In This Skin (22 page)

    Because I've been here before. I've been here in my dreams. I remember the fast-flowing stream. I remember this forest. I remember that I will reach a clearing. And in that clearing there will be people… a gathering of men and women… only they are distorted monster things… with twisted faces, elongated limbs, swollen eyes that stare at me. They have veins that pulsate in bulbous throats. They're waiting for me to go to them.

    At all costs, she couldn't-she had to find a way out of here. Turning, half falling as her feet skidded from beneath her, she ran back the way she'd come. At least the way she thought she'd come. Only the dim half light and the maze created by hundreds of tree trunks meant that she couldn't follow her original trail. The ground wasn't flat either. It rose in front of her, then dropped down into gullies with banks higher than her head. And all the time the water dripped on her as the wind whistled through the trees, as if calling to an intelligence far away Once more the snorting of an animal reached her. It seemed to have circled behind. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself faster across the rotting vegetation, her bare feet threatening to shoot from under her at any moment. She raced into a screen of bushes. In a second she was through into…

    Into the clearing. Gathered there were men and women. They stood as if waiting for her presence. Men and women? Robyn's heart clamored in her chest. No… not men and women. They had the faces of monsters.

    

    

    For a moment she paused, her breath coming in panting gasps that sent clouds of white vapor balling in front of her.

    One second the assembled creatures stood glaring at her without moving.

    The next they exploded into movement. They moved forward on overly long legs that bent the wrong way at the knee, jerky, weird steps that chilled. Their eyes seemed to swell in their heads as they fixed on her.

    Mottled skin flushed pink and white in rapid succession, as if the excitement of seeing her had sent whatever alien hearts they possessed into overdrive, pumping blood into vessels near the skin. They didn't shout out but she heard the quickening of their breath, the roar of air from their nostrils.

    They were perhaps fifty yards from her when she snapped out of shock.

    She turned to run back into the bushes. At that moment the figure she'd seen before in the Luxor broke through the undergrowth. The globe eyes blazed at her. The mouth made from flaps of skin flushed red as blood flooded veins in the lips.

    Robyn's heart cracked against her ribs. Her breathing came in shallow tugs that hurt her entire body. Even as she tried to run past the creature with its thin arms reaching out to her, her senses swung dizzily. Just for a second it felt as if a huge weight had crushed down on her chest. Now breathing really had become impossible.

    Eyes wide, she sensed her balance go out of kilter as she toppled forward onto the ground. Rolling over onto her back, she saw the creature with the mouth that covered the bottom half of its face looming over her. Before her eyes closed, she felt the cold touch of its limbs on her bare skin.

    

    

    This was the first thing Benedict West saw when he pushed through the stage curtain at the Luxor: His lamp picked out two figures there on the dance floor. One was a tall man, the other a woman in a white nightdress. The fabric was darkly stained. Could that be blood?

    The guy carried the girl-only sort of twisted the top half of his body so he hunched over her, with his arms beneath her torso, and he was dragging her across the dance floor, her bare feet sliding on the timbers. Benedict saw that she was unconscious (or dead?) while the guy's face almost touched hers. But there was something with the face.

    The man appeared to be wearing a red dust mask… at least a kind of mask that covered the bottom half of his face. Then with a series of tingling shocks Benedict interpreted the information his eyes supplied.

    The arms of the man were unusually long and slender, malformed even (where were the hands?), while the figure's eyes were shockingly large (where were the eyelids?). Then he saw the mask wasn't a mask at all but a mouth… a huge red mouth that dripped saliva in silver threads onto the girl's throat. The mouth went down to the girl. Benedict saw the jaw move. Dear God, was it about to gnaw the girl's face? ”Hey!”Benedict's shout cracked through the silence with the power of a thunderclap. Instantly the man looked up-but, sweet Jesus, what kind of man? Benedict found himself looking at a face with a huge flowering growth of a mouth, while the eyes were glinting balls… hard, glassy, lidless orbs that chilled his blood.

    The creature froze like that only for a second, holding the woman in its arms, then lowered her to the ground. Stepping over her, it crouched on bent knees. Benedict conjured images of hyenas protecting their kill, ready to attack rather than allow some scavenger to make off with their meal.

    ”Hey! Leave her!”Benedict shouted again as he ran forward, blasting the creature with the light from the lamp so it flinched before its brilliance. Dropping down from the stage, he advanced on the creature, swinging the light as he did so, feeling the reassuring weight of its metal casing in his hand. The campers lamp hissed loudly The light filled the entire auditorium. The creature glared at him through the light, its eyes not narrowing but bulging, becoming even larger in that monstrously distorted head.

    ”Get away from her!”He swung the light as if to strike the creature.

    For a second the monster ducked forward, ready to lunge at him, but a close sweep with the hissing lamp forced it to reevaluate. Instead it sprang to its feet and bounded toward the stage, where it leapt with the agility of a baboon onto the boards before vanishing through the gap in the curtain.

    There was no doubt in Benedict's mind. Trying to follow the speeding creature would have been a waste of time. Besides, the girl needed his help now. Putting the lamp down on the floor he ran toward her. She looked young… late teens, he guessed. Her skin had a gray pallor while her hair was mussed. Bits of leaf and matchstick-sized twigs stuck to her hair. Mud painted dark stripes down her nightdress (not bloodstains, thank God), while her feet and knees were coated with filth.

    Worst of all, he saw that her face glistened with a silvery slime. That thing's drool had covered her lips. Had it been about to bite her? Or had it been sucking her mouth? He thought of that huge red mouth with what looked like a complex mass of lips and he shuddered. Dear God, another minute and…

    She stirred. A grimace twisted her expression.

    ”Are you all right?”

    ”Noel?”

    She opened her eyes. They were unfocused; she could see nothing.

    ”No. My name is Benedict West. Don't worry I'll get you out of here.”

    ”Noel?”

    ”Look, I'll have to carry you. Don't be frightened. I'm going to get you to a hospital.”

    ”No… I can't leave.”

    ”Tell me your name, miss.”

    ”Robyn… please help me get home.”

    ”That's what I intend. But I'm going to have to pick you up. OK?”

    ”Help me…”She seemed to be coming to. ”Get me home, please. Before he finds out…”

    ”Where's home?”

    ”Here.”

    

    

    The young guy in the pajama pants with the chili pepper pattern stared at Benedict in something that yelled out both disbelief and pure shock.

    ”You found her where?”

    ”On the dance floor.”

    ”Who the hell are you!”

    ”My name is Benedict West.”

    ”What have you-”

    ”Please, sir. She's very cold. If you step aside I'll carry her in… up the stairs?”

    ”Huh?”The young guy couldn't absorb what he was seeing in Benedict standing there at the door with the muddied girl in his arms.

    ”Upstairs? Is that where your rooms are?”

    ”Yeah. Sure. This way.”The guy got his act together. ”I'll follow you up. I need to use the flashlight so you can see.”

    ”Okay, keep it on the stairs in front of me. More to the left… your left…”

    ”Jesus. What happened to her?”

    ”Let me get her somewhere warm first.”Benedict cradled the girl in his arms as if she were a child. ”Are you her husband?”

    ”Partner. My name's Noel.”

    ”Okay, Noel, which doorway?”

    ”This one. It's the lounge.”

    ”I'll put her on the couch. Can you grab a blanket? Her skin's like ice.”

    ”She's cold?”Noel couldn't understand. ”It's more than seventy degrees tonight. How can she be cold?”

    ”I think she's been out.”

    ”Outside?”

    ”In a way?' Benedict laid her gently down, supporting her head on a scatter cushion. Behind him, Noel lit an array of candles.

    ”No electricity?”

    ”No.”

    ”You're squatting?”

    ”I guess.”Then Noel turned his attention to the girl. ”Robyn… Robyn?

    Are you hurt? Has someone attacked you?”

    Benedict noticed that Noel's eyes flicked down to her hips. No prizes for what the guy was thinking.

    ”Noel!”Robyn opened her eyes. For a second they held a light that blazed with sheer panic. Furiously she glanced around the room as if expecting to see… what? When she realized she was safely home she sighed and relaxed back onto the pillow. ”Noel, oh thank God, thank God.”

    ”Listen to me. Have you been hurt?”Noel crouched beside her, holding one of her hands in both of his.

    She shook her head. ”I heard a baby crying. I went to look for it when you said you were following me down onto the dance floor; only when I got down there, you didn't follow and I was alone then…”The words had burst from her lips; now she stopped, closing her eyes, shaking her head. ”Oh my God. I saw them, Noel.”

    ”Saw who, sweetheart?”

    ”I… I don't know. They were…”She shrugged, struggling to find the right words. ”Awful. Deformed. Monsters-I don't know…”

    Benedict saw the man glance up as if to ask for more information.

    Benedict shrugged, too. ”When I walked onto the stage I saw Robyn there.

    She was…”He winced, seeing the distress on the young guy's face. ”She was being dragged across the floor by this guy”

    ”A guy… what guy?”

    ”I don't know… only he… he… there was something about him.

    Something… wrong.”

    ”How do you mean, wrong?”Benedict sounded angry now, rather than concerned. ”You stood and watched?”

    ”Look, her skin feels like ice. Let me find a blanket. And a sponge and warm water so you can clean her up. Looks as if she's taken a bad fall in a lot of dirt.”

    Benedict didn't wait for the okay from Noel. He left him running his hand across the girl's forehead, trying to soothe her. But in truth it was the young guy that looked more worked up. For the next ten minutes, Benedict brought in the comforter, found a plastic bowl that he filled with warm water and then hunted around until he found a face cloth and towel in the bathroom. After a while beneath the comforter, Robyn became more alert and the color returned to her face. Her blue-gray lips pinkened. Her eyes were brighter. Benedict saw that she talked earnestly to her boyfriend, telling him what had happened. In the main, Noel shook his head doubtfully.

    Benedict returned to the kitchen, where by the light of a single candle he boiled a kettle on the stove. When he couldn't find a jar of coffee in the larder he settled on hot chocolate. He spooned the mottled brown powder into a pair of cups, added more sugar as an antidote to the shock that the young couple must be experiencing, then poured the boiling water. By the time he carried the steaming cups back to the living room, it was almost one-fifteen in the morning. Through the apartment windows he could see the glow of downtown Chicago in the distance, while above it the stars burned like witch fire.

    ”It'll taste sweet,”he warned. ”But it'll make you feel a little better at least.”

    ”Thank you,”Robyn said, pushing herself into a sitting position. Leaves still adorned her hair.

    Noel took his with a ”thanks,”and Benedict noticed a sideward glance of suspicion.

    Benedict asked, ”How are you feeling now, Robyn?”

    ”Grubby Like I played football single-handed against the Chicago Bears…”She forced a smile. ”And lost.”

    Noel flexed his powerful fists; muscles bulged in his forearms. As he stood up he ran his fingers back through his hair. There still was an edginess there.

    Looking at Benedict he said, ”I don't understand what Robyn was doing outside.”

    ”I don't think she left the Luxor as such.” 'As such? What do you mean?”Noel ran both his hands through his hair as he paced. ”And what were you doing here?”

    ”Noel-”Robyn began.

    ”But you've been attacked, Robyn. I want to know how… I want to know by whom? When I went to sleep you were with me. Now I find you-”

    ”Noel, let me-”

    ”Attacked… and-and this guy says you went outside without leaving the building. It doesn't make one jigger of sense, does-”

    ”Noel.”Robyn took a deep breath. She gazed into the hot chocolate in the cup, seeing her reflection floating there. For a second she recalled terrible things; Benedict could tell from her expression.

    Gently Benedict broke the silence. ”It's a long story, but I'm trying to discover what happened to my girlfriend… ex-girlfriend,”he corrected with a grimace. ”Mariah Lee. One night she walked into this building.

    She never left.”