The Ninth Nightmare (18 page)

‘When you say “a very long time”,' said John, easing his backside down on the corner of the bed with his feet planted wide apart. ‘How long a very long time would that actually be, roughly?'

Springer looked at him with a faraway expression. It was unnerving enough, seeing Deano recreated exactly as he had looked on that humid morning in 1991, when he and John had both showed up at Fort Polk, Texas, as gangling young recruits, but it was even more unnerving to think that Springer might be able to remember what he and Deano had done together.

‘I'm sorry,' said Springer. ‘Brother Albrecht has described himself as the son of the Devil ever since he was dismissed from his monastery in Southern Germany for blasphemy and other transgressions against God. That was more than eight hundred years ago.'

‘
Eight hundred years
?' asked Rhodajane.

‘He exists in the world of dreams,' Springer explained. ‘Nobody grows old in the world of dreams – not unless they want to, or unless some malevolent spirit makes them wither away. Brother Albrecht runs a carnival, a traveling freak show, a circus of pain and torture and human atrocities. It's already infecting the night-time consciousness of thousands of people, this circus. You only have to look at what's happening in our society. But now we're beginning to suspect that Brother Albrecht is trying to bring it back to life in the waking world, too.

‘Can he
do
that? I mean, like, it's only a
dream
. Or a nightmare, by the sound of it.'

‘We don't yet know, but we're doing everything we can to find out. We strongly suspect, though, that this hotel is a critical part of whatever Brother Albrecht is planning; and we think that he's being helped out by a one-time mass murderer called Gordon Veitch. If not Veitch himself, then a copycat.

‘Veitch used to mutilate or murder his victims in some of the poorest parts of Cleveland, like Kingsbury Run and the Roaring Third. He used to paint his face like a clown, so that nobody would recognize him.

‘He was never caught, even though some of the finest law enforcement officers in the country were hunting for him for months. One of them was Eliot Ness, who was Cleveland's Safety Director in those days. The main reason Veitch eluded capture was because he dreamed about every attack that he committed, and then he came here to this hotel, and dreamed it into the walls. All of the evidence that could have convicted him is right here, in the plaster. He left none of it behind, at any of the actual crime scenes.'

‘I think I might have seen him here, in this room,' John told him.

‘You're kidding me!' said Rhodajane. ‘You mean I've been sleeping all night in a bedroom with somebody's murder inside of the walls?'

‘I don't know,' said John. ‘But when I fetched your bags up yesterday, and switched on the TV, I saw the TV reflected in the mirror and in the mirror it was showing a different picture altogether.'

‘Hey . . . you're giving me the creeps now, JD.'

‘I'm sorry, I don't mean to. But it was what I saw. There was a woman lying on a bed and a guy was standing over her with his back to me.'

‘Could you see what he was doing?' Springer asked him.

‘Not too clearly. But his elbow was going back and forward, like he was sawing. I'll tell you what it reminded me of . . . one of those stage magic acts where the magician saws the woman in half.'

‘Oh, my God,' said Rhodajane.

Springer said, ‘That was him, I'd lay money on it. That was Gordon Veitch, or his copycat. You didn't have any nightmares last night, did you, Rhodajane?'

‘If I did, I can't remember them. I was so bushed I slept like ten babies. Two bottles of Chardonnay didn't exactly help to keep me awake, either.'

Springer said, ‘Maybe the dream image in
this
room isn't as powerful as some of the others. Maybe Gordon Veitch didn't actually
kill
the woman you saw in the mirror – only mutilated her. Pain, of course, is a very efficient conductor of spiritual images, but nothing like as graphic as the passing of a human spirit. It could very well be that the woman he attacked here could still be alive, someplace – either in the waking world or the world of dreams.'

‘What, like, sawn in half?'

‘It's amazing what the human body can withstand. You remember when we went to Fort Hood, John, and saw that young corporal crushed under a tank track? He was talking and laughing like nothing had happened. He even smoked a cigarette while he was lying there.'

‘Oh, sure,' said John. ‘He was fit as a fiddle until they moved the tank off of him.'

Springer said, ‘Anyhow, we need to go looking for Gordon Veitch as a matter of extreme urgency. The music from Brother Albrecht's circus is growing louder and nearer every night. The chaos is coming closer, and you have no idea what this world is going to be like when it arrives.'

‘Yeah, the January sales at Dillard's.'

‘You will be ready to go tonight, won't you, Dom Magator?' Springer asked him.

‘
Tonight
? Hey – I'm not so sure about that. I have a late shift tonight, finishing at one.'

‘In the case you'll have to cancel it. Xyrena?'

Rhodajane swiveled around to see who he was talking to before she realized that
she
was Xyrena.

‘
Me
? Tonight? You're kidding. I have my grandma's funeral this afternoon, and then a reception afterward.'

‘Xyrena, it's critical. You
have
to join us.'

Rhodajane pulled a face. ‘Well . . . they're holding the reception right here, in the Griffin Room. I guess I could find an excuse to sneak off a little early. To tell you the truth, it would be a relief. My family make the Munsters look normal.'

Springer said, ‘I need you asleep by one a.m. at the latest. And – please – try to keep your drinking within reasonable limits. Too much alcohol can affect your dream body as well as your waking perceptions, and the chances are that you're going to have to make plenty of split-second judgments.'

‘Talking of my dream body, Mister Old-Army-Buddy-Who-Ain't-Really, I still have no idea what my dream body is going to look like. If I can turn on “man or woman, demon or beast”, I must look pretty damned hot.'

Springer raised his eyebrows. ‘You do. You will. I promise you.'

‘Then show me. You showed me what
he's
going to look like – Dom Magator. Let me see
me
.'

Springer hesitated, and looked across at John, but John pulled a face that meant,
why not
?
She's going to find out anyhow, and sooner rather than later
.

‘Very well, then,' said Springer. ‘Step over here and face the mirror. Try to empty your mind as much as you can. Think of nothing at all, but the surface of a lake.'

Rhodajane stood in front of the mirror, still with her arms folded. Springer said, ‘Relax, now. Arms by your sides. Breathe very gently, as if you're floating on the water.'

‘Old army buddy or not,' Rhodajane said to John, out of the side of her mouth. ‘Your friend here is some character, isn't he?'

‘Please, Xyrena, relax.'

Rhodajane stared at her reflection, and to begin with it was obvious that she was trying very hard not to laugh. After a few seconds, however, the air around her head began to glitter and sparkle, as if it were filled with scores of tiny fireflies, and a high curved crown began to appear on top of her head, made up of the finest filaments of light. Two curving epaulets appeared on her shoulders, as high as the epaulets of a Japanese gala costume, and then, with a soft rumble, a huge cloak of rich golden fabric billowed out from her shoulders, rising and falling and curling in a dream wind that none of them could feel.

Around Rhodajane's neck seven gleaming gold neck-rings materialized, so that it looked as if her neck were elongated. At the same time the diamond-shaped heads of two golden snakes peeped out from between the toes of each foot. They slid out and formed themselves into an elaborate pair of very high heels – first of all coiling themselves into the shape of shoes and then pouring relentlessly up her calves and around her knees, around and around her thighs, until they finished up as a pair of high golden boots.

But it was the gradual appearance of her breastplate that made Rhodajane's mouth slowly drop open. It was a perfect replica of her naked torso, in highly-polished gold. Her big, full breasts, complete with dimpled nipples. Her slightly rounded stomach; and her navel, like a tiny shining mollusk. Below that shone a golden facsimile of her plump, bare vulva, complete with a peeping clitoris.

‘Oh my
Gawwd
,' she said. ‘I
cannot
walk around like this, flaunting my pussy! Not even in somebody's dream!'

‘I did tell you,' said Springer. ‘Xyrena arouses man or woman, demon or beast.'

‘But I'm showing everything I've got. Well, I'm not really, but as good as.'

‘Xyrena is the ultimate paradox,' Springer told her. ‘She attracts, she arouses, she fascinates. Did you know that the word “fascinates” comes from
fascinum
, which was a penis-shaped object worn around the neck in Ancient Rome, and often used in medieval witchcraft? If a woman fascinates a man, she gives him an erection, and that's just what Xyrena does. But even though it looks so revealing, nothing can penetrate Xyrena's armor, and believe me, Xyrena herself is deadly.'

Rhodajane pouted at herself in the mirror. She struck an exaggerated pose to the left and then to the right, and then she slowly tottered around in a circle. Underneath her voluminous gilded cloak, her back was armored in the same polished gold, with her shoulder blades and her dimpled buttocks as perfectly replicated as her breastplate.

‘Well, I don't know . . .' she said, thoughtfully. ‘Maybe I could get used to this I do have a pretty good figure, though I say it myself.'

‘But what's the point?' John asked Springer. ‘OK, fine, she turns people on. As a matter of fact, she's making me feel distinctly twitchy in the BVD department right now. But why does she do it?'

‘Hold out your hands, Xyrena,' Springer instructed her. ‘That's right. Spread out your hand so that your fingers are totally rigid.'

Rhodajane did as she was told, and almost immediately eight long fine needles slid out, one from the tip of each finger. The needles were at least three inches long, and slightly curved inward.

‘Xyrena arouses her intended prey until they're blinded with lust,' Springer explained. ‘Then she takes them into her arms and embraces them – whether it's a
he
or a
her
or an
it
. All she has to do then is run these needles into their back. They're forged out of an alloy of titanium and ultrasound, way beyond the range of human hearing, and they can pierce through anything. Skin, leather, chitin, armor. Absolutely nothing can bend them or deflect them.'

‘So she gives her prey a few little pricks,' said John. ‘Then what?'

Rhodajane turned around to face him and struck another pose, her hands on her hips, her crowned head slightly tilted to one side. ‘I'm really turning you on, aren't I, John?'

‘Let's just get this over with, shall we?' John protested. ‘I have to go eat before I can think about sleeping.'

Springer said, ‘The needles enter the victim's veins and his blood literally boils. It usually takes less than twenty seconds for his entire blood supply to evaporate, and that's between five and six liters. Then, of course, he's dead. It's a very effective way of killing somebody at very close quarters.'

‘Do you have anybody in particular in mind?' John asked him. ‘This clown guy, for instance?'

Springer didn't answer, but closed the closet door so that Rhodajane's Night Warrior costume instantly vanished.

Rhodajane said, ‘Oh, no. Not the clown guy. I feel like every guy I ever went to bed with in the whole of my life was some kind of clown.'

TEN

A Night to Dismember

W
alter wedged himself into his usual corner booth in Rally's, smacking his hands together in anticipation of his triple cheeseburger. Outside the sky had grown even darker, and raindrops began to patter against the windows as if somebody were throwing handfuls of raisins at them.

Netta their waitress came over to take their order. She was four feet ten and as squat as a Munchkin, with fraying gingery hair and a swiveling cast in her right eye which always made Walter feel seasick. ‘Hi, big feller,' she greeted him, taking her notepad out of her red checkered apron. ‘Guess you want your usual?'

‘You got it, sweet cheeks. But maybe today I'll go for the
loaded
fries.'

‘The loaded fries? With the Cheddar cheese sauce and the ranch dressin' and the bacon bits?'

‘Those are the very babies I had in mind.'

‘You do know that a single regular-sized serving of loaded fries contains nine hundred eight calories, which is almost half your recommended daily intake?'

Netta's right eye was fixed on the clock on the wall, as if she were timing how much longer he had to live.

‘Is
that
all? Sheesh! In that case, you'd better fetch me the jumbo-sized serving.'

Charlie ordered a plain hot dog, no bun, mustard only, no ketchup, and a Diet Coke.

‘I don't know how the fuck you can live on that, Charlie,' said Walter. ‘You need calories. Calories are very much maligned. They make your brain work, among other parts of your body. And do you know what they put in hot dogs? Chicken's feet.'