7:10
Kim
A carbon nanotube beach-tumbleweed, a kinetic sculpture that never stops shifting and changing its configuration, it is easy to get lost in the chaos of her mind.
She no longer had the energy to keep moving. Better to just get lost in the drifting, shifting strands, bulges in the length swollen rotten fruit set to burst, a necrotic harvest leaching the last nutrients from blighted, desiccated, blackened stems. She struggled to remember strands the color of a happy childhood. Failed. And everything was decay, dripping putrescence, swelling rot, the stench of the swamp, all decomposing vegetation and damp.
Tug.
Tug.
The strands piercing her wrist pulled and the arm followed, the will to move that of the one at the end of the threads. The puppeteer. Back to play with their toy.
This one, of the three, drove home the truth Kim had tried so hard to distance herself from – that she was a vessel, a husk dancing on a shifting breeze, empty, always so empty, that which was her retracting more with every word, every swallowed scream, every stifled tear until all that was left of her was a dry rind with a miniscule, nascent seed curled tight at the heart hoping to someday unfurl and push free of the shriveled shell. The little energy she had left she fed that seed, but it was getting harder each time they came and they pulled and tugged and made her dance at the end of their strings, a husk once more shifted by someone else’s will. Their whispers promised escape if she just surrendered, stopped fighting, and they were getting harder to drown under a torrent of numbers and quotes and the tick-tick-ticking of her heart.
Kim forced her eyelids open and flopped her head to the side to stare into the darkness with bleary eyes. Her other arm jerked into motion, the elbow and then the wrist lurching to set the lax fingers swaying. Following their sway, Kim wet her lips and worked her mouth, dropping her jaw then slowly bringing her teeth together.
“Why do you keep trying?” She stopped. Breathed. Gathered the energy to say the next words. And the next. It didn’t get any easier. There was no loosening of her jaw, no flow of words like water. Every single word was a struggle, but she pushed herself to speak them because she wasn’t done. Not yet. Not quite. “I’m not like other people.” She stopped, swallowed through the dryness. “You can what you want to my body, but you will never control my mind. Kill me or let me go. That’s the way this ends.”
“Only if you’re telling the story.”
“But,” her words slurred, “it’s not a story.”
“Isn’t it?”
*
On the safe side of the glass, Siobhan gasped and pressed her hand to her mouth. Ivan hammered the heels of his hands against the glass. Dan pulled a crossbow, clipped it back in place, pulled it again, pacing along the wall and occasionally fixing his intense gaze on the door.
Abe approached the door with quick steps, dropping to their knees to stare up through the unfrosted glass. “Dempsey!”
“What did you do?” Prairie asked, her soft voice loud in the preternatural silence of the stairwell.
Ivan turned from the door, mouth in a hard, firm line. “What did I do?”
Prairie didn’t back down from the tone. Instead she nodded very slowly and lifted her hands, fingers splayed, the picture of harmless. “You did something. The door opened. What did you do?”
Ivan turned and glowered at the door. If looks had force that door would be in splinters. Instead it just sat there, whole and sealed, an accusation and condemnation in silent form. Ivan rested his forehead against it, drawing a breath that echoed back oddly from the glass. “I don’t know.”
“Well, then figure it out.”
Ivan turned to glare at Prairie again. That was probably the most glaring Ivan had ever done at Prairie. Compared to the clinicians she dealt with daily he was a paper tiger. Prairie blinked slow, then crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Waiting.”
Ivan straightened his back and his gaze shifted to assessment. To which Prairie uncrossed her arms enough to flick a finger towards the door. Patti, next to Prairie, stifled a snort. When Ivan shifted his look to her Patti made her eyes real wide and made a point of looking at the door. From the vantage point of the stairs it was easy to see the door despite Siobhan and Ivan being situated in front of it.
“What were you doing when the door opened?” Prairie asked in the clinical tone she used when trying to get information from a panicked loved one in the ER.
Ivan rubbed his forehead and stared at the door. “Nothing. I was just resting my hand on it.”
“Where?”
“Right here.” Ivan’s tone shifted, slowing as he processed. “Over what I think is a sensor.”
Siobhan shifted next to him. “Where?”
Ivan tapped the wood halfway up the frame. “Here.”
Siobhan squinted at the point he marked. “How can you tell it’s a sensor? I don’t see anything.”
“See?” Ivan traced the grain of the wood. “The grain here shifts and if you run your hand over it you can feel a slight indentation. I think it may be because there’s a hollow place under the wood with a mechanism beneath it.”
“And there’s another one?”
“Yeah, on the other side,” Ivan reached over Siobhan, careful to keep back a few steps so he didn’t bump Abe where they remained kneeling at the base of the door. “Right here.”
“They are coming down,” Abe announced, drawing Siobhan and Ivan’s attention to the door and the room beyond. As Abe stated Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen’s limp bodies separated from the ceiling and slowly drifted down to hit the ground, their loose limbs flopping with the soft impact.
“Do you think they are okay?” Abe asked quietly.
Siobhan swallowed hard. “We have to hope so.” She turned to give Prairie a significant look to which Prairie nodded, then closed her eyes and drew a long breath before going completely still. Her eyelids lifted, revealing a gaze that shifted left to right and back against, seeing something the others could not.
“Gwen’s head moved.” Dan’s voice broke the silence, drawing Siobhan’s gaze back to the window.
“Are you sure?”
“Relatively.”
“It did.” Abe settled back on their heels and hunched forward to get a better look through the glass. “I also think Dempsey’s hand moved a little. See? It was over that square on the rug and now I can see the square.”
Siobhan stooped to squint in the direction Abe pointed. “You’re right.”
“They’re all still with us.”
Siobhan jerked when Prairie’s voice came close behind her shoulder. A quick turn of her head showed Prairie hovering just behind Siobhan. Prairie met Siobhan’s nod of thanks with a slight lift of her chin.
Turning back to the door, Siobhan straightened and looked at Ivan. “So, your hand was there.”
“Yes.” Ivan looked at his hand in juxtaposition to the door. “My hand was here. And,” he shifted his attention to the other side of the glass. “Dempsey’s was opposite mine.”
“Here?” Siobhan laid her hand on the frame opposite Ivan’s.
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“Then,” His “Nothing” cut off as the door suddenly shot up and into the top of the frame, the glass skimming their palms and leaving heat in its wake from the friction.
Siobhan dropped back and stared at her hand, curling her fingers to rub the palm with the tips. Ivan held his place, tilting his head to look at the frame with his hand hovering on the air where it had rested on the frame. Using the hand as a guide he shifted his gaze to the doorframe, then leaned in to peer intently at something there.
Abe leaned forward, bracing their hands on their thighs and peering intently at where Dempsey, Gwen, and Ben sprawled. “Do you go in?”
“No.” Siobhan too looked at their friends. “We don’t know what’s causing the door to open and close. Until we do, we can’t risk it.” She reached deep into her bag and pulled out a round bottle roughly the size of a grenade.
“What’s that?” Patti craned her neck but didn’t step off the stair.
Siobhan stared at the bottle, her brow creased, then turned to answer Patti. “Theoretically its an aerosolized healing potion. I got the idea when we rescued Llora. There’s a powder in here that theoretically will release into the air when the glass shatters, then settle and cling to anyone in the vicinity. I’ve been going back to the alchemy tower. There are some fascinating books. With what I read in the books I’ve been trying to reproduce the aerosolized potions. Part of it is coming up with the correct vessel. Then there’s-” she stopped, shook her head, “but you probably don’t want to know all that.”
Prairie cocked her head and eyed the glass. “Does it work?”
Siobhan’s shoulders lifted on a deep shrug. “Theoretically.”
“So, throw it.”
“What if it triggers the door?”
Prairie shifted her gaze from Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen to the ceiling then looked around at the books and furniture scattered around them. “Ivan?”
Ivan looked up. “Yeah?”
“Do you think throwing a potion will trigger the door?”
Ivan looked into the room, his mouth twisting in thought, then shifted his gaze to the doorframe. “I think the mechanism is in the door. And we’re triggering it somehow.”
Dan came over to hover behind Ivan, turning his head to look at the frame. “Doesn’t explain Ben triggering it.”
Ivan fingered his goatee. “It doesn’t.” After a moment and a long stare at the door frame, he added, “But I think its part of it.” He turned his gaze to Siobhan. “Throw the potion. Worst thing happens the trap triggers again.”
Siobhan eyed him. “And they get beat up.”
“Healed then beat up. Yeah. Not saying its ideal, but we can’t figure this out without studying the variables. One of those variables is ‘does anything entering the room set off the trap?’. Your potion seems a good thing to test that with. If it doesn’t set off the trap then they got some healing. If it does?” He shrugged. “Like I said, healed and hurled. Not great, but at least they get the healing and we get some new information.”
Patti blinked hard. “That’s cold.”
Ivan didn’t turn around to look at Patti. He nodded his agreement while training his gaze on the prone forms of his friends, his shoulders slumping under the weight of the call he was making. “Siobhan? Throw it.”
“Fine.” Siobhan reared back and flung the potion to land with a crash on the floor next to Gwen. Powder puffed from the impact, rising slightly on the still air before drifting over Gwen and Ben.
Siobhan frowned. “Darn. Should have thrown better.”
“You did fine,” Ivan’s voice was distracted as he watched the door, his focus intent as a cat watching a mole hole. No telltale click sounded. The door stayed open. He left it go a solid thirty seconds more before nodding. “The potion didn’t set it off.”
“Yep.” Dan stepped forward to look into the room.
“So,” Ivan rubbed his upper lip. “Can we assume that means only people set it off?”
“Squee!” Sass made a loud noise, drawing Patti’s gaze. She bent at the waist to look into the house at the mouse. “What?”
“Squeak!” Sass leaned on the window so its arms were protruding form the house and gestured with both arms.
“I don’t speak mouse!” Patti replied through teeth gritted on the semblance of a smile.
“Squee-eee-eak!” Sass gestured more wildly.
Patti’s eyes went real wide. “No squeak the squeak!”
Sass pulled back into the house and there was the distinct sound of what could only be interpreted as mouse grumbling from within. Then Sass burst from the window, flinging themselves into empty air. Patti reared back in surprise, her hands instinctively swinging to catch the mouse but Sass twisted mid-air to avoid her swipe and landed neat as you please on the stone floor of the landing. Casting a quick glance back at Patti, Sass proceeded to scurry into the room where Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen lay.
“Sass!” Patti cried out, lunging forward, but it was too late.
Sass scampered across the thresh hold, then stopped abruptly and looked around, its whiskers dancing as it sniffed the air. Then it turned to look back at Patti, who stood on the other side of the doorway with her hand pressed to her throat. Seemingly satisfied with what it saw in her face, Sass stepped about two feet further into the room then stopped again. It jerked its head left and right, whiskers dancing with the movement, and then it spun hard and ran for the door. Luckily it was a very small mouse as it managed to avoid being crushed as the door came slamming down, clearing the space between glass and stone with about an inch to spare between its head and the door.
Patti dropped to her knees and snatched up the mouse, squeezing a little harder than Sass apparently liked as the mouse let out a high “squeak!”.
“Sorry!” Patti pressed the mouse to her chest, gentler but not gentle. “You scared me. So much.”
Sass nuzzled its head against her and turned his head up to look into her eyes.
Patti narrowed her eyes. “Do not try to cute your way out of this!”
Sass nuzzled its nose against Patti. She managed to not succumb to the cute for, oh, two seconds, then she very carefully brushed her finger over Sass’s head.
While Patti and Sass were doing their thing Siobhan and Ivan dropped to their knees to peer up through the frosted glass and watched Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen shoot up to the ceiling again in a whirling cloud of books and furniture and flopping arms, legs, and heads. Ivan winced when Dempsey hit the ceiling and then Gwen was smashed into him from below. Siobhan’s breath caught as Ben’s body narrowly avoided the chandelier and she only released it when the rug wrapped the crystals on the fixture again, keeping the small objects trapped and away from Ben, Gwen, and Dempsey.
“So,” Ivan said, “The potion didn’t trigger it but the mouse did.”
Dan moved behind Ivan and stooped so he could cock a look through the door and muttered, “Yep.”
Bracing his hand on his thigh, Ivan pressed up to his feet. “Dan, put your hand on the door over there, right here.” He placed his palm on the door to the right, indicating where Dan should press his to the left.
Dan did as directed, then looked at Ivan. “Okay.”
Siobhan curled back to skitter between their legs, then rose up. “Now what?”
“Not sure,” Ivan’s expression intensified into a look of concentration. “I feel… something.” He shifted his gaze to Dan. “Do you feel anything?”
Dan shook his head. “No.”
“Huh,” Ivan’s gaze shifted upwards as he focused. “I definitely feel. Whoa!”
The door shot open like it was on springs, sliding under Dan’s and Ivan’s palms and up into the door frame above. From within the room there was a rush like the release of air from a balloon and then Gwen, Ben, and Dempsey’s bodies came crashing towards the ground.
Ivan, Dan, and Siobhan stared, varying looks of concern transforming their features, unable to do anything to stop the tragedy about to befall their friends.
“Excuse me!” Abe’s voice proceeded them by a square half-second before they wormed their way in between Dan and Siobhan. As they moved they threw their cassock back to fall on the landing behind them. And then from their right side a swath of darkness flowed, liquid midnight that rippled across the space between the door and the floor where Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen were rapidly approaching. The darkness moved like a bolt of silk, unfurling on the air. Twisting and turning in impossible geometries, it danced around Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen, like a parachute in reverse, slowing their descent and making it so they might suffer bumps and bruises but were in no danger of broken necks or backs or bashed in skulls.
From where she was still standing on the stairs, Prairie had the clearest view of the phenomenon, watching with wide eyes as the dark ink of a completely-black tattoo separated from Abe’s right arm, flowing from shoulder to wrist and over extended fingers to reveal pale, naked skin in its wake. Abe balled their fist as the tattoo hit their knuckles, twisting their wrist as if they were catching the tattoo before it could detach fully from their skin. A practiced snap of the wrist sent an undulation through the shadow slash tattoo slash darkness – an apt description until a name could be put to it – almost like Abe was manipulating a toreador’s cape. The dark surface buckled, rippling as it subtly bounced Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen, slowing the momentum of their fall.
The edges of the tattoo curved inward, a manta ray mid stroke, gently cradling the three as they were lowered gently to the ground. Once they were settled in a rough circle, Abe gave a defined snap of their wrist and the darkness flowed out from under Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen and glided back towards Abe. They undulated their wrist, adding gentle twists, as if they were alternately reeling and coaxing the tattoo back to them, a skilled fisherman playing the line. Prairie drew a deep breath of wonder as the black tattoo glided back over Abe’s fingers, darkening their knuckles, their wrist, their forearm and then up to their shoulder where the edges settled into the pattern of heavy, crocheted lace that dusted their fingers down to the first knuckle.
Ivan, Siobhan, and Dan followed the darkness from the room and back to Abe. Ivan was the first to speak, likely expressing what they all were feeling in that moment.
“Well, damn. That was cool.”
Abe ducked their head, staring at their feet and biting their lip. “Uh, thank you.”
Patti switched her attention from Abe to the room to Abe to Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen then back to Abe, her mouth slightly open in a look of wonder. “Wow.”
Abe looked up, a sheepish grin kicking at the corners of their mouth. Then they looked down, pivoted on their heel, and stooped to pick up their discarded cassock.
Dan looked from Abe to Hope on his knuckles, to Abe’s completely black arm, and back to Hope. His mouth shifted in consideration, then he lifted his eyebrows and nodded to Abe. Abe returned the nod, their gaze tracking to the hand Dan held elevated near his midsection.
“Can I do that?”
“Maybe? Probably not that exactly.” Abe shrugged into their cassock, then made a study of the foot they flexed against the stone landing. After a moment they looked up at Dan again. “But something like?”
Dan looked at his knuckles again. “Okay.” Then he nodded, cocked his head to look at his knuckles from a slightly different angle, and made a fist which caused the letters to stand out in relief. “All right.”
“Here,” Abe moved next to Dan, then held their fingers hovering over his fist, “Can I?”
At Dan’s nod, they traced the fingertips of their untattooed left hand over Hope, giving him the top of their head as they focused on the word. “You only have one word. So, what you do will be different. But you also have slightly different Magick than mine.”
“How?”
Abe looked up, cocked their head sideways, keeping their gaze slightly averted while also engaging Dan’s. “How is it different? Or how does it work?”
“Both.” Dan shook his head. “The second first.”
Abe tapped their finger on Dan’s knuckle again. “This word is part of the stuff of creation. It’s the best explanation I can come up with. Like God,” they looked up to Dan. “Do you believe in God.”
“Yep.”
“Okay, so God created the world they say. Out of what?”
Dan cast into his memory for the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Abe nodded. Taking their fingers from Dan’s knuckles, they ran them over their right arm, hidden now by the cassock. “Darkness was over the surface of the deep. I don’t know. To me, with this,” again they traced their arm, “I’ve always thought that the darkness was energy from which God made everything. That darkness appears to you as words,” they reached over to tap his knuckle again. “For me, because I’m an artist and not a storyteller it’s ink. Or at least that’s how it approached me. Like Hope approached you.”
“So we form-” Dan trailed off, looking into the near distance as he processed the information bouncing around in his head. “Huh.”
“Yeah,” a grin of such joy it was contagious curved Abe’s mouth. “Sick, huh?”
Dan nodded, rolling the word around his mouth. “Sick.” He looked at Abe’s arm, at his knuckles, then back at Abe’s arm. “Can I see it?”
Abe looked down, then raised their chin to look at Dan from the side of their eyes. “Later?”
“Later.”
Dan and Abe moved to the side, leaving the area in front of the door for Patti and Prairie to approach. They settled between Siobhan and Ivan, their gazes going to where Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen lay.
“Okay. Okay.” Ivan shifted his weight back into his hips and rested his arm against the door frame. “First,” he turned to look at Siobhan. “Do you have another one of those healing powder things?”
Siobhan lifted her brows at the description. “I do have another one of those healing powder things.”
“Toss it in. It probably can’t hurt to hit them with more healing.”
“Okay.” Siobhan changed her angle slightly to line up better with the door then flicked the potion into the room underhand so it landed in the circle made by their three friends’ bodies with a clink and a puff of powder. Once the powder had settled on the three, she turned to Ivan. “Now what?”
“Now we figure out how to get them out of there without setting off the mechanism closing the door. Seems like door closes. A few seconds pass. Then a vacuum effect.”
“What makes the door close?” Patti stood on tiptoe to peer around Ivan and into the room.
“It seems like there are two triggers. One has something to do with the two points on the door. The second is somewhere in the room.”
“Did you notice that the stones along the walls is a different color than the stones towards the center?”
Ivan snapped his head around at Abe who was standing half hidden in the shadows Ivan cast. “What?”
Averting their gaze from Ivan, Abe pointed. “See. All the stone along the edge is the tan-colored stones that were breakable on the other floor. The others are all gray and kinda sparkly.”
Ivan stood up straight. “Well, shit.” He squinted at the stones. They were dark gray, non-uniform shapes, and they did appear to have a dull sheen. “I think they’re graphite.”
“Which means?” Patti asked.
Ivan turned from his perusal of the stones and looked at Patti. “It means if I’m right I think I have a guess what’s happening.”
“Which is?”
“Graphite conducts electricity.”
“And?”
“What’s Magick?”
“Not electricity.”
“But we-” he paused, letting her come to the conclusion he had.
Patti frowned, looked in at the stones, then back at Ivan. “Drain electricity. Are they being electrocuted?”
“I don’t think so. I think the graphite might be conducting Magick from them.”
“Knocking them out?”
Siobhan nudged Patti to the side with her shoulder so she could look at the stones. “I don’t think so.”
“It’s Air.”
Patti jerked around at the sound of Dan’s voice. She’d been so focused on the room and Ivan’s explanation she hadn’t heard him finish his conversation with Abe and approach.
“What’s air?”
Dan pointed at the room. “It’s Air. The first area with the electricity was Water. The dining room was Earth. The kitchen was Fire. This is Air.”
“Come again?”
Dan gave an upward jerk of his chin, indicating the room beyond. “Elemental Magick.”
Siobhan’s eyes widened. “Elemental Magick.”
“Someone let me in on the big insight?” Patti asked, her tone harsh with impatience.
Ivan looked at Siobhan and Dan. “I’d like the Cliff Notes myself.”
Siobhan looked at Dan who indicated with a nod that she should explain. “Kim is an Elemental Magicker. And we’re going up against Elemental Magick. Just like we faced alchemy challenges when we went after Llora, who is an Alchemy Magicker. Something or someone is using the inherent Magick of the victims to keep us from them.”
“What?” Ivan asked.
“I don’t know. Its a working theory.”
“Then why didn’t we have alchemy stuff when you were taken.”
Siobhan’s mouth tightened at the reference and her response had a bit of bite, “Working theory.”
Ivan held his hands up and dropped back a step. “Okay. It makes sense, I guess. But how does that help us get to that other door and get Ben, Gwen, and Dempsey out of there without triggering the mechanism?”
Dan worked his toothpick from left to right. “No idea.”
Patti took a soft step to the side in front of Dan when Ivan’s hand tightened into a fist at his side. “Mechanism. Seems like your stuff. What do you think?”
Ivan shifted his attention back to the room. A small frown creased his brow. He rubbed his goatee, lowered his hand, lifted it again for another rub. His mouth moved on subvoced words as he ticked a finger from the door to the room to the different stones then back to the door. He tracked his gaze over the door frame right to left. Fingered his goatee again.
“If its Air we’re probably looking at a vacuum. And you have to have a seal to create a vacuum. If we can keep the door open then the vacuum can’t be formed. We can’t assume that the Air will remain still but it won’t be able to form the vacuum which is what is pulling everything to the ceiling.”
“How does that work?” Patti asked.
“See that?” Ivan pointed a finger towards the ceiling.
“I see a ceiling.”
“Look closer. Its vents. The entire thing. See how it looks like a lattice? My guess is the air vents up into the kitchen above, which is what’s causing the gusts of fire from under the stoves and counters. It’s actually a pretty elegant bit of engineering.”
“Can we block up the vents so the vacuum can’t form?”
Ivan shook his head. “I considered that but it isn’t a single vent. See,” he moved his finger, indicating multiple points on the ceiling. “The lattice goes wall to wall which means multiple vents. Even if we tried to get maybe the rug up perfectly to cover a vent it won’t cover all those little ones.” He shifted his attention back to the door frame. “I think our best bet is to trust the theory that our touching the points in the door are closing a circuit which triggers the mechanism that releases the mechanism keeping the door clamped. “See here?” He stooped to point at the door frame close to the floor where the stone was the same dark gray as that in the room. “I think this is graphite too and there’s probably some in the door itself. When a charge is put into it it releases something like a magnetic lock.”
Siobhan eyed the stone. “And we’re providing the charge with our Magick?”
“Yeah. I think so. And when someone with Magick, even Sass.” He paused to give the mouse a finger waggle and say, “Hi, Sass.” to which the mouse bobbed its head back. “Yeah, so when someone with Magick steps on the graphite in there their Magick goes into the stone and triggers the lock mechanism and the lock disengages releasing the door to either open or shut depending on its state at the time.” He looked at the dark stone in the frame again. “It’s ingenious. I may have to adapt the tech myself.”
“Okay.” Prairie slipped up next to Dan and looked around Siobhan into the room. “What do we need to do.”
Ivan eyed the group. “I think it will take all of us to do this. We need someone to trigger this door and stay in contact with it to keep it open. I’m going to say we try that first with one of us doing it and someone else going in to step onto the dark stones to see if the person keeping contact with the door will stymy the mechanism so it doesn’t trigger and close the door.”
“Okay.” Dan checked the flaps of his vest, patted his crossbows, then nodded. “I’ll do the room part. You do the contact thing with the door.”
“If I’m wrong you’ll trigger the mechanism and you’ll be caught in the trap too.”
“Yep.”
It was clear by Ivan’s look he’d prefer to be the one to go into the room but after a long second he nodded. “Works. Let’s try this. Ladies?” He looked at Siobhan and Patti. “If you could step back?”
“Sure.” Patti nodded and complied. Siobhan gave Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen’s unconscious forms another look, then turned her gaze to Ivan before moving back with slow steps.
“Okay,” Ivan said to Dan. “The door is open. I don’t want to trigger it to close and spring the trap again. So, what I’m going to do is wait until you step on the stone and when the door closes, I’m going to trigger the mechanism from this side to immediately open it. There seems to be a short delay in the trigger so I think my doing so will stop the vacuum. If I’m only slightly wrong you might get pulled off your feet. If I’m really wrong then, yeah, sorry.”
“Yep.” Dan took up position in the doorway like a runner at the block. “Go?”
At Ivan’s “Go!” Dan strode into the room, taking slow, heavy steps. Nothing happened when he stepped on the tan-colored stones, nor when he took his first step onto the dark stones, but as soon as his second foot came down there was a definite click.
The glass door slammed down. Ivan instantly smashed his hands over the two contact points on the door. Nothing happened. Siobhan’s eyes went wide. Patti’s hands flew out, like she could somehow smash the glass. And Prairie suddenly ran forward, ducked under Ivan’s arms and shoved her left hand under his on the door. And the glass slid back up, receding as quickly as it had fallen.
Siobhan audibly exhaled. Patti fell back a step, eyes wide. And Ivan turned to look at Prairie, mouth working but no sound coming out. Prairie flexed her hand under his and gave a tentative smile. “You need a sternal and apical paddle or pad.”
Ivan cocked his head. This time he was actually able to force his mouth to work correctly. “What?”
“It occurred to me, when the door didn’t open, that maybe you needed two different people for the mechanism to work, kind of like a defibrillator.”
“You figured that out in the second before you acted.”
Prairie gave him a dubious look. “Yes.”
“How.”
“Trauma nurse?”
Ivan leaned down very slowly, careful to keep his right hand firmly planted on the door, and pressed a kiss to Prairie’s temple, the only part of her head he could reach in their position. “You are a genius.”
Beyond the open door, a wind surged from the floor, whipping Dan’s hair around. He braced his feet and fell into a horse back stance, the form of which allowed him to maintain his feet like they were rooted into the ground. Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen were jostled by the venting of air but without the power of vacuum they didn’t rise nor did the furniture although the lighter books and knick-knacks created their spiral towards the center of the room. Retaining his stance, Dan bent and weaved his upper body, avoiding the worst of the hits from the small objects.
Bracing his arms out in a ready position, Dan turned his head to jerk his chin in Ivan’s direction.
“Okay.” Maintaining his hands position on the door frame, Ivan swiveled his head to look to the rest on the landing. “Siobhan, are you good with the hand placement?”
“Why?”
“Because you are going to cross the room and get ready to keep the other door open so once everyone is clear Prairie and I can let go here. Pick someone else to hit the second contact.”
“I’ll do it,” Abe said.
“Sure?” Ivan turned his head to look at Abe, still in his shadow to the right. “It’s a big ask. If I’m wrong you and Siobhan could get caught in the room if the trap goes off.”
Abe bit their lip and darted a glance around Ivan to look at Dempsey splayed on the floor. They bobbed their head several times. “I’m sure.”
“Okay.” Ivan nodded. “Patti? That leaves you and Dan to clear Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen from the room. You got this?”
Patti looked determined. “Guess I have to.”
“Dan?” Ivan raised his voice. “You heard that?”
“Patti and I move Ben, Dempsey, and Gwen.”
“Yep.”
Prair?” He turned to look at Prairie, Abe, and Patti. “You, Patti, and-” he stopped to look at Abe, a question in his eyes, “Abe if you want?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Ivan looked back at Prairie, “you and I are going to stay here and hold the door. Siobhan and Abe,” he looked to the right and the left, “you get to the other door and get ready to hold it. Patti,” Patti nodded at his look, “you and Dan carry the others.” Ivan lifted his left hand from over Prairie’s, giving her fingers a soft squeeze before doing so, then stepped to the right of the door. Then, he stopped, cocked his head, and looked at Patti’s belt and the little house hanging from it. “Sass?”
Sass poked its head out the window, its intent gaze on Ivan making him think the mouse got a lot more than he had really considered, “You do what you do.”
Sass replied with a small “squeak,” and Ivan lifted his head to flash Patti a wink. She grinned back and said, “We got this.”
“I’m not sure if Prairie and I moving from here will trigger the trap again so we’re going to need to stay here until Dan and Patti get Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen and themselves clear. Then we’ll let go and get across the room, hopefully without any problems. If it it doesn’t work that means Prairie, Siobhan, Abe, and I,” he looked at each of them quickly, “may get caught in the vacuum. I’m really hoping that isn’t the case, but if it is, you good with that?”
Siobhan swallowed hard and eyed the ceiling in the room. “Yes.”
It was clear from the trepidation in her tone that she wasn’t but Ivan wasn’t going to call her on it. Courage wasn’t the lack of fear. It was being afraid and doing the thing anyway because it needed doing. He let his respect for her strength bleed from his gaze as he gave her a short nod. Abe hunched their shoulders and lowered their head to look at their feet before lifting their chin slightly to nod against their chest. Prairie just gave a Prairie smile. Once everyone affected gave their form of assent, Ivan looked back at Siobhan.
“It’s your op now.”
Siobhan took a deep breath then lifted her chin and looked at Abe and Patti. “Ready?”
Patti gave her a dubious look. “Sure?”
“Okay,” Siobhan turned to the open door. “Now!”
With that she dashed across the room. Abe beat her by a few steps, stopping with their feet firmly on the tan-colored stones and taking a hopping side step so they were to the left of the door. Siobhan copied their stance but to the right and lifted her hand to hover over the spot that matched the placement of the contact on the other door. Abe did the same on their side.
While she waited for Patti, Prairie, Dan, and Abe to maneuver Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen over, Siobhan studied the doorway, squinting to confirm that there were small indentations in the frame that matched those on the other door. Keeping her hand clear of the frame, she peered over the threshold. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting to see but it wasn’t an impossible tunnel leading into darkness. A search of her mind called up the memory of the outside of the tower from when they’d entered. There was no hill that a tunnel could be cut into. And the tunnel, from what she could see before it gradually faded into darkness, didn’t seem to slope down, like it was cutting into the ground itself. It was just weird. But, she considered with an inward eye roll, what about this place was. The impossible tunnel might have to be one of those things she just chalked up to “Magick” or a mystery of “The Mystery House.”
There was some grunting and then Patti and Dan came over with Dempsey between them, Dan’s hands under Dempsey’s arms and Patti carrying Dempsey’s legs. Dempsey’s butt sagged towards the floor, dragging at Dan and Patti’s grips. Dan grunted as he stepped over the threshhold to lower Dempsey on the landing. Dan looked at Patti lowering Dempsey’s legs. “Back for Ben?”
“Sure.”
That said they both moved around Siobhan and back into the room. From across the way came the distinctive sound of Ivan grunting. Without turning from the door, and potentially losing sight of the points she needed to hit, Siobhan called over her shoulder. “Ivan? Is there something wrong?”
“Uh… No.”
“That didn’t sound very convincing.”
“My Magick is being drained. I didn’t notice at first but, uh, the longer I keep in contact with the mechanism the more it’s, uh, sucking.”
“Fantastic,” Siobhan muttered under her breath. “Prairie? You the same?”
Prairie’s voice, quiet on the best of days, pitched low so Siobhan could barely hear her, “Yes.”
By the hastening sounds of footsteps it seemed clear that Patti and Dan heard what was said. They moved past Siobhan and Abe, Ben propped between them with their shoulders under his arms and his legs dragging the ground. After lowering him carefully against the wall, they turned and hurried back to get Gwen. Once all five of them were safely in the darkened tunnel, Siobhan raised her hand to hover over the contact point. She looked at Abe doing the same. When they met her unspoken question with a nod of their head, Siobhan called back into the room.
“Okay. We’re going to place our hands now.”
“Okay!” Ivan’s voice sounded strained.
“Now!” Siobhan pressed her hand to the frame, trusting Abe would do the same. She screwed her eyes closed and bit her lip as she waited for the click and the pull of air inwards. Instead what she heard was the sound of Ivan’s stumbling steps as he moved towards her. She pivoted to watch, careful to keep her right hand on the contact. Ivan had picked Prairie up in his arms. She wobbled there, her hands clutching his shoulders, as he moved towards Siobhan like he was walking through quicksand. Siobhan drew a breath, held it, unable to do anything except watch.
Ivan’s feet went in every direction except forward, causing him to weave and wobble, but he managed to make it. When he lowered Prairie to her feet and braced his hand on the wall, bending at the waist to catch his breath, Siobhan breathed with him.
Slanting a glance his way, Siobhan asked in a quiet tone that didn’t carry into the tunnel beyond. “It’s that bad?”
Ivan’s fingers flexed on the wall. “It’s not good.” He took a deep breath then straightened and shoved off from the wall. “Prair?”
Prairie raised a face almost entirely bleached of color, her blue eyes luminous against the paleness of her skin. Her mouth parted as if she’d speak but nothing came out. Instead she pressed her hands to her sternum and nodded.
“You got it in you to work the door on the other side?”
Another nod, a lip bite, a determined narrowing of the eyes.
“Okay,” Ivan looked to Siobhan. “Prairie and I will go in and cover the contacts so you and Abe can get through.”
“No, you aren’t.” Siobhan made the executive decision as she watched him try to take a step and instead place his front foot over the back and topple into the wall. “Dan?”
“Yeah?”
“You see contacts in the door frame on that side?”
Dan moved to the door, gave it a squint, and nodded. “Yep.”
“I need you and Patti to trigger them. Patti, you okay with that?”
There was a short pause and then Patti said, “Yes.”
“When you’re ready let us know. You’ll only need to hold the door so we can get in. I’m not feeling any drain myself so it may be a cumulative effect. Abe?” She looked to the left. “Anything.”
Abe shook their head, “No.”
“Okay.” Siobhan nodded again, willing confidence into her tone. “Patti and Dan? When you’re ready?”
Patti and Dan stepped up to mirror Abe and Siobhan’s positions on the other side of the treshold.
“Okay,” Dan said, meeting Siobhan’s eyes for a moment. “Now.”
Siobhan released her hold on the door frame, simultaneously sucking in a breath and waiting for the door to close and the vacuum to start. Again nothing happened. The door stayed open. There was no suction. “Okay,” she turned and slid her arm around Ivan’s middle. “Lean on me.”
“I’m too big.”
“Did I ask if you are big?” Siobhan lifted her brows, giving him the look that quelled many a kindergartener’s protests and pouts.
“Fine.” Ivan wrapped his arm around Siobhan’s shoulder, leaning on her as they stepped over the threshold, shifting awkwardly to get around Dan and Patti without him releasing their contact with the door frame.
She heard Abe say, “Here,” and a moment later Abe and Prairie followed behind she and Ivan, with Abe’s left arm over Prairie’s midsection and right arm around her back, their fingers locked to hold her up as she tripped on the saddle of the door frame. As soon as they were past the door, she looked at Dan and Patti. “Let it go.”
“Okay,” Dan said and did so at the same time Patti did. The door immediately slammed down and then the room behind them erupted in whirling air, furniture, books, and ephemera.
Siobhan fought to keep herself and Ivan upright as he leaned more heavily against her, his steps dragging awkwardly as he tried to help her as she moved them to the wall. Once she could she moved around so their backs where to the wall, her legs bending as she and Ivan sunk to the floor.
She pushed several vials from her strap, calling “Patti? I need you to get at least two energy potions into Prairie. I’ll do the same for Ivan.”
Patti moved over quickly, taking the vials from Siobhan. “Okay.”
Siobhan popped the top of a vial and held it to Ivan’s mouth. He swallowed it down then opened his eyelids to catch Siobhan in his dark gaze. He grasped her wrist gently when she raised the second potion to his mouth. “I’ve got it.”
Siobhan searched his features, then nodded and slid the potion into his hand. That done Siobhan carefully unwound her arm from behind Ivan’s back and pushed herself to stand, using the wall as support. She pulled several more vials from her strap, noting she’d need to restock from her bag as she did so, then moved towards Dempsey, Ben, and Gwen. “Patti?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you get this down Dempsey’s throat?” She held out one of the vials. Patti took it with a nod.
Abe looked on, wide-eyed. “What can I do?”
Siobhan held out another vial. “If you can give this to Gwen, I’ll take care of Ben.”
“And me?” Dan asked, rising from where he’d been squatting next to Gwen.
“Keep an eye on that,” Siobhan jerked her head down the impossible tunnel. “What we don’t need is to be attacked before we can get everyone on their feet.”
“Got it.” Dan unclipped his crossbows, sliding one into each hand, and took up a wide-legged stance about five feet down the darkening tunnel. “What next?”
“Next,” Siobhan said, eyeing the tunnel. “We get everyone solid and we push on. We aren’t done until we have Kim back. They don’t win, no matter how many obstacles they put in our place or what Magick they steal to keep us away.”
“Good.” That said, Dan squinted off into the darkness of the tunnel and Siobhan moved over to revive Gwen. God, she was tired. But, this wasn’t done yet so that meant she wasn’t either.
They did not win. The thought of pushing back at the people who had taken her, made her feel vulnerable and scared her beyond what she thought she could bear, swelled in her and kept her head up and her feet moving even though she really wanted to sit down and cry.
Crying could happen later. Right now she was going to be strong and she was going to shove Their plans right up their collective noses.
Enter The Woods 