A mirror hung above my bed.
In the same place I swore a painting had sat only a few hours earlier.
A watercolor of a gangly women draped in black.
Unsplash / Philipp Balunovic
Like a female Slender Man hunched over with her thick dark hair reaching her ankles.
She kept trying to set us up, dropping hints about my breakup (I hated calling it that.
High school kidsbreak upafter two weeks together.
Teensbreak upso they can fuck other people when they go to separate colleges.
We were in our twenties.
There should be a stronger word for what happened between us).
Unsplash / Philipp Balunovic
Can you take us to a good hotel around here?
Lizzie asked the driver as she slid into the tattered seat.
Not some dump with hidden cameras in the showers.
Arent we going to the train station?
I dont want to stay the night someplace, I said.
As much as I preferred the memory foam bed in my soon-to-be-foreclosed house, a hotel sounded nice.
After all, the trains in our city sucked.
People jumping onto the tracks.
And at this time of night, we could expect at least an hour wait between rides.
So I made the biggest mistake of my life.
I agreed to the hotel.
I could read some of it but not all of it.
Riding ten floors in an elevator.
Taking turns vomiting globs of pink.
Making fun of the painting hanging above my bed.
Removing the contacts that dried out my eyes.
Falling asleep with the television tuned intoThe X-Files.
When I woke up, The Twilight Zone theme played from the television.
I half-listened to the intro as I slipped my glasses up my nose and grabbed my cell.
I must have forgotten to charge it overnight.
That bitch probably hit the continental breakfast without me.
She stayed vegan during her sober days, but she filled herself with grease every night after drinking.
Called bacon her hangover cure.
A watercolor of a gangly women draped in black.
Like a female Slender Man hunched over with her thick dark hair reaching her ankles.
Last night, we joked about how she needed to get laid.
And then joked about how we joked like middle schoolers when we were wasted.
Maybe we saw the painting in the hallway or lobby.
I would look for it while I looked for Liz.
Hey, uh, do you know how to get to the exit?
To the parking lot?
Me and my sister are a little lost.
No teenager realized what mortality really meant until they watched their first coffin lid close.
I redirected my fingers toward my hemp bracelet instead.
Im heading toward the lobby though, so we might as well walk together.
If you’ve got the option to stand my stench.
She seemed so disorientated that I spent a second wondering whether the man at her side kidnapped her.
If he abused her.
If he lied about being her brother.
But he looked equally unsettled, pale as sheetrock.
I could have sworn there was an elevator down this hall, I said as we turned a corner.
Nothing but more doors, all made of metal.
A few more turns.
A few more doors.
Not even any windows.
Oh okay, here we go, I said when I noticed the metal railings of a stairwell.
The square kind usually found in hospitals or college campuses.
Weve never seen this before, the girl said, brightening.
She released her brothers hand.
This could be a good sign.
I ended up on my ass, ascrew youhalfway out of my mouth when I noticed it.
The steps stopped in the middle.
If I moved forward four feet, I would have tumbled through blackness.
Dropped into a dark void.
Beth hurried after her brother.
We need to make a map.
Maybe theres a pattern.
Maybe we stepped on a panel or moved a painting or something.
Maybe there are sensors that shift things.
We need to find more weapons in case that thing comes back.
What… What is happening?
I asked, my voice echoing the way it would inside of a cavern.
I dont understand whats happening.
It seems like it rearranges itself.
Like a maze that moves.
Its hard to find our way around, Beth said, fiddling with the braid resting on her shoulder.
Have you ever heard of theWinchester Mystery House?
There are tours there now.
Or have you ever readHouse Of Leaves?
Its a bigass novel.
About a maze of a house with a spiral staircase that swirled for eternity.
She doesnt know what youre saying, Brett cut in, then turned toward me.
Unless we find someweaponsand kill that thing.
Then we can work on finding a phone or drawing a map or
Youre an assassin now?
Beths voice kept climbing higher.
We dont know whatthat thingis.
It could be someone with mental issues.
Someone who belongs in an institution.
Mom couldnt make a floating staircase appear, Bethany.
This isnt a person.
This is a thing.
A thing we need ammunition to take down.
Or at least a goddamn baseball bat.
Shut up about the weapons!
You have a pocketknife in your pants and have done Krav Maga since you were six.
it’s possible for you to protect yourself just fine.
I know when something needs a bullet instead of afuck-ing kick to the head.
Their voiced lobbed back and forth.
Until it became white noise.
I would have stayed staring at the abyss for hours if it kept going like that.
But Lizzie screaming shut them up.
Lizzie screaming sent me running.
I have to get to her.
I elbowed them out of the way.
I have to go.
I followed the screams toward a double door that led into a ballroom.
A chandelier swung from the ceiling.
A deep purple rug covered the floors.
Oversized tables with golden legs spread out across the room.
Against the far wall, a painting of a woman hung inside of a black frame.
Blue streaks in her bangs.
She looked like she was in pain.
She looked like Lizzie.
Tall and thin and hunched over.
Her fingernails were bloody, torn apart.
Little bits of nail with red, raw skin.
When she ran toward me, when her hair flew back, I noticed she had no ears.
Just flat skin across the skull.
I ran, too.
I ran straight toward the door.
I ran down the long stretch of hallway that seemed never-ending.
I ran until I stumbled over Brett and Beths bodies, both unconscious on the floor.
I nudged them with the tip of my shoe, but they only moaned in response.
Fuck fuck fuck, I said, debating what to do.
Beth was a teenager.
Brett weighed less than I did.
I could grab either one.
I could carry either one.
I could save either one.
I could hear the woman coming.
I could hear the swish of her dress.
The bass of her feet.
I needed to make a choice.
Otherwise wed all be dead.
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