Among You (21 page)

“
What are these things for, Scott?”

“
No idea; but we’re going to find out.”

“
Oh my God,” Sally gasped. “Scott, come here…now.”

I stepped in next to Sally and raised the light to follow her hand. There was no mistaking what brought the sound of alarm from Sally’s mouth.

“
Ms. Middleton,” I whispered.

There was absolutely no doubt we were looking up at the counselor’s face. A dark and strange puzzle was coming together, piece by piece, somewhere in the back of my mind. Middleton was at the party. She said I wouldn’t have recognized her.

“
There are some things you simply cannot know,” I whispered.

“
What?” Sally asked.

“
It was something Ms. Middleton said to me in her office. She was being intentionally cryptic.”

We had to find Babbette. Every answer we sought would be found with her.

“
Come on, Sally.”

Without question, Sally fell into step behind me. The muffled sound of our footfalls barely noticeable in the high-ceiling halls. We snaked through the spiderweb of tunnels until the entrance to the main room appeared. Ten yards away from the entrance, a voice echoed off the cold, marble walls of the grand room.

“
Skorsdan, where are we going?”

I didn’t recognize the male voice. The name called out, however, was all too familiar.

“
Will you just shut up and follow me.” The second voice was clearly that of Skorsdan.

Sally clamped down on my arm, hard enough to stop the flow of blood to my fingers. I remained frozen in my spot.

“
Skorsdan, stop.” The original voice insisted.

“
Who are you to make demands of me?
You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to do this. So shut up and come with me, or be the coward you’ve always been and go back home.”

“
But what if Sir Gaultier catches us?”

“
He won’t. That overfed, blow-hard is busy snoring away the night. Nothing short of an explosion would wake him. Trust me…I’ve put that to test. He won’t awaken.”

Silence.

“
Are you coming or not?”

Silence.

“
Okay,” the original voice succumbed. “No one gets hurt, right?”

The question sent a tsunami of ice through my spine. I didn’t like where this was going.

“
I can’t promise anything. Hopefully, she’ll opt to come along of her own accord. But one way or another…she’s coming.”

I turned to Sally and whispered. “We’re following them.”

Sally’s eyes nearly exploded out of their sockets. I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

I swallowed a lump of guilt I hope she didn’t see. Truth was, I had no idea if I could protect her, because I had no idea what was going on. The only thing I
did
know was Skorsdan was involved; which meant anything was possible.

My lungs devoured as much air as they could before I stepped a single foot onto the marble floor of the main room. The distant echoes of Skorsdan and his henchman drifted down from above. I led Sally to the stairwell and began the climb up. From behind, Sally’s shoe squeaked and brought us to an immediate halt. She started to reach down and take off her sneakers. I shook my head. There was no way to predict how quickly we’d need to exit. I didn’t want to be slowed down by a barefoot Sally.

The voices faded.

“
We’re losing them, Sally.”

Squeak be damned, we picked up the pace until Skorsdan’s damning whisper assaulted my ears.

“
I overheard her say she was staying in Timley’s.”

A single sentence made clear Skorsdan’s plan. The
she
that he referred to was Babbette. That knowledge added fuel to my fire and kicked my pace up again.

“
Scott,” Sally called out. “Slow down.”

I couldn’t. Not with the images my imagination looped in my conscience. Every worst-case scenario played out to a bitter, horrific conclusion. In the end, each scene wound up a blood bath with Babbette on the losing side.

My feet hit the landing and I took off at a sprint. I could no longer hear Sally behind me, thanks to my speeding heart and gagging breath
.
The race-pace paid off. I managed to catch a glimpse of a dim light spilling through a closing door.

I motioned for Sally to catch up. By the time my feet were planted in front of the door, she was standing beside me, gasping for breath.

From behind the door, I heard a scuffle and voices.

“
What are you doing in here?” The voice of Babbette.

Skorsdan replied, “I think you know why.”

“
No, I don’t. You need to leave, immediately.” Babbette spat.

“
If you’re not out of here in thirty seconds,” Timely chimed in.

A muffled cry spilled from behind the door, followed by a crash.

“
Get out, now, Skorsdan,” Babbette shouted.

A scream was the last thing I heard before my hand had the door open and my feet had me face-to-face with my enemy. The room was dark; all I could make out were shadows. It was enough.

Skorsdan released a maddening laughed. “Well, look what the garbage engineer forgot to pick up from the curb.”

“
What are you doing in here, Skorsdan?” I spat.

“
It can speak and it knows my name.”

I stepped between Skorsdan and Babbette.

“
You don’t want to go there with me.” Skorsdan’s voice was a deep, throaty threat. “Or…maybe you do. Yes, you do, don’t you? That’s the very reason you arrived here – to play the hero. Scotty Human drops in from the heavens to save the poor helpless Babbette from the devilish Skorsdan. Was that your well thought-out plan?”

Skorsdan’s hand shot out and grabbed me by the jacket. Strength poured from his arms as he lifted me from the ground without so much as a grunt.

“
I have no qualms tearing the flesh from your bones and devouring it at my breakfast table. I’m not like the other ‘Kind. I haven’t tucked my tail between my legs and promised to hide behind a mask and make nicey-nice with the human race. You make me sick. Your smell, your sight, your sound; every part of you makes every part of me sick. And now, you’re here getting in the way of something that
has
to be done.”

A menacing glow filled the whites of Skorsdan’s eyes. “Whatever am I to do?”

Before I could answer Skorsdan’s question, the room was bathed in perfect, white, light. Sun spots momentarily corrupted my vision. When sight finally returned to me, what I saw made me wish the light was still a solid sheet of black.

Everyone in the room, save myself and Sally, were wearing their monstrous masks from the ball.

As soon as Babbette’s eyes caught mine, she turned away and hid her face.

Her face.

The masks.

The image in the puzzle was forming; Babbette removing her mask and hanging it on a peg in a room on the basement floor. I’d had it all wrong.

“
I can see the answers to so many questions, falling into place. It’s written all over your eyes, cheeks, and lips. What are these people, these creatures? Are they human? They can’t be. What then, are they?”

Skorsdan released me. I stepped back and cleared my throat.

“
You’re ‘Kind,” I said with force. “You moved from Europe in 1890 to escape the torture and tyranny of the human race. You were made immortal by a witch…or so you believed. Gorman Gaultier is your leader and you each have at least one human mask hanging in a basement room. The only time of year you can safely tuck those masks away, and venture outside, is Halloween.”

Something inside of me snapped and inflated my bravery like an airbag in a crash. This meeting of pride and ego was nothing I hadn’t experienced in every school hallway my fear and cowardice had ever graced.

“
I have a question for you, Skorsdan. Why have you and the ‘Kind remained in hiding for so long? What is it you fear? Us? Me?”

Skorsdan unleashed a roar of a laugh and stepped in until his chest forced me back. “I fear nothing and no one, human.”

A palpable energy pulsed from Skorsdan, strong enough to cause my clothes to dance on my skin.

“
Scott,” both Babbette and Sally called out in unison.

The situation had taken a turn I hadn’t expected. Or maybe it was that Skorsdan was simply more dangerous than I’d originally thought. That idea was given absolute validity when his hand thrust forward and wrapped around my throat. The grip was exactly what I would have expected from Darth Vader as he raged about in the Death Star. But this wasn’t fiction…this was me and my now desperate lungs.

“
Let him go, Skorsdan,” Babbette shouted.

I grabbed at his fingers, but couldn’t gain purchase.

My peripheral vision was growing narrow, but I managed to see Sally race around and shove Skorsdan hard enough to knock him off balance. As he tumbled, his grip slipped and I pulled away.

“
Run, Sally,” I rasped between gasps.

She didn’t need a second prompt. Sally bolted from the room. I didn’t hesitate to follow. From behind I heard Skorsdan bellow my name. The sound bounced about the over-large rooms until it found my ears. His obvious rage at letting me slip loose was clear – it fueled my legs and burning lungs to ignore their limits. I caught up to Sally, but didn’t pass her. I wanted to make sure I stood between her and Skorsdan at all times.

With each step I took, I felt the remnants of cowardice slough away.

“
Where are we going?” asked Sally.

“
Out. Away. Home,” was all I could manage to speak.

We retraced our steps and exited the Gaultier House. The voice of Skorsdan continued to haunt us as we ran.

“
This way,” I pointed toward the path that led to the Monolith. It was a longer route to the car, but we’d be hidden from sight as we raced to safety. Once under the cover of the trees, we slowed our pace. The beam of my flashlight
bounced over the trail and through the woods.

“
Scott,” cried Sally. “The light; I can’t see.”

Before I could make an adjustment, Sally went down. There was no cry of pain, just a hollow ‘umph’.

“
I’m okay,” she announced as she stood and brushed herself off.

Everything around us seemed to come to a standstill – as if time decided it was good with a pause. Outside of the wind, not a sound greeted us.

I looked to Sally and pointed the light back to the trail. “Let’s get out of here.”

We walked in silence, until we arrived at the Monolith. We stopped when the first threatening sound arose.

“
Human.”

It was Skorsdan. His whisper wound its way under my flesh and kick-started my fear again. It took everything I had to suppress my fright.

“
We are,” another whisper rose.

“
…among you.” The statement was finished by a chorus of voices from every direction.

Sally’s hand gently grabbed mine. “Scott, we need to go.”

“
What do you want, Skorsdan?” Why I decided to call my tormentor out, I had no idea. But the deed was done. It was now just a matter of time before he arrived and forced me to stand up for myself.

“
Sally, run. Get back to the car.”

She shored up her grip. “I’m not going anywhere. If he wants you, he’ll have to go through me.”

“
We
have
to stop meeting like this, Scotty Human.” Skorsdan appeared from a shroud of darkness. He snapped his fingers to signal the appearance of enough ‘Kind to surround us. They were all without masks. The deformities of the male ‘Kind were in abundance; the greenish-gray skin covered with lumps and craters – a high school nightmare of acne and eczema.

“
What do you want from us?” Sally shouted.

“
Oh, a tough one. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this close to a human female with balls,” Skorsdan chuckled. “What I want is for this pathetic creature to stay away from Babbette.”

I stepped forward and clenched both fists. “You have no right…”

“
She’s mine.” Skorsdan bellowed. The glow in his eyes transmitted to his hands. The crackle and hiss of energy filled the clearing. Some of the ‘Kind tensed and backed away. “I was promised that girl as a child. I will not allow a worthless human to get in the way of what rightfully belongs to me.”