The Prize: Book One (35 page)

CHAPTER - THIRTY FOUR:               The Gate Keeper.

Even before he took his boot off, Penn's ankle started to scare him.  The joint was so tender that it was easier just to leave damn boot on, but Penn knew he had to see how bad the damage was.  His fears were confirmed.  His whole foot was swollen and starting to turn black.  Gangrene, he thought.  There was nothing in his pack to help with something like that.  They needed to finish this before the poison spread to the rest of his body.  Penn urged Ellis to her feet despite her protest.  They supported each other as best they could, groaning in pain with each step as they stumbled onward.  They entered a circular tunnel some sixty or seventy feet in diameter, and in the dim light, they could just barely make out the giant statues along each side.  Even from a few feet away it was difficult to tell just what they were.  Ellis shivered as she looked up at the giant figures.  Penn guessed they were somehow related to beings that had built this place.  The gargoyles seemed to look down on them with disapproval, as if daring them to go any further.  The horrible sound that wasn't music started again, grating on raw nerves like sandpaper.  At last, the tunnel bulged out around a large pool of dark water with a path around the outside so narrow they would have to sort of sidle around it, one at a time.  Even so, they'd have to take off their backpacks to make it around.  Penn eyed the narrow path looking for traps.

“Another black pool,” Ellis muttered, her gut tightening.  Penn toed the stone pathway with his boot.

“Feels solid enough.”

“That doesn't mean it will stay that way."  She muttered as the liquid in the center rippled toward them.

A shadow of something unseen moved just below the water, and they both quickly stepped back down the tunnel away from the edge.  The ripples died away.  Ellis tried to look into the depths, but whatever caused the shadow was gone.

“Shit!”

Penn pulled out his knife, and edged closer to the pool.  As he did, a snake like something lifted itself out of the blackness.  The tentacle waved toward him, but did not appear threatening.  Even so, Penn quickly stepped back.

More black tentacles emerged from the pool, and began blindly exploring the footpath around the pool.  Three or four even entered the tunnel, the tips probing the floor and walls as if to determine their shape and structure, or looking for something between the statues.  As Penn and Ellis watched, another part of the creature humped itself out of the water and slowly opened to reveal gleaming rows of hooked, bone white teeth inside what might be called the creature's mouth.  The stench emanating from the beast made them both gag.

“What the hell is that?”  Ellis gasped, shuddering in disgust.  Penn didn't answer.  Too tired to care what it was, concentrating instead of figuring out a way around it.  There was no way they could jump across or walk around without the tentacles finding them.  Backtracking was out of the question, Backtrack to what?

“There has to be a way around this.”

“I don't see how.”  Penn answered.

“So let's look at it a different way.  Each time we triggered a trap there has always been a way to get around it.”

“For some odd reason, I don't think this trap is meant for us.  Ellis shook her head in disbelief.  ”It's as if...”  He paused, looking at the rows of teeth, “that thing is searching for someone else.”

“Thrakee, you think?”

“Dammed if I know, but I get the feeling that whoever it is now ahead of us.”

“Damn!  We have to get around that thing somehow!”  Ellis started to walk forward.  ”Only way to find out…”

“Like hell!  It's my idea.  I'll go.”  Penn snorted.

“Right.  In a pig's eye.”

“Then we both go.”  From the look on Penn's face, Ellis could see he hated the idea.  Together they edged their way toward the pool, knives out.

As they approached, the tentacles reached toward them in a curious, non-threatening way.  One reached for Ellis, and Penn quickly stepped between them, knife ready to slash.  Penn could see its sucker-like discs, rather like an octopus tentacle along the underside.  The narrow tip hesitated for a moment then moved forward until it was almost touched him.  As it drew closer, the tentacle slowly faded from jet-black to white, then settled into a light shade of gray.  Penn had no idea what that signified.

“Ellis, get your pack off and move ahead of me and see what happens.”

As Ells moved ahead, the tentacles seemed to lose interest and went back to searching the tunnel.  Inch by inch Penn as Ellis moved around the pool, the tentacles somehow content to let them pass.  Walking backward away from the pool, they kept their eyes on the searching tentacles until they lost them in the shadows where the statues stood.  Exhausted and hungry, Penn never saw Dana until he was on him.  Penn turned at the sound of his movement, but he was too late to stop Dana grabbing Ellis and slamming her with stunning force against the wall, and hitting him with the hilt of his knife.  Ellis screamed as he fell like a pole axed steer.

Penn lay there unable to move, looking up at Dana.  He was tired, almost wishing this were all over so he could rest.  They'd come so far, escaped so many traps, won so many battles, and now that miserable asshole Dana was going reap the rewards.  Penn didn't know if he should laugh, or cry.  As he wiped away the blood from his face, he started to wonder why Dana hadn't just killed him.  It was out of character.

“Glad you could join me at last.”  Dana pressed the point of his knife in Ellis jugular as Penn tried to stand.  ”I'll open her vein before you take a step.”

Penn settled back into a seated position, his golden eyes locked on Dana.  Hatred boiled like acid in his gut.  Before he, or Ellis could do anything about it, Dana slipped a thin black collar around Ellis's throat and kicked her legs out to force her to her knees.  He quickly took a small control box out of his pocket and held it up where Penn could see it.  Penn knew what it was.  One touch of the control and the collar tighten around Ellis's throat.  For a moment, she choked and clawed at the collar.  He'd seen this type of control collar before.  Dana now had Ellis's life in his hand.  Any attempt to remove or cut it off would trigger an auto response and the collar would tighten and choke her to death.  With the touch of a button, Dana could tighten or loosen the collar at will.  Deep down, below his seething anger, Penn began to feel something he rarely felt.  Fear!  Fear for Ellis.  Fear that this time he might not be able to save her, fear that in his present condition Dana could easily kill them both.

“What the hell do you want?”  Penn said through gritted teeth.

“I want you to beg for this bitch's life!”  Spittle ran down Dana's chin.

“You'll have a long time to wait for that…”  And yet, was there any price too great that Dana couldn't demand that he wasn't willing to pay?  Penn tried to distract Dana.

“Tell me this.  How the hell did you get pass that thing back there?”  Dana shot a nervous look over his shoulder before bringing his fever bright eyes back to Penn.

“That was easy.  I just gave it Breen to feed on.”  He laughed, sounding almost hysterical.  ”You should have heard the stupid prick scream when that thing eat him.”

“So, what do you want from me, you sick fuck?”  Penn muttered.

“You're right; I do need something from you.”  For a moment, Penn thought about telling him to go pound sand, but the way Dana kept fiddling with the control unit forced him to bite his tongue.

“Penn… don't do it, whatever it is…”  Ellis choked against as Dana tightened the collar.  Ellis almost sobbed in despair.  She couldn't even attack Dana.  If she got too close, the collar would automatically tighten.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch!”  Dana snarled.  He looked down at Penn.

“Do it for the little woman.”

“Tell me what you want.”

“All you have to do is walk down to the end of the tunnel.”

“And then?”

“I need you to find a way around the obstacle you'll find there.  You do that, and you and your bitch can go fuck your brains out for all I care.”

“Fuck you…”

“Do it you degenerate piece of shit, or I'll skin this bitch alive while you watch!”  He slashed down with the knife, opening a gash in Ellis's arm, giggling hysterically at the sight of the blood running down her arm.  Ellis clapped her hand to the cut, blood leaking out between her fingers.  Penn knew Dana would kill them both even if he did return.  But going would give him a chance to think of a way out of this mess.

“What's down there?”  Penn asked.

“Oh, you'll find out.  I don't want to spoil the surprise.”  He giggled.

Penn pushed himself up off the floor.  He felt every pain in his body.  His right foot felt like a lump of dead meat at the end of his leg until he tried to stand on it.  A jagged, knife like pain shot up his leg and he almost fell.  Staggering upright, and with one last look over his shoulder, he slowly limped down the dimly lit tunnel.  Here, the statues seemed more malevolent somehow, scowling disapprovingly down at him from their stone cold, alien faces.  Dead, sightless eyes following his painful progress.  The nerve-wracking sound at the edge of his hearing was back, louder now, and impossible to ignore.  A few yards further on, the tunnel broadened out into a huge domed chamber with two enormous alien statues flanked either side, each holding a golden staff, upright in both, four fingered hands.  As he moved closer, Penn saw some kind of shimmering barrier, or screen emanate from the staffs the statues held.  The extended across the room, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, with no way around, over or under.  Puzzled, he approached the barrier, seeing a shadowy reflection of himself approaching from the other side.  Penn slowed to a shuffle as he approached, reaching behind him for the hilt of his knife.  Gradually the figure solidified into something almost human-sized.  Penn stopped and so did the figure on the other side.  Penn took two steps sideways, and the figure mimicked him.

“What the hell?” He muttered, taking two steps back.

Then he laughed.  It wasn't a trap.  The shimmering barrier acted like a mirror and the figure he saw was himself.  Moving closer a blurred reflection his face came into focus, but it wasn't a face he recognized.  There was something wrong with it.  Penn frowned, concentrating, but the reflection didn't mirror his expression.  Penn felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.  Something was wrong.  Whatever he was looking at wasn't him.  The image looked like him, dressed like him, but it was missing his injuries and fatigue.  Penn slowly backed away, but instead of retreating, the figure moved toward him, passing through the barrier with no resistance.  Maybe for the other Penn the barrier didn't exist.  What could that mean?  The thought came to him quickly.  Evil.  That's what he saw in the other face, pure evil.  A twisted version of himself.  Maybe this was what he might have become under different circumstances.  Maybe this was what he was capable of.  The other Penn reached behind his back and drew out an identical blade to the one he carried.  In that moment, it all made sense.  Here was the ultimate test.  To pass, all you had to do was face the biggest monster of them all, yourself.

CHAPTER - THIRTY FIVE:   
…When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong just remember in the winter
…

              Penn felt a soul deep fear, unlike anything he’d ever felt before.  Was this what other people saw when he came for them?  Was he this soulless killing machine without compassion or mercy?  Those golden eyes seemed to bore into his soul seeking, and finding his every weakness.  He saw no compassion there, no love, just hatred and death.  There was no way he could fight this thing.  Yet he knew he had to, if not for himself then for Ellis.  Now he knew why Dana was so scared to come here.  Yet Dana was already evil, so what had the other Dana looked like in the mirror?  Maybe he'd seen an angel instead of a psychopath.  No matter what happened here now, he was trapped forever, unable to face himself to get pass these gatekeepers.  In a different situation, Penn might have laughed at the realization.  Dana didn't get it, and probably never would.  He thought to use Penn to kill the monster, never realizing that he was looking at the polar opposite to himself.  The other Dana must have been radically different if Dana hadn’t recognized himself in the image, but none of that inside helped him a bit.