Experiment In Terror - Come Alive Part 16

I walked to the door and opened it, not at all surprised to find a flight of stairs leading up to the next level. I looked behind me first, but the two of them were paying no attention to me, so I walked up the stairs. They were much more solid than the ones earlier; in fact they felt like pillars of strength, wrought from the earth itself.

Once I got to the top of the stairs, it took me awhile to understand what I was looking at. I mean, it really took me awhile. Instead of a boring, dark attic as I had expected, I was looking down the length of a well-lit room. There were flickering candles in the middle of the wood-slat floor, hundreds of them, some of them red but most of them black, all of them forming this giant oval. In the middle of the floor was something white and moving. It took me awhile for my eyes to focus on it, to pinpoint what it was, but when I did, a small scream got buried in my throat. It was a small white snake with yellow diamonds down its back, pinned to the floor with a knife down its middle, writhing in pain as it was forced to die an immobile death.

A strange smell of sweet baby powder and tangy copper filled my nose as a cold breeze blew past, making the flames dance. I looked up and saw row upon row of bleeding chicken feet suspended from the arched ceiling by delicate wires, the drops of blood scattering on the floor.

I didn't know what to think or say or do. I wanted to yell and scream and tell Perry and Maximus to come up here, to see what I was seeing, but I couldn't. I couldn't do a single thing because things were happening beyond my control, without pause, without consent. I was f.u.c.king losing my mind, that's exactly what was happening.

Because at the very end of the room, beyond the dying snake and where the hundreds of black, greasy candles were burning, there was a mirror. A full-length mirror. A mirror that was aimed right at me but didn't even hold my reflection. But what it did hold, what all the mirrors held lately, was my mother.

She waved at me from inside that silver, the way she looked in my dreams, the way I remembered her in life. She waved at me. She blew me a kiss. And then she disappeared.

I blinked, trying to regain control of myself, of my soul, of my G.o.dd.a.m.n bladder, when my attention was ripped from the empty mirror-the mirror that still wouldn't hold my reflection-to the s.p.a.ce just beyond it.

A tall, hulking black man stepped out from behind the mirror. A familiar face, if not for the dead glazed eyes and drooling lips that curled up in rage as soon as he saw me. It was Tuffy G. It couldn't have been anyone else. Tuffy G, the man we all saw die in the bar, was standing in this attic with me, looking like I was next on his. .h.i.t list. I didn't know what to think, but luckily my instincts were quicker than that.

I turned and ran and ran hard. I went for the stairs, feeling the floor beneath me shake and rumble as the giant undead thing came toward me. I kept running, taking the stairs two at a time until I was on the landing of the third floor. Perry was by the wall trying to get readings from her thingamabob and Maximus was filming an inanimate couch.

I screamed. I ran. I tried to warn them.

But Tuffy G already had a plan.

He lurched forward after me, and just when I felt his hand grazing the back of my s.h.i.+rt, I knew he went off to the side.

Toward Perry.

My Perry.

She screamed once she saw him, his arms outstretched, his mouth open, teeth bared. He grabbed her by the neck and shoulders, his fat, dead hands about to dig into her and break her to pieces. His jaw snapped violently, wanting to eat her alive.

I didn't have much time. No time to think about what was really happening, whether this was a ghost, a zombie, or a sick f.u.c.king prank. I dropped my camera to the floor, making sure the lens was pointed in the general direction and grabbed the nearest sharp blunt object, a floor lamp without the bulb. I swung it up like I was in the Little Leagues and cracked it against Tuffy G's back. When that only made him pause in mid-attack, I quickly did it again, dropping low to a crouch and swinging at the back of his knees. I swung hard enough to break any man's legs. Only this wasn't any man. The lamp post broke instead, splitting in half, and Tuffy G turned around, enraged and ready to fight. His dead eyes focused on me, and even with all my super strength, I was pretty sure I was a goner.

"Hey, f.u.c.ker!" Maximus's voice rang out across the room. I looked over at him at the same time that Zombie G did. He was by a window, aiming his camera at us and waving obnoxiously. Even if I wasn't the undead, I'd want to tackle him.

Tuffy G fell for it. He lurched forward, the floorboards creaking beneath him, closing in on the s.p.a.ce between him and Maximus, the living and the dead. He was almost at Maximus, almost to the point where I wanted to say something, anything, just in case I never saw the ginger alive again.

But he was a man with a plan. He tossed aside his camera at the last minute and dropped flat to the floor. The zombie kept running, too stupid and enraged to gauge what had happened until it was too late. He went straight through the window with a crash, gla.s.s fragments flying everywhere, then dropped to the ground far below. I ran to the window just as Maximus was getting to his feet and we both looked out together.

Three stories down, on the circular stone patio in the courtyard, his body lay, rivulets of blood flowing from him.

Tuffy G had died for the second time.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

I stared at the body for a few moments, having a hard time soaking it all in, what just happened, when I heard Perry whimper from behind me.

I snapped out of it, ignoring the implausibility of what happened, and went to her. She was huddled against the wall where Tuffy G-or Tuffy G A.D.-had pinned her, ready to take a bite out of her, and she was shaking and crying. I put my hands on both sides of her shoulders and looked at her as closely as possible in the glow of the streetlights. Her eyes were wet with tears but she looked okay otherwise. Her beautiful neck was fine.

"You're okay, baby," I told her. "He didn't get you."

She shook her head, tears running down her face. "I don't understand. He was dead. I saw him die."

"We all saw him die. And now we saw him die again."

"But why was he trying to hurt me? G.o.d, Dex, he was trying to bite me! I thought these weren't the real undead!"

"I don't know, but there's something upstairs you need to see."

"Does it involve candles?" Maximus asked.

I turned my head to look at him, keeping Perry firmly in my grasp. "Yes, why?"

He was looking toward the attic door. Smoke was beginning to filter out of it.

"s.h.i.+t!" I yelled. Tuffy must have knocked them over on his way after me. "What do we do?"

"We get the f.u.c.k out of here, right now," he said, picking up his camera from the ground and giving it a quick once over. He'd thrown it pretty hard, but from what I saw, only the lens looked cracked.

"Shouldn't we wait for the police or fire trucks?" Perry sniveled.

"No," Maximus and I both said in unison. She nodded, understanding, and wiped her nose. Maximus wanted the NOPD as far away from us as possible and I wasn't about to get our footage taken away from us again. Besides, between the three of us, we'd actually gotten something, I knew it.

Now the smoke was getting thicker and flames crackled at the top of the stairs, illuminating a slice of floor in the flickering light. If we stood around much longer, we'd be swallowed up fast.

"Let's go," I said, giving her shoulders a squeeze. "We have to run."

At that, there was a thump from up above us. Something or someone in the attic.

She swallowed hard, her eyes searching the ceiling. "What else did you find up there?"

"I'll tell you in the truck," I said, pulling her. I didn't see anyone else in the attic, except Tuffy. I hoped it was just the house starting to collapse on itself.

I picked up my camera, which had skittered across the ground, and we quickly hopped down the aging stairs, careful to sidestep the ones we'd broken. The fire grew louder behind us, and once we hit the main floor, I was met with the idea that the house might not let us leave at all.

I was about to warn Maximus about this, but he crossed through the front door to the porch easily and Perry and I followed. I glanced down at the door frame as I stepped over it, and noticed a thin line of salt. If I had the time to stop and investigate it, I felt like I'd discover it went all the way around the house.

Maximus was already at the truck and starting it, Perry was climbing in the front seat, her eyes begging me to run faster. I caught up and jumped in the back, looking up at the house as we pulled away in time to see flames spread along the roof.

The window in the attic shattered, the sound competing with the noisy truck as we roared off, and I wondered if it was the heat that caused it or if someone had broken the window, trying to escape. And if it were the latter, should I have felt relieved or not?

Maximus drove like a madman out of the neighborhood, all of us silent and breathing hard, pulses racing.

Perry turned around in her seat to look at me. "What happened upstairs, Dex? Where did he come from?"

"Aside from a fresh grave? I don't know." I explained to them what I saw in the attic, the circle of candles, the live snake pinned to the ground, the hanging chicken feet, then Tuffy G rising from the corner of the room, gla.s.sy-eyed and enraged. I left out the part about my mother. They would have thought I was nuts.

"I captured it all, I think. Until he started running at me and then I just ran like h.e.l.l."

"Leading him to me. My G.o.d, I thought I was done for," she said with a s.h.i.+ver. "He was dead but he wasn't dead. I saw him on the machine for just a second before I dropped it. He was orange-red, just like the rest of us." She was still visibly upset but she was handling herself a lot better than I was. My gut was twisted up over the image of him manhandling her, over what depraved thing could have happened if Maximus and I hadn't acted fast, while my brain was warped over what I'd witnessed in the attic, the candles, the animals, my mother, the pull of the house, the salt.

"This couldn't have been an accident," I said suddenly. "Someone knew we were going there."

"No s.h.i.+t," Maximus said dryly.

"Well if that's what you're thinking, then why aren't we talking about it, huh?"

"I still think it's Ambrosia," Perry said stiffly.

Maximus's eyes flew to the mirror to meet mine. I knew we were thinking the same thing, that Perry didn't like Ambrosia, so of course she'd think that of her. But call it a gut feeling, I knew Ambrosia meant no harm.

"Ambrosia's not capable of that," Maximus told her. "She doesn't have the power, she's not even been initiated into the Societe La Belle Venus yet. She has years and years to go."

"Who told you that?" she asked.

"Rose did."

Perry crossed her arms in a huff. "You're both thinking with your d.i.c.ks."

I nearly laughed. When didn't I think with my d.i.c.k? But there were better times to make jokes and this wasn't one of them, not when a zombie nearly tried to munch on my girlfriend.

I exhaled and sat back, trying to calm myself and go over what had just happened, when I noticed we were pa.s.sing the bed and breakfast.

I tapped Maximus on the shoulder. "Where are we going?"

He eyed me sternly in the mirror. "We're going to get Rose. And then we're going to see Maryse. I want some d.a.m.n answers."

Rose was visibly worried when we pulled her from her bar duties, enough that she didn't mind leaving Nameless to one of her newer employees while she got in the truck with us and headed out to the bayou.

We told her everything from start to finish, but she was particularly interested in what I saw upstairs.

"What color were the candles?" she asked.

"Black. Some were red. But most were black."

"Did they have names carved on them?"

I leaned my elbows onto my knees and eyed her as she drove, Maximus now riding shotgun. "Why yes, while this f.u.c.king snake was dying a painful death in the middle of the room, the chicken feet were swaying in the imaginary breeze, and I saw a dead man rise from behind a full-length mirror that reflected nothing back, I decided I had enough time to pick up one of the candles and get a better look at it. I wanted to know if it was scented or not." She stared at me blankly. "No, I never saw if there were names carved on them."

"Did they look oily?"

I frowned, remembering that they had. "More so than normal. I thought maybe it was the wax."

"Maybe, maybe not. It could be sacred oils. Maryse will tell us."

Maryse might be behind all this, I wanted to say. I bit my lip and sat back. Perry wrapped her arm around mine.

Soon we were coasting down the b.u.mpy dirt road lit only by Rose's headlights. The dark trees and swamp water flew past us, and I could only imagine what we'd see if we swung the lights that way. Probably a sea of glowing eyes, watching our every move, waiting for the next bite.

Rose parked the truck beside Maryse's house and tossed us the mosquito spray again. "Cover your mouths and noses and spray it in here. You'll get eaten alive the minute you step out of the car." While we coated ourselves with it, coughing at the toxicity, she pulled two flashlights out of the center console, keeping one for herself and giving me the other. "Don't want you taking a wrong turn and stepping into the swamp."

"Is there anything in this city that won't try and take a bite out of you?" Perry mumbled as we got out of the truck. The whine of the insects was everywhere, buzzing dangerously close to my ears. Despite how badly I stank to them, I still felt a few of them stinging at my neck and arms.

We huddled after Rose, sticking tightly to the path, and walked up to the screened porch. Before we entered, she aimed her flashlight at the water. I was right. There were eyes in the water looking at us. There was also Ambrosia's air boat. Perry made a grumbling sound at the sight and I patted her shoulder, hoping that would make her feel better somehow and fully knowing that it wouldn't.

For her sake, I decided I'd try and look at Ambrosia through her eyes and try not to discount her as easily as I wanted to. It was hard trying to think like Perry and see her in a not-so-flattering light but I did it.

We walked inside the house; Rose didn't even bother to knock.

"h.e.l.lo?" she said as we stood in the foyer and I slowly shut the front door behind us. I heard things skittering about on the porch and didn't want them running inside with us, whatever they were. I wondered if there was a rodent problem in these parts and if Voodoo priestesses ever used them for whatever rituals they did.

A cat meowed from the corner of the darkened living room, scaring the s.h.i.+t out of me again.

"It's just Mojo," Rose explained in a hush. She aimed her flashlight over to where the cat was and we all sucked in our breath in unison.

Maryse was sitting in an armchair, upright, eyes glinting as she stared at us. A black cat was in her arms. I was starting to think this was a bad idea, no matter how badly we wanted answers. Then I remembered Tuffy G going after Perry and I swallowed down my fear and stood my ground.

"Maryse," Rose said breathlessly, "you scared us."

Suddenly the lamp beside Maryse switched on and the room was illuminated. It looked the same as before, except for Maryse's more or less lifeless body and the squinty-eyed cat on her lap. Both of them took their time to glare at every single one of us.

Maryse sucked at her dentures. "I scared you? How do you think I feel with four nitwits walking into my house at midnight? A little warning would have been nice."

"We're sorry, Mambo," Rose said, remembering the formality. "We've come here to talk to you about something very important. I know you don't want to see us again but this is a matter of life or death."

She kept watching us, me especially, and then sighed. "I guess I was a little rude last time, wasn't I? But you know how I get when I'm woken up from my nap. Now what is so urgent that this couldn't wait until morning? You're lucky I was just in a trance and not sleeping."

"Sorry," Rose apologized again, and it struck me how much she acted like a young girl when she was around the Mambo. The hardened, tough-as-nails Rose was gone. It was almost refres.h.i.+ng, except Rose's strength in the situation probably would have put me more at ease.

"Where is Ambrosia?" Rose asked.

Maryse narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"Is she here?"

"Yes. She's in her room sleeping."

"I didn't know she lived here all the time now."

Maryse waved at her dismissively. "Good care is hard to come by. I teach Ambrosia and she takes care of me. I haven't left the house in two years, you know?"

"Excuse me," Perry said politely. "I've had to pee since New Orleans. Could I use your bathroom?"