The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal (11 page)

The room with the doors was smaller than the
parlor. It fit the eight of us just fine, but we couldn’t have
easily added in anyone else.

“
Why is it so murky in
here?” Susan murmured to me. “Can’t your boss afford
lighting?”

“
Why do we have to do
this?” the handsome man with Helen asked.

“
Rules,” Michael said with
authority. “It’s how things are done here.”

“
Where is ‘here’ exactly?”
Susan asked.

The other employees gave me looks that said
my companion was asking the smart questions. Helen looked
impressed, Johnny looked interested in Susan in a sexual way, and
Michael looked annoyed and impatient. I was glad I hadn’t run into
Michael before – he wasn’t my kind of guy.

I hugged Susan. “We’re at the start of the
maze.”

“
Right, first decision
point,” Helen said cheerfully as we all stared at the three doors
in front of us. “Who’s going where?”

“
You know, we haven’t even
been introduced,” her companion said. He wasn’t wrong, even though
I’d figured out who the other employees were already, and I was
sure they’d figured out who I was, too. We’d been late, so the
Guide had probably dropped hints before we arrived. “We’re Helen
and William Troyan-McMichael.”

I had no reason to hide. “I’m Matt Spear and
this is my wife, Susan.”

Michael sighed. “Michael King, and this is
my wife, Oriana.”

“
John and Carla Nova,”
Johnny said with a grin. “You can call me the luckiest man in the
world, by the way.”

“
Why is that?” Oriana
asked politely.

Johnny hugged his wife. “I convinced this
lady to marry me.”

Carla smiled. “It didn’t take much
convincing. Besides, I’m the lucky one to have finally found a man
who loves me for myself.”

I took this to mean that Carla was an
heiress of some kind. It would fit Johnny’s reputation as the
ladies’ man of all ladies’ men. Carla was certainly nothing much to
look at and she was outshone by the other three women in terms of
personality, too. None of the other women had a chance against
Helen’s natural charisma, of course, but Susan was both beautiful
and personable, or else I wouldn’t have married her, and even
acting like a scared mouse, Oriana had more sex appeal than
Carla.

“
Sweet,” Michael said in a
tone indicating he found sweet to be nauseating. “Let’s get going,
shall we?”

“
I think we should stick
together,” Oriana said nervously.

“
Nonsense,” Michael said.
“Good luck to all of you.” He took Oriana’s hand and led her
through the right-hand door.

“
Maybe we should follow
him,” Johnny said with a laugh. “He always seems to make the right
choices.”

Helen shrugged. “Why not?”

“
Why don’t we choose to go
back?” Susan asked. She pulled me back to the door that led back to
the parlor. Susan pushed against it and gasped. “It won’t open! And
there’s no door handle.” She looked at me, eyes wild. “Matt, what’s
going on?”

I put my arm around her shoulders and drew
her back to the doors, so I was next to Helen. “It’s just the boss’
way of having a joke on us.”

“
All part of the game,”
Helen added. “Really, Susan, honey, you need to relax. It’s all in
fun. Matt’s been around the block more than once. He’ll take care
of you.” She smiled at me, a very knowing smile. “In one way or
another,” she added softly, where no one else could
hear.

“
So,” Johnny said a little
more loudly than necessary. “Are we going to follow Michael, stick
together and choose another door, or all split up?”

A bloodcurdling scream answered him.

“
It came from the way
Michael and Oriana went!” Carla shouted.

“
No, from the middle,”
William said.

“
I heard it from the
left,” Susan said to me. “What do we do?”

“
I don’t want to split
up,” William said. “There’s safety in numbers.

A throat cleared behind us. We all turned.
Susan jumped, but I was still holding her, so I was able to control
her somewhat.

The Guide was standing there. “I must insist
that the rest of you begin the festivities.”

“
How did you get in here?”
Susan asked, her voice trembling.

The Guide chuckled. “The same way you did.”
He strode past us and went through the right-hand door.

“
So, he’ll handle Michael
and Oriana if they were in trouble,” Helen said.

“
What if the person who
screamed wasn’t one of them?” Susan asked. She was definitely
asking the right questions.

“
I don’t trust that man to
help anyone,” Carla said flatly. Interesting. “Let’s go see if we
can help.” She grabbed Johnny’s hand and pulled him through the
right-hand door.

“
Joining them or joining
us?” Helen asked. “It would be nice to get to know you better,
Matt. And Susan.”

Susan eyed Helen up and down. For the first
time since coming she didn’t seem frightened or nervous. “I think
we’ll try it alone.” Susan looked up at me. “Middle or left?”

“
You know me, I like the
straight and narrow.”

“
Left for us then,” Helen
said cheerfully. “See you on the other side.” She took William’s
hand and led him through, even as he protested that we should all
continue to stick together.

My arm was still around Susan’s shoulders.
“Ready?”

She took a deep breath. “No. But let’s do
this anyway.” She shoved the middle door open and we walked
through.

“
Great,” Susan groaned.
“Another creepy hallway. Seriously, does your insane boss have a
problem with actually using electricity?”

“
No. I’m sure it’s just
done like this for ambiance.”

We walked down the hall hand-in-hand. There
were doors along this hallway. Susan had us try every one. None of
them opened. “Less choices,” she said as we reached the end of the
hallway where a last door sat. “Thank God for that.” She tried this
door. Like the others, it didn’t budge. “Oh, are you kidding
me?”

I tried the door too. “Maybe we have to go
back and go through the right or left sides.”

Susan sighed and we walked back. She had us
try all the doors again. “Just in case.” But all the doors stayed
firmly shut.

I’d heard sounds behind each door, but since
Susan hadn’t mentioned it, I didn’t bring it up. Why tell her I
heard faint scratching or panting behind the doors we couldn’t get
inside? It would only make her more nervous.

We reached the other end of the hallway.
Susan opened the door. “Well, at least this one opens both ways.”
We stepped through and she gave a little scream.

The room wasn’t the one we’d left. It was
hard to call it a room. It was a lot easier to call it a
countryside.

“
This isn’t where we just
left. Matt, how did we get outside?”

“
We’re not outside.” I
pointed up. “The ceiling’s painted to look like we’re outside, but
it’s still a ceiling. Look, the birds don’t move.”

“
There had better be some
kind of amazing banquet waiting for us when we finish this thing.
Either that, or you need to change jobs.”

“
You know I love what I
do, hon. It’ll be fine.”

“
Will it?” Susan looked
around. “All I see are trees and hills and things like
that.”

“
It’s a room. It’s painted
to give the illusion of space and depth. We’ll go along the wall
and that way we’ll find a door out of here. It’s that, or we go
back into the hallway again.”