The Nightmare Game (25 page)

I awoke with more strength and energy than I could
manage, bounding out of bed and feeling truly alive for the first time since,
since when? It seemed like I’d been sick for awhile, but I didn’t know if that
was real or just a bad dream. I couldn’t remember. How did I get here? Where
was “here” anyway? I searched my mind but there was nothing there. Funny, but I
couldn’t remember of much of anything, come to think about it. That bothered me
a little, but I was feeling far too fabulous to be upset by it. Besides, I was
more thirsty than bothered, so I reached over to the large water glass that was
on my night stand and took a long, deep drink from it. It was the best, most
refreshing water that I had ever drunk in my entire life, so I drained the
whole thing. Every swallow I took made me feel better and better, and by the
time I put the empty glass down, I felt healthier now than I did just a few
minutes ago. I felt young and strong and tremendously perky. It was time for me
to step out of this room and get my day going. I just needed to find one of
those people that was here yesterday. Hey, I remembered something! I took one
step toward the door and realized I felt more like running or jumping, but the
room was too small for that, so I skipped over to it instead. I reached for the
doorknob, but the door opened before I could touch it.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “You startled me!”

“You’re up!” the man that had just stepped in said
enthusiastically. “Great. I thought you might still be sleeping.”

“Nope. Too much energy for that!”

“Wonderful! I knew the water would cure you.”

“What water?” I pointed to the pitcher. “This
water?”

“Yes. Really, any water here.”

“Is it magic water?”

“Sure. You could say that and you wouldn’t be
lying.”

“You said it ‘cured me’. Was I sick?”

“You were dying.”

“No kidding. Well, I feel great now. How did I get
here?”

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

“I don’t remember much of anything,” I told him.

“Darn. It must be a reaction to your illness. You
were running quite a fever there for a while. But don’t worry too much about
it. I’m sure that your memories will start to come back soon enough.”

“You know, I’m really not particularly bothered by
it.”

“That’s good,” he said. “They’ll probably come
back even sooner then. Our magic water should help you. My name is Ben, by the
way.”

“I’m Ashley,” I said, shaking his hand.

“Hey, you know your name. You didn’t this morning.”

“It just popped in my head when you introduced
yourself.”

“See, I told you that your memories would return.”

“Great. Hey, can I get out of this room now? I’ve
got way too much energy to be cooped up in here any longer.”

“You most certainly can. Let’s get you something
else to wear first.”

“I thought I was dressed,” I said.

“That’s just your nightgown. You can wear it if
you want to, none of us will mind, I just thought you’d like to put on
something fresh.”

“Oh, yeah. That’d be nice.”

“We don’t dress up much around here usually, as
you can see. We all like to be comfortable,” he said, pointing to his own
clothes. He was wearing a robe, a flowing, dark burgundy v-neck with a
masculine trim, under which he wore a matching turtle-neck sweater. Walking
over to the dresser, he opened a drawer, pulled out a light cream-colored robe
and handed it to me. It felt weightless and ethereal and it shone with an
iridescence that, even without my memories, I knew I’d never seen before.

“Unbelievable stuff, huh,” Ben commented. “I’ve
never seen fabric like this outside of the mansion. By the way, your slippers
are by the dresser. Please slip them on. I think you’ll find it to be more
comfortable than going barefoot. I’ll step out for a minute while you get
dressed. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

“You can stay. I don’t mind.” I felt too good to
mind.

“Then I promise I won’t peek,” he laughed lightly,
a beautiful, open, friendly laugh. I liked Ben immediately. He was quite tall
and awfully handsome. Dark haired and young, his smile was disarming, made even
more so when his strong white teeth contrasted strikingly against his darkly
tanned skin.

He closed his eyes and turned around as I slid out
of the nightgown and into the robe, which only took a few seconds.

“Are you decent?” he asked as I finished putting
on the ballet-style slippers set out for me.

“Depends on who you ask,” I said, “but I’m
dressed. You can turn around now.”

“Ah,” he said, looking at me with approval, “You
look marvelous.”

“Thanks. Do you wear robes around here all the
time?”

“Most of the time. We like to be comfortable. It
depends on what we’re doing, though. We don’t wear them to play sports or to go
into the city.”

“What city?”

“New Orleans.”

“Really. How close are we to New Orleans?” I asked.

“A lot closer than you think.”

“Can I go with you sometime?”

“I’m sure that can be arranged later on. After
what you’ve just been through, I think you deserve it. Right now, though, let’s
just get you oriented and settled in. I want you to feel at home here. I’m so
thrilled that you’re still with us.”

“Me, too. One question, though. When I came here,
was I wearing any clothes?”

“Yes. We had to wash them because they were pretty
dirty, but you can have them back whenever you want. You’ll be rooming with Illea,
so we put them in there.”

“Who’s Illea?”

“The woman who was here with us earlier. I don’t
know if you remember her.”

“I don’t remember much. You’ll have to point her
out to me.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. You were pretty out of
it.” he said, his tone becoming serious. “Like I said, there was quite awhile
there when we thought we would lose you.”

“And you have no idea of what happened to me?” I
asked.

“No. We were hoping you would. We thought you’d
probably have some ID on you, but all your pockets were empty.”

“That’s weird.” I thought back, searching my mind,
but where this information should have been remained a blank.

“Maybe your tattoo will stir up some memories.”

“Tattoo? I have a tattoo?”

“Yes, and it’s extremely unique. It’s not only
drawn into your skin, it’s raised, imbedded in your flesh. It looks like a very
expensive job. Do you know where you got it at least? It’s so unusual that your
tattoo parlor is sure have some recollection of you.”

I didn’t remember having a tattoo, but then again,
I didn’t remember much of anything. I went over to the mirror on the dresser
drawer and looked at my reflection. By George, I really did have a tattoo,
didn’t I, and it was beauty at that. I had a necklace tattooed at and around my
neck. It wouldn’t have been so bizarre if it hadn’t been raised. It looked and
felt as if someone had actually imbedded a necklace and pendant underneath my
skin.

“Boy, that’s a real doozie, isn’t it,” I remarked,
surprised to find something like that in my body. Somehow, I didn’t think that
I would have been the type for that kind of body ornamentation.

“So is anything coming back to you?” he asked.

“No, not really,” I said. “My name is still all I
remember. That and just some general stuff. Nothing personal, though.”

“Well, it’s something at least. I was so hoping
that you’d be able to shed some light on what brought you here when you woke
up, though.” He shrugged.

“Sorry, I wish I could help. How did I get here,
anyway? Into this house, I mean.”

“It’s so odd,” he said. “You literally landed at
our doorstep.”

“Did you find me?”

“Oh, no. Geoffrey did. He’s one of our group, he
was here this morning, too. Do you remember him at all?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, well, not a problem. You’ll see him again
later, too, and I’ll introduce you. Anyway, Geoffrey was the one who found you.
He was the only person in the Great Room when you, for lack of a better word,
popped up at our front door. He said that you were banging at it, screaming
bloody murder to come in and that you just collapsed into the room when he
opened it.”

“Wow. You’d think I’d remember something like
that. Was I alone?” I asked, no more memories surfacing with the new
information.

“He says you were. He called for help as soon as
he got you in. The rest of us rushed into the Great Room, that’s the front room
and the largest in the mansion, and then we carried you up here. Illea
undressed you, put you in the nightgown and we’ve been nursing you back to
health ever since.”

“Did you say mansion? This is a mansion?”

He nodded.

I looked around the room. “But the room’s so
tiny.”

“You were so sick when you first arrived. We
didn’t know what was wrong with you, so we were instructed to quarantine you.
We’re in the servant’s quarters right now.

“It doesn’t surprise me that you remember none of
it because you were completely in shock. You were extremely cold and dehydrated
for days. It amazed me that you were even still alive. You never even moved
while you were sleeping. I don’t know if it was really sleep. It was probably a
coma, you were so still.”

“What was wrong with me?”

“That’s the million dollar question everybody’s
been asking. I wish I knew. You were very close to death, though, I do know
that.” The young man shook his head solemnly and rather sadly, then brightened.
“But all’s well that ends well. You’re doing great now and that’s all that
really matters, isn’t it?”

“How long have I been here?” I asked him.

“Four days total.”

“That long?” I asked incredulously. I didn’t know
why, but the length of time made me feel antsy and uncomfortable, almost as if
I were running late for an appointment. A feeling came upon me that there was
something I was supposed to be doing right now, something important.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I feel like there is, but I just
can’t remember.”

“It’ll come back, I’m sure,” he reassured me
again.

“So tell me, has this ever happened before? I
mean, has anyone else ever just landed on your doorstep like I did?”

“Not since I’ve lived here and I’ve lived here a
very long time.”

“Do you think any of the others would remember?”

“No, I’ve been here the longest, so if anyone
would know, it would be me. You were quite the unexpected surprise, young lady.
I guess I can tell you this now that you’re all healed up, but you were so cold
that I wondered if someone had trapped you in a freezer or something. Your
temperature took so long to climb up to normal and once it did, it shot right
into a fever. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it. Your pulse was
practically non-existent. If you hadn’t been breathing, I would have sworn
you’d actually been dead for awhile. Even so, your breathing was so shallow and
erratic that at first I almost didn’t notice it. What frightens me the most out
of all of this is that if I hadn’t noticed your breathing, there’s a good
chance we might very well have buried you alive.”

“You what?” I said horrified.

“Oh, don’t worry – I checked. Very closely.” The
sudden change in his expression revealed that he was now sorry that he’d
disclosed that little tidbit of information. “Please don’t be frightened. I was
really, really thorough. I held a mirror to your nose and mouth and everything.
Regardless, I would never have let anyone bury you for a few days at least,
just to be safe. Hey, I’ve been a Poe fan for most of my life, so I’m familiar
with catatonia. Still, with that being said, I’ve never heard of any person’s
body temperature being that low for so long while they’re still alive.”

“I guess I’m one for the books,” I said, trying to
minimize the impact of what he was telling me. “By the way, how many other
people live here?”

“We add new members from time to time, but right
now there are eleven of us. We’re sort of a ‘commune’, I guess you might say.”

“And all the others wanted to bury me?”

“Well, in their defense, they did think that you
were already dead. Oh, but don’t worry, there was never any real possibility.
No way I would have let them. I checked and double-checked and then checked
some more. Like I said, I made very, very sure that you weren’t dead.”

“Thank you?” I said, unsure of how to react to
this revelation.

“Oh, you’re quite welcome,” Ben replied, trying to
sound casual. “But getting back to your state when you arrived here – we
couldn’t figure out who would do such a horrible thing to you. At first I
thought it must have been a drifter, but I’ve been here for decades now and
I’ve never seen a drifter or anybody strange around these parts. To be honest,
I’ve never even seen any of our neighbors. I don’t even think we have any
neighbors.”

“You grew up here?”

“No, I came here as an adult.”

“How is that possible? You’re so young. You’re
what, maybe twenty-four, twenty-five?”

Ben chuckled. “I know. Don’t even try to do the
math. I don’t have time to explain right now, but I promise I will later.”

“Okay. But you have to have some neighbors.
Somewhere.” I said, still puzzling at his youth, still trying to make sense of
his years. “I mean, unless you live on a private island, it’s just a matter of
distance as to how close or far away they are, even if it’s in the next town.”

“Oh, I’m sure we must, I’ve just never met them.”

“In decades.”

He looked at me as if that were the most natural
thing in the world.

“I suppose you think that’s odd, but we’re pretty
isolated, miles from everywhere out here. The estate grounds are massive and
frankly, no one in our little group drives outside of the grounds.”

“But if no one drives outside of the grounds, how
do you get anywhere?”