In This Skin (21 page)

    This was a tiny enclave of glittering show business in the middle of a vast industrial zone that now lay neglected and derelict beyond the boundaries of the Luxor's parking lot. This dance hall was the place to step out of your mundane day-today world. It had been conceived and built with the intention of being a magical, otherworldly place. The Egyptian facade with its temple columns, molded pharaohs and bird-headed gods enhanced that exotic quality So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Junior is doing a jig in my stomach, or my hand healed within a matter of hours, or I encountered the figure in the dance hall, she told herself drowsily. This is a place of gods, kings, monsters and make-believe. Her mind went back six hours, to when she had sat in the armchair on the dance floor. How she'd seen the figure come racing at her through the beams of the flashlight.

    Vividly she recalled the huge ball-like eyes. The monster mouth that seemed to be made of lush red rose petals. The tapering arms reaching out. How it chased her.

    But I'm safe now, she thought. That's all that matters. And I will maintain that aura of contentment and 165 satisfaction at living here. Otherwise Noel will force me to return home to Mom and Emerson. With a shiver of surprise she told herself: If I go back to live with them I'll kill myself.

    

    

    When the movie was over, Ellery Hann returned home. Well, ”home”was a convenient label for the place where he and his parents lived. He never thought of it as home. Home for him was the place he saw in his dreams: a shining city high on a mountain with domes and spires and buildings that gleamed like gold in the setting sun.

    As he let himself into the apartment he heard his father call from the couch, ”That you, Ellery?”

    ”Y-yy-”

    ”There's chili on the stove if you want it… Ellery, I need to go downtown in the morning. Loan me thirty bucks, won't you?”

    Morning? Ellery Hann glanced at the kitchen clock. In around eight hours he'd have to walk along Fairfax and face Logan. A powerful emotion gripped him with the ferocity of an iron fist. Time was running out.

    

    

    Benedict headed down to the car from his apartment. By now it was fully dark. Streetlights cast an orange glow across the city. With it being so warm, he only wore a shirt with his jeans. Opening the trunk, he carefully secured the camper's lantern behind the toolbox, so it wouldn't roll around in there during the drive to the Luxor. ”You're chasing spooks, Benedict, old buddy he told himself as he opened the driver's door. ”But it's your old obsession, isn't it? Find out what happened to Mariah Lee… or die trying.”

    

    

    Pregnancy makes you do funny things. Funny-strange, that is. Pregnant women compulsively vacuum. Or they might need to paint every room in the house. Or they crave pizza oozing beneath chocolate spread, or even a desire to eat classroom chalk or coal. These things are bizarre, but it's nature's way of prompting the mom-to-be to prepare the home for the new baby or to ingest minerals required by the growing fetus.

    The moment Robyn went to bed the craving gripped her. It wasn't the need for tuna blended with ice cream, nor was it to scrub floors.

    I want to go down to the dance floor again. I want to sit in the armchair and feel that cooling draft on my skin.

    But after what happened earlier in the day? When I was chased by that man… no, not a man, a monster! I'm not going down there alone.

    Robyn lay on the bed with Noel beside her. They'd only been in bed two minutes at the most and already she heard the deep rhythm of his breathing as he slept. Now she lay on her back gazing up into the dark air above the bed.

    I want to go downstairs… I want to walk out onto the dance floor… the words repeated themselves. They irritated her. I want to go downstairs…

    ”Well you can't,”she whispered out loud. ”You can't leave the apartment. You don't want to walk into the monster-guy do you?” She spoke half-flippantly. Even so, she wanted to push that whining voice out of her head that demanded she slip on her sandals and leave the safety of the locked apartment. ”You go down there, girl, and you'll find yourself stiff as a pole in a body bag.”

    Now sleep!

    Noel slept on.

    Come on, Robyn, she told herself. It's those pregnancy hormones getting you all riled up. Relax. Get some sleep… Robyn Vincent closed her eyes.

    

    

    Robyn Vincent opened her eyes when the baby started crying. It was distant but the terror in the baby's voice came at her in chilling waves that froze her heart.

    ”I'm coming… don't be frightened. I'm coming.”

    Heart pounding, she climbed out of bed. The cries sounded panicky now.

    Distress stuttered through the cry Not even pausing to slip on a robe or her sandals, she hurried through to the spare room. That's where the crib was, so that's where the baby would be. Starlight filtering through the windows revealed the crib lying empty amongst a sea of junk.

    No, how could a baby have been left in the crib all these years? The realization brought her suddenly awake. For a second she thought the cries issued from a dream, but she heard the cries continue. Downstairs…

    But she couldn't go down there alone.

    Someone's abandoned a baby, she told herself. It happens. Panicking teenage mothers give birth without anyone knowing they were even pregnant, then they leave their child wrapped in a towel in a bus station or shopping mall. Now someone had abandoned a newborn infant downstairs in the Luxor. My God, how long had it been there? It must be hungry and cold…

    ”Noel,”she called back along the hallway to the bedroom. ”Noel. There's a baby downstairs. Bring the new bath towel. I'm going down.”

    Later, she'd swear that he'd answered her. That he'd called he'd be right down.

    The baby's cries grew louder. There was real distress now… maybe even pain. If someone had left the baby on the ground, were there rats in the Luxor? They might be… closing off the thought, she grabbed a candle they'd left wedged in a bottle by the apartment door. Beside it, a book of matches. Quickly she lit the wick.

    ”Noel, when you get the towel bring the flashlight, too!”

    Again, later she'd swear that he'd answered that he would. Of course, by then it was all too late.

    

    

    The cries from the baby grew more desperate.

    ”Don't be frightened. I'm coming!”

    Robyn unbolted the door to the lobby, then drew it open. The cries sounded louder in the lobby. With the candle burning in the bottle neck, she held it high as she hurried by the ticket office. From the walls, the eyes of plaster pharaohs gazed coldly down. The single candle cast only a weak light. It couldn't reach the shadowed corners. Even so, she knew within moments that the baby wasn't in the lobby.

    The dance floor. It has to be, she told herself as she pushed through soundproofed doors into the cave-like void beyond. Here the candlelight was even feebler. It couldn't reach the high ceiling, or the walls. All she could do was walk in the little patch of light it sprinkled around her. Now the cries were louder, more persistent, more heartbreaking.

    ”I'm coming… please don't be frightened anymore. I'm here…”

    The cries came from the armchair in the center of the dance floor.

    There, that's where the baby has been left. It's a miracle it hasn't tumbled from the cushion onto the floor.

    Robyn walked as swiftly as she dare. The draft might kill the candle flame. Without any pockets in her nightdress, she'd not brought the matches. Only that wasn't important now. Besides, Noel would be here any minute now with the flashlight and the towel. What was vital was that she reach the baby. Once more, she thought about the rats that must roam the place. The baby would be so vulnerable. She shivered, afraid of what she might see when she found the infant. She advanced on the armchair.

    Its shadow changed shape, shrinking into a crouching thing as she raised the candle higher so she could look on the cushion. At that moment the crying stopped. The abruptness of its ending made her catch her breath in shock. Instantly silence swam at her with all the menace of a shark.

    And then she realized the truth.

    I've done what I promised I wouldn't do. I've come back down onto the dance hall alone.

    Where's Noel?

    She turned to stare at the lobby doors. In the weak light of the candle, they revealed themselves as dark upright slabs in the gloom. There was something of the cemetery about them, tombstone shapes suggestive of loss and sorrow and death.

    Noel's not coming. He's asleep up in the apartment. I've been tricked into coming down here. There never was a baby, there never was a baby, there never wasRobyn shuddered. Jolts of dark electricity shivered down her back. She thought: No. There never was a baby. Someone mimicked the cry This is a cheap trick and I've fallen for it.

    Now she turned around and around, trying to light the darkness that crept in at her. Somewhere in the shadows was the thing with the monstrous face. And, dear God, here I am…

    She took a step in the direction of the lobby. To simply turn and flee would invite the thing to pounce. If she made herself appear brave it might be discouraged from attacking.

    I will not run… I will not run…

    Hot candle wax fell onto the hand that held the bottle. Wincing, she bit her lip. The liquid wax burned as it trickled toward her wrist.

    But no sudden moves. If you move too quickly, the draft will snuff the candle. Then you'll be snuffed next. The thought came with deadly resonance. She was in danger now and she knew it. Monstrous shadows gathered just beyond the reach of the candlelight. They lurked there, as ghostly as they were menacing. From far, far away she heard the sound of footsteps. They shimmered over a colossal distance. As if someone ascended from a deep subterranean vault.

    Here he comes, she thought. He knows I'm here.

    Robyn's throat closed. She could hardly breathe. The terror was a crushing weight. She had to get back to the safety of the apartment.

    More candle wax dripped onto bare skin. Now she saw that all that remained of the candle was a one-inch stump. In a few minutes it would burn out. As if sensing this, shadows crept in closer. At the same time, a cool breeze played around her ankles. It swirled up her bare legs to tug at her nightdress. There was something about that sudden draft. It was cold. It had a wet touch. It smelled of dew and fallen leaves. There were feral animal smells in the mix. Damp fur. Organic odors.

    The draft became a breeze, one that chilled Robyn to her nerve roots. It sent a whistle through the dance hall. The sound of air currents blowing through the bones of the dead in a vast and desolate place. A lonesome sound that pulled the strings of her heart. The breeze blew again. Her eyes went to the candle. Its flame became a shrunken sputtering point of blue light. The cold breeze ran ice fingers over her face and through her hair. That was the moment the candle flame died. For a full moment she stared at the ember glowing orange in the tip of the wick. She willed it to burst back into life. It didn't; the spark in the wick died, too. Darkness rushed at her. The wind-the impossible wind in the dance hall- surged… a savage exultation whooped through it.

    Now there was nothing to do but run. Gripping the bottle by the neck, in case she had to use it as a weapon, she plunged through the darkness, hoping instinct alone would guide her to the lobby doors. In front of her a splash of gray revealed itself, a dull thing like starlight falling on a curtain or a wall. Were these the doors?

    She ran at that wash of gray that stood in front of her in a vertical block. The gray gleam expanded as she ran toward it, but suddenly she realized the ground beneath her feet had become soft. Her shoulder slammed into a hard object. She raised a hand to push her attacker away, only her fingers swept through a mass of twigs. Below them she felt the corrugated hardness of tree bark. It was wet, too. Once more she felt moss.

    Just like yesterday, she thought, bewildered. She'd run through the darkened building to find leaf mush beneath her feet. And she'd run into a tree trunk, just like yesterday But how can a forest appear inside a building?

    I'm asleep, she prayed. I'm asleep in bed beside Noel. This is a dream…

    Only the physical presence of the forest exuded itself so powerfully she knew she couldn't be asleep. Coldness penetrated the thin cotton nightdress. Forest air rolled with biting clarity into her nostrils. She smelled mushrooms, wet leaves, all mingled with the spiky scents of wild animals. Looking up, she saw treetops through layers of mist. Gray light seeped bleakly through. Dazed, she wove a line amongst the tree trunks.

    Water dripped on her from stark branches that clawed at the sky. A bird screeched somewhere to her right, while to her left she could hear a coughing snarl of some heavy beast in the undergrowth.

    ”Noel!”She shouted for her boyfriend, even though she knew he couldn't hear. He was asleep. Oblivious to what had happened. What was happening.

    What would happen!

    Get out… GET OUT! She knew she had to leave this place. It would suck her in and never let her go if she didn't. She ran frantically, her bare feet slipping on wet leaves. Farther to her right she saw a fast-flowing river. In front of her would be a clearing where she would see a gathering of…

    How did I know that? How did I know there would be a clearing beyond those trees?