The Haunted Halls (22 page)

Chapter Five

Lee Buhl (his body lying unconscious on the hotel room floor) moved through a world of shadows. He knew it was a dream, but felt it was more. He was here for help, for guidance. He saw a wolf and a fox, instantly recognizing the power animals of his grandparents. He moved to them, bowed down, and planted one knee in the unseen earth at his feet. Fog rolled across all that he could see.

The eyes of the two power animals gazed at him, acknowledging his presence, his desperation. They took turns speaking with him telepathically:

“You seek counsel. Welcome, Grandson,” the wolf said.

“You have drifted from us, from your heritage. You are not lost,” spoke the fox.

“I’m sorry for the way I have used this gift. I’m–”

“There is no time for apologies. What’s done is done. You must listen,” said the wolf.

The fox sat before him. Lee bowed his head.

“Look at me,” the fox said.

He raised his eyes.

“This spirit is powerful, but not unbreakable. You must light up its place of rest. You must burn the evil from its well. The demon must come to light.”

“How can I–”

“It has underestimated your faith, your strength. You must believe. You must be of the light. You must act now. Go.” The fox turned away, vanishing in the foggy shadows. The wolf stared at him. The twinkle of his grandfather’s eyes flashed and then the wolf joined the fox in the place beyond his dream.

Lee’s eyes flew open. The shattered mirror across from him reflected half of his face. For a moment, the eye he saw was the same as the wolf’s.  He stood up and searched the room for any sign of the thing he’d confronted. Satisfied it was elsewhere he turned to the door. He knew the doorway was bound before he touched the knob. He grasped the silver knob in his hand, closed his eyes, and began the breathing exercises his grandfather had taught him. “This way shall open for the light. This way shall open to the light,” he spoke the words, not knowing where they came from, but trusting they were right. The knob turned. He moved into the hallway ready to rush to the rescue, but refrained. He would need his basket of supplies to attempt to thwart this demon.

He spotted the wicker container down the hall where he’d left it before chasing after Jeff.

Jeff.

The demon had shown him lies.

Jeff’s screams erupted from somewhere down the hall. Lee hurried back to his basket, gathered the few items which had fallen out, and spotted the bloody footprints and the crimson smudge on the chrome bar of the Exit door. A pounding from the room closest to him stole his attention. Lee set the basket down, slid to his knees, placed his fists on the floor and closed his eyes. He took three deep breaths and reached beyond his physical self. He projected himself through the wall and saw her. The girl, Jeff’s co-worker–she wasn’t alone.

…..

Rhiannon tried to break free from the Kurt-thing’s icy grasp, but it just continued to mock her with its Kurt-face–blue eyes turned into black pools swimming in from a world beyond. Rhiannon’s fear gave way to rage. She lashed out at the perversion. “Let. Me. Go.” She swung wildly at the appendage holding her hostage. Still, it held on. Done fucking around, she unloaded a barrage of punches from her clenched fist, pummeling the Kurt-thing’s twisting face. Urgency spurred her on as she thought of the man in black. Surely he was down here with her already. She looked around the room, combing the shadows in the corners for any sign of the man, all the while continuing to wail away at the face lying on the hospital bed. The hand around her wrist finally let go. She turned to see the damage she had inflicted and brought her hands up to her mouth. The face had caved in under her assault. She began to retreat back the way she’d come in rubbing the purpling spot around her wrist from the thing’s grip. She looked back to the bed–it was gone, the Kurt-thing with it. The room returned to normal. She was standing next to a large mahogany desk. Before she could breathe easy, her second floor nightmares returned.

Spiders, cockroaches, and serpents of all sizes emerged from every dark possibility in the room. They were crawling up the edges of the desk, slithering over her feet below. Her raging bravery was extinguished immediately. She wasn’t sitting like some helpless girl through this mess again. Rhiannon ran to the door. When it refused to let her out, she pounded against it and screamed for help.

“Hello,
Rhiannon
?” a male voice asked.

“Yes. Who’s there?”

“My name’s Lee. I came here with Jeff.”

“Is Jeff out there with you?”

“No. Can you open the door, or is it stuck?”

She tried again. “It won’t open. It won’t open. You have to get me out of here.”

“Okay, okay, give me a minute.”

So far the bugs crawling on her and the snakes sliding over her shoes weren’t causing her any physical ailments, but her psyche was under full attack. “Please hurry,” she said. She closed her eyes trying to shut out the army of nightmares.

The man spoke in a low tone, “This way shall open for the light. This way shall open to the light.”

The door pushed inward, Rhiannon maneuvered around it and into the hallway swatting off the things that were crawling over her arms and face.

“Hey, hey, stop.” The man followed her. He had high cheek bones, soft brown eyes, and a strong jaw. Part of her acknowledged his good looks; the rest of her urged caution.

“You’re Lee, the guy Jeff met.” She was still searching her skin for the bugs that were never there.  She was standing half-naked before this total stranger. Feeling a warmth flood her cheeks. “Where’s Jeff?”

“I think he’s with the dark spirit.” He looked away as she buttoned the front of her shirt.

“Which one?”

“What do you mean?”

“The guy or the girl?” she said. “There’s more than one thing haunting this hotel.”

Chapter Six

“There you are,” Timothy said, stepping from the room the girl had just escaped. He stood with his hands behind his back, moving his eyes from the half-naked girl to the young man with the shining soul. “And who is this?”

“Run!” the girl shouted, grabbing her new friend.

Timothy smiled as they headed in the direction of his Queen. His lust for death had been quenched tenfold, but he had a special feeling about these two. He started after them, stopping as something cold passed through him. He looked down at his chest, searching for the source of this foreign touch. A shape moved in the hall ahead of him. His smile fell. He thought of Kenneth, lying broken on the floor in room 209, and wondered if this presence had anything to do with the girl’s escape from the Ice Queen’s young friend. He thought of the portrait that should have rendered the girl unconscious and how it had instead, stopped in mid-air. He thought she had caught it, but now knew better. Whatever was helping her was weak, but present enough to interfere. No matter. He would put a swift end to its meddling.

…..

“Come on,” Rhiannon said, pulling at Lee. She hoped Jeff was all right, but wasn’t about to confront the man in black. She’d gotten away from him twice already and wasn’t going to push her luck. She stared straight ahead at the Lobby exit ready to bust out of this damned place and try to figure out a way to find Jeff.

Halfway down the hall, Lee tugged on her. “Wait, we need–”

“We need to get the fuck out of here,” she said, stopping near the entrance to the pool room. Visions of her dream (the waters filled with bodies and Kurt emerging from them) flashed across her mind. She shook the nightmare away and said, “Forget about it, come on. We need to get out.” She pulled at him, but Lee resisted.

“You should listen to your little friend,” the man down the corridor said. “There’s nothing left here but death.”

Rhiannon glanced back at the man in black, taking his time, hands behind his back as if casually strolling through the streets of Paris. “Come on.” She glanced down at the basket in Lee’s hand. “Or you can go have your picnic with him.”

“We need to get to a room,” Lee said. “I can keep him out.”

“What? No, no fucking way. We’re leaving.” A rush of cold air surrounded them. “Shit.”

“No. It’s not one of them,” Lee said. He glanced back at their pursuer then pushed Rhiannon forward. “To that last door, go.”

“No, we can’t–”

“We can’t leave your friend. He came back for you. We cannot leave this place until I bring it to light.”

Thinking of Jeff risking his neck to come back for her, sickened at the realization of her cowardice, Rhiannon relented.  “Let’s go.” She could still feel the cool presence around them.

They ran to the door. “I don’t have a key,” she said.

“This way shall open for the light. This way shall open to the light,” Lee said. The door opened.

“What did you? How did–”

Lee shoved her inside. “No time.” He closed the door behind them then reached into the wicker basket in his hand. He pulled out a piece of chalk and began drawing a line around the entrance. “No darkness shall penetrate this passage. No darkness shall pass.” 

She was freezing. The cold had come with them.

“I think you’re too late,” she said. “There’s something in here with us.”

“It’s okay. It’s on our side.” He reached back into the basket and hauled out a handful of candles, a bunched up thing of long grassy-looking stuff, and a small vile of dark liquid.

“What’s all that for?”

He set up the candles in little tin holders, placing two behind him, one to his right, one to the left, and handed her the last one. “Here, place this behind you. Line it up so that it completes the pentagram.”

She noticed the star pattern and thought about asking him if he was a devil worshipper. Instead, she did as she was told. She put the candle in place and waited for him to hand over the lighter. He finished lighting the last one to their left and then the bundle of grassy stuff. The earthy smell it gave off was somehow calming. He handed her the lighter.

“Light the candles,” he said, picking the chalk back up from the floor and placing it by her feet. “Then draw a circle around us with the chalk. Quickly, we’re running out of time.”

She did as he instructed, lighting the candles, spinning around for the chalk and drawing the circle around them. She stepped back to her spot waiting to see what happened next. Lee blew out the burning grass and waved it around them. After a few seconds, he pulled out a small ceramic plate from the basket and placed the smoking bundle in the center. He grabbed the glass vile, popped the top, and drank it down.

“Take my hands,” he said. She did. A thousand questions demanded answers, but there was no time. She watched him close his eyes, raise his head, and begin.

“I am already given to the power that rules my fate. I cling to nothing, so I have nothing to defend. I have no thoughts, so I will see. I fear nothing, so I will remember my name. Show me the light where there is none. Show me the truth,” Lee said.

An energy, a vibration tingled through their connection. Rhannon closed her eyes and was someplace else. The hotel room was gone. She could hear the sound of rushing water and a crackling, like a fire burning in the woods. She opened her eyes and looked across from her–a wolf stared back. She was not afraid. It was him, it was Lee. And she could hear him.

“Who are you?” the wolf asked.

A girl’s voice answered, “My name is Christina.”

“Do you know what haunts this place?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell us what it is?”

“It was somebody that I used to know. Somebody dark. Somebody who did wicked things.”

“What is her name?”

“Sarah,” the voice said.

“Christina, will you help us to rid this place of Sarah’s presence?”

“Yes.”

There was the sound of thunder somewhere beyond them. Rhiannon could hear a series of booms.

“Where is Sarah’s home?” he said.

“The pool.”

“There is another. Do you know him?”

“No, but he is not as strong.”

“We need safe passage to her home.”

“I can help.”

“Thank you, spirit. May you come to light when all is through.”

Rhiannon felt Lee’s hands in hers again. She opened eyes that she hadn’t realized she’d closed. Lee let go and began collecting the candles, blowing each out. “Help me gather my things.”

Bang, bang, bang.

The thunder she’d heard in the dream, or whatever had just happened, was the man in black banging at the door. He hadn’t been able to get through. Not yet anyway. She felt a small burst of confidence. They might make it through the night after all.

Chapter Seven

Jeff grasped at the Meghan look-alike, the sharp pain from his severed tongue was like nothing he’d ever felt before. He flew backward into the pool water. Submerged, he realized this wasn’t water at all. It was thicker, slimier. He tried to swim, his head throbbing, his body betraying him. He kicked his legs as best he could to combat the resisting liquid. Waving his hand out before him he made contact with something and tried to wrap his hand around it. He grasped onto an arm,
her arm?
And pulled his body up, bumping into something or a bunch of something’s as he did. He got his head out of the pool gasping for air.

“Sorry about that Jeffrey, I was just having a little fun. You’re not mad at me are you?” The devil’s voice came from somewhere in the room.

Wherever she was, she wasn’t who he was clinging to. He opened his eyes and prayed it wasn’t Rhiannon and found himself surrounded by bodies in varying stages of decay. They filled the pool, floating in a bath of blood. He could see things squirming in the mouths and open flesh of the bodies closest to him. He was too shocked to scream. He wanted to wake up, but knew this wasn’t another bad dream.

“No. This isn’t a dream, Jeffrey. You have a promise to fulfill.”

He looked up. Her face was moving; the skin– pulsating, her eyes dancing from one luminous color to another. Her hair seemed alive, reaching out to the room of dead things. Her nudity no longer registered. He looked into her eyes and stared, mesmerized. She moved down the length of the pool. His only thought was of the sweet welcoming arms of death.  He followed her, wading through the bodies, using some to pull himself along.

“Come to me, Jeffrey.” She moved down the stairs at the shallow end, holding out a hand for him to join her. And he did.

…..

“I see her,” Rhiannon said.

Lee reared back in time to see the shape of a girl up in the corner by the door, her hands dim-blue and pointing toward the door.

“What’s she doing?” Rhiannon said.

Lee finished putting the last pieces of his collection back in the basket, stood up, and said, “She wants me to blur the binding line and let the demon in.”

“What?”

“I think she has a plan. We have to trust her,” he said. “I trust her.” Lee knew although she was trapped here like the others she was different. He’d seen glimpses in his vision. She was brought here by this devil and she was here now to help stop it. “Back up. We need to make some room. This demon may not be as powerful, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.” Lee placed the basket on top of the bed and pulled out a few more tricks.

“That guy, that thing out there. I saw what it can do. There’s no fucking way we can let it in here,” she said. Lee watched Rhiannon backing away, shaking her head, looking at him like he was throwing her to the wolves. “He can read your thoughts; he can make you see things; he killed all those people…”

“Trust. You must trust the light. Whatever is happening or has been happening in this hotel, it’s all born of darkness. The only way to rid this place of its grip is to stand up, trust in good and have faith in the light.” Lee grabbed her by the arms and stared into her brown eyes. “Do you trust me?” His faith had been strengthened in the last few hours, but he couldn’t deny that the river of deceit he’d been living off for most of his adult life twisted below the surface. He needed her to believe. Their fate depended on it.

“I, I…” She looked past his shoulder.

“Rhiannon,” he said.

The door behind them was buckling, the pounding growing louder.

“You can’t hide in there all night,” the demon said. “You’ll give in, and I’ll be waiting. Do you hear me?”

Lee shook her, “Look at me,” he said. “Listen. We are not in this alone. But we are the only ones here who can stop it. Right now. I need you to believe.”

“I,” she began then dropped her head. “I don’t. I’m sorry, but I don’t. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

Lee looked the girl over; the blood on her hands and feet, covering her shirt, her hair.

“Are you kidding? How do you think you’ve made it this far? How do you think all the others are gone, and yet, you’re still standing here? Breathing, fighting…you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. Look at me.” She brought her blood and tear-stained face up. “I believe that you are the reason I’m here. You are the light that led me to this shadow.” He knew he had to confess it all.

Bang, bang, bang.

“Open this goddamn door or I’ll rip it the fuck off,” the man in black said.

Lee continued. “I’ve been nothing but a magician, a boy with a few tricks up his sleeve, a guy using his heritage, his gift, to make a living. I forgot the truths my grandfather had shown me. I had forsaken who I was, what I was supposed to be.”

The barrier can no longer hold him
, the spirit said inside Lee’s mind.

“I know who I am. I am where I’m supposed to be. We are here to end this darkness.”

The frame around the door began to crack and splinter.

He’s coming in,
the spirit said.

“Do you trust me?”

Rhiannon’s eyes met his. “Yes.”

“Do you trust in the light?”

“Yes.”

The door crashed inward slamming against the wall. Lee looked over and saw the man in black with burning coal for eyes–his smile was no longer playful.

“Give me the bitch and I’ll let you run,” the demon said.

Lee got up, placed himself in front of Rhiannon. “You will not take this girl, demon. You will not take one more soul.”

The man in black stepped forward. “You just missed your chance to get out of this alive.”

Lee reached in the basket, pulling out a large knife and another vile.

“Is that the good stuff?” The demon smirked.

Rhiannon stepped out from behind Lee, taking the knife from his hand.

“Oh, this one likes to play so rough,” the demon said, staring at Rhiannon.

Lee grabbed the blade back from her. “No. Let me,” he said.

“But I believe you.”

“I know, but it must be me,” he said.

…..

Rhiannon let go and moved behind Lee.

The blue shadow on the ceiling behind the demon moved into action. Before the demon could turn, the shadow exploded into him.

Lee placed himself between the demon and Rhiannon. Holding out the knife he flipped the top off the vile. “Bless this blade that it may cut the darkness. Bless this weapon against the evils of the world.” He dumped the contents of the vile upon the eight-inch blade and then watched the bright white light illuminate the knife.

The demon screamed.

The blue shadow sailed through the man in black, flying straight up before them; the man in black, arms spread, chest out, head back, reeled forward.

Rhiannon collapsed to the floor behind Lee.

She watched him step toward the screaming thing, gripping the handle of the knife with both hands, thrusting it forward, sinking the bright white blade into the heart of the demon.

“Ahhhh!” Lee screamed in its distorting face.

Rhiannon sat transfixed on what was happening. Light spread like fire through the convulsing body of the demon before them. Its mouth, nose, eyes burst with the blinding luminance. The cries of a thousand beasts torn to pieces in the night ripped from its throat. A blast of energy exploded out from its form sending Lee off his feet and flying backward. She heard the shattering glass above her as Lee was sent smashing through the hotel window.

The room was left in blackness. The man in black was gone. Lee had done it. Lee and Christina.

Rhiannon stumbled up to her feet.

“Oh my God,” she said, staring at Lee’s body lying motionless on the lawn outside the hotel.

…..

Lee couldn’t open his eyes. He knew he’d sent the first demon into the light, but something bad had happened to his body. He concentrated, focused on Rhiannon and pushed himself forward. He saw his body below, dotted with bloodspots where the shards of glass from the hotel window had penetrated. There was a sliver of blood drooling from his busted lip, which was never a good sign. He had no time to worry about his own well-being. He could see Rhiannon, and the spirit, Christina, watching from the room. He would have to communicate to Rhiannon through the spirit.

…..

“Rhiannon,” the spirit said.

Rhiannon turned to the girl–eyes meeting hers, hands formed and held out toward her–waiting.

“Christina?” Rhiannon said.

“Yes, listen, your friend, Lee. He’s with me,” she said.

“Oh my God, is he, is he…” Rhiannon brought her hands to her mouth.

“No. He’s not dead. He’s weak, but his body is still alive.”

Rhiannon looked out at his body, and then back to the spirit. “He’s
with
you?”

“He says Jeff is with Sarah. You have to stop her.”

“What? How? What about you?”

“He says
you
have to do this.
You
have to bring her dark resting place to light,” Christina said.

“What do I do?”

“He says to follow the spell with the candles in the pentagram, the smudge-stick in the plate, when it reveals itself, read the vanquishing incantation from the notebook, Burning Darkness. He says to wait until she’s in the center of the pentagram.”

“Lee, how do I–?”

“He’s gone. His spirit is very weak. Listen to me. I feel responsible for what Sarah has become. I, I tried to stop her once before, when we were alive. I failed.” Christina’s luminescent blue gaze bloomed before Rhiannon’s eyes. “I will help you destroy her.”