7:9
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.
Unless someone was incessantly combing her hair, and whispering, “Rapunzel.”
Kim turned her head slightly away from the tug of the comb, slight being all the energy she had to spare. “Stop. You are ruining my favorite Disney movie.”
“Rapunzel.”
“Seriously.” The word broke off into a rasp. Kim stopped, swallowed, curled her lip as the saliva caught on the awful dryness, then tried again. “You, stop. If you start singing, I will find the energy to rise up from this table and-” a short stop, a slightly longer assess, “glower at you. Fiercely.” The words were hoarse, not very loud, and possibly They didn’t hear as they continued to drag the comb through her hair and softly say, “Rapunzel.”
Kim winced as the comb caught in the rat’s nest next to her ear. “Fiercely.”
“Rapunzel.”
Kim rested her cheek against the table, closed her eyes, and sighed. “Lovely conversation. Glad we had it.”
“Rapunzel.”
“Bitch.” The expletive could have been delivered with more punch but her breath was better spent in other acts of defiance. She curled her fingers and turned her hand palm up, swallowing through the burn of tendons tugging all the way to her wrist, then released the grip, a breath, and a small burst of Magick to yank her hair free of the comb. Even that little expenditure of energy left her panting, but it was worth it to break the rhythm of the combing, to make her resistance known if only in that small way.
Air caressed her cheek, the touch lingering, before it flowed back to its quiescent state. The hairs it had played with drifted slowly down, spun sugar floss, tickling at the side of her nose, tangling in the lashes of her slowly blinking eyes that stared blindly into nothing. She lay there, the cloud of hair, the cloud of thoughts, the swirling carbon nanotube beach-tumbleweed a mesh over her vision.
Eyelids drifting closed on a sigh, she mouthed a line from the song playing with her mind.
*
One of the lines from Cornflake Girl ran through Patti’s mind. Looking down, mouth moving without thought on the words, she furrowed her forehead in thought.
“What?” Prairie whispered, all quiet beside her, drawing Patti’s gaze. Patti shook her head, gave Prairie a half-smile.
“Nothing.”
“Oh. Okay.” Prairie bobbed her head, then looked over to Siobhan. “We should go.”
Siobhan shifted on the stair she was sitting on and looked around at the others. “Everyone good?”
“Enough,” Ivan said, rising to his feet and stretching subtly at the waist. “Only two more to go.”
“Yep.” Dan checked his pockets, doing a count on his ammo, then released and re-secured the Velcro on the pockets holding his books.
Dempsey seemed suitably healed as he didn’t even wobble, let alone limp, as he weaved around Patti, Prarie, and Gwen seated on the stairs and took up position halfway down the staircase with shield lifted. Patti grumbled as she creakily gained her feet, pressing a hand to the wall to steady herself. Sass made an equal grumbling sound deep in its house on Patti’s belt.
The more they sat down the more Patti stiffened up. Judging by the slow movements of the majority of the group – less Ben, Prairie, and Abe – Patti was prepared to lay money down the others were in similar condition. This heroing stuff was crap on the knees.
The group fell into roughly the same formation as before with Dempsey and Patti at the front, shields ready though considering the extreme lack of resistance Patti was starting to question the necessity of, Siobhan and Dan behind them, Gwen and Ben behind them and on. Greeting Patti and Dempsey at the base of the stairs was a wave of heat that drove them back across the landing and to the base of the stairs, shields in front of their faces.
Siobhan, still on the stairs, craned to see over or around Dempsey. “What do you see?”
“Melted eyelashes!” Patti shoved her cudgel under the arm holding her shield and tried to pry her lashes apart with her free hand.
“Fire,” Dempsey announced, then hefted his shield high and advanced across the landing to peer into the room beyond from behind the side of his shield. Dodging his head out and back, like a messed up turtle, he managed to get a full view of the room. “It’s a kitchen. A lot of fire.”
Siobhan stepped off the stairs, sidling to the side to let others move onto the landing. Patti and Dan moved to the left, hovering to the side of the doorway, Patti with shield held directly out to block the heat and Dan stretching to see over the top. When Gwen stepped up behind Dempsey’s shield, Siobhan joined her and they both looked past the right edge, with the doorframe and the shield cutting the worst of the heat which came in blasts from the room. There wasn’t room for anyone else to fit in the doorway so the others kept their places with Abe and Prairie just off the stairs and Ben and Ivan holding position two steps up which gave them a vantage point to peer over the others standing in the doorway.
Their view of the room was narrowed, dictated by the frame of the door, but what they could see was two long straight counters, their lengths broken up on either side by what looked to be four stoves from which fire shot out of the burners straight up so flames licked the ceiling, but also out in jets so an arch of flames formed in the corridor between the counters. Ivan assessed the space between the counters. They were wide enough to accommodate three people shoulder-to-shoulder, though some of the wider persuasion might brush the counters with their sides. So, it might be possible for the group to tied wet cloths around their noses and mouths and move down that corridor. Except as Ivan watched fire burst horizontally across the floor from under the stoves and counters, flooding the space between the counters with flames.
“Anyone see any sinks?” Ivan pitched his voice to carry over the crackle of flame.
“Over,” Siobhan paused to take an audible gulp then turned her face so she was fully shielded behind Dempsey. “Over to the sides. Those industrial things with the directional hoses above for rinsing.”
“How many?”
“Looks like two setups of those three sink groupings, one hose above each, on either side. So, four.”
“The metal kind?”
“Yes.”
Ivan framed his goatee with the fingers of his right hand. “We’ll have to avoid those. Same for the stoves. The metal will be too hot. What’s the surface between the stoves look like?”
Siobhan ducked her head around Dempsey for another look. “Hard to tell.”
“Metal?”
“No.” Siobhan pulled back and rubbed her lashes. “Could be marble. Definitely some kind of stone.”
“Good.” Ivan poked his tongue into his cheek, running calculations in his head. “That’s good.”
“Could we do a fire suppressant?” Dempsey asked.
“Ideally, sure. But we don’t have the materials.”
Dempsey jerked his head up, indicating the ceiling. “I see pipes and nozzles at ceiling level. Could be a suppression system.”
Ivan rubbed his chin. “You see any evidence of foam in there?”
“No.”
“Figured. If there is a system it should have kicked in by now. Either it isn’t working or it was exhausted.”
“Can we unexhaust it?” Gwen asked.
“That’s not a thing.”
Gwen waved her hand. “Recharge it.”
“If we had the materials.”
“Which we don’t,” Siobhan finished for him. “We need another option.”
Ben spoke up for the first time. “There’s a pattern to the fire.”
Dan gave an upward nod. “Noticed that.”
Siobhan peered around Dempsey’s shield, squinting at the gouts of fire. “How so.”
“Fire shoots out of the stoves. Stays steady for a ten count.”
“Twelve,” Dan corrected.
“Around there. Then it-” Ben pointed at the room, “Stops for a three count,” he looked to Dan for confirmation. Dan nodded. “A three count. After that three count the fire shoots out from under the stoves for a ten count.”
“Twelve.”
Ben waved his hands. “Ten to twelve count. Then another three count and the fire comes out of the stoves again.”
Siobhan nodded. “Okay.”
“The counters,” Dan jerked his head in the direction of the kitchen and Ben nodded. “The counters. Stone isn’t going to heat at the same rate as metal. I think we can get past the stoves and onto the counters between burst of fire.”
“Couldn’t we just stand on the floor between the stoves and not have to jump up on the counters?” Patti eyed the counters. “They are high enough some of us aren’t jumping up that easily. Not all of us are athletic. Or tall.”
Ben eyed the room. “Not sure if the floor will be too hot to stand on.”
“Not sure there’s any way I’m hauling myself up on one counter let alone, what, three?” Patti countered.
“Shit.”
Prairie shook her head. “I won’t be able to get up on the counters.”
Abe, who’d quietly been assessing the room while everyone else threw in their ideas, raised a hand. Ivan snorted and said, “Yes, Abe?”
“We could try it in pairs?”
“Huh,” Ivan rubbed his goatee as he shifted his gaze over the group. “Who would you suggest.”
Abe lifted their shoulders until they almost touched their ears and dropped their chin. “People who are strong and can lift someone with those who can’t get up on the counters?”
“I can lift someone,” Dempsey said.
Dan nodded. “Me too.”
“Obviously, I can,” Ivan said. “Anyone else.”
Ben looked over the group. “If you pair me with Prairie I should be able to toss her.”
Prairie clapped her hands together once, then folded them at her sternum and gave a big, forced smile. Her, “Yay,” was less than convincing.
“No one is tossing me,” Gwen said, looking down at herself.
“Probably not me either,” Patti said.
“What I’d give to have Kim here now,” Ivan muttered while staring at the fire.
Siobhan’s nostrils flared, “All of us would.”
Ivan stepped over and lowered his hand to give Siobhan’s shoulder a squeeze. “Yeah.” He went quiet, then shook his head. “How do you feel about me throwing you?”
Siobhan shifted her gaze from the fire to give Ivan a look full of a real lack of enthusiasm. “Almost as excited as Prairie. But, it has to be done. I think you should take Patti. You’re arguably the strongest and she has Sass so whoever takes her has to be able to lift her delicately and, if possible, lift her onto the counter that way.”
Ivan did a quick visual assessment of Patti. “I can do that.”
“Okay,” Siobhan nodded and turned to look at the group. “Ivan and Patti. Ben and Prairie. That five of us. That’s an uneven distribution.”
Abe lifted their hand again. Siobhan looked to them, “Yes, Abe.”
“I can jump onto the counter.”
“You sure?”
Abe eyed the room, the distance from floor to countertop, then ducked their head and nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay. Then we’ve got me with-”
“Me.” Dan gave an upward nod.
“And that leaves Dempsey with Gwen.”
Gwen took a step back and eyeballed Dempsey. “Try not to drop me.”
Dempsey turned his head and looked down at Gwen. “Only on your head.”
“Ha!”
Siobhan snorted then looked around the group. “So, who first?”
“Us,” Prairie said, lifting a hand. “It makes sense. Ben is the most athletic and I’m the smallest. It makes sense for us to go first to make sure this works.”
Siobhan fingered the strap of her bag. “Wouldn’t it make sense for someone less spry and heavier to go to really test the waters?”
“But,” Prairie said with an impish grin, “Ben always goes first.”
Ben started to protest then shrugged. “Yeah. What she said. Can you make a hole?”
Patti eyed him. “It’s pretty hot.”
“Only going to get hotter.”
“Valid,” Patti lowered her shield and stepped aside. Dempsey took two steps back, clearing the doorway so Ben and Prairie could step into it. They both stood there, eying the flames. Prairie took a deep breath and shook out her hands. Ben shifted his gaze sideways to look at her. “You ready?”
“Yes.”
“Got the pattern?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. When the fire drops on the stove we have a three count to get to the space between stoves and get up on the counter.”
“Yes.”
There was a slight hiss and the fire on the nearest stove dropped.
“Now!” Ben yelled, not hesitating, trusting Prairie to match his pace.
They hit the empty space between the count of one and two. Ben shifted, planted his hands on either side of Prairie. Prairie lunged, moving with Ben’s throw, and sailed for the counter. There was a collective gasp as her toe hit the edge. She curled her foot, finding purchase and skidded along the counter in time for Ben to hop up next to her, doing some kind of leap that twisted him midair and landed him ass first on the stone. He pulled his feet up just as the fire burst from under the stove and counters. Prairie made herself as small as possible to avoid the lick of flames from the stove beside her.
“How is it?” Gwen screamed over the roar of flames.
“Hot!” Prairie yelled back but her voice was too low and got lost in roar.
“Hot!” Ben echoed, louder so the other could hear. “But bearable!” He turned to Prairie. “You ready in three-”
Prairie nodded. “Two!”
On one they both pushed off the counter and hit the floor running. The stove wasn’t too large so it made it easy to clear it on a one-count. Prairie and Ben repeated the lunge, jump, throw, hop maneuver, both landing on the next counter before the fire burst from the floor.
“This is exciting,” Ben murmured to Prairie. She pressed her hand to her chest. “Terrifying.”
Ben nodded. “That too. Ready in two…”
Prairie squeaked, “One,” and leapt free to dash for the space between the next two stoves, gracefully taking Ben’s lift and throw and moving away to make room for him to land on the counter.
Ben eyed the last stove and its spouts of flame. “Almost there.”
Prairie shifted so she was facing the direction of the doorway and the next set of stairs. “On two!”
“One!” Ben called and shoved off the counter as the flames withdrew from the floor. They both dashed for the doorway, coming to halt with racing hearts and panting breaths. Eying the distance they’d covered, Prairie giggled, her shoulders up. “We did it!”
Ben grinned, wide and infectious. “We did!”
On the other side Siobhan stepped back from the doorway she, Gwen, and Dempsey had crowded into to watch Ben and Prairie’s progress. She clapped her hands together, then laced her fingers. “Abe. You next. You got the pattern?”
Abe nodded like there were no bones in their neck. “Yes.”
“You good?” Siobhan’s voice took on the tones she used with her kids.
Abe looked up. “Yes.”
Abe stepped onto the threshold and curled the fingers of both hands into the cross-chest strap of their bag. They trained their eyes on the dancing fire, their lips moving on counts. Then, taking a deep breath, they darted from the doorway, flew across the space where the first pair of stoves faced each other, and threw themselves sideways and up to slide neatly onto the counter with a count to spare.
Siobhan blew out a breath. “Dan, you and I last. Gwen and Dempsey next.”
“Got it!” Gwen stepped up to plant her feet on the door jam before looking sideways at Dempsey. “You got this?”
“I got this. You got it?”
“Sure!” Gwen’s expression belied the confidence of her tone. No one called her on it.
Dempsey slung his shield back over his shoulder, cinching the strap in his pit, then sheathed his sword in his back sheath. Gwen hooked her plunger into her belt. They looked at each other. Nodded.
“On one?” Dempsey asked.
Gwen nodded and eyed the fire. As the flames receded into the stove she yelled, “One!” and surged forward. Dempsey’s lift wasn’t anywhere near as elegant as Ben’s to Prairie. His hand went more under her ass then around her waist. But Gwen still managed to hit the counter, with an admitted ‘oof’, and get out of his way in time for him to pull himself up on the counter on one hip with his legs jutting out over the jet of fire sweeping across the floor. Gwen let out a bigger ‘oof’ when his shoulder hit her in the groin. Luckily it was the one the shield wasn’t strapped over. Probably still left a bruise, but they were both over the fire and that was the big thing. Gwen didn’t even have it in her to glare at Dempsey as he squinted at her.
Ivan and Patti hit the floor next, followed by Dan and Siobhan. Only after Dan and Siobhan hit the landing on the far side, the others clearing back to give them space to bleed speed, did Siobhan draw a true breath. She clamped her free hand over the one wrapped in her bag strap and pressed her palms against her racing heart.
After she’d fully caught her breath, she staggered over to the wall and pressed her back to it. “Not jumping to do that again.”
Ivan rolled his sleeves up and massaged his forearms. “Damn.”
“You did good, big guy.” Patti patted his upper arm. “Barely a jostle.”
“Thanks.” Ivan ran his gaze over the group. “Everyone good?”
“Sweaty,” Ben said, slicking his hand over the top of his head then flicking his fingers out to dry them. They all were sweaty. That room had been hot.
“I think my butt might be bruised,” Gwen said, massaging said part. “And don’t even get me started on the Dempsey-sized bruise on my junk.”
Dempsey hefted his shield. “You’re welcome.”
Patti snorted. Prairie giggled. Gwen rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Everyone got their breath?” Siobhan asked. Everyone answered in some type of affirmative, some with more vigor than others but all answering “Yes” enough for her.
“Anyone need healing.” Another wave of “No”s. “Okay. Then let’s go. Mr. Dempsey, if you will lead the way?”
Dempsey paused in the middle of a reply, then shook his head and headed down the stairs. Patti gripped her shield and hurried to catch up with him before he was more than halfway down the stairs. The others fell into formation in time to reach the bottom of the stairs. They shuffled onto the landing, piling in behind Dempsey and Patti who stood poised on the threshold.
“You see anything?” Patti asked Dempsey from the side of her mouth.
“No. You?”
“No.” Patti shifted her weight from foot to foot, tilting her head to look at the room from various angles. “Feels suspect.”
“Could be like the top floors. Just empty.”
“Could be. But I don’t think so.”
“Why?” Patti jumped as Siobhan came up behind her.
“Can’t say. It just-” Patti tapered off. Shook her head. Stepped back and gestured Siobhan forward. “See for yourself.”
When Siobhan started to tentatively step over the threshold, Patti snagged her arm. “Don’t.”
Siobhan stepped back from the threshold and frowned at Patti. “Why not?”
“Not sure.”
“Are you hearing something?”
“No.” Patti frowned then tilted her head. “No,” her answer was drawn out as she darted her gaze from side to side. “I don’t. I don’t hear a thing. Do you?”
Siobhan started to question Patti, then stopped. She drew in a breath. Held it. Strained to hear. Frowned. “I don’t hear anything. Should I?”
Patti released her arm and shrugged. “Not sure. It’s not dead like it was before we went into the closet. That was unnaturally quiet. Just wrong. But this…” she petered off, shook her head. “Maybe I’m looking for something that isn’t there.”
Keeping her feet back several steps from the doorway, Siobhan looked into the room, her gaze going over the furnishings. It appeared to be a library or a study, though more likely it was a library as there was no desk. There were floor-to-ceiling bookcases, lined with what appeared to be more books than a small-town library. A loveseat, its curved back an invitation to the brush of a hand, beckoned one to sit in its cranberry cushions. To the side of it and a little over were two wing-backed chairs, also upholstered in cranberry velvet, facing each other with a glass-topped round table between. A lamp with a stained-glass shade sat on the table, a circle of light spreading from it to cast an air of intimacy upon the grouping of chairs.
In the center of the ceiling a huge crystal chandelier cast light over the room, small rainbows arching from the crystals to dance over the bookcases and furniture. A carpet with a geometric pattern filled the space, clearly having been made for it with its round-shape and large dimensions. It was a room that welcomed one in. And yet, Siobhan felt a reluctance to enter.
“This should be the ground floor. Why is there another doorway over there?”
Siobhan indicated the far wall with a lift of her chin.
“Won’t know until we try!” Without any further warning than that Ben slid past Siobhan and into the room.
“No!” Siobhan reached out, like her touch could stop Ben, but he was already a solid three feet into the room before she could get out her protest.
“What?” Ben turned, walking backwards to look at Siobhan in the doorway. “There’s nothing-”
A distinctive click sounded from beneath the carpet under his foot. Ben’s chin dropped, his gaze going stark. In the same instant there was a clunk sound from the top of the doorframe. With a whoosh sound a glass door slammed down, closing Ben into the room and the others outside of it. It was a nice door. A pretty door. Etched frosted glass sat in a heavy wooden frame. At the base a bank of clouds crouched, their upper edges breaking into wispy lines that flowed up to the halfway point of the door before joining to form stylized curls of wind. There was no hardware to break the line of the door.
It would have been very pleasant to look at – if it wasn’t separating them from their friend.
At the top, the frosting made the glass opaque, but Siobhan was able to see through where the wind curled if she bent over. Across the room the other entryway was blocked by a similar door. Ivan ran up beside her, planting his hands on the glass and pushing so his arms bulged with the effort.
“It came down,” Siobhan said, “It didn’t swing. You aren’t opening it that way.”
Ben ran up to the door, pressing his hands to the glass opposite Ivan’s. And then his hands peeled away, palms first, then fingers, then fingertips, then gone. Siobhan dropped down to the side to press her forehead to the etched glass so she could slant a glance up through it. Her gaze went up. Up. Up all the way to the ceiling, watching as Ben’s body was jerked inwards and upwards in that order.
Around the room the books flew off the bookshelves, flying horizontally for a second before jerking up to swirl in a vortex towards the ceiling. The furniture herked and jerked on the floor, lifting by measures until it was suspended. And then it joined the dance of books and stray papers and small art objects, forming a whirlwind into which Ben was pulled. He was battered from all sides by the books and the papers, his body jerking with the hits. And then the lamp came careening at him, clipping him in the head. His body went limp and then he was pulled upwards, back first, his arms, legs, and head dangling as he shot for the ceiling.
Siobhan slammed her palms against the glass, just avoiding Ivan’s hands which were still pressed to the door. Ivan moved his hands, his fingers going to the frame to prod the seam where the glass and wood met. His expression took on a deep concentration as he quickly followed the edge.
Siobhan stepped away to give him full access to the door. She bit down on the instinctual need to scream, “We have to get him out of there!” Ivan knew.
She dropped to her knees far enough back to give Ivan room to move, yet close enough she could clearly see through the frosted glass and to Ben where he was still pinned to the ceiling a scant distance from the chandelier around which the carpet had wrapped itself, effectively keeping the crystals hanging from the chandelier from breaking loose and causing Ben serious harm. Or, more serious…
Separated from the room by the thick glass there was no way to tell what changed in the room but one second to the next Ben went from being pinned to the ceiling along with books and papers while other books and the furniture danced in the vortex consuming the center of the room, to falling. Siobhan caught her breath, seeing the image of Ben broken on the floor flashing before her. There must have still been a small amount of wind or current in the room because instead of plummeting straight down Ben drifted towards the floor, a fallen leaf on an Autumn wind. He still seemed to jar as he hit the floor, but it wasn’t a ‘broken back’ jar so much as a ‘bruised my face’ jar. Gwen, who’d come up behind Siobhan let out an audible gasp. Prairie stood wide-eyed next to her, hand pressed to her mouth, gaze darting over Ben before going distant.
Siobhan wasn’t sure Prairie was breathing. Then again she was never sure if Prairie breathed when her Magick was on her which Siobhan was pretty certain was the case just then. Prairie made this clear when she drew a deep breath, blinked slowly, and said, “He’s not dead.”
A lump the size of a black walnut formed in Siobhan’s throat, making it impossible for her to reply. Her breath panted in and out of her parted lips and darkness flowed in from the sides of her vision.
“Breathe.” Gwen pressed her hands to Siobhan’s shoulders and warmth poured from her, swelling inside Siobhan so the darkness had nowhere to go but gone.
Dempsey came over to Ivan and they conversed in low voices as they ran their hands over to the door several more times.
“See here?” Ivan pressed his finger to a slight indentation to one side of the door, about half way up, then shifted to the other side to indicate a spot opposite it. “It’s a mechanism, but I’m not sure if it’s Magickal or mechanical. Can you?” Ivan asked Dempsey.
“Not sure. Step back.” Dempsey spread his arms so he could place one hand over each of the indentations. He flexed his shoulders and his elbows dropped. There was a sense of him squeezing something between his hands though they never left the door. Then his frame relaxed and he stepped back.
“Not Magickal.”
“Okay.” Ivan stepped back to the door and ran his fingers from the left indentation, up the frame, over the top, to the other indentation. Then he did it again. “Hey, Dempsey?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you look in the room, see if you can see a trigger? If I can figure out what set this off I might be able to reverse it.”
Gwen scooted in next to Dempsey. “I’ll look too.” Stooping to press her hands to the glass, she squinted into the room, frowned, tilted her head right, tilted her head left. Eventually looked over to where Ivan was tapping the frame. “What am I looking for?”
“A plate on the floor? Maybe a beam of light?” Ivan pressed his fingers against the indentation on the right side, then laid his palm over it and pushed. “Something that looks mechanical. Probably near where Ben stepped.”
Dempsey leaned his hand against the frame and pressed his forehead to the glass to peer through the spaces where the frosting was sparse. When Gwen ducked to look lower, Dempsey tilted to the left, angling his head so his cheek canted over Gwen’s hair.
“Nothing.”
“Nothi-” Gwen’s echo cut off on a gasp as the door flew up like it was on springs. She fell back on her butt. Dempsey shoved his hand hard against the frame and reared back. Ivan almost got whiplash snapping his head sideways to look at them. “What did you do?”
Dempsey’s “Nothing,” was cut off as Gwen scrambled forward on hands and knees and into the room. “Gotta get Ben!”
“No!” Ivan’s hand closed on air as he stooped to grab Gwen’s foot, the only thing within reach as she scuttled into the room. Gwen jumped to her feet next to Ben’s prone body and turned at the waist to look at Ivan. “It’s fine. I’m just going to grab him and come back.”
She stooped and scooped her hands under Ben’s armpits, then started pulling him towards the door. Dempsey took a giant step into the room, then another and another, until he was close enough to bump Gwen aside so he could pick up Ben. Ben came like a sandbag, all flop and uneven balance causing Dempsey to have to brace before heaving Ben over his shoulder.
Dempsey darted a look at Gwen and gritted “Go!”
Gwen didn’t need any further urging. She dashed for the door. And she almost made it before the door slammed down, trapping she, Dempsey, and Ben in the room. And then the suction started. Gwen was thrown into the air, chest arching towards the ceiling as the air was evacuated upwards with a whoosh. Her breath went with it, ripped out of her lungs. She gasped, battling to pull a rasping breath into her chest. Her lungs expanded about halfway before the air was ripped from her again. Books whirled around her, battering her body from all sides. The spine of what felt like a large tome smashed into her lower back, driving what little air she’d been able to gasp out of her.
The suction ripped her arms upwards. She curled her fingers, scrabbled at the air, like it was water she could swim through or fight the pull of. Spots danced across her eyes and blackness rushed in from the sides, partially obscuring her view of the rapidly approaching ceiling. Then a book came flying in from the side, smashing into her head, and she saw nothing else.
Enter The Woods 