
“Dark yech?” Wally asked, “Can you be more specific?”
“Not really. I mean, I realize how it sounds. I could say it looks like oil or tar, but it’s neither of those things. More like…a smeared ink.” Then, thinking it over for a second, he lifted his eyes toward her. “Maybe… maybe I can see it because I’m color blind.”
(Oh… We have a Seer. How nice. Not many of those left in the world. The few that do see usually go mad, or back in the day, get burned at the stake.)
Becca failed to hide the irritation from her tone. “You’re color blind? What does that have to do with anything?”
“No, no, he’s right,” Wally interjected. “I read about this somewhere before. People who are color blind can see spectrums of light that no one else can see.”
Calvin nodded. “Ever since I was a kid I’ve been color blind, I can’t see certain colors, like red and green, but sometimes I see colors that other people don’t seem to be able to see.”
“What are you saying; he might actually be seeing something?” She leaned into Wally, putting her mouth almost to his ear. “Wally, how do we even know we can trust him?”
Wally took a step back from her, his face astonished. “After everything that’s happened, can we really take a chance?”
“Alright then, what do we do?”
“I’m sure as hell not going that way.” And his voice bitter Calvin spat, “And how do I know I can trust either of you.”
Crap, he heard me. My stupid hearing.
Ignoring the budding argument Wally cut right to the chase. “The boiler room is across the parking lot but I suppose we could double-back to the lobby, go out the main entrance and circle around.”
“Damn right we will.”
Remembering what Peyton did to the tour bus people in the breakfast nook Becca said, “Wally, Big Leonard might not have that kind of time. There’s nothing there. You don’t see anything and I don’t see anything.”
“Yeah, but the color blind guy does. We’re no good to Big Leonard if we’re dead.”
Calvin took a step closer to her. When she flashed him a look that told him to back off he said, “Becca, I know you have no reason to trust me on this, and I don’t know what this is; maybe it’s their world bleeding over into ours, but whatever it is, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt you do not want to go in there.”
She studied him for a moment. “Alright. We double back.”
They turned around and walked back down the hallway. When they turned the corner they should’ve have seen the hallway that led back to the main lobby. What they saw instead was a seemingly endless motel hallway that stretched on forever.
“What the hell?” Wally asked.
“There’s no way the hallway was this long,” Becca said. “Maybe we should turn around and go back.”
“No,” Calvin answered matter-of-factly. “That’s exactly what they want.” When both she and Wally turned to stare at him he added, “It’s almost like something is herding us back through the ash-filled hallway. I say no way. I say we do exactly the opposite of what they want us to do.”
“Which is?” Wally asked.
“Which is not go through the way filled with ash. That’s what they want.”
She was thinking it but it was Wally who asked, “And who is They?”
Calvin shrugged. “Whoever’s behind all of this. Demons, aliens; does it really matter? The important thing is we can’t give in to them and simply do what they tell us to do.”
“Alright,” Wally said. “Let’s press on.”
They passed a seemingly endless amount of motel room doors and Becca muttered, “This thing goes on forever.”
She didn’t think anyone had heard her but Wally must have because he announced, “No, no. Look. Up ahead. There’s a corner. We’re almost there.”
As they approached this new corner Becca realized there were no exit signs. Every motel room she had ever been in, and that was a lot since she had taken the traveling K-9 instructor job, there was always a sign that pointed you to the nearest exit. It was a fire code safety thing or something. But she didn’t see any of that. It was just a hallway. They quickened their pace. Each of them checked over their shoulders for anything that might be following, but thus far, nothing.
They turned the corner in unison fully expecting to see the lobby again but it was only another long corridor.
“Oh crap,” Calvin whined. “This is not happening.” His tone suggested he was on the verge of losing it.
“We need to keep going,” Becca said, remembering her experience with crossing the highway. It had kept stretching, but she had outlasted it. She had beaten it. Yes, whatever was controlling the motel had some kind of omnipotent powers, but they were limited, which meant they could be beaten. “We have to keep going and but we have to move faster.”
“What?” Calvin asked, with that tone again.
“You asked me to trust you. Now, trust me on this.”
They jogged to the next corner, which was just as long as the first, and found… another… long… hallway. Calvin began to sob. Wally, spying another hotel map placard on the wall, ripped it down and stared at it in disbelief.
“What is it?” Becca could hear the concern in her own voice now.
Wally just kept staring at the map, holding it in both hands, like it was some kind of strange artifact from some lost civilization. “The Map,” was all he could say. “Look at it.”
Becca slowly took the map from his hands unsure if she wanted to see.
“What is it?” Calvin’s voice suggested he was on the verge of insanity.
Becca handed the placard to Calvin so he could see for himself. There were no stairs or common areas illustrated, just four hallways in one big square with no exit, an eternity, an endless loop of unending hallway.
(Benvenuto al purgatorio.)
(Oh, I
’m sorry. I didn’t tell you I spoke Italian? It’s only my 78th favorite language.)
Chapter 35
Running the Gauntlet
“Oh Lord,” Calvin said. “What do we do?”
The motel room doors ahead of them started thumping loudly, as though the occupants in the rooms were inmates trying desperately to get out. The pounding noises started in the distance but were moving toward them in a domino-like effect.
Instinct told Becca to run. Logic kept her feet rooted to the spot. She was about to ask Wally what they should do but Calvin made up their minds for both of them when he started running away at a surprising speed for a man his age. The pounding of the doors seemed to feed on their fear and grew in intensity. It was so loud that she and Wally had to press the palms of their hands firmly to their ears.
“C’mon, back the way we came!” Wally shouted to be heard above the din of pounding.
They retreated from the thrashing doors, and after two corners Becca expected to see another endless hallway. Thankfully it was the same one they saw before with the exit sign marking the glass door that led to the interior parking lot. Calvin was already at the threshold of where he had described the snow globe of ash.
Reaching Calvin’s side first, Wally asked him, “Do you still see it?”
Calvin didn’t answer them but after Wally shook him, he nodded. “We can’t go through that.”
Becca heard the thumping doors in the distance. They had easily outrun the cascading effect but the sound was also growing closer. Becca estimated the angry doors were only two hallways away now, and it wouldn’t be long before they were upon them. Becca wasn’t sure which was worse, the pounding doors or the invisible ash Calvin was describing. In the end, Becca had determined that the invisible ash hallway was the lesser of two evils. What had made her decide was, what if Calvin was actually a demon telling them not to go forward and making them stay so the thumping doors could catch up to them.
(hey, seeing is believing)
A loud crash caused Becca and Calvin both to jump. Turning her head Becca saw where Wally had taken his elbow and smashed the glass encasing a fire extinguisher. He carefully poked out the rest of the broken glass with the little hammer provided at the end of the thin red chain, reached in, and removed the extinguisher.
“What are you going to do with that?” Becca asked. ‘Spray the ash hallway with it?’
“You’ll see.” He stepped over to a door marked UTILITY CLOSET. It took him a couple of tries but using the fire extinguisher as a battering ram he knocked the doorknob off and the door slowly creaked open. Wally placed the extinguisher on the floor and stepped inside.
“What are you looking for?” Becca asked after him. She could hear thumping doors down the hallway and just around the corner.
“I don’t know,” she barely heard his disembodied voice say. “I’m just looking for something… Ah. Perfect.” He stepped out of the closet with a bundle of nylon rope. “I’ve got an idea.” Approaching her and Calvin with the bundle of rope he explained, “We treat the hallway like it’s filled with unknown gas. Normally when first responders suspect a gas leak they enter with hazmat equipment. Since we don’t have anything like that we tie this rope around one of our waists. We let that person go into the hallway filled with invisible ash. The moment they get in trouble, or pass out, the other two pull them back.”
“Yeah, but who goes in,” Calvin asked, in a voice that suggested that he was going to be the last of the three of them to volunteer.
Wally bit his lower lip. “I’ll go.”
Becca shook her head. “No. That’s stupid.”
“What?” Wally asked, sounding hurt. “It was my idea. I should go.”
“No. You won’t. I’m the lightest of the three of us. And… if I get in trouble, it’s going to take the two of you to pull me back out. It makes sense.”
Calvin quickly agreed, “Yeah, that does make the most sense.”
Wally flashed him an annoyed look.
The thumping doors were now at the end of their hallway. More and more Becca was convinced that if they overtook them all three of them were finished.
Wally must’ve thought so too, because he quickly stepped over to her, threw the rope around her waist, and tied it in an expert knot. “Alright, turn around.” As she did, Wally looped the knot so it was at the small of her back. “Okay, the moment you feel anything weird, or anything happens, you turn around. Otherwise, keep going, all the way to the door. Don’t look back, just keep going. That door leads to the parking lot.”
It was just a hallway. This is stupid. It’s just a hallway, Becca, she kept repeating to herself. It’s just a hallway. You’ve been down them a million times. To Wally she asked over one shoulder, “What are we talking here, twenty-thirty feet? Should I run?”
“No. Take your time,” Wally ordered, tying the other end of rope around his own waist. “Take a few steps. Assess. Let us know what you’re feeling.”
“Becca, we’re running out of time.”
Calvin was right. The thumpers were halfway down their hallway. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, clenching her fists, she took a deep breath and stepped forward.
Wally must have seen this, for he said, “Becca, don’t forget to breathe.”
Becca completed the first step and felt nothing. She let out some air. “Right.” She took a second step and that was when she felt it--an ominous warning shivering down her spine. Don’t go in there. Whatever you do, don’t take another step. “Calvin, where am I? Can you still see the Ash?”
“Yeah!” Calvin shouted after her. “It’s piling up all over you, but as long as it’s not hurting you I think you should keep going.”
“Says you,” she mumbled. Becca took a third step, and then a fourth. Before long she had gone nearly halfway to the exit. “Okay, I think I’m okay.” That’s when it happened. Like the first time she had ever slipped on the ice and her feet had slid out in front of her and she saw sky in-between her combat boots before crashing onto the ground. Same thing. Becca’s legs had been pulled out from under her, but only this time she never hit the floor. Instead, there was a loud menacing roar and she was carried upward into the ceiling and pressed into it. Becca tried to cry out but the malevolent force didn’t simply carry her up into the ceiling, it was trying to mash her into it.
“Pull!” she heard Wally immediately cry. Both men grunted and groaned, and the slack in the rope went tight up her back, but it wasn’t enough.
“Becca,” Wally shouted to her through gritted teeth. “Becca! You are going to have to come to us!”
How could she possibly go to them like this? She desperately wanted Mike to come into her head but there was only silence. Alright, Becca-Bear, you wanna get out of this? It’s up to you. Impossibly she pulled one arm free of the ceiling and began to crawl. Wally and Calvin who, from her vantage point, were upside down, continued to reel her in.
“That’s it!” Wally yelled, cheering her on. “Keep going!”
A second venomous roar slammed her into the ceiling again but she recalled how she had beaten the unseen force on the highway and this gave her renewed vigor. She began to crawl once more.
“Keep going, Becca, you’re almost there!”
Wally and Calvin were backing up down the hallway now. And a third figure was coming down the hallway to help. Wait. Who is that? From her upside down vantage point it was difficult to tell. Small, definitely female. Not Peyton but…
Becca was about to yell out when she crossed the invisible threshold and fell to the floor. Wally lunged forward. He didn’t quite catch her but he did manage to cushion her fall and keep her from breaking her neck. The two of them lay like that in a pile of tangled limbs for a moment. “EEEE…. EEEE…” Becca wheezed, trying to reclaim air into her pancaked lungs.
“I’ve got you,” Wally said.
Becca shook her head.
Calvin didn’t see Elaine walk up behind him. “You okay, Becca?”
> The lights flickered for a moment and then everything went dark. Calvin was the first to take out his cell phone and light up the hallway, “I got it.”
“EEEE…LAAA…NNN…EEE…” Becca finally managed.
“What?” Calvin asked, not understanding her, or not quite hearing her. The thumping doors arrived, the clamor overpowering. Calvin spun around and his cell phone light lit up Elaine’s ruined and madly-grinning face. She held up a talon-fingered hand as though showing Calvin her newest pair of gloves (talons –they’re all the rage) and shoved one hand into Calvin’s belly with the accompanying sound of a sickening crunch.
“No, no, no,” Calvin kept repeating. “Not like this… Not like this.”
Boom! Wally lit a flare bathing the hallway in a red haze. The motel doors to either side were really hammering now. One of the doors closest to Calvin and Elaine splintered and began cracking open. Pieces of door soon got sucked inward by impossible winds and the mouth of hell, just as it had in her dreams, opened up like a gaping maw and began pulling Calvin inside. Even with his intestines falling out of his belly Calvin held the doorframe to either side for a moment before he got completely sucked in.
Becca felt Wally take her by the hand, lift her to her feet, and started pulling her down the ash filled hallway. Now, ever since the thumping doors had arrived, one didn’t need to be color blind to see the large ashen flakes.
She and Wally didn’t get more than a few steps when they heard Elaine release a loud, boisterous, and malevolent laugh. And as she continued laughing, heard above all else, the clamoring doors, the sucking winds, all of it, Wally and Becca could see the hallway collapsing in on itself.
Darkness fell.
It was over.
(Well boys and girls, I do hope you enjoyed this little tale of woe. Please remember to deposit your popcorn and empty cups in the dispensary on the way out. Until next time… ta-ta for now.)
Chapter 36
Mustn’t Play with Knives
Becca’s eyes fluttered open.
