Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival (18 page)

After walking a few more
yards, he said what I was thinking.  “We’re going down.”  Even though I was
totally blind, I could feel a gradual downward slope.  This continued for
several minutes, and it started to feel like we were far below ground.

“How can we be this far
down?  There’s no way they can dig this deep and not be flooded,” I said.  “How
far down do you think we are?”

“About eight feet, I
guess.  I can hear the water on the other side of the walls.  Must be concrete
on the outside.  Sharp turn coming up.  Go slow.”  As soon as we rounded a
corner to the right, I saw a faint glow a little ways down.  Noah stopped, used
his senses and then we continued.  The slope leveled off and soon there was
enough light for me to see, and I let go of his hand.

“Do you hear music?” I
asked.

“It’s not music,
exactly.”

“What exactly is it?”

“Chanting.”

“What are they chanting?”

He lightly chuckled.  “Something
about the dark angels rising up to rule the world.”

“Yeah.  That’s real
funny.”  Although I couldn’t see his face, I could tell he was smirking.  “We
can’t just walk right into whatever they’re doing.”

“
We’re
not.  
You’re
going to hide while
I
check it out.”

“Fine by me.”

As we approached the
place with the chanting, the light grew brighter and I could see the walls on
either side of me.  They were covered in silk wallpaper which, at first, seemed
to depict Renaissance-like scenes from the Bible.  A closer look revealed
glorious angels battling demonic creatures with gargoyle wings; cherubic humans
engrossed in massive orgies; masked individuals with bloody tears streaming
down their cheeks as dark angels whipped and beat them.

Noah noticed my breathing
had become unsteady.  “You okay?”

“Are you seeing what’s on
these walls?”

“Leigh—”

“Don’t be scared, right?”

He stopped and turned to
me, his eyes both stern and worried, peered through his mask and bore into mine.
 “No.  You
need
to be scared.  You
need
to trust your instincts.  You
could very well die here tonight.  All of us could.  This is why I didn’t want
you here.  But Miles has his reasons.  I just don’t see what they are.  I don’t
think you’re ready.”

I bit the corner of my
lip.  “I know.  I know how dangerous this is.  I’m here to help in whatever way
I can because, believe it or not, I
do
understand the stakes here.”

He shook his head, not
believing me.  “You shouldn’t be here right now.”

“Yes I should!” I hissed.
 He angrily shushed me and cocked his head over his shoulder to hear if trouble
was coming.  The chanting had ended, and we now heard refined ball room music
and light laughter.  He turned back to me.

“Okay.  C’mon.”  He took
me by the hand again, and we continued on to the lighted area.

As we got closer, the
silk walls gave way to rows of large, full-length mirrors, separated by concave
gaps.  Noah stopped again and, from here, we could peer into a big room, lit
with candelabras in every corner.  The main focal point was an enormous
chandelier that hung about twelve feet from the ceiling.  It was covered in
cascading crystals and lit with white candles.  The room looked to be the size
of the ballroom upstairs, but was adorned with multiple lounges and antique chaises.

Standing near one of the
chaises was a pair of ballroom guests.  My eyes found them instantly because
they looked to be the most peculiar of the bunch; they were dressed as twin
peacocks with teal feathers and beak masks.  Despite the slight chill in the
air, they were barely clothed with just feathers covering the important areas,
but their mid drifts were bare.  They sensually clung to each other, looking
out at the other guests, delighted by the scene before them.  I noticed the
other guests were a bit looser here, more sexually liberated with kissing and
groping and lustful smiles all around.

“Nancy Drew never found
anything like this,” I whispered.

“Someone’s coming,” he
said.  He quickly led me over to one of the concave gaps in between the
mirrors.  We watched quietly from our hiding spot as four more attendees were
led into the ballroom by a man in a green mask and cape.  We stayed there for
about twenty minutes, watching more and more guests being led into the
ballroom.  The man in the pig mask had brought down seven more couples.  Five
other men and a woman had brought down about three couples each.

After another fifteen
minutes of stagnant activity Noah said, “Stay here and hide.  I’ll stay in your
line of sight, but don’t come out of here under any circumstances, okay?”  I
nodded and hid in the shadow of the wall.  He hesitated for a second, looking
at me with much concern, and then a faint desire, so slight I almost didn’t
recognize it at first.  It was so unexpected, but I realized how badly I wanted
him in that moment.  He pulled away and suddenly couldn’t look me in the eyes.  He
turned and headed for the room.

I watched him go, and for
a second I was so unsure of myself.  I should have been uncomfortable with him,
but I wasn’t.  For a moment, my mind went to Lucas, but I didn’t want it to go
there at all.  Why was I fighting so hard not to think of him?  I started to
laugh at myself.  I was practically in the pit of hell, and all I could
concentrate on was some childish love triangle.

I saw Noah casually
stroll through the masquerade of guests.  He bowed politely to one of ladies wearing
a floor-length red dress with a matching mask.  She smiled provocatively back
at him before moving on to another suitor.  He continued his nonchalant search
around the room.

My neck started to
stiffen, so I turned it around and rotated my shoulders.  I gazed across the
hall into one of the large mirrors and, after my eyes adjusted to the dim
light, I admired my dress in the reflection.  As my eyes became accustomed, I
noticed with growing horror that something was behind me in the dark.

I froze, holding my
breath, and could only stare at the mirror as the outline of the image came
more into focus.  It was a masked figure behind me; a tall, billowy thing
cloaked in black.  Its black mask covered its entire face except for the eyes,
which shone luminescent amber.  I quickly stepped out into the middle of the
hallway and turned around to find nothing there.  I looked back at the mirror which
had cast the ghostly reflection, but the figure was no longer there.

Still frightened, I glanced
back at the room.  It was somewhat of a relief to see Noah there, knowing he
was only a few yards away.  I hesitantly retreated to my hiding spot.  As soon
as I did, I felt something pulling at my hand.  I went to jerk my hand away,
but I could not free it.  Something grabbed my other hand and then my legs.  I
looked down in horror to see rotting, body-less hands extending from the wall
behind me.

They clutched at me, and
I tried to scream, but they wrapped bony fingers around my throat.  I shut my
eyes and in that instant, I felt them no more.  I opened my eyes and saw
nothing except the solid wall behind me and the passageway in front of me.

I wanted to scream
because I felt like I was losing my mind, but I dared not.  I would have given
away Noah and myself.  I let out a shuddering breath instead and felt dizzy.  I
leaned my head against the wall and tried to control my breathing.

In the ballroom I heard
the music—classical violins and cellos—rise to a crescendo.  They should have
faded, but they kept rising, swelling, louder and louder, joined by tympanis
and horns and, no longer the delicate, lilting music as before, but now a
dizzying array of folly and recklessness.  It was the music of madness, and
there was no stopping it.

I put my hands over my
ears and peeked out from my hiding place.  The couples dancing seemed normal;
their rhythm did not match the crazy tune I heard.  I saw masked musicians near
a small stage with a red curtain far back in the ballroom.  The tempo of what
they played did not match what I heard.  The music was louder by the second,
nonetheless.

I felt myself grow as
frenzied as the tune that was being hammered into my brain.  My hands were not
enough to drown out the feral music.  I again stepped out into the passageway.  With
my hands still to my ears, I hurried toward the dark, away from the ballroom,
trying to get as far away as possible.

I got maybe twenty feet
down, with only a soft glow behind me, when the music suddenly stopped.  I
stopped too, releasing my hands from my ears.  I heard nothing and that
terrified me more than the maddening tune.  The silence would not last, though.

A moment later, I began
to hear the loud, thundering peal of a church bell.  It rang throughout the
passageway.  Every ring brought with it a flash of light, and every flash of
light illuminated an ungodly scene before me.

DONG!

Ghouls, crouched low to
the floor, feasting on human bodies, some still alive.

DONG!

Heads impaled on stakes
lining the sides of the passage.

DONG!

A procession of hooded
figures, carrying upside down crucifixes.  They slowly marched toward me.

DONG!

The procession came
closer.  As they neared, I could see their alabaster eyes, looking at me, but
not seeing me.

My breath caught in my
throat.  I was too terrified to scream.  I ran back toward the ball room and
stopped short of the entrance.  Before me, what should have been the grand,
beautiful ballroom was now a crumbling ruin, run amok with rats and spiders and
insects of every kind.  The guests still wore their formal attire, but their
clothes were rotted and tattered.  All the men had giant black or red wings
that stretched from their shoulder blades.  They laughed and howled with
pleasure as they savagely fornicated with the women; some of the women enjoyed
it, others were screaming.

I stood, wide-eyed with
terror as one of the winged men approached me.  I turned to run, and he chased
me.  He reached me in no time and whirled me around.  I started to scream, but
he put one decayed hand over my mouth.  I shut my eyes, unable to look at his
skull-like face.

“Leigh!” he whispered.  “Leigh!
 It’s me.”

I opened my eyes to see
Noah barely an inch from my face.  Behind him, everything looked normal again.  He
lowered his hand, and my eyes started to tear up.  “I don’t know what’s going
on,” I whispered.  “I’m going out of my mind.”

“No, you’re not.  It was
just Ruby doing all of that.”

I looked at him
incredulously.  “What?!” I hissed.

“She’s in there, in the
ballroom.  She and Miles.  They found it before we did.”

“Why is she doing this to
me?!”

“Because you need to see
what we’re up against in there,” said Ruby as she came into view.  “And don’t
flatter yourself into thinking I was doing it just for your benefit.  Miles
asked me to remove the veil for all of us.”

“What veil?” I asked.

“The ballroom and all the
guests in there are what they want us to believe,” said Noah.  “It’s all a mask
to lure victims in so they can turn them to the Dark Side.  Remember we told
you they’re recruiting?  Well this is how they’re doing it.  Through
deception.”

“What I saw in the tunnel
… the heads and the ghouls, and in the ballroom—”

“Just a glimpse of the
evil that’s been going on here for so long,” said Noah.  “That was just like a
movie.  They can’t hurt you.”

I looked back at the
ballroom and shuddered.  “But
they
can.”

“Yes,” said Ruby,
frustrated.  “What you saw in the ballroom is what’s happened before and it’ll
happen again tonight.”  She turned to Noah.  “We need to get back in there
now.”

“Did you or Miles find
the mask?” he asked her.

“No.  He thinks they’re
not going to bring it out until they’re ready to name the new King.”

“When does he want us to
make our move?”

“As soon as it’s in
sight.  I’ll create a distraction and then you rush the one carrying the mask
and make a run for it, through the tunnel and out the back door of the main
house.  Head for the old stables.  Felix and Gretchen will be waiting.  I just
set up a barrier at the entrance to the ballroom over there, so the mortals
won’t be able to chase after you, but the Watcher angels will probably break
through it.  And they’re about as fast as you are.  I’ll take care of the
mortals as best I can.”

“So they’ve already
turned them to The Dark Ones?” he said.

She nodded.  “Before we
got there.  We think they put something in their drinks to make them more
susceptible.  It didn’t affect us because of the protection blessing Cee Cee
gave us.  It’s too late for them now.

“Miles and Leigh will
have to wait near the entrance to the tunnel and get ready to run after the
Watchers chase after you.  If we make it through the tunnel, we’ll meet you
outside.  If you and the others are still alive, we’ll help you fight.”

“How many Watchers are
there?” I asked.

Ruby took a deep breath.  “I
counted seven.  I’ll go in first, then the two of you follow, but stay on the
other side of the room so they don’t suspect anything.”  She looked me up and
down then addressed Noah again.  “And tell her to not give us away.”  She
turned and strutted back into the party, staying to the right side of the
ballroom.”

After a minute, Noah took
my hand and started to lead me inside.  I froze.  “I can’t go in there,” I
said.

“It’s okay.  I’ll be
right there with you,” he assured me.

I reluctantly let him
lead me to the ballroom.  “What barrier was she talking about?” I asked.

Noah pointed at the floor as we crossed the
entrance.  In the dim light, I saw a line of dirt that extended all across the
threshold.