The Nightmare Game (68 page)

No sooner had I stepped out of the doorway and
walked into the room proper than the walls between the beams came alive,
bursting with arteries and veins that pumped and throbbed with a fluid the same
colors as the circular stream, as if these walls were the room’s living
vascular system. I turned around and the doorway through which I had just
passed was no longer there, replaced now with yet another wall containing
pulsating blue and cold green veins. Arrosha really took her one-way doors
seriously, so there was only one direction in which to go and that was forward.
Looking ahead, I could now see what lay before me at the center of this great,
strange room. How did I miss it before? It must have been cloaked, the same
trick she sometimes used at the mansion. A raised, circular platform, with
steps leading up at all sides, stood in the center of the room. At the top of
the platform was yet another half sphere, a small metallic dome. A globe
hovered above it, glowing and pulsing in the same cool light as the walls and
the stream. I didn’t want to walk up to it, but Arrosha had a way of leaving me
no choice but to go down the paths she chose.

With caution, I approached the foot bridge. No
sooner had I stepped on it than the fluid in the stream below me turned to
blood red and began to steam and bubble. The walls followed suit, as did the
globe floating above the central platform. As the entire room was bathed in a
sickly throbbing red light, I realized that I’d triggered some kind of an
alarm. Even though there would have been nowhere for me to go, I wanted to turn
back and run, but no sooner had this thought entered my mind than the bridge
began to disappear behind me, leaving me no choice but to continue forward. I
quickened my forward pace now, afraid that if I didn’t, the bridge would
disappear under my feet rather than simply behind me and I’d be thrown into the
stream of what now looked like boiling blood. Arrosha had determined beyond a
doubt that there would be no way out for me, no turning back.

I finally reached the other side and my feet
touched the solid floor. As soon as I did, the stream, the veins and the
glowing, floating orb returned to the same cool, fluorescent blues and cyans
that they had been before I started to cross.

I walked around the central circular platform, but
each section looked exactly like every other section. I was standing on what
was now a metallic island of sorts, cut off from everything else. The little
circular man-made stream would have been small enough to swim across easily had
it been filled with water, but I wasn’t about to test the liquid it contained.
After my fall from the tower, I had no doubt in my mind that Arrosha could kill
me easily despite the necklace; she just couldn’t do it from up close.

So I stood there, on this little metallic island
with no escape, wondering what to do next. However, my experiences with Arrosha
had now taught me that I wouldn’t have to wait here long. She was not the type
to leave a person stranded alone to die of thirst. It lacked drama and was far
too mundane for her tastes. So I waited for the next thing to show up to scare
me out of my wits. I was amazed at my own calm. The necklace amulet was kicking
into high gear, doing its job ever more efficiently.

I was as ready for this game to be over as Arrosha
was. If it weren’t for Edmond’s sake and the amulet, I’d be tired and numb,
emotionally exhausted to the point of not caring any more whether I lived or
died. Even if death meant that my afterlife would be one of helper, of joining
Virginia, Marcus and Zachary in aiding those caught up in the same quest in
which I was currently trapped, it seemed preferable now to the actuality of
continuing to play this infernal pursuit that had gone on for what was soon
approaching its two hundred year mark. Maybe someone stronger, smarter, more
clever, more deserving than myself would get sucked into this nightmarish
burden and would finally be able to best Arrosha at her own game.

As I suspected, I didn’t have to wait long for
something to happen. I heard the very faint sound of something sliding, so
faint that if I hadn’t been for my essence-enhanced senses coupled with the
deathly quiet, I never would have perceived it. I looked up. The center of the
dome on the platform, the side to which I was facing, was now open and dark,
the floating globe above it now pulsing between gold and white. From its dark
interior emerged a regal throne gliding out soundlessly. Upon it sat none other
than Arrosha herself, once again making her grand entrance.

She gazed down at me and said, “Good lord, woman,
what do I have to do to get rid of you?”

Her cold, icy stare bored through me as she stood
up from her throne and began a slow, graceful decent down the stairs of the
platform. However, instead of the regal picture she tried so hard to present,
her appearance was, instead, horrific. She was skeletal, far past the point of
anorexia. She looked more like the pitiful victim of a famine, dressed in a
healthy rich person’s finery than a goddess or a queen. Her skeleton showed
prominently, her skin stretched over it without fat or muscle, a taut covering
trying to hide the bones beneath. Her posture was still perfect, though, and
her gait, while weary, still held more life than her form suggested.

Once she had descended the last step, she walked
over and stood as close as the dragon amulet would allow. Then she stopped and
stared, studying me. Her intense eyes were now merely two dark orbs that were
far too large for her sunken, skull-like mask of a face. Her head now looked
too big for the flesh-covered skeleton it crowned. Her too-tight skin was no
longer beautifully fair, but was instead unnaturally white and very
translucent, the little blue veins that ran beneath it far too visible. The
only things that hadn’t changed about her was her beautiful black hair,
eyebrows and eyelashes and these now, instead of enhancing her looks, were
garishly out of place and only added to the harshness of her appearance.

“Am I so shocking to you?” she asked. The
expression on my face must have been transparent.

“Now you can see for yourself why,” she continued,
“despite the extreme importance of that necklace with its amulet to me, I
choose to eliminate those that Edmond calls as his champions as quickly as
possible rather than pursue this game. It takes a lot out of me, too much as
you can see. It would never kill me, of course, but it is painful and
wearisome, very, very wearisome.”

The exhaustion was apparent in her bulging eyes as
well as in the voice that came from her thin, blue-tinged lips.

“I never thought you’d be so much trouble. I’ve
easily eliminated so very many that were far stronger and much more intelligent
and worthy than yourself. You were really nothing but a burn-out case when
Edmond called you, weren’t you? I’m surprised that he chose you. I mean, you’re
not nearly beautiful enough to be with him and when you started out on this
quest, before the essence and the water, you weren’t young anymore and had
already lost your figure. Those are all things that, personally, I rely upon
quite heavily in my dealings with men. It surprised me more than a little bit to
think that Edmond’s link to you would be the strongest, most romantic one he’s
had a long, long while.

“But that link that you have with him is
impressive, isn’t it? There’s no denying that. I haven’t seen anything like it
in centuries. And then, when I put you in my realm where he can’t reach you,
just plain dumb, blind luck takes over to protect you. Lots of interesting
coincidences begin to happen. Geoffrey decides to screw up royally at a crucial
time. And then, when I decide you’re no longer of any use to me whatsoever, Ben
saves you from a fall you could never have survived. I realize now that I never
should have turned him into a winged creature. I wouldn’t have actually let you
die, of course. I wanted you hurt, not dead. I was going to slow your fall
considerably before you hit land. But you wouldn’t be in as good shape as
you’re in right now, that’s for sure. I’d have let you get injured a bit. Just
a bit, though, maybe a broken bone or two, but nothing serious, because the fun
hasn’t even started for me yet.

“Why does dumb luck always come to your rescue
without fail? Tell me, woman, how come is it you never went further in life
considering how much good fortune is yours?”

“Frankly,” I said, finding my voice, “I’ve never
been a very lucky person. As a matter of fact, I’ve always thought of myself as
being more than a little unlucky.”

“How interesting,” Arrosha responded. “That makes
your link with Edmond even stronger than I suspected. You see, Edmond, before
he decided to tangle with me, that is, was a very, very lucky man from birth.
Born into a wealthy, privileged family, he had what others very commonly call a
‘Midas Touch’. Everything he set his aim toward succeeded brilliantly. Even his
finding out a limited truth about me seemed lucky at the time, although in fact
it turned out to be the most unlucky day of his life. Through the link you two
have, he must have transferred whatever good luck is still left in him to you.
That’s never happened before. I would not have thought it possible. I wonder,
was it deliberate on his part? Or is your link just so strong that it happened
on its own? No matter, though, in the end it won’t help either of you. You’re
in the heart of my domain now and he can’t help you anymore. Of course, I’ll do
my best to ensure that whatever luck you have left will be very bad indeed.” She
pondered this point for a few moments before then looking up at me again.

“Would you like to see him,” she said, “see
Edmond? Not just a projection, but the actual man?”

“He’s here?” I asked, surprised by this offer. My
heart jumped and excitement coursed through me, my emotions overriding my sense
of doom of their own accord. My brain reminded me that I had no reason to be
excited, for Edmond had already told me that Arrosha would bring me to him in
the end for the sole purpose of letting him watch me die.

“Of course he’s here, you stupid woman,” she said,
getting annoyed, “do you want to see him or not?”

“Yes. Of course I want to see him. Where is he?”

“Follow me, then. I’ll show him to you. Perhaps it
will change your mind about giving me the amulet. I have several other things
that I would like to show you as well.”

My short-lived sense of elation died at the sight
of her cold, smug, self-satisfied smile. I knew that other than Edmond, I really
did not want to see any of the things that she wanted to show me.

She floated toward the platform silently. I needed
to follow her, but my feet had other plans.

As she glided around the side of the platform, she
looked at me, realized I wasn’t following her, and smiled a smile that reeked
of death.

“Oh, my dear,” she said in a sickeningly
oily-sweet way, “you’re not following me. Surely you want to meet the man of
your dreams.”

Yes, I did want to meet Edmond, and he really was
the man of my dreams. It was a truth, however, that sounded foul coming from
her mouth. The way she said it sent chills down my spine. I knew she would find
a way to turn this experience into yet another of my worst nightmares, a task
at which she excelled.

Despite my trepidations, and there were many, I
managed, more by sheer will than by any other force, to move one foot in front
of the other in order to follow the malevolent being that was now smugly
promising to take me to the man that I wanted most. I realized, however, that she
was leading me into a dark, desolate, evil place which would hold only my doom
wrapped in a sadistic package.

I followed her around to the far side of the
platform, which, looked exactly like the side from which I had just come. She
walked up to the stream of glowing cyan and blue liquid and a bridge appeared
there suddenly, but nowhere else. She crossed it, but I stood at the edge of
the stream, staring at the bridge, remembering how it had disappeared behind me
earlier. Like everything else in this terrible place, I knew not to trust it.

Arrosha turned and looked at me, her cold smile
not fading for an instant. “Follow me,” she said, “if you want to see Edmond.

“You’re worried,” she continued in a mock
conciliatory tone, her smile growing even colder, “that the bridge won’t hold,
that it will drop you into the stream’s liquid, a fluid that would consume the
flesh right off your bones. You’re right, of course. Were you to fall into it,
this liquid would dissolve your flesh, devouring it more hungrily than a school
of piranhas, and the amulet you wear hasn’t activated to protect you yet.

“But, the bridge will stay put where it is. You’re
safe to cross it. Fear not, my dear. I have much better plans in place for you
than such a, if you’ll pardon the pun, pedestrian death. Much, much better
plans. I’m still not finished with you yet, you see. I’ve decided that while
you’re here, I’ll give you one more chance to change your mind. And if you
don’t, well, you’ve been warned. You’ve been an awful lot of trouble to me, so
trust me when I say that when I do dispense of you, it will be a much more
painful death than being dissolved alive.”

I had no problem believing that particular
promise, so I put one foot upon the bridge, then the next and continued on,
careful to keep my balance and not be done in by a misstep of my own making.
This time, as I crossed the bridge, the liquid remained the same color. It
didn’t turn red, it didn’t bubble and fizz as it had before. My hunch that I
had triggered an alarm system earlier seemed to be confirmed. Arrosha knew I
was here now; she didn’t need an alarm.

Once across the bridge, I looked up from my feet
and saw Arrosha standing by the far wall.

“You see, my dear, you made it after all. I have
no reason to deceive you any longer, so you can trust everything I tell you
now.”

The wall behind her dissolved into an open doorway
leading into a darkened hall which was identical to the metallic tunnel from
which I had entered this room. “Shall we?” she said, smirking. She turned and
glided into the hallway. I followed behind reluctantly, very aware of my
position of lamb to her slaughter. While the construction of this corridor was
the same, the lighting was different. Instead of the warm, golden light that
was the continual reflection of Edmond’s stasis chamber, this one was dimly lit
in a cold, purplish blue, producing an even more foreboding effect, if that
were even possible. The walls in this tunnel were the same as the last one,
smooth as the floor, its polished metallic surface shining just as brightly,
save for a smattering of strange hieroglyphics the likes of which I doubted
anyone alive had ever seen. But instead of the shell-like curving inward
pattern that the other corridor exhibited, this tunnel declined gently
downward.

“These hieroglyphics are really interesting,” I
said, trying to make small talk with my soon-to-be murderess.

“Yes, they are,” she said as she continued going
forward. “The language is a dead one, however, for it is that of my beloved
Illeaocea.”

As she kept gliding ahead of me, I noticed an
interesting phenomenon. Whenever I would walk a little closer to her, she would
simply glide away at a faster pace until she reached her safe distance from the
dragon amulet I wore. Oddly, she didn’t even seem to be aware of it. It was
similar to the repellant effect of a magnet’s two north poles or two south
poles being positioned too closely together. It didn’t seem to affect me,
because it wasn’t driving me backward, only her forward. Apparently, she could
not repel the amulet; it could only repel her.

“This certainly is a long stretch of empty
hallway,” I said after awhile. The silence was getting to me and such obvious
banality was all I could think to say. Without stopping her pace, she casually
turned her head 180 degrees around, gliding forward with her head facing
backwards. Either she’d forgotten it wasn’t humanly possible or had just given
up all pretense of being human. I screamed. I would have jumped backwards and
run away as fast as I could have at the sight, but I couldn’t. I didn’t realize
it before, but I was stuck in what must have been some kind of traction field.
I could only move forward. My stomach churned as I was forced to look at her
head’s unnerving position.

Seeing my terror amused her greatly. She smiled
broadly and let out a short, chilling laugh. The cold bluish purple light
emphasized her horrific appearance; her corpse-like, translucent skin seemed to
absorb the light and now looked cold pale blue in color. Her bulging eyes and
teeth, far too large for her face now, were a glowing white as they sat in her
overly emaciated skull of a face. As she continued to smile venomously at me,
enjoying my fear immensely, I tried to stare at my feet, my hands, the walls,
anything but the abomination that went before me. But I couldn’t. It was almost
as if she were willing me to look at her. I felt even more powerless than ever
before.

“It won’t be empty for long,” she said. “We’re
about to come up to one of the more ‘inhabited’ areas. This is another one of
my ‘galleries’. You’ve seen the ones at the mansion but these are even more
important. This one, in particular, is quite special, for along with the floor
of Edmond’s room, which I will be showing you shortly, it contains the very
worst enemies I’ve had over the eons. Needless to say, as you will soon see,
I’ve defeated them all.

“Let’s keep walking,” she said, as if I had a
choice in the matter, “and you’ll see what I mean.”

Her sneer of a smile broadened even further as we
continued our descent into the tunnel. She kept her deathly gaze upon me for a
while and then she turned her head back around, placing it back into a
direction in which God had intended. She’d had no problem looking where she was
going whilst facing backwards, so I supposed she turned her head facing forward
now only because the novelty of my terror already had worn away.
The psycho bores quickly
, I thought, and she was
probably now busying her twisted mind by hatching even more demented surprises
for me.

My insides were knotted up so badly that I was
amazed I could still walk. That I was trapped in some kind of energy field, I
was now certain. While usually quite subtle, it was noticeable only when I
tried to step outside of it, stop, or turn back. If I just gave up and quit
moving right now, there was no doubt in my mind that she would keep my body
aright and force my feet one in front of the other, pulling me along like a
living flesh and blood marionette. I thought about doing that, actually, to
conserve my energy for the inevitable showdown. But then who was I kidding?
There would be no showdown. There would only be slaughter. Mine.