10:5
Siobhan paused with her hand on the gate leading into the front garden of The House. They’d made quick time arriving there. None of them felt the urge to linger. But that meant they’d failed to discuss their thoughts about what they might face in The House.
The geranium growing against the interior of the fence reached out a runner and gently brushed Siobhan’s knuckle. Looking down she brushed a delicate finger over it, smiling despite the seriousness of the situation.
“Hello,” she whispered to the plant before releasing her hold on the gate and turning to look at her friends ranged behind her on the wide path leading to The House.
“We missed talking out what we thought we might be facing in finding Grace. Any ideas?”
“Uh,” Ben said, “It’s just the story of a chick having a bad night’s sleep.”
Abe stepped out from behind Ivan, cocking their head so they could look at Siobhan. “It’s a story about looking beneath the surface.”
“How do you get that?” Patti asked.
“The prince went all over the world looking for the right girl.” Abe looked to Dan to confirm. Dan nodded and made a ‘go on’ gesture. That set, Abe turned back to Siobhan. “Then he gets home and the right one shows up, but he isn’t sure she’s right because she’s all messed up.” They rubbed their hands on the chest of their cassock, then brushed back the flaxen curls flopping in their eyes. “Also, the pea being hidden under all the mattresses is something below the surface. So, maybe look beneath the surface?”
“There are other versions of stories from different cultures with similar themes of searching for a sensitive wife,” Dan added. “So, while the story we know best seems to be about looking beneath things including surfaces,” he nodded to Abe, “more often the common theme is sensitivity. We may be faced with a test of sensitivity. Or possibly searching for something or things.”
Ben perked up. “I’m good at finding things.”
“In other people’s pockets,” Gwen mumbled under her breath.
“Also, in their safes. And vaults.” Ben slanted a look at Dempsey who lifted his brows and gave Ben a look of mild amusement.
“Sure.”
“But,” Ivan slanted Ben a look, “Would you consider yourself particularly sensitive?”
“I,” Ben pressed a hand to his chest, “am a sensitive soul.”
“The most sensitive,” Ivan shot back.
Gwen rolled her eyes. “So sensitive.”
Dan pulled a book out of his vest and made a show of running his fingers down a page before looking up at Dan. “The dictionary concurs. There’s a picture of you next to sensitive.”
Ben flashed a grin. Dan shifted his toothpick left to right then turned his attention back to Siobhan as he stashed the book back in her vest.
Siobhan shifted her attention over the group. “Are we prepared to move on?”
“Yes, teacher!” came from several directions, drawing a smile out of her. Every time she thought she was too hurt, too tender in her heart, these amiable idiots made her smile. Kinda made her want to smack them. Kinda.
She smoothed her features, then made a show of looking down at each of them over her nose.
“Good. So, anyone else with any ideas?”
Patti raised a hand like one of Siobhan’s students.
“Yes, Patti?’
“We’ve been doing pretty good flying by the seat of our pants up to now. Why do we need to figure it out before we go in?”
“Planning messes with my groove,” Ben added in support of Patti’s question.
“I like plans,” Dan said.
Ben slanted him a glance. “Of course, you do.”
“Excuse me,” Prairie’s voice was so soft Siobhan had to strain to hear it over the chatter. Siobhan caught Prairie’s eye and lifted her chin, encouraging Prairie to continue. “The longer we stay out here the longer they have to mess with Grace.”
Siobhan’s cheeks stiffened and her mouth tightened at the reminder. “They’ve already had her for days. We need to move. Now.”
She turned and opened the gate then stepped through and slightly off the path to make room for the others to follow. Prairie followed behind her and kept walking until she stood in front of the door of The House.
While the other’s stepped in and walked up the path Prairie tipped her head back and eyed the door.
“Hello, Arfa. We’d like to enter to recover the young woman who may have been brought in a few days ago.” She frowned. “I’m sorry that we missed her when we came for Roanne.”
Siobhan squinted. Did the house just adjust itself slightly. She squinted again but she couldn’t be sure.
“What those bad people are using you for has to hurt,” Prairie continued. “Will you let us help?”
The door opened on a sigh. Prairie tilted her head back and gave a sunny smile. “Thank you!”
Beside Siobhan Ben muttered, “Well, shit. I think I’m out of a job.” Without waiting for a response he strode forward, stopping a mikro to pat her shoulder and say “Thanks,” before stepping over the threshold and into The House.
Dempsey looked around the group then lifted his chin to Ivan before looking at the door. Ivan nodded, twisted his arm to release his sheath shield, and stepped up to the door. He looked down at Prairie. “Do you want to go first?”
Prairie blinked up at him and pressed a hand to her chest. “Really?”
“You did good in the front when we got Roanne. Maybe you can call Kirby out to help?”
Prairie bobbed her head like her neck was loose while biting her lip, then looked up at Ivan with wide eyes before smoothing her ponytail back and stepping into The House.
From within The House Siobhan could hear Prairie call Kirby, “Want to come out and play, Kirby?”
A few mikros later there was a subdued bark from inside, indicating Kirby had in fact come out to play.
Ivan followed a mikro later then Patti stepped up and entered, holding her punch shield loosely in front of her. Kim and Gwen approached and entered after giving each other quick glances. Kim held her hand at her side, fingers lax, while Gwen swung her arms at her sides like she didn’t have a care in the world. Siobhan wished that was the case. She smoothed a frown from her face and looked at Dempsey. He in turn looked at The House with a slight frown.
“Does it look like its bigger?”
Dan ran a measuring glance over The House. “It is. By,” he narrowed his eyes on the structure, then pulled a book from his vest and flipped to a page to access some information before looking back at The House. “approximately a foot in height. You can tell that by the line of demarcation towards the base where its lighter. It’s a little harder to determine width but I think that’s grown too.”
“But we’ve only been gone like an hora!” Abe exclaimed.
“Hmm,” Dempsey made a non-committal noise possibly in agreement with Dan’s growth assessment or Abe’s disbelief. Then he shrugged and looked back at the door. “Ben, Abe, and you should enter however you want that to break down and I’ll grab the rear.”
Siobhan looked to Abe and Dan, moving her finger between them and her. Abe practically vibrated, bouncing in place like one of her students so Sioibhan pointed at them and then the door. They bounded over and entered The House. Dan and she shared a “kids!” look then he followed Abe in leaving Siobhan to come behind. She shot a quick look over her shoulder at Dempsey then entered the house.
Siobhan looked at the environment they’d entered. It looked like a hall of a castle. Wide with cobbled floors and walls of irregular stone blocks. The space was lit by black metal chandeliers stretching the length of the hall, so far down forced perspective came into play.
Dempsey’s footfalls sounded behind her. She turned to see him enter, stooping slightly to clear the door head. Once he was in she tensed, prepared for the door to slam as it did. Instead it sat there, open, the garden outside clear in the frame of the door set in the stone wall behind Dempsey.
Siobhan looked at Dempsey, looked at the door, looked back at Dempsey. He turned to look at the open door then back at her and shrugged. She lifted her shoulders in an expressive shrug to match then shifted back to look at the door. Slowly, very slowly, it flowed shut, closing with no sound at all.
After frowning at the door for a mikro, Siobhan looked back at Dempsey. He repeated the shrug. She did too, then let the weirdness of the door go as she turned to look down the hall to where her friends stood or walked or in Dan’s case leaned against the stone wall.
Ben sauntered a distance up, beneath the second chandelier where everyone else was at the first point or thereabouts.
“Door!” Ben called. “Trying.” A mikro then. “Locked. I got this.”
Everyone moved up to cluster vaguely around where Ben fiddled with a rough wooden door sunk into the stone wall.
“Got it.” Ben grinned back at them. “Let me go first.”
He turned the doorknob and gently pushed only to frown as the door’s forward movement halted an inch from the frame. Rotating his fingers Ben wedged them between frame and door so his fingers were against the door. He then bent his hand back, planting his palm on the door’s exterior and flexing his elbow to push at it. It didn’t move at all. Ben ran his hand up and then down the door, rising on toes to feel around the top of the door then crouching to test the lower length and the bottom.
He pulled his hand out and rocked back on his heels. “Hmm. Might be swollen.”
Rising to his full height he took a step back then threw his shoulder into the door. He grunted when it didn’t budge at all. Dusting off his hands he stepped back and glared at the door like it was sticking just to mess with him. “Yeah. That’s stuck.”
“There’s another door down here,” Abe called from where they’d wandered to stand under the next chandelier in the line. “Also one across from it.” They tried the knob of the one closer to them, shook their head, then scooted across the wide hall to try the one on the other side. “This one is locked too.”
Ben stretched his arms back so his elbows almost touched. “I got this.”
With that he strode down to the door Abe stood in front of. Abe scurried back to give Ben room to squat and work on the lock with his picks. The majority of the group moved down the hall to watch. Dempsey looked over his shoulder then nodded to Siobhan and moved forward. She kept pace beside him.
“What are the chances–” she asked out of the side of her mouth.
“That they are blocked too?” Dempsey finished the thought. He made an expression of doubt. “99.9 percent?”
This assessment proved out as Ben unlocked the first door, dropped back on his heels, turned the knob and pushed until the door met resistance with only enough space for Ben to wedge his fingers in the crack. He gave a hard shove. The door didn’t budge.
He grumbled loud enough to be heard where Dempsey and Siobhan stood at the back of the group clustered loosely under the chandelier.
“Excuse me,” he muttered as he practically shoulder checked Patti where she stood partially blocking the door.
Patti rolled her eyes and took a step back and to the side to lean on the wall next to the door. She fingered the house on her belt and then tapped Sass on the head with a single finger when the mouse stuck its head out of the window to look up at Patti.
Ben picked the lock on the door on that side with equal results then rocked back on his heels and looked down the length of hall. Siobhan leaned around to look down the hall, scanning the walls on either side. There were doors fairly evenly spaced down the length, the candles in the chandeliers picking them out in their dim light.
Straightening his jacket around his shoulders and squaring his jaw, Ben marched down to the next chandelier and door combination. He stooped and tried each door with the same results.
Mutter. Mutter. Mutter, he went. The group trailed him with Siobhan close enough to hear his growing vocalizations.
At the next doors Ben hummed and then sang under his breath, something about pineapples in his head. Siobhan frowned. She couldn’t have heard that right?
Patti leaned over where Ben worked. He turned and glowered at her. “Blocking the light.”
“Like you can’t do that blindfolded.”
“And?”
“That song. Glass Animals? Pork Soda?”
“M’hmm.” He stood up and walked down to the next chandelier where two more doors stood on either side of the hall. Patti followed at his heels.
“Glass Animals performed that at Concerted. It was a great night.”
“Yeah, that’s where I heard it.” Ben said in a distracted tone as he ducked down to work the next lock, singing under his breath, something like “I’m brain dead.”
“You go to Concerted?” Patti exclaimed. Siobhan didn’t know what Concerted was but by Patti’s tone it was something good. “How did you get in? The line is always around the block. I was lucky to get in to see that performance!”
Ben rose, sauntered across the hall and started on the next lock. Gaze intent on the task he said in a preoccupied aside, “I own it.”
Patti started. “Motherfucker!” She jerked hard enough the house on her belt swung out and then back, banging her thigh. Sass leaned out the window and peeped at her. After soothing the mouse with her finger Patti turned to look at the others. “Concerted is a club that caters to Nulls and Magickers. It has a balcony so we don’t blow the electronics. And a line painted across the main floor marking where the Magick has to stop.”
Abe lifted the index finger of their blackened right hand. “I’ve been.”
When Prairie said, “I haven’t,” Patti turned to her.
“It’s the premiere club for Magickers. Well, that and Stripped.”
Ben rose to his feet and started down the hall again. As he did he shot back, “I own that too.”
Patti hurried her steps to keep up. “Seriously? I thought you were just a dirty businessman.”
“I am.” Ben squatted and worked on the next door. “Filthy,” he added in an offended tone. “How do you think I got the money to open them?” When the door did what all the other doors did, opening a bare inch and refusing to move more, Ben rose up from his crouch and started for the door across the hall. “If you ever want to do a set at Stripped I’ll hook you up.”
Patti’s steps paused for a mikro. “Really?”
Ben shrugged before ducking down to work the next lock. “Why not? You’re good. Might as well help my friends if I can.”
“I’m your friend?” Patti pressed a hand to her chest. Ben looked back from his task and blinked. “Yes?”
“I thought you only had, like, acquaintances and Ivan.”
“I could reassess calling you a friend, if you want.”
“No.” Patti shook her head hard. “No. That’s good. We’re friends. Totally.”
Siobhan shrugged at the interaction. Sure, it seemed like a throwaway conversation, something to fill the silence as Ben picked locks and found blocked entries. But, it highlighted a feeling she had when Rapunzel had asked them how the original group of she, Kim, Prairie, Gwen, Ivan, Dan, and Ben had met.
She lowered her brows as she considered the implication. “Rapunzel was right.”
“Huh?” Dempsey looked at her.
Raising her voice so the others in the hall could hear, she repeated, “Rapunzel was right. There’s a lot I don’t know about all of you while also feeling like I know you well.”
Dan, leaning against the wall and thumbing through a book he must have retrieved from one of the copious pockets in his vest, lifted a finger without looking up from what he was reading. “I do woodworking.”
Siobhan looked over at him. “What?”
He closed the book and returned her look. “I do woodworking. I read an article about making furniture without power tools and got hooked. When I’m not searching for lost people or doing research or finding new books,” he paused then said, “Huh. I do a lot of things.” He shifted his toothpick left to right and continued, “When I’m not doing those things I do woodworking.”
“Oh,” Abe said, abundant excitement lifting their words, “that’s cool!”
Dan shrugged like it was no big thing.
Patti raised a hand. “I rock climb.” At Siobhan’s questioning look Patti slapped the thigh Sass’s house didn’t rest against. “You don’t get brawn like this serving beer.” She flexed her thigh so it strained the leg of her jeans. “Plus, chicks dig callouses.” She wiggled her brows and grinned, “Guys too.”
Siobhan shifted her attention to where Prairie leaned on the wall opposite where Ben worked. Prairie shrugged and gave a crooked smile. “I’m a nurse. My hobby is sleeping.”
Dempsey crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m boring. I read.”
“Moving.” Ben announced and moved to the next cluster of chandelier and doors. As the others moved to keep up Dan looked over at Dempsey. “What?”
“What what?”
“What do you read?”
“Usually research on items and locations. Some travel stuff that helps when I’ve got to leave the area to search.”
Gwen, walking beside Dempsey now, faked a snore. Dempsey just lowered his lids and shook his head at her antics.
“Roller Derby” When the others looked at Kim, she repeated, “I do Roller Derby.”
“Me too,” Gwen added. Siobhan lifted a finger, “Also me. We’re on a team together. That’s how we met,” She frowned, “At least that’s how I remember it.”
This unreliable narrator in her own head was really trying.
“Me too,” Gwen echoed her earlier response.
“So,” Siobhan shifted her bag’s strap on her shoulder, frowning down at it rather than looking at her friends – They were her friends. She was almost certain they were her friends. Oh, heck, this was not fun to contemplate. “It’s probably true?”
Gwen moved around Dempsey and slung an arm around Siobhan’s stooped shoulders. Siobhan leaned her head on Gwen’s shoulder and tried hard not to think of all the crazy running around in her head like a classroom of Kindergarten students after someone’s mom brought in a birthday cake.
Ivan stepped into the short painful silence that followed.
“I don’t really have spare time. There’s always something else to do and someone else to help.” He shifted when Ben started for the next set of doors, continuing to talk as he followed Ben. “I guess—I volunteer at a soup kitchen weekly? My church runs it.”
Gwen latched on to this as she walked beside Siobhan, arm still around Siobhan’s shoulders. “You have a church?”
“Yeah.”
Gwen met his short nod with a soft smile. “Me too. I just didn’t know anyone else practiced.”
Abe raised a tentative hand. “I go to an Ashram. Does that count?”
“Yes.” Gwen nodded like a bobble head. “That definitely counts.”
“Don’t look at me,” Ben said to absolutely no one. He continued working a lock then turned the knob and pushed until the door met resistance. “I put my faith in money.”
“I mean,” Gwen started, “I guess any faith is good faith?”
Ben rose and sauntered over to Gwen’s free side and nudged her with his elbow. “Can I interest you in my doctrine of faith? I will reveal all its secrets for the low, low price of a lot of money.”
Gwen snorted. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Cool. Cool.” Ben walked towards the next chandelier and the next set of doors. Siobhan frowned. Really. How many doors and chandeliers were there and exactly how long was the hall and why did she suspect they wouldn’t find out until The House wanted them to?
It was like Prairie heard her thoughts as she stopped, planted her hands on her hips, and spoke to the ceiling. “Arfa? Are you messing with us?”
The House gave no response. Prairie kept staring at the ceiling for a mikro then shifted her gaze to Siobhan and shrugged. Worth a try the gesture said.
Ben rose from the next door, having pushed it to its limit of an inch. He glowered at the door, drew back, and kicked it.
It didn’t move an inch. Ben did, falling back with an “Ouch.” He shot a regretful look back at the group trailing him. “Probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“Man, I get it. Sometimes you want to mix it up.”
“Yeah. That.” Ben saluted Dempsey with two fingers and limped down to the next door. He crouched down, favoring the leg he’d kicked the door with so he tipped a bit to the side. He flung his hand forward to grab the doorknob to steady himself.
Hand frozen on the doorknob he looked back at the others with pursed lips. “It’s not locked.”
“It’s not locked?” Patti echoed.
“It is, in fact, not locked.”
“Try it?” Ivan suggested. Like Ben needed any encouragement.
Ben rose to his full height then looked back again. “Uh, here goes nothing.”
He twisted the doorknob and pushed. It swung open fully with no resistance. Again, Ben looked back with a look of trepidation. “Going in.”
“Don’t die!” Gwen called.
Ben shot her finger guns with one hand while making a clicking noise with his mouth. “That’s the plan. Though I understand Happily Every Afters aren’t guaranteed.”
“This is no fairy tale!” Kim, Siobhan, and Patti said at once then turned to each other and grinned.
Enter The Woods 