She peeled the hair back from her head like curtains with two clawed hands, revealing her nonexistent face.
There were only indents across her skin where the eyes and nose and mouth would be.
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Updated 7 years ago,November 22, 2017
Read part one of the storyhere.
Unsplash / Clem Onojeghuo
Read part two of the storyhere.
I needed to trust him.
We needed to stick together.
We needed to find the ballroom.
When I told him that, he said, Jesus, we went over this.
Were looking for Beth first.
Unsplash / Clem Onojeghuo
If you dont like it, then you dont have to keep following me around like a damn duckling.
I think thats where were going to find her, though.
I bet theres a painting of her hanging up now.
Just like the friend I came here with, Lizzie.
No sense in repeating myself.
So we followed the maze of hallways, walking past doors and paintings and more doors and more paintings.
Empty space without a bulge of a doorknob.
When that plan failed, he kicked.
This is definitely the place, he said, pacing.
It was right fucking here.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek.
Maybe we should look for the stairwell, I said.
You told me Beth was inhere.
I think the staircase will reset things.
Like in a video game.
My brother played that zombie one all the time.
You know when you leave the room and come back and all the enemies are spawned in again?
I think thats how this works.
First off, youre institutional level crazy.
And even if you guessed right, why the hell would wewanttoseethatthing?
Because the paintings belong to it.
That shut him up.
We found the stairs and descended in silence.
One flight, then two, then three and four and five.
When we reached the bottom, I sat on the final step and dangled my legs into the darkness.
A part of me wanted to jump.
I had never considered myself suicidal, but Ihadstopped checking both ways before crossing the street.
Ihadpressed down on my razor a little harder while shaving lately.
Ihadlet Lizzie take us to this seedy hotel after a night of drinking when my gut warned against it.
I stayed there for a few seconds (or minutes?
did time exist here?
), until Brett placed a hand on my shoulder.
I dont need you falling down there, he said.
Already got enough to raise my blood pressure.
We walked and walked and walked until I found a set of double doors.
Brett pushed through with his good shoulder, gun raised high in the air like a flashlight.
He assumed the stance of an action star, like he actually knew what he was doing.
Meanwhile, Id never held a weapon before, let alone shot one.
Maybe it was good Id let Brett keep it.
The woman in black appeared in the corner of the room, just like last time.
I wondered if Beth had been right when she explained her hotel theory.
I wondered if the entire hotel had a pattern to it.
If every movement could be predicted.
But I quickly wiped those questions from my mind, because I had chosen this path.
We needed to circle around her to reach the paintings.
Beths single brown braid and half-lidded eyes.
Their paintings were flanked by faces of strangers girls with flushed cheeks and boys with furrowed brows.
How long had this goddamn hotel been around?
I needed to crack the frames into pieces, release their bodies, save their souls.
Did getting inserted into the painting kill them?
Would they pop out of the frames as corpses?
Would they pop out at all?
Brett aimed for her chest and pulled the trigger.
The logical part of my brain told me she had strapped a bulletproof vest to her chest.
Maybe she had an armor plate across her entire torso?
He aimed even higher.
This time, the bullet smashed against her head and bounced off.
No mark on her.
Until the gun clicked.
I could run out the door and down the hall like last time, but she wouldstillget me eventually.
She only went away during our last altercation because she had reached Beth.
She wouldnt stop until she found a new trophy to display.
No, running wasnt an option.
We needed to fight back.
My eyes scanned the wall of paintings.
The one on the far wall held faces of friends, but the watercolors in the halls might help.
I might find more weapons.
I might find something useful.
Come on, I yelled to Brett as I sped out the double doors.
He rushed closer to the creature instead.
When it had taken her, she was unmoving, unconscious.
Before that, it hadnt touched any of us.
Maybe itcouldnttouch any of us while we were able-bodied.
Maybe it had limitations.
Maybe their powers worked together.
Maybe they helped each other.
I searched the hallway walls for the woman in white.
When I found her, I redirected my gaze toward the ground.
After only a brief glance at the short harsh lines, I felt a rush through my head.
This creature was just as powerful as the creature chasing me.
Ithadto be with that kind of effect.
Keeping my eyes directed at the ground, I wrestled the painting off the wall.
She peeled the hair back from her head like curtains with two clawed hands, revealing her nonexistent face.
There were only indents across her skin where the eyes and nose and mouth would be.
Like a carved pumpkin without its pieces popped all the way out.
She didnt want me to touch the painting.
I must have been right.
This must have been the answer.
The new creature slithered out.
Just as tall with hair just as long.
But when this one screeched, the sound was low, deep, throaty.
And this one hadteeth.
Not inside a mouth, but around its empty face like dots of acne.
The sharp, wolf-like fangs poked out from its chin and forehead and cheeks, razor sharp.
I squeezed my fingers into fists, too scared to move, assuming I screwed up.
I demolished our last chances of survival.
A brightness that rivaled the suns.
That burned my retinas.
Separately, the sounds were bearable, but blended together, it made my ears ring.
Ridding me of another of my senses.
I skimmed my hands across her shoulders and felt the straps of the little black dress she had on.
I moved my hands to her face and felt her sweat-wet bangs.
She might have been unconscious.
She might have been a corpse.
But she was in my hands again.
The painting of Beth.
Brett must not have reached it in time.
I felt a gust of wind blow through my hair, so strong it knocked me on my ass.
I could smell something crisp.
A mixture of wood and metal and skin.
I tried to ask, but found myself coughing instead.
Take it easy, the fireman beside me said.
She told us about your history with burning buildings.
Experiencing that kind of trauma twice can be mentally damaging.
Difficult for the brain to process.
We think you might have blacked out.
They should be able to tell you more when they get you over to the hospital.
I could see the hotel, reduced to mounds of black and brown.
I could see Lizzie talking, flirting, with a young police officer.
I could see Brett wrestling with another officer who threatened to cuff him.
My sister, he said, trying to shove his way past the cop.
Shes still in there.
I got to go in there.
No one else is alive.
Well send our team in to check again, but theyve already checked three times.
Was it my version of things?
I hugged the shock blanket tighter across my chest.
I could see my version of reality.
