The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal (12 page)

Susan looked behind us. “Let’s just see if
we
can
.” She opened the door. Sure enough, the dimly lit
hallway was on the other side. “Okay, that so-called exit is still
there. So, I guess we have that option if your idea doesn’t work.”
She left the door open. I didn’t close it. It wouldn’t matter.

Another scream echoed. It sounded farther
away than the first one had. “Should we investigate?”

“
I guess so.” Susan shook
herself. “I can relate to whoever’s screaming their head off, so
let’s see if we can help them. I think William was right – we
should have all stuck together.”

I put my hand onto the wall and we walked
on. The screaming was replaced with the sound of someone sobbing.
This sound was close, though.

Susan pulled out of my hand and went to our
left, towards a nearby hillock. I lost sight of her for a moment
and decided I’d better go after her. We could find the wall, and
the other exit in this room, in a bit.

Happily, she hadn’t gone far. The sound of
sobbing was louder. “It’s coming from here, right here,” Susan
said. “But there’s no one but us.”

“
Let’s go. I’m starting to
get as creeped out as you are.”

She shook her head and stared at the
hillock. “You know, this is really small, barely seven feet tall
and only a few feet wide. Do you think…could someone be trapped
inside it.”

“
Oh, I’m sure not.” I took
her hand and dragged her away. The sobbing got softer the more
steps we took. “Let’s get out of here.”

“
Matt, I really think
someone was in that little hill.”

“
I doubt it.” I made sure
Susan couldn’t see my face. She might be able to tell that I knew
exactly who was in that hillock. Well, not exactly. But not
everyone who visited the boss’ estates came to receive a promotion.
And failure to complete the maze wasn’t met with a congratulatory
handshake or a slap on the back.

“
This is, officially, the
worst trip we’ve ever taken.”

“
Maybe it’ll get better.
You used to like haunted houses.”

“
Because you’d hold me
when I was scared.”

I grinned and pulled her closer to me. “Then
I’ll hold you again now.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders
again. She liked it and it made it easier for me to keep her
focused on going forward, not back. There was a tree in front of
us, but I was pretty sure it was painted on the wall, just painted
really well. “Look, I think that’s a door.”

Susan stared at the tree. “Maybe. Is that
knothole the doorknob?”

“
You really are the
smartest woman, you know that?”

She smiled at me and reached for it. It
turned and we both breathed a sigh of relief as the door
opened.

The room we entered looked like a storage
closet, albeit a large one. “Really?” Susan said. “Oh well, I guess
it’s better than hills that cry.”

“
True enough.” I hoped she
wouldn’t ask to look inside the boxes.

“
You know, that Guide said
we’d find maps if we looked. I didn’t think to do it before, but do
you think there’s a map hidden here somewhere?”

I reached over to the box nearest me. “Not
hidden.” I handed her the map.

“
Oh, wow. That’s great!”
Susan opened it eagerly. She was back to feeling like she had a
handle on the situation. Good.

She didn’t have time to read it, however,
because another scream sounded. This one was followed by a lot of
laughter and applause.

“
Who sees or hears someone
scream and then laughs and claps?” Susan sounded annoyed, which was
better than nervous or scared. Having the map in hand really did
wonders for her state of mind.

“
Maybe there’s a show
going on. It would explain all the weird things we’ve
heard.”

“
You mean like we’ll get
to the end of this maze and there will be a play for us to watch,
like a reward for putting up with this craziness?”

“
Yeah, something like
that.”

“
I’d like to see that,
Matt, I really would.” Susan looked around. “You know, I only see
one door in this room, the one we came through.”

I opened it. The outdoors room was on the
other side. “You want to go back in there?”

“
Never again if I can help
it.” Susan consulted her map. “I think that room is the
Conservatory. I didn’t see a lot of plants but it fits, size-wise,
and I don’t see any other rooms listed.”

“
Listed? What kind of map
is that?”

“
The less than helpful
kind. It lists the rooms, and how many doors are in them, and which
room each door leads to. So, the Conservatory had a lot of doors,
lucky us. However…”

“
However?”

“
There’s one called
Storage. That’s clearly where we are. So, Storage has two doors.
One that leads to the Conservatory and one that leads to…the
Stage.”

“
See? Maybe I’m right.
Let’s keep on looking. Maybe we can get to the play before it’s all
over.”

We tapped on all the walls, but none of them
sounded hollow and there were no doors. Susan looked up. “I don’t
see anything on this ceiling, but do you think we’re supposed to
knock through it?”

“
Maybe. Let’s move these
boxes first, just in case.”

We started lifting and shoving. “They’re
light, at least.” Susan shoved a set of boxes out of the way. One
fell. It remained closed, thankfully. She stamped on the ground.
“Nothing.”

“
Why is there a little rug
here?” I moved the boxes off the patch of carpet and Susan pulled
it up.

“
Jackpot!” There was a
trapdoor.

I pulled it up. It was very dark inside.
Blacker than black dark. The kind of dark that says you’re never
going to see light again. There was also a stepladder leading down.
It wouldn’t let two go side-by-side.

Susan gulped. “You first or me?”

“
Me. I’m the man, you’re
my wife. Just follow right after me, and don’t step on my
fingers.”

She gave a shaky laugh, folded the map up,
and tucked it into her bosom. I started down. Once my head was all
she could see, Susan got onto the ladder, too.

We were in total blackness. The trapdoor was
still open, but it seemed farther away than it should, like a tiny
patch of light we’d never reach again. “Matt? You still there?”
Susan whispered.

“
Yeah. Haven’t hit bottom
yet.”

We went down ninety-nine steps by my count.
I’d been expecting thirty-three, but the boss liked to have his
jokes. Next time I did this, it might be a hundred and thirty-two
or even a hundred and ninety-eight. One set of thirty-three for
each millennia.

Finally my foot hit what felt like floor. “I
think we’re there. Hang on, let me be sure.”

“
Don’t let go of the
ladder!”

“
I won’t.” With one hand
holding tight to the side of the ladder, I felt around with my
foot. There was certainly enough room for two to stand here. “Come
on down.”

I kept my hand out so I could feel her when
she reached the floor. As she stepped off the last rung of the
ladder, I pulled her to me. “I can’t tell what else is in here.” I
wrapped my arm around her again. “I think we want to move slowly
and stay close together.”

I wasn’t happy with our location. This was a
game, but it was also a test, and any one of us could fail. If I’d
have had a choice, I’d have gone back to the Conservatory rather
than down in here, but I’d have had to give Susan an explanation
and that wasn’t in the rules of the game. Besides, any explanation
I could give would only terrify her more, not less.

“
No argument from me,
Matt. At all.” Susan put her arm around my waist. She was
shivering.

Now that we were together I could let go of
the ladder and touch the wall. We inched along it to our right, and
I tested every step carefully. I’d never been in this room before,
but I’d heard the rumors. In this room, one wrong step and we’d
spend the rest of existence in this darkness, only we wouldn’t be
together.

My left foot slipped, just a little, and I
shoved us both closer to the wall. I took a deep breath and kept
moving, even more slowly. After what seemed like an eternity, I
felt an opening. There was still floor, but no more wall.

We rounded this corner in the same way –
inching our way. Happily it was a corner, not a drop off into
nothingness.

“
Do you see something?”
Susan asked. “Like a little white fluttering, way off in the
distance?”

“
Maybe.”

We got closer. Susan was right, there was
definitely something small and white fluttering in front of us,
though it was still far off. Susan tried to hurry, but I held her
tightly. Just because we could see an exit didn’t mean we could
reach it.

It took a few more minutes, and then we were
in light. Like the hallways we’d been in, it wasn’t a lot of light,
but after the total darkness it seemed bright. There was a curtain
in front of us.

We looked at each other. Susan shrugged. We
pushed the curtain aside.