Chapter #10Trapped in The Labyrinth by: imaj   You sigh gently, not saying a word as the pastor finishes his service. Rosalie and Joe kiss, but you aren’t paying them much attention. Instead you stare into space, not really thinking about anything. As your now married friends leave the church, you follow them out. You pass all the smiling faces of the guests, but they barely register on your consciousness.
Everyone gathers outside the church, the other Stellae, their friends, Joe’s co-workers from whatever college it is he is at now. It doesn’t really matter too much, you just stand around with a vacant smile on your face. You nod politely as the guests chat with you but everything seems so distant.
You feel your arm being tugged and you finally nap back to attention. “What,” you murmur, looking round.
It’s Imogen. She rolls her eyes before speaking. “Come on. Rosalie and Joe are getting in the car and going to the hotel. “We need to follow them.”
“Oh,” you say quietly. Rosalie and Joe. They’re married now, it finally sinks into you. “I guess we should,” is all you can manage.
*****
The waitress sets a plate down in front of you before moving onto Malaika beside you. A half dozen other hotel staff move around the other tables and do the same. You prod at the food with a fork as you wait for the other people sitting at the table to receive their food.
The speeches are all finished now. Charles’ father of the bride one was warm and funny, Frank’s best man one less so. You suspect he stubbornly refused to let Joe write it for him, and for that a least you have to give him some credit.
With the last of the plates set out, the serving staff retreat to the side of the room. You dig your fork into the first course and take a bite. It’s some kind of fish, tasty enough you figure. You frown: Imogen isn’t eating at all, she’s just staring past you. Her mouth hangs open and she lifts a shaking hand to point at something.
You turn your head to see what it is that she’s pointing at.
The hotel staff are on the floor, convulsing. Some lie prone, others are slumped against the wall. One lone waitress is managing to drag herself along the ground with her arms slowly. You hear gasps and screams around you as the scene starts to attract the attention of the guests.
Malaika is out of her seat first. She kneels down by the waitress that is still moving and reaches out. The waitress finally collapses to the floor just as the teenage Stellae takes her hand. The shock is enough to force Malaika to jump up.
You’re pushing your own seat back and standing up now, watching aghast at what is happening. The waitress’ blouse seems to move and shift, as if the skin underneath it is pulling and stretching. The fabric of her clothes grow taut until the distressed fabric can not take it any long. The waitress’ clothes rip and rupture.
You have to fight down the urge to be sick: The waitress’ skin is stretching, bubbling a livid red as she somehow seems to grow bulkier. It’s happening to all the serving staff in fact. Their limbs puff up to monstrous proportions, leaving their clothing as little more than a set of rags on the floor around them.
There’s screaming all round the hall now, from the non-Stellae guests. A few of them make a run for it. The serving staff, no – the monsters, they’re monsters now – make no effort to stop the runners. They are still wracked with transformations. It won’t be long now before all hell breaks loose though.
You glance round the hall. At a distant table you see Rick, a knife already in his hand. Beside him is Miko, amazingly with her katana grasped in both hands. She brought the sword to the wedding, and she wasn’t the only one either. On the opposite side of the table, Hilda reaches under the tablecloth and you hear the distinct sound of metal scraping against metal. All around the room, the Stellae make ready for a fight.
You look over to Joe and Rosalie, catching Joe’s eye immediately. The look of recognition on his face is obvious, and you suspect he might be thinking the same thing as he looks at you. Both of you have come across these creatures before, in Cuthbert. They were kept there as guardians. You watched as they tore apart squads of mercenaries with ease there. The non-Stellae guests won’t stand a chance: Imogen is shaking in her seat and bawling her eyes out, Bea stands frozen and rigid, her mouth locked in a silent scream.
Rosalie must share your fears for she calls out to you. “Siobhan, get the girls to safety.” You nod grimly in acknowledgement. She was right to task you with escorting the girls, you realise, as you immediately drawn on Eldibria to chase away their fear. Almost no one else would be keep the girls moving.
The creature nearest you groans and starts to lift itself to its feet. Beside it, Malaika backs away slowly, cowering in fear. You curse your stupidity in forgetting about her and bring Eldibria to bear in order to assuage her terror as well. The monster rises to its full height, towering over the African teenager. The creature is barely recognisable as the waitress anymore. You can barely even guess that it might have been a woman once, such are the extent of the changes. It growls angrily, raising one massive and claw like hand, ready to swipe.
Before you can scream out, to tell her to duck or dodge or just to get the hell out of the way, you catch a blur in the corner of your eye. Hilda Gunnarson leaps over the table and dashes towards Malaika. She bundles into the teenager just as the claw begins its downwards arc. Hilda and Malaika roll to the ground, avoiding the claw as it strikes the floor by only the narrowest of margins. Malaika struggles free from Hilda and runs a short few paces away from the monster.
There is a price for this intervention though. Hilda has left her zweihander on the table. She would have been unable to both carry it and pull Malaika away from the creature. The creature makes a second and then third attack. Hilda is only able to roll on the floor to avoid its blows.
You don’t have time to worry about the fights breaking out round the hall though. “Malaika,” you shout. Her head snaps round at the sound of her name. “Imogen, Bea, we’ve got to get out of here.” You push your seat out of the way. “This way,” you add. With the girls’ fear dampened by your working of Eldibria, the three girls have no trouble in forming up round you.
You grab Bea by the hand and start making for the nearest clear exit, an archway that leads out into a short hallway. Imogen and Malaika follow you as you crouch low to the floor and hope that you’ll avoid the beasts’ attentions. The hall is in chaos now, with the senior Stellae moving to engage the grotesque creatures or shepherd guests to safety. A burst of fire arcing from Kali Valentine’s outstretched hand and into one of the monsters sears an after image into your retinas. It leaves you blinking for a handful of seconds as Bea whimpers and tugs on your hand.
You press on, dragging Bea along with you. A quick look behind you checks that Imogen and Malaika are still following you. Imogen moves jerkily, giving you a brittle smile when she sees you looking at her. She stares fixedly ahead, unlike Malaika who’s gaze keeps on falling back towards the scene you are escaping. It seems Malaika can’t help but watch as Hilda fights for her life behind you. The Swedish Stellae has managed to get to her feet again, but the monstrous beast stands between her and her sword.
“Malaika,” you bark. “You can’t do anything to help her right now.” The girl’s head sags and she looks utterly despondent. “You have to get out of here.”
She turns to look at you, her eyes full of sadness. “I know,” she murmurs, before half-running past you. Imogen follows her through the archway.
You step smartly through the archway yourself, still dragging Bea along with you. The little hall runs for several metres parallel with the larger one you just left, before turning sharply to the right and back to the hotel proper. It’s empty, with no sign of either any of the twisted hotel staff nor any of the guests that fled this way. You catch your breath and take in the details. Curtains flutter in the breeze beside the full length windows that line the opposite side of the wall. Two of them have been smashed, but you can see nothing through them except for the hotel garden. A table has been overturned, scattering smashed glasses all over the carpet.
Bea tugs on your hand and you look round at her. “I don’t like it here,” she whines.
You soothe her emotions, but that does nothing to calm your own. A little Will Prescott though prompts you: I’ve got a bad feeling about this. A shiver runs down your back, you have no time for levity. Suddenly you find yourself wishing that you were very, very far away from everything that is happening here. “I know Bea,” you say, trying to sound confident. “We’ll move on.”
You hurry round the corner and freeze. Standing at the double doors that lead back into the hotel proper is another one of the creatures. It tosses the broken body of one of the guests to the side and looks up.
You have no idea what to do, for you know next to nothing about these monsters apart from how dangerous they are. In the back of your mind you hear the sound of an old woman cackling. Though the laughter is black and evil sounding, you realise that you do know something of the monsters. That last remnants of Grandma Shabbleman’s memories still lurk in your head, kept there at Charles’ insistence. The only question is you dare tap into them to find a way past the beast?   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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