Title: Never Surrender
Author: Jules
Email: lurkingintheshadows@hotmail.com
Rating: 15
Spoilers: Forbidden Games
Warnings: violent content, bad puns
Disclaimers: The concepts and characters of Forbidden Games belong
to L. J. Smith. Hallie, Shawn, and Chelsea are based off of real
people with their permission.
Summary: Julian was renamed and is back to his old games, this time
with new players.
Comments: Feedback always welcomed and appreciated at
lurkingintheshadows@hotmail.com Thanks to the real people behind the
characters Hallie, Shawn, and Chelsea for contributing to the story,
and to Colors, Krystal, and Jay for your wonderful comments.
PART 1
Salem, Massachusetts. The City of Witches. Hallie couldn't wait to
get there. It promised to be a long bus ride. She'd spent months
saving for a bus ticket so she could spend a day in Salem. It was a
long distance to travel from her home state of Michigan, but Hallie
promised herself it would be worth it. She was already halfway
through Ohio.
The guy sitting next to Hallie poked her. "What's your name?"
"Hallie," Hallie said, pushing some of her long black hair out of
her emerald eyes. "What's yours?"
"Shawn." He was a geek in glasses wearing a brown turtleneck. He had
dull black hair and either brown or hazel eyes. He took out a book
and flipped through it. "Hallie, that's Greek for Sea."
"Really? That's nice. It's short for Hallena."
"That means Ingenious in Irish Gaelic." Hallie rolled her eyes.
"It's English for Covered or Meadow by the Manor and Norse for
Heroine."
"Gosh, I never knew my name had so many meanings." She took out her
headsets. It was going to be a long trip.
*********************
They'd traveled through Pennsylvania and were stopping in New York,
and Shawn was still sharing a bus with her. The sun had set hours ago
but neither of them was comfortable enough to get much sleep. Finally
she asked him. "Where are you going?"
"Home. I live in New England."
"Oh. Were you visiting family?"
"Yup. I have family in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa."
"Oh. That must have been a fun visit."
"Yup. And I'll be home in time to see Salem. Normally I go earlier
in October, but I had to see the new baby. The end of October is when
Salem gets really crowded."
"You visit every year?" Hallie asked jealously.
"Yup. I live right nearby."
"I'm going to Salem too. Maybe you can show me around." The words
were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
"Yeah, I guess. What day are you going?"
"Same day I get there. Then it's back on the buses. I'll already
miss a day of school as it is."
"You wanted to see Salem that badly did ya?"
"Yes."
"Oh, all right. The bus doesn't stop in Salem. I have to drop off my
luggage anyway, why don't you come with me?"
"Okay." If she didn't have to ride a taxi, that was more money for
her to spend in Salem. She could put up with this guy for a little
while. He wasn't hitting on her or anything.
Hours later the bus stopped and Shawn got up. "My family promised to
leave my car here."
First, though, they both stopped into the restrooms. Hallie took out
her black eyeliner and her Cherry black lipstick. Carefully she
traced a thin line around her dark emerald eyes and gently pulled it
upward at the farther corner. As she applied the slick lipstick
across her full lips she couldn't keep from grinning. "Finally here!"
She said aloud not hiding the enthusiasm from her voice. Quickly she
jammed herself into a stall and changed. She wanted to look the part,
to dress Goth for Salem. She slid her hands down her full-flowing
skirt. A black bodice tied itself around her slender body and
disappeared into the equally dark skirt. She looked like she had just
jumped from a Renaissance portrait and loved every moment of it.
There would be no short changing herself when it came to looking
presentable for the new streets of Salem. When Hallie came out she
was surprised to see Shawn dressed as the Phantom of the Opera
complete with tux, cape, mask, and fedora. "That is so cool," Hallie
exclaimed.
"Usually I go as a vampire, but I can't wear fangs because of my
braces." Shawn led them to his car, a black Toyota Corolla. "The
Shadow," he introduced. "It's dark green, my favorite color."
"It looks black," Hallie commented dubiously.
"Yeah, that's my favorite color too. It's so dark green it looks
black." He opened the passenger door for Hallie. It was quite
comfortable inside. Shawn put his suitcase in the trunk, got behind
the wheel, took off his mask and buckled his safety belt before
putting the key in the ignition. The car chimed. "Yeah, yeah, it's
on, shut up already." That explained the seat belt.
Half an hour later they were in Salem. "Let's see if there's any
parking left on the Common," Shawn said.
"Left? It's not even 7 a.m."
"Yeah. Let's see if there's any parking left." The Common was a
large grassy park surrounded by a metal black fence. There was plenty
of room to park on the side of the road and Shawn did. He put his
mask back on. "There will be all sorts of tents set up on the Common
later. Come on, we've got to get to the Peabody Essex Museum before
the Spirits of the Seven Gables sells out. Then we can go back to the
car for a couple hours if you're jet lagged. Neither of us got a lot
of sleep on the bus last night."
"No, I recover from jet lag pretty fast. It's when I have to go back
to school that bothers me. What's the Spirits of the Seven Gables?"
"Have you ever read Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables?"
"No."
"Neither have I. The Spirits is a lot of fun. You get to tour the
famous House of the Seven Gables and in each room an actor plays an
historical figure or a character from the book. Nathaniel Hawthorne
worked in the Customs House and his cousin Susan Ingersoll or
something lived in the House. There's a secret staircase that you get
to see. The ships would stop at the House first and unload their
illegal good before heading to inspection. They'd hide the goods in
the secret staircase and pick the goods up later. The House always
fascinated Hawthorne. Back during the witch trials his great-great-
grandfather Judge Hathorne was one of the judges to sentence innocent
people to their deaths. Years later many of the judges announced
their sorrow for being a part of the witch hysteria, but Judge
Hathorne never repented. Nathaniel added a 'w' to his surname to
distance himself from the judge."
"Cool." Shawn loved to hear himself talk, but as long as he was
talking about interesting facts about Salem, Hallie didn't mind.
"What about the witches that live in Salem today?"
"What, you mean like Laurie Cabot? If you want I'll take you to her
shop later on and if she's there you can buy one of her books and
maybe she'll sign it."
"Great," Hallie said.
PART 2
They got to the Peabody Essex Museum. "Two for the Spirits of the
Seven Gables at seven."
"The seven showing is full," the lady replied. "Would you like the
7:15?"
"Yeah, that'd be great." Shawn took out his wallet and paid for them
both. "What else do you want to see while we're in Salem?"
They visited a ton of places. They saw the Witch Museum, where
scenes around the room were lit up and a recording talked about the
Salem witch hysteria. They saw the Witch Dungeon, which Shawn said
wasn't where the original dungeon was. That had been near Gallows
Hill. They'd rebuilt the dungeon for tourism, but there was a piece
of the original woodwork displayed in the new dungeon. "Touch it,"
Shawn encouraged. "It brings you luck or turns you into a bat, I
forget which." Hallie touched it.
The cells were tiny. Some of them had barely enough room to stand up
in. "You paid to rent your cell and your shackles. You had to be rich
to afford enough room to move around."
"They had to pay to be shackled? That's awful!"
Salem filled with people. Half of them dressed up in costumes and
half of them wore everyday clothes. "They saw Boris Karloff's Haunted
Mansion because Shawn insisted. The entrance was inside, behind a
bookshelf that slid back from the wall. Then they went to the
fountain to watch a woman in a red bodice get arrested by actors.
Tourists had their video cameras rolling, and the woman scorned them
for aiming weapons at a decent God-fearing citizen. The actors
shackled her wrists and marched her all the way to the Town Hall,
where Shawn purchased two tickets for Cry Innocent.
The tourists that had bought tickets sat in the town hall as actors
brought forth spectral evidence and physical evidence against Bridget
Bishop. Bridget Bishop was a bitch. She denied everything in as nasty
a tone as she could. She almost make one little girl cry. No wonder
her husband had not come.
The audience was allowed to ask questions. Then one of the actors
asked by a show of hands if there was enough suspicion of witchcraft
to send Bridget Bishop to a formal trial. Shawn raised his hand in
favor. Hallie raised her hand against. The actor announced the result
in Colonial English. "Let it be known that this day you went along
with history. Bridget Bishop was sent on to a public trial, where she
was the first to hang at Gallows Hill for being a witch." The actors
bowed and the audience applauded.
"I'm right again," Shawn declared.
"Do they always vote for her to go to trial?"
"Nah, I hear it's fifty-fifty. Half the time she goes free. But
today she defended herself poorly. One year it was really close. But
I've always voting with the winning side. So far. Do you know about
Ergot poisoning?" Hallie shook her head. "LSD is derived from Ergot.
It grows on grain but the townspeople didn't know about it. It causes
people to see things in bright neon colors, to hallucinate, and
because oxygen doesn't get to the brain victims of Ergot poisoning
would convulse uncontrollably. The people in Salem were all tripping."
"Wow, I never knew that," Hallie said. Shawn glowed with the pride
of knowing all this.
They went shopping, too. There were shirt stands and stores all over
the place. Hallie was going to wait until later to pick what shirts
to buy. They went to Ye Olde Pepper Company, the oldest candy shoppe
in America. They visited Laurie Cabot's house, who disappointingly
wasn't there. They visited all sorts of shops that sold books,
jewelry, stones, horoscopes, souvenirs, and postcards. Shawn knew the
names of all the cats and dogs that the owners let wander around
their shops. He chatted up the pets' owners while Hallie browsed.
Because Hallie wanted to, they watched a group of Wiccans hold a
circle. The High Pries cast the circle with his ceremonial dagger,
the athame. The High Priestess and three other Wiccans called the
Four Corners. They called out names of people they wanted to send
healing energies to. The High Priestess passed bread around for the
Wiccans to eat. Then they broke circle.
"That's just a half hour for the tourists," Shawn explained. "A real
circle is a bit more in-depth."
"Are you Wiccan?"
"I'm agnostic. If you want to learn more go to www.witchvox.com." It
was 6 p.m. and getting rather dark. "We can do one more thing before
the Spirits starts."
Hallie was admiring the artwork. There were three stained glass
windows: one of a maiden, one of a mother, and one of a crone. There
were murals on the wall of wizards and witches, creatures of fantasy
and creatures of horror. Hallie was admiring one mural of Loki
flanked by Fenris and the Midgaard Serpent when she realized there
was a doorknob there. She reached out. It really was a doorknob.
"Hey, there's a store here," Hallie told Shawn.
"Funny," Shawn commented, "I don't remember that ever being there."
Hallie opened the door and they went inside. The store was thick with
incense and candles. There was jewelry here also, as well as bags of
runes, books of myths, and gothic clothing. Hallie gasped as she
looked at the price tags on the capes and bodices.
"May I help you?" Hallie and Shawn looked up. The storekeeper was a
teenage guy dressed in Goth clothing: black leather pants and a
flowing black Renaissance shirt. His eyes were hooded under long,
black lashes. His hair was as white as ice. He looked absolutely
awesome.
"We're just looking," Shawn replied. "I've never seen this place
before."
"We just opened."
Hallie started talking with him, asking questions. "Your outfit is
awesome. How do you bleach your hair like that? I was looking for
stuff to show my friends. Witchy stuff."
"Are you interested in a Ouija Board? For speaking with the dead."
His voice was melodious, like water running over rock. "Or perhaps
you'd like to cast the runes?"
"No, I was thinking of something really different."
"Ah. You're looking for this." The storekeeper picked up a board
game box with a picture of a haunted house on the cover. "A unique
game indeed. Mystery. Danger. Fear. Secrets revealed." The more he
spoke the more tempting it was. "It's a role-playing game."
"I like role-playing games," Hallie said, reaching for the box.
"Ah ah ah." He held it away from her. "I can only sell this game to
someone special. Are you someone special Hallie?"
"I've got 'special' oozing out my ears," Hallie said, not
remembering when she had told him her name. Suddenly she wanted this
game very badly. "How much is it?"
"Let's say twenty." Hallie bought the game and they left the shop.
Shawn looked at his watch. "We've got enough time to put the game in
my car and get to the House." Hallie didn't want to put the game
down. She was afraid she'd lose it, or someone would steal it. But
that's silly, she thought to herself as she put the game in the
Toyota.
PART 3
The Spirits of the Seven Gables was fun. There was a ghost and a
lunatic and a whole cast of characters. Then it was over and Hallie
had a bus to catch. But when they got there the buses weren't running.
"I'm sorry," the lady behind the desk said, "but there was a
terrorist threat and the buses had to be shut down. Check back
tomorrow."
"Great," Hallie said. "Now what am I going to do?"
"You can call your parents from my house and sleep over," Shawn
offered. "There's an extra bed in the den. I'm sure my parents won't
mind." Hallie thought it over. What other option did she have?
Shawn's house was a forty-five minute drive. When they pulled into
the driveway a young teenage girl, slender and athletic with ash-
brown hair and dark blue eyes came out to greet them. "Mom and Dad
are spending the night at Grandpa's hospital. He's having heart
troubles again. Who's this?"
"This is Hallie," Shawn introduced to the younger girl wearing a
dark blue shirt with glittery dragons on it and black pants with red
Chinese dragon designs on them. "The buses shut down so she can't get
home tonight, so I told her she can sleep here. Hallie, this is my
little sister Chelsea."
"Where is she from?" Chelsea asked.
"Michigan," Hallie replied. Chelsea opened the door while Shawn
brought his luggage in. Hallie called her parents and explained the
situation. "So I'm staying at Shawna's house tonight," Hallie
concluded. Shawn raised his eyebrows. "What? You want to talk to
Shawna? Uh, hold on." She looked helplessly at Shawn.
Chelsea grabbed the phone from Hallie's hand. "You won't believe the
most incredible time we had in Salem. We went shopping. There's this
wicked cool T-shirt that says Life's a Witch and Then You Fly. And
the haunted houses rocked! I'm so glad I had someone to spend the day
with. This is Hallie's parents, right?" Chelsea listened to the other
end. "Oh no! It's not a bother at all. My parents are absolutely
thrilled to meet someone from Michigan . . .Yeah . . . Yeah, we'll
make sure she's on a bus tomorrow as soon as they're running again .
. . Yeah. Okay. Bye." Chelsea hung up. "Gotcha covered," she said and
headed upstairs.
"You're little sister is really cool," Hallie said.
Shawn shrugged. "Yeah, she can be okay sometimes. You want something
to eat? You want to just go to sleep?"
"No thanks. I'm not sleepy yet. You wanna play the game I got? Oh
damn."
"What?"
"It's for 3 to 9 players."
Shawn yelled up the stairs, "Chelsea, want to play a game we just
got? It's about a haunted house."
"Sure! Can we play it in my room?"
"We might as well," Shawn told Hallie. "Her room's pretty big." They
set the game up in her bedroom. The haunted house was 3-dimensional;
each floor connected to the floor below it with four pillars that
snapped into place.
Hallie took out the directions. "It says we have to draw our faces
on paper dolls and put the pieces in the attic. Then we have to draw
monsters and stuff, and get this. On a sheet of paper we have to draw
our own worst nightmare." Hallie passed out the cutouts of people,
some weird shapes that they were supposed to draw monsters on, and
slips of paper for the nightmares. Chelsea fetched a bucket of
crayons. Hallie snapped the three player pieces into their stands and
placed them in the attic. Shawn and Chelsea's pieces had two dots for
eyes and a line for the mouth. Hallie's doll had a bit more detail.
Chelsea grabbed a dark blue crayon and giggled as she drew her
nightmare. Shawn picked gray, orange, and blue. Hallie thought about
hers for a minute. Then she took out red and black crayons. "I hope
we don't have to face this," she said as she drew her nightmare. Next
they drew some monsters. Hallie snapped them into their stands. Then
they placed the monsters in a various rooms and put the nightmares
face down in three different rooms. Hallie took out the last piece of
tagboard and froze.
It was him. The boy from the store.
"What is it?" Chelsea asked.
"It's the Shadow Man." Hallie showed the tagboard to Shawn.
"Hey, cool." Shawn showed Chelsea. "This is exactly what the guy at
the store looked like. It says he's the Shadow Man. He's like the
Sandman, only he brings you nightmares."
Hallie was perplexed. "Don't you find that creepy?"
"No," Shawn said confidently. "A lot of people in Salem make their
own wares. This guy made his own game. It's fitting that he made
himself the Gamemaster."
Chelsea asked, "How do we start?" Hallie picked up the cover and
turned it upside-down. There was a symbol on the back of it, a rusty-
red inverted U, with one side slightly longer than the other.
"Uruz," Shawn declared. "Rune of . . . something. Strength,
probably. I think it's supposed to be ox horns."
Hallie sighed. "You know everything about everything, don't you?"
Shawn had the audacity to look sheepish. "The rules say we have to
swear the game is real, and that we're playing of our own free will.
So I swear."
"Me too," Shawn added. "How about you Chel, do you swear?"
"Every damn day." Chelsea grinned. "Yeah, I swear." She turned over
the first card and read. "You have gathered with your friends in this
room to begin the Game. How'd they know?!"
Hallie flipped over the next card. "Each of you has a secret you
would rather die than reveal."
Shawn took the next card. "It is dark outside."
"It's like their psychic," Chelsea exclaimed in mock wonder, turning
over the next card. "Your parents aren't home."
"Creepy," Hallie said and drew the next card. "None of the doors or
windows will open."
They look at the closed windows and door. "What about the closet?"
Shawn yelled, jumping to his feet. The closet door was a sliding
mirror, and it opened easily. "Argh!" Shawn yelled.
"What is it?" the girls cried.
"It's Chelsea's boyfriend! How long has he been in here?" Chelsea
hit him. He pulled the next card. "You hear a clock strike nine.
Well, that's something interesting. We don't have a striking clock"
Then all three of them went silent as they heard a distant clock
chime.
One. Two. Three.
"Okay. Now it's creepy," Chelsea admitted.
Four. Five. Six.
"Oh God," Hallie breathed.
Seven. Eight. Nine.
Hallie gasped as a freezing wind surrounded her, whipping her hair
around and tearing through her clothes, chilling her to the bone. The
world spun around her and everything went black.
PART 4
When Hallie woke up it was dark. There was just enough light from a
dim overhead bulb to see where she was. She was lying face down on
bare boards. It wasn't Chelsea's room. The walls were bare and there
was no furniture. It was cold. "Is everyone all right?"
Chelsea was rubbing her eyes. "I'm fine."
A groan announced Shawn's reemergence to the conscious world. "Where
are we?"
"We're in the attic of the haunted house," Chelsea said, who
recovered the fastest.
"That's not possible," Hallie countered.
"No? Then let me change my answer. Beats the heck out of me."
"You are in the Game." All three turned in the direction of the
quiet tenor voice. There he was in all his Gothic splendor, the
Renaissance shirt exchanged for a skin-tight muscle shirt. The Shadow
Man.
Shawn stood up, completely awake now. "Chelsea, meet the Gamemaster.
Gamemaster, meet my fist." Shawn swung at the Goth boy. With lighting-
fast reflexes the boy caught Shawn's arm, twisted it, and had Shawn
lying flat on his back.
Hallie had a chance to look at his eyes for the first time. They
were blue. Not just any blue, but some funky weird blue she had never
seen before. If she'd had to describe them, she would have said
Cartoon Ocean blue, or the blue of the sky at the precise instant of
dawn. His eyes were surrounded by heavy black lashes that seemed so
heavy as to weigh his eyelids down. "Who are you?" Hallie whispered.
His eyes swept over them. Each one in turn cringed as they saw
something there. Something dark, something menacing. Something evil.
"Why don't you call me Julian?"
"You really want me to answer that?" Chelsea asked, again the first
one to recover. "You know, you look a lot like my boyfriend. Except
he'd make that outfit look good. You know, most people who wear
muscle shirts . . .have muscles."
Julian looked taken aback. His eyes turned a dark blue. "You don't
want to make me angry. Not this early in the Game."
"The Game." Hallie tried to keep her voice steady. "So we're playing
the Game until . . .what?"
"Until you win, or I do."
"Okay," Chelsea piped in. "So how do we win, how do you win, and
what does the winner get?"
"The boy's voice promised mischief. "If you get through the front
door before dawn, which is precisely at 6:15, you win your freedom.
If you don't make it through the front door before dawn, or if one of
the monsters or nightmares get you, you remain in the Shadow World
for all eternity, as my prisoners."
"Ah," Hallie said. "Be the bride of the devil."
Julian laughed, a low and menacing sound but musical nonetheless.
"You? Innocent little Goth girl? No, thank you."
Shawn got up from the floor. "If you dare go after my little sister-"
"Relax. I'm not after a bride. I'm after playthings."
"Same thing," Shawn replied, and received a punch from Chelsea.
"You do not understand. Let me show you something." Julian plucked a
mirror out of the air. He turned it to face them.
Hallie went white. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod." Three people were
reflected in the mirror, with their insides on the outside. The three
people in the mirror were the same shape as . . .
Shawn swore. "So we have to get through the front door, or else
you're gonna turn us inside out. When do we start?"
"Now." Harsh wind blew through the attic, forcing Hallie to close
her eyes. When she opened them Julian was gone.
Chelsea went over to the stairs that folded down to the next story
and started pushing them down. "Did anyone see these before, or did
they magically appear?" Just as the stairs reached the bottom Chelsea
pulled them back up again. "What do you get when you cross a gorilla
with the Purple People Eater?"
"What?" Shawn and Hallie asked.
"A monster I drew."
"Well," Shawn said hesitantly, "it only eats purple people, right?"
Shawn pushed the stairs back down. Cautiously he crept down the
stairs. He looked around and called back, "Coast is clear."
PART 5
Hallie and Chelsea followed, looking around for any monsters. Shawn
stared down the hallway. For starters, the walls were slate gray and
did not look like the walls of a house at all. The ceiling was
circular, making the hallway look like a tunnel. Hallie couldn't see
the end of the hallway. It was like it went on forever. "This is
fitting," Shawn told them. "There are mountains in Pennsylvania that
have tunnels so you can drive through the mountains instead of
driving over them. We drive through three of them each time we go out
Midwest. There wasn't a lot of light in those tunnels. When I was
little, I thought the tunnel walls had panels in them and a monster
hid behind each one. It was okay because I was safe in the car."
Hallie bravely started walking down the tunnel. Nothing jumped out
at her. The walls were smooth, except for one place on the left where
there was a rectangular outline . . . "Hey! There's a door here."
Shawn and Chelsea caught up.
"I say we don't open it," Shawn said.
Hallie asked, "Where else are we going to go?"
"Down the hall further," Shawn said firmly. They walked on. The
tunnel stretched away impossibly with no end in sight. Hallie looked
behind her and saw they were too far away from the attic stairs to
see them anymore. In fact the tunnel looked like it went on forever
in the direction they had came from, too. Hallie pressed forward.
They came upon a second door, looking exactly the same as the first
door. "I'm opening this one," Hallie said. Hallie pushed the door
inwards and gasped. Something had caught the door and was pulling it.
Hallie tried to pull the door back but lost the battle. She stepped
back.
Hallie recognized the monster. She had drawn it. It looked like
Nosferatu. It was tall, sickly pale, bald, and had fangs. It also
acted like silly puddy, stretching its neck and bending in places
humans couldn't bend. It was ghastly. Shawn gave them their cue.
"Run."
Hallie dashed down the tunnel with Shawn and Chelsea. "Another
door!" she gasped when she saw it. They raced to it, pushed into it
and slammed the door shut. Shawn leaned against the door. Hallie
turned to face the room. "Oh God." It was Julian.
"Enjoying my Game?"
"Bug off!" Shawn yelled. "We have a time limit, so stay out of our
way."
"As you wish." And just like that he was gone again.
But there was something else in the room. Hallie could see by the
moonlight coming in through the window that they were in the bedroom
of a little girl. There were Bambi sheets on the bed and sky blue
wallpaper, and a toy chest in one corner. Outside the window a water
tower could be seen, bathed in the glow of the moon. "What's in here
with us?"
Chelsea was in a defensive sparring position. "It's my nightmare. I
think. If it's long and blue and has a lot of heads it's my
nightmare."
The creature was making scuffling noises as it moved. It passed
under the window. It was like a giant blue centipede. It had about 16
segments, each one as large as a pumpkin and as blue as a blueberry.
Each segment had two blue legs stemming from it. Resting on some of
the segments were heads. Human heads, eyes staring, mouths gaping.
Some of the segments had empty places where additional heads could
go. And these heads looked real. Like Julian had taken some of the
victims that had already lost to him and beheaded them especially for
Chelsea. Hallie looked at the bulbous blue feet. "I have to ask. How
does it get the heads on top of itself?"
"I don't know!" Chelsea snapped. There was panic in her voice.
"That's not scary," Shawn told them. "That's just morbid."
"It's scary to me. I'm going to kick its butt. Its heads. Whatever."
"Chelsea, that's not like you. You never beat things up."
"This thing's a monster, and the only thing you can do with a
monster is beat the snot out of it." Chelsea raced forward, snapped a
kick at the nearest head, and scooted back. The head wobbled. "That's
it creep, you're going down!" They could all hear Chelsea losing
control. She charged it again, this time snapping a mushroom kick
with a lot of force behind it. The head was kicked cleanly off. The
other heads all wobbled back and forth, and the creature emitted an
ear-splitting squeal. It scurried around, half of it scuttling around
to the fallen head. The front two feet picked up the head up and put
it back onto a segment. Chelsea swore.
"Let's kick them all off," Shawn suggested. "It can't pick them all
up at once." The thing moved startling fast back into darkness.
Chelsea threw herself backwards into Shawn. "Easy! It hasn't come
after us yet. Next time it shows itself we all kick some heads off,
okay?"
They waited, with Chelsea staying very close to Shawn. There was a
lot of scuffling noises and some slurping noises. Chelsea growled.
Shawn rolled his eyes. "If you know what it's doing Chelsea, don't
tell us."
It wasn't long before the monster scuffled into view again. "Now!"
Shawn cried, and they all rushed the monster and kicked at its heads.
Chelsea hit a head and watched it fly off. Shawn got a dark-skinned
head. Hallie booted a woman's head off. They kicked some more, hoping
like crazy that the monster wouldn't attack them. Chelsea shouted
karate kiais, Shawn yelled obscenities, and Hallie just yelled. The
monster started squealing, a most painful noise, and they tried to
block out the sound by covering their ears with their hands. It began
stinking, too. They kept kicking in a frenzy, until all the heads
were lying all over the floor.
They rushed back into a corner panting. They watched, horrified, as
it began collecting its heads, popping them back onto its back. It
continued to squeal and stink.
"Gee wilikers Batman," Hallie declared boldly. "Is there like, some
way to kill the heads? Make them stop moving, whatever?"
Shawn snapped his fingers. "That's it. If these really are some of
Julian's victims, maybe we can free their spirits. I'm going to try."
He pulled a cardboard cutter out of his black dress pants and cut an
X into the wall. "Okay Gebo, do your stuff."
Chelsea screamed. "Get back!" It had started scuffling towards them.
Hallie thought frantically. "I heard this thing about runes. You
have to trace them with blood first."
Shawn put the blade away and instead bit his finger until it bled.
He smeared his blood into the two grooves he'd made on the wall.
"Now, Gebo." The heads started rocking on the body. More violently
they shook. Chelsea clenched her fists, frozen in her sparring
stance. She was wound up so tight Hallie was afraid if what Chelsea
might do. The heads stopped suddenly, drooping, losing all animation.
The blue centipede crumpled to the floor like a dead bug and lay
still.
Chelsea spoke. "Let's get out of here. Right. Now." There was only
one door in the room-the closet door. It was a regular door, and
Shawn held it open for the girls to get out first.
They were back in the tunnel. Hallie bent down and picked up a slip
of paper. It was a picture of a blue centipede. Then Hallie saw
something different in the hall: the staircase down to the next
floor. "Spoon!"
"Twah," Chelsea added.
"Girls," Shawn said, dismissing half the population with one word.
They raced to the stairway. They brought themselves up short at the
top step. Halfway down was a monster. It was a man wearing a yellow
shirt with gold bands and black pants. It had no face. Where its face
should have been there was a giant ear. It also had two large ears on
either side of its head. "What," Hallie asked, "is that?"
Shawn was chuckling. "It's the Captain Kirk monster. You know, Star
Trek. Space, the final frontier. See? He has a left ear, a right ear,
and a final front ear." Hallie and Chelsea whacked him. "What? The
directions didn't say we had to draw scary monsters."
"We still have to get past it," Hallie said.
"I'm gonna kick it," Chelsea declared.
"Shh!" Shawn snickered. "It can hear you."
Chelsea took every other step down. Then she kicked Captain Kirk in
the chin with the instep of her foot. The monster's head snapped back
but the monster didn't fall. It lashed out with one arm, knocking
Chelsea heavily to the steps.
"Argh!" Shawn bombed down the steps. He kicked it in the gut. The
monster doubled over but stood its ground. "Go around it!" he yelled,
grappling with the thing.
Chelsea and Hallie skirted around Shawn and Captain Kirk and raced
down the stairs. When they reached the bottom they turned around.
"Go!" Shawn yelled, racing after them. "Go, go!" Captain Kirk was
close on Shawn's heels, its shirt ripped. The girls turned and fled.
PART 6
When they could run no more they stopped and looked back. The
monster wasn't there. They were in a lushly carpeted hallway, trimmed
in red and gold. "The theater," Chelsea breathed.
Hallie turned a full circle. "Where's Shawn?"
"Maybe he had to go to the little boys' room? Stay here, I'll go
check." Chelsea headed back the way they came looking for Shawn.
"Of course, you can always surrender." Hallie whipped around. A
carpeted staircase had materialized and Julian was sitting on the end
of the banister. He was now wearing skintight black jeans and an open
leather vest. Around his neck hung a Greek cross with a red gemstone
in the center. All along his arms and across his chest Celtic designs
were tattooed.
You cheating bastard. You've been shifting things on us. "Where's
Shawn?" she demanded.
"Shawn's in his nightmare. Why bother him? Wouldn't you rather spend
time with me?" Julian slid off the banister.
"I thought you didn't go for that bride of the devil crap."
"I change my mind." His voice was husky, and he was leaning towards
her. God, he was gorgeous. How could she resist? A kiss never hurt
anybody. Hallie leaned forward until their lips met. Gently, oh so
gently he kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he put
his arms gently around her. Soft, how soft and gently his kisses
were. They sent a warm tingling sensation throughout her body. Don't
let this stop, Hallie prayed. She ran her fingers through his hair.
It was as soft as white cat fur. "Surrender," Julian murmured against
her lips.
"Ye-" Wait. Surrender? And lose? "Never," she said, pushing away
from him.
Julian let go. "A poor decision. You'd better rescue Shawn from his
nightmare." This time Julian snapped his fingers before doing his
disappearing act.
PART 7
She was at the beginning of the hall again! Chelsea came running up.
"How'd you pass me?"
"It was Julian," Hallie groaned. "He tricked me. Shawn's in his
nightmare somewhere."
"Probably through those doors behind the staircase. I wonder why we
didn't see them before?"
"Julian's been changing things around." Hallie saw the doors and
felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Those are the
doors to the Emergency Room." They dashed inside. They were inside an
intensive care unit. "Shawn? Shawn!" They burst into rooms, coming
across all sorts of ghastly hospital patients. "Shawn!"
Shawn was lying on a hospital bed. His cape, mask, and fedora were
lying on the floor. The shirt of his tux was ripped open, and wires
sprouting out of his chest were attached to all manner of medical
equipment. He had more than one I.V. in his arm and breathing tubes
in his nose. Shawn was breathing, but just barely. His eyes were wide
and he stared ceaselessly at the ceiling.
"Oh God Shawn, hold on." Hallie ran to Shawn's side and ripped wires
and suctions away from his chest. Chelsea was on the other side doing
the same. Hallie took the I.V.s out. Chelsea got the tubes out of his
nose. Hallie removed the clip on his finger. "It's okay Shawn. It's
all off. You can sit up now." Shawn didn't respond.
Chelsea slapped him. Then she took a water bag and opened it over
his face. Shawn sputtered. He leaned over the side of the hospital
bed and threw up. Chelsea helped him sti up and rubbed his back. "Are
you okay Shawn?"
"I'm good," he croaked. Shawn's voice was hoarse and weak.
Hallie picked up his fedora and mask and held them out for him. "I'd
have been really scared too if I'd suddenly woken up in the ER. Or
the ICU, because I think that's where we are."
Shawn took the hat and mask, picked up his cape and put his costume
accessories back on. "You can imagine what a terrible patient I was
when I had to go in for surgery." His voice was returning to normal
levels. "Your makeup is smudged. Did you run into anything without
me?"
"Julian." Hallie brought out her tube of lipstick and retouched her
makeup.
"Oh." Shawn coughed noisily and cleared his throat several times. He
sounded like he was implying something.
Chelsea said, "It's okay, you can hit Shawn. I won't stop you."
"I don't care what Shawn says. I want to get out of this house." On
cue, two swinging doors appeared. They opened back into the dimly lit
theater hallway. Once again Hallie stooped down to pick up a piece of
paper. On it was Shawn's drawing of himself lying on a hospital bed
with tubes and wires and I.V.s attached to him. Out here another door
was waiting, this time made of oak.
"But what's behind it?" Shawn asked. "Hallie, you open the door. If
it's a monster, Chelsea and I will beat it up." Shawn and Chelsea go
into their fighting positions and Hallie opened the door. It was a
wooden staircase.
Hallie started down. Suddenly the door banged shut, sealing them in
total darkness. "Shawn?! Chelsea?!"
Thankfully she heard Shawn's voice out of the darkness. "We're right
behind you. The damn door closed on us. We're going to have to feel
our way down."
Slightly reassured because they were behind her, Hallie felt her way
down the staircase. The steps were uneven and Hallie was praying she
wouldn't fall. They didn't speak on the way down. Hallie reached the
bottom of the stairs to discover she was in the Witch Dungeon. She
waited for Shawn and Chelsea.
They never came.
PART 8
There were prisoners in each cell. Some of the larger cells held
three or four prisoners. A gaunt woman stretched her arm through the
bars out to Hallie. "I'm innocent!" the woman cried. "I did not sign
the Devil's book!"
Others cried out too. "I'm innocent! I've done no wrong!" A woman
locked in a cell so small she could net even bring her hands up to
place on the bars pleased with Hallie in a parched voice. "Free me.
My child and husband need me. Do not leave me here!" The woman's
voice became hysterical. Several prisoners broke into the Lord's
Prayer. "Our Father, who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy name." The
prisoners became more and more frantic, reaching out to brag Halle's
clothes. She tried backing up, but another prisoner was behind her,
reaching through the bars of the cell.
"Free me!"
"I'm innocent."
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done."
"I'm not a witch!"
"Care to sign my book?"
Hallie spun. She was really starting to hate his sudden appearances.
Red satin looked really wild on him, contrasting sharply with his
virgin-snow hair. He was dressed entirely in red with ruby rings on
his fingers and long red fingernails. He wore a small necklace-an
upside-down cross. "There's quite an impressive list on names here.
Let's see, there's Bridget Bishop, George Burroughs, John Proctor,
Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good . . . Nobody knows Joe Gunsmith who died of
old age, but these names here." He smiled, like he was sharing a
secret. "These names will be remembered forever. Your name will be
remembered too Hallena. Won't you sign the Devil's book?" He'd turned
the book around, presenting a quill pen and an open page to her.
Hallie knocked the book out of his hands. "If this is supposed to be
my nightmare, it doesn't scare me," she lied.
Julian didn't bat an eye, he simply moved seductively towards her.
"You know you want me. You crave my attention like a dog to her
master. You beg for my favors, lost in a fantasy."
"Oh, is that what this is, a fantasy." Did he just call her a dog?
"Well, Mr. Devil, I'm not afraid of you and . . . and . . . " She'd
used her anger as a buffer between them, to mask her terror. It was
much harder to stay focused on her anger when he was caressing her
arms, his lips so close to hers.
Hallie surrendered to the inevitable. She sunk into the kiss. Julian
was the Devil, deadly as sin and hotter than red coals. Fear she
could deal with, fear was something she understood. But not this,
this gentle caressing and the warm feeling spreading throughout her
body at every point he touched.
A clock chimed. Hallie's head snapped up. "Oh . . . crap! We have to
get out of here." Hallie looked around to see if Shawn and Chelsea
had gotten there yet.
"Why?" Julian's voice was low, enticing. Spellbinding. "Why go? Why
not stay here with me? Be the bride of the Devil."
"Hallie's sleeves started feeling lacy. She looked down. She was
wearing a wedding dress. "It's . . . white," she said, feeling very
out of place wearing a white wedding dress on the Devil's playground.
"That's right, white. Virginal, pure. White is also a color for
sacrifice."
Hallie tried to speak but no words would come. Julian was smiling
like a cat. "I have a riddle for you. Give me the answer and I'll let
you skip your nightmare.
Listen to the riddle I say.
What God never sees, what the king seldom sees, what you see every
day."
"I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you."
"That isn't the right answer. Now what is the first step to your
nightmare? Oh yes, being tied to a chair." Julian snapped his
fingers. A pair of rough hands grabbed her arms, forced her into a
chair and tied her hands behind the chair. Julian pulled up a chiar,
turned it around and sat in it the wrong way. He folded his arms
across the back of the chair and rested his chin there. "The
blindfold comes next."
Hallie shot off a string of "I hate you I hate you I hate you" as a
blindfold came down over her eyes.
"You are a witch after all. That's why you're in the Witch Dungeon.
The wedding dress is a little silly." Hallie felt the dress mold back
into her clothes. Julian began stroking Hallie's hair. "This is
really nice hair. It's too long though, it'll get in the way of the
gallows." The next sound was of scissors being opened and closed
experimentally.
"I hate you I hate you I hate you."
"Maestro!" An orchestra struck up playing the Barber of Seville.
"NOT funny! Don't you DARE cut my hair."
SNIP.
PART 9
"Stop, that's my hair!"
"Don't worry, I'll keep it." Snip.
"But I'm growing it out for Locks of Love, for children who have to
have chemotherapy!" Snip. "Fine, fine cut my hair! I don't care. It
doesn't hurt. I can grow it back."
Julian chuckled. "You're going to look funny going around with a
haircut like that." Hallie heard the scissors drop to the stone
floor. She wished she could see the damage. Julian continued on.
"That was just a prelude. Isn't the next step--this?"
A sharp blade slashed across her thigh. Hallie screamed as the pain
hit and got worse. She could feel blood flowing down her leg. This
couldn't be happening. The pain was real. This couldn't be happening!
"You can still guess my riddle. I don't mind."
"Riddle?!"
"Remember this riddle that I now speak:
What God never sees, what a kind seldom sees, what you see each week."
"Week? The first time it was each day."
"Same difference." Hallie felt Julian jab the blade in below her
left collarbone. It was either a very small blade or he wasn't
pushing it in all the way. But it hurt to high heaven. Again she
screamed. "Stop! Stop! I'll guess it, I'll guess it. Something God
never sees. Hell? Is it Hell?"
"No." Julian added a poke of the blade between two ribs on Hallie's
right side.
"No stop it stop it!" she screamed and cried, unable to ignore the
terrible agony or the blood she felt soaking her clothes. "I can't
think when you keep making me bleed! You have to give me a chance."
"Not really, but it's more fun this way." He was enjoying this. He
was enjoying this! "Go ahead, give me the answer. I'm waiting."
"You have to give me time!" She had to guess the riddle, it was the
only way. "God never sees . . . another god. Because there's only
one. And a king seldom sees one, I guess. Unless he's an Egyptian
Pharaoh, because Egyptians thought Pharaoh was a god." Hallie hoped
thinking out loud would keep Julian from doing anything else to her.
"You're trying my patience. How about we use this next?" Julian
placed the jagged edge of a saw on Hallie's legs and put some of his
weight on top of it, but didn't actually start using it.
"There isn't an answer!" Hallie was sobbing uncontrollably. "God
sees people every day. God sees everything every day! The only thing
God would never see is another god, but that's not the answer because
I don't see God every day and Pharaoh saw lots of other gods as his
equal . . . " Hallie stopped. She sniffled. "An equal? There's only
one Christian God, so he'd never see an equal. And a king would
seldom see another king . . . and I see people like me every day!"
The pieces fell together as she said them. "That's it. It has to be.
An equal."
"Yes. It is an equal."
"So let me go."
"I didn't say I'd let you go if you knew the answer. I said I'd stop
your nightmare if you gave me the answer."
"If I gave you an equal?" Hallie had to think about this. "Me? But
that's the same as surrendering."
Hallie expected a smart aleck remark from him but didn't get it. "It
is," he said frankly. Then he smiled. "You make it sound like a bad
thing." There, that was more like him.
All right Hallie, what are your options? You can be tortured to
death, or possibly hung. Or you can stay with a totally hot guy for
the rest of eternity. There were a couple of important things to
consider first. "Would I be stuck in my nightmares for the rest of my
life?"
"Life is one big game Hallie. Once you learn that, nothing is scary.
Nightmares can be a lot of fun. But Hallie that's up to you. I can
make this place a paradise if you let me. You can have anything you
like, diamonds and expensive clothes and a mansion to live in. You
can have any pet you desire, a monkey or a bunny or a white tiger.
You can try all the delicacies of the world, play any sport, drive
any car."
That wasn't the most important question. It was all very tempting,
but she wasn't planning on a permanent vacation to Hell with someone
who thought of her as a toy. The important question was, "What about
Shawn and Chelsea?"
"I'll let them go."
"Good. But you have to let me say goodbye to them." There was
silence and Hallie was afraid she'd pushed him too far. With the
blindfold over here eyes she could only imagine the expression on his
face.
She was relieved when he broke the silence with, "All right." The
blindfold was loosened and removed. Hallie was grateful to be able to
see again. They were still in the Witch Dungeon but all the prisoners
had vanished. She looked down at herself. There were dark stains
below her left collar, in her right side, and in her right thigh
where he had made her bleed. Blood was still oozing lightly from the
wounds. They weren't nearly as bad as Hallie imagined, yet the sight
still made Hallie sick. She could feel pain; she knew it was real.
The ropes around her hands loosened and when her hands were free she
touched her hair. Her hair on the right side of her head flowed down
her back, but on part of her left side the hair stopped before it
even reached her shoulders. Don't worry. It'll grow back. Hallie got
out of the chair and turned around to face Julian. He was still
wearing red satin, dressed up like a hot Devil. Well. There was the
rest of her hair. Julian was holding it. She glared accusingly at him.
Julian glanced down at the fistful of long black hair. "It'll grow
back," he said, echoing her thoughts.
"Now what? Do I have to say 'I do' and put on a ring?" Unaccountably
Julian's expression turned dark. But he lightened up again almost
immediately. "No, but you must promise to stay here with me and sign
my book. The oath is binding."
"Okay." Hallie took a deep breath. "I promise." Julian presented to
her again the book and quill. Hallie signed her full name. "Okay. Now
where is Shawn and Chelsea? I want to say goodbye to them in private."
"They will arrive shortly. When you are done with your goodbyes, the
way home is through the front door of the mansion. I will be waiting
for you Hallie." He didn't disappear. He walked to the other end of
the dungeon and left through a wooden door that hadn't been there
before. It no longer surprised Hallie that he could do that. Hallie
looked back towards the staircase that she had come from and waited
for Shawn and Chelsea.
PART 10
Shawn and Chelsea walked down the stairs for a very long time before
either of them realized Hallie was no longer in front of them.
"Hallie, wait up," Shawn said. Hallie never answered. They called
for her, they shouted. Finally they had to admit she was gone.
"Either she's too far ahead of us, or there was a secret passage off
to on side."
"Or," Chelsea pointed out, "Julian plucked her right off the
staircase and stuck her somewhere else."
"Whatever happened, I'm sure it's Julian's fault. The way I see it
we've got two choices. We can go up, or we can go down."
"There ain't no way I'm going back up those stairs." Shawn agreed.
It was hard enough going down the uneven stairs in pitch-blackness.
They went down.
And down
And down
And down.
"Thank my lucky stars. It ends."
"Are you sure?" Chelsea asked behind him. Shawn's dry tones could
have meant he was being sarcastic.
"Yeah. There's light up ahead. Not a lot, but there's light." Shawn
stopped and waited for Chelsea to run into him. "Hold my hand. I
don't want to lose you." There was hidden meaning behind those words.
Chelsea grabbed hold and they descended the rest of the way.
They emerged into the Witch Dungeon. No monsters were waiting for
them, no gruesome sights to behold, just a musty smell. It was very
dark but not nearly as dark as the staircase.
Hallie stepped out of the shadows. "What took you guys so long?"
Shawn and Chelsea took a good long look at her. Some of Hallie's hair
had been cut off, like an unfinished haircut. There were dark liquid
stains on three different places of her body. There wasn't enough
light to see what color it was but the siblings had a good guess at
what the liquid that stained Hallie's clothes was. She had robe burns
on her wrists. Shawn's eyes blazed and he gritted his teeth. Chelsea
balled her fists and dropped into a horse stance.
"We're too late," Shawn growled. "Julian got to you." Self-
resentment showed in his hazel eyes, his thoughts written clear as
day upon his face. Hallie had helped him out of his nightmare but he
hadn't been there for her.
"It's all right. I survived. Now it's just getting through the front
door. The door should be somewhere close, and that's the way out of
the dungeon." Hallie painted to the wooden door at the opposite end
of the dungeon. "I'm going first." Her tone let no room for argument.
She led the way to the door and opened it. Julian had managed to
surprise her yet again, when she had thought he couldn't come up with
anything more disconcerting than what she had already been trough.
The staircase out of the dungeon did not lead up; it went down.
Hallie started down. All three held hands, just in case. As Hallie
got closer to the bottom she became more and more nervous. If she was
going to pull this stunt off, she'd have to get the timing right.
Hallie reached the final step. She let go of Shawn's hand and broke
off at a dead run down the new hall they were in. She could see the
door back to the real world. The foyer was enormous and very
expensive looking with blood red carpeting and real gold finish,
unlike the theater hallway. It definitely looked like the foyer of a
mansion. Hallie ran right into thin air and smacked her face into an
invisible wall. "Ow."
The others had run right after her and watched her hit something.
"You okay?" Shawn asked.
"Yeah. Ow. How much time left until dawn?"
"I don't know, and I haven't kept track of that stupid chiming clock."
"Hey." Chelsea was feeling along the invisible wall. "It's
Plexiglas, or something like it. We can see right through it. And it
ends . . . here." Chelsea stopped at a nondescript area. She walked a
little forward with her hands outstretched and stopped again. "It's a
maze of see-through walls."
So much for running out the door before Julian catches us, Hallie
thought. They felt their way cautiously along invisible walls,
Chelsea in front of them and keeping them at a pretty fast clip
considering the circumstances. It became apparent Chelsea had reached
the end when she stopped and said, "What the . . .? Hey."
Hallie and Shawn bumped and bruised their way forward. "What now?"
"The empty door is just an illusion. There's another monster at the
real door. I didn't draw him."
Shawn and Hallie crowded around her, peering around the last
invisible wall. There was a creature there, pale and winged like an
Icarus. He had very Italian facial features and a pale complexion.
His muscular arms were folded across his chest. He had black hair and
black feathery wings partly unfurled. He wore a thick belt and
loincloth and nothing else.
"I didn't draw him," Shawn said.
Hallie wondered if it was one of hers. She didn't remember drawing
him, but except for zombie-man, she envisioned the worst kind of
monsters to be attractive on the outside and pure evil on the inside.
She'd been pretty damn right, too, if Julian was any indicator. And
this beast was breathtaking. The black hair that fell over one eyes
shed rainbows when hit by the light. His bare chest was so invitingly
strokable even with his arms crossed in front. He was heart-
breakingly beautiful.
The creature turned its head in their direction. They ducked back
but it hadn't seen them. It was looking for something. Them, most
likely. Then it hit her.
Its eyes were blue. Not just steel blue or baby blue, but that color
of impossible blue that only can be seen at the precise instant of
dawn. "Look at his eyes," Hallie whispered excitedly. "It's another
Shadow Man."
PART 11
A swirling blue and white mist formed in front of the strange new
Shadow Man and coalesced into Julian wearing -of all things- a
Chippendale suit: white collar with bow tie, white cuffs, no shirt,
black pants, black dress shoes. The Shadow Men stood facing each
other. Hallie could feel the temperature drop be degrees as the two
Shadow Men stared icicles at each other through narrowed eyes.
Julian's voice was like a venomous water snake as he spoke. "This is
my Game."
"You borrowed some of my toys. I expected them back." The new Shadow
Man's voice was like ice glaciers melting.
Julian's black eyebrows raised. "Where are they?"
"Your latest playthings freed them. There are rules, Julian."
"Yes I know Gino, how I know!" Julian sounded tired but his next
words were deadly. "You get one of mine."
"No!" Hallie yelled out involuntarily. The Shadow Men snapped their
heads in her direction, and Shawn and Chelsea jumped.
"Shawn, Chelsea, you guys have been great. I've decided to stay here
with Julian. Please understand. But he promised he'd let you go."
Hallie ran out and placed her hands on Julian's bare chest. "You
promised to let them go!" She won a smile from Julian.
"I didn't realize you three had freed souls that belonged to another
Shadow Man. By rule he must have retribution."
"But you promised! We only freed them to get out of Chelsea's
nightmare. Who'd you put them there in the first place? That was dumb
of you. It was scary enough without heads anyway."
The crystal voice said behind her, "I'll take the man." Hallie
turned to see Shawn and Chelsea hadn't bothered to stay hidden.
"Over my dead body!"
Chelsea's outburst was followed by Shawn clapping his hand over her
mouth and telling her to shut up. "Hallie! What the heck are you
doing?"
"Hallie means heroine, right? I'm being heroic."
Julian said to Gino, "They're brother and sister. It'd be a shame to
separate them. You can have them both."
"No!" Hallie screamed and beat against his chest. Julian threw his
head back and laughed.
PART 12
She realized arguing with Julian wouldn't do her any good - it was
Gino who blocked the door home. Arguing wasn't going to work anyway.
She switched to a tactic she was better at. Flirting.
"Gino," she purred, moving away from Julian. "Why don't you take me?
I'm staying int the Shadow World whether it's with Julian or a
handsome stud like you. Shawn and Chelsea got through their
nightmares so you might as well let them go. They'd be no fun." She
swayed towards him and began running her hands up and down his chest.
"Besides, men are so . . . "
"Wussy?" Gino supplied.
"Yes, men are wussy. And Chelsea's too young to be entertaining."
"She is a baby," Gino coolly agreed.
"That's it, you lose reproduction privileges!" Chelsea yelled,
aiming a good instep kick at Gino. He winged her. Literally. Before
she could get her kick in, he curled the nearest wing close to his
side and spread it full. His wing delivered the force of a full-body
uppercut and Chelsea was knocked flat on her back.
Shawn helped Chelsea back up. He encouragingly asked her, "What part
of 'shut up' don't you understand?"
Hallie didn't let herself get distracted. Much. God, he really was
beautiful. His dark flowing hair, just barely touching his broad
shoulders, make his face seem even paler. She kissed him. Oh, that
different. Julian's kisses were soft and warm. Kissing Gino was like
kissing a hillbilly.
"Am I putting you in heat?" Hallie blushed as she got his meaning.
"Am I?" he asked, obviously expecting an answer.
"Um, yes," she decided.
"Why waste time on Gino?" Julian sneered. "He has the maturity of a
teenage boy and the intelligence of a slug."
"Oh?" Gino retorted. "Who was it that let seven mortals escape from
a single Game?"
"That was before. I paid for that mistake. I will not make it again."
"Really? Funny, I thought you fell in love with a human girl and
tried to get her to stay with you." This surprised Hallie. Julian had
made her promise to stay with him. Had he fallen in love with her?
"It wasn't love. It was obsession. I was attracted to her innocence.
Does Hallie look like a beacon of light to you?"
Gino scrutinized Hallie, from the red lipstick to the black bodice
and skirt. "Where is the light supposed to shine?" Hallie laughed,
but Gino's angry expression told her he wasn't being funny.
"Didn't I tell you? Dumb as a brick."
A rumbling sound came from Gino's throat. He was growling. "Which
one of us is standing in front of the door?"
A thought came to Hallie, a thought inspired by Bugs Bunny. Maybe,
just maybe, Gino really was as dumb as Julian said he was. "Gino,"
she began in a sultry voice. "Want to play a little game with me?"
"What Game?"
Hallie drew an invisible line on the carpeting in front of Gino with
her toes. "I dare you to step over this imaginary line."
"What are you up to?" Julian asked.
Gino stepped over the imaginary line. "That was a dull Game."
"Oh no, it gets better." Hallie shot Shawn a look, trying to tell
him with her eyes what she was doing. "I dare you to step over . . .
this line." She toed a line a little further away from Gino than the
first line had been. He easily stepped over it.
"Yo Julian," Hallie heard Shawn say. "Can you give me a look at a
clock?" Good, he was keeping Julian occupied.
"This is where the game gets interesting. I dare you to step over
this line." Hallie backed up and drew an imaginary line quite some
distance from Gino. Gino uncrossed his arms. With full concentration
on where Hallie had drawn the line and with balancing help from his
wings, Gino took a giant step over Hallie's invisible line.
"Um, now, this line." Hallie moved a bit to one side and drew
another line. She planned to turn them around until her back was to
the door. If she could back all the way to the door without either
Shadow Man noticing what she was doing, all she'd have to do was open
the door and step out.
She could hear Shawn and Julian in the background. "So it's only
three A.M., right? I have until the big hand is on the six, right? Do
you have a digital watch or something? I can't figure these things
out." The big hand was on the three? Dawn was at 6:15. It was already
dawn!
Hallie backed up a lot. "I dare you to cross over THIS line!" It was
too far for Gino to step across in one bound and she expected him to
use his wings. Instead he crossed his arms back over his chest.
"Why should I?"
Hallie stared at him in wide-eyed amazement. The door was right
behind her. Nobody could be that dumb. She reached behind her, found
the doorknob, pulled it forward, and moved forward with it. For just
that instant Shawn and Chelsea could have won the sprinting event of
the Olympics. They were out the door in no time flat. Hallie slipped
through the door as Gino and Julian both dove for her and when she
was through closed the door behind her.
PART 13
The three of them were standing on the siblings' front porch facing
East. The sky was blue, that perfect impossible blue that not just
Julian, but Gino also had captured in their eyes. The color burned
itself into Hallie's memory.
"Next time," Chelsea admonished, "we're playing Chinese Checkers."
Shawn added, "Let's throw the dollhouse into the trash compactor.
And then call the bus station."
"And I have to change my clothes. Do you guys have Band-aids and
stuff?"
"Yeah, in the bathroom. But we're locked out."
"I can climb the roof and get into my room. I keep the window
unlocked. Then I'll unlock the door for you two. Is the back door all
right?"
Hallie looked at the front door. It looked so normal. And the sky
was getting lighter by the minute. Yet Hallie could understand why
Chelsea didn't want to open that door. "Back door sounds great, Chel.
Be careful. The Game is in your room, remember."
"I'll be careful." Chelsea seemed quite uplifted now that she got to
climb on to the roof. Shawn lead Hallie to the back door where they
waited until Chelsea unlocked it. Once inside they went back to
Chelsea's room, picked up the game and tossed it into the trash
compactor. They listened to the machine chomp and grind.
When the haunted house was ground up to their liking, Hallie
showered and dressed up her wounds. They really weren't very bad.
Hallie shuddered to think what could have happened to her. She put a
new set of clothes on.
When she got out of the bathroom Shawn had already called the bus
station. The buses were up and running and they were accommodating
the delayed schedules as best as they could. "You better get out of
here," he said despondently. "We promised your parents."
Hallie gathered her belongings and the things she had bought in
Salem. Chelsea wanted to come with them to the bus stop so she wrote
a note in case their parents came home while they were gone. Shawn
drove them to the bus station Hallie was to depart from. No one
spoke. Shawn carried in her suitcase and helped her tag her luggage.
It was their last chance for good-byes.
Shawn embraced Hallie and she hugged him back. "Thank you," he said
solemnly. "For everything."
Chelsea waited for them to be done and then she hugged Hallie too.
"Have a safe trip."
"Thanks. You guys stay safe."
"You want us to stay until your bus comes?"
"Nah, I'm a big girl. You guys go home. I'll be all right by myself."
"Are you sure?" Shawn asked.
"I'm sure."
Shawn scribbled a number down on paper. "Here. If you don't get on a
bus in an hour, give me a call."
"I will," she promised. Then she hugged them both again.
Hallie waved to them as Shawn drove away. Then she sat down and took
out a book she had bought in Salem. How peculiar that she had bought
a book on runes. She flipped through it until a page caught her eye.
The page flew past and she turned pages back until she found it
again. Could it be? It was a diagram, a wheel with 7 runes spaced
evenly around it. The caption proclaimed Travel the Nine Worlds:
Svartalfheim. There were more diagrams in the surrounding pages.
Which one was the Shadow World? There, a page had descriptions of the
nine worlds of Norse mythology. Niflheim, world of ice and shadows.
That had to be it. Could she do it? Did she dare try?
Hallie took her Swiss Army knife out of her bag and placed it in her
pocket. She could have used it in the haunted house had she brought
it. Hallie dog-eared the page in her book and went up to the counter.
When she finally attracted the middle-aged woman's attention, she
asked where the bathroom was.
"Go through that door. The bathroom is down the hall on the right.
You'll need this key."
Hallie thanked the woman, but she was already taking a telephone
call. Hallie hurried to the bathroom and unlocked it. The handle
turned down and the door pulled out. Hallie put the lid down on the
toilet seat and sat upon it. She studied the diagram of runes. Did
she really want to try this? She thought of blue eyes and hair as
soft as cat fur. Could it possibly work? There was only one way to
find out. The book called for two concentric circles to be carved
into a door, and runes carved in between the two circles. Carving
circles wasn't as easy as it sounded. The knife carved jagged, sloppy
circles that almost didn't close at the end. They would have to do.
Next she had to carve the runes. Dagaz, for operation between
lightness and darkness. It was shaped like an hourglass on its side.
Thurisaz, the thorn, was a straight line with a triangle attached to
the side. Gebo, for yielding up the spirit, shaped like an X. Gebo
was the rune Shawn had used to free the souls of people Gino had
imprisoned in the Shadow World. Next was Isa, for the power of primal
ice, which was just a straight vertical line. Kenaz, for the power of
primal fire, shaped like a greater than sign. Raidho, for protection
walking between the worlds, shaped like an R. Uruz, for piercing the
veil between the worlds. Hallie shuddered. That had been the rune on
the cover of the box. It was an upside-down U. She finished carving
the runes. It was sloppy work. Now for the easy part.
The book of runes Hallie had didn't say anything about tracing runes
in blood and speaking their names. She'd read that in a different
book. Gebo had not worked for Shawn until he had smeared it with his
blood, so it stood to reason these runes worked the same way,
provided that they worked at all. The wounds Julian had inflicted
upon her were bandaged. She chose to cut her finger with the Swiss
Army knife and trace the runes with the blood of her finger just as
Shawn had traced Gebo with his. Then she spoke their names out loud.
"Dagaz. Thurisaz." Some of them were hard to pronounce. "Gebo, Isa,
Kenaz. Raid-Raidho. Uruz." On the last word the door began to flash
in black and white like a strobe light. Black, white, black, white,
black, white. "Spoon!" The wheel in the door started spinning. Hallie
felt tipsy, and she put a hand on the sink. Then the ground began to
vibrate like a train pulling into a station, or a stereo with the
bass turned up too high. The intensity of the vibration increased
until Hallie's entire body was shaking. Wind came out of nowhere,
tearing at her clothes and hair. Suddenly there was a bright flash of
light from the wheel of runes, blinding Hallie. A Terrible shrieking
sound accompanied the light until Hallie wished she were deaf. And
then, mercifully, it all stopped.
It took a minute or two for Hallie to regain her vision. When she
did she saw the wheel had stopped spinning. The runes were still
glowing. She could see her blood on them. And the hourglass-shaped
rune wasn't on the top anymore. Dagaz had spun past the top and
landed somewhere on the upper right side of the wheel.
Last chance to back out. She could yell until someone else opened
the door from the other side. Or she could go through. Hallie thought
of midnight-black hair and a bare muscular chest. There were two
Shadow Men without female companionship beyond that door. And back
home was nothing but school and home. Maybe one or two friends would
miss her, but there wasn't much else she was looking forward to.
Hallie put her hand on the door handle and pushed . . .
FINIS (
geocities.com/theforbiddengame)