“Maybe you can help me, Ricky,” Riley said.
Ricky lifted his hand to the top of the counter and started to pull himself upwards onto weak legs.
“Sorry, man, I don’t think I can,” Ricky said.
The shadows shifted as Riley moved. Ricky saw those two points of light slide towards him. Fear galloped through his heart.
“Just help me,” Riley said. “Get a knife or a gun. Help me end this. I’m miserable.”
“Riley, what are you saying?”
The eyes shifted even closer. Ricky realized that it wasn’t fear that kept him from running away, and it wasn’t sympathy for his friend. There was something about Riley’s shining eyes that had turned his legs to stone. He knew that he should flee, but his body wouldn’t cooperate.
The hotel clerk moaned and Riley’s attention was drawn to her. As dark as it was under the counter, Ricky realized that he could see her pretty well when he wasn’t focused on Riley’s eyes. Her head was turned to the side. There was a long gash down her neck. Thick blood oozed from the wound.
“What did you do?” Ricky asked.
It was a stupid question. He knew what Riley had done, and the question drew Riley’s attention back to Ricky. In an instant, Ricky realized that he had lost his one chance for escape. Now that those glowing eyes were back on him, he couldn’t move.
In the corner of his eye, he saw the light over at the stairwell. That was the signal—something was moving towards Ricky and he had to get away.
His legs wouldn’t work, but Ricky managed to get his mouth going.
“Riley, I’ll help you. I have to go get something—a knife or a gun, like you said,” he whispered.
“Good,” Riley said. “Thank you so much. Just come here for a moment.”
Ricky saw his friend’s hand reaching out towards him, like he wanted to take his hand. His wasn’t really a hand though. Ricky could see that, even in the darkness. The fingers were too long. Something was happening to Riley and soon he wouldn’t be the same.
When the woman shifted on the floor and Riley’s attention was split for the second time, Ricky didn’t lose his opportunity. The glowing eyes shifted away from him and Ricky bolted.
Ten: Darkness
The emergency light gave out all at once and they were in darkness.
“Liz? Where were those…” Alan started to ask.
She anticipated the end of the question and stood up.
“Right,” she said.
After fumbling for a moment in the closet, she turned around and held what looked to be a flickering candle. It was battery powered. She set it on the nightstand and then returned to the bed to sit next to her husband.
“I used to think that most people around here are in denial,” Liz said. “They experience the oddness of this area and they just choose to ignore what their eyes are telling them. It’s much easier to edit what you allow yourself to see instead of changing your idea about how the world works.”
“And then there are the locals who have only known strangeness in their lives,” Alan said.
“True,” Liz said. “But I believe that the majority of people aren’t ignoring what’s in front of them. I think that they see what’s happening around them and they simply choose to live here anyway. Some places, everything runs on greed and they paper it over and call it capitalism. Other places, the currency is power but they tell themselves that they’re serving the common good. Around here, people sacrifice a little logic and order so that they can live in a place that’s wild and beautiful. We have relatively few natural disasters and the cost of living is low. It’s a fair trade.”
“Wild is an understatement,” Amber said.
“The craziness is contained,” Alan said. “Like the thing at our house. Even when it was in full swing, it only happened in October. The people around had little rules that they would follow. They wouldn’t go out in a boat in that month, for instance.”
“And the roads, too,” Liz said.
“That’s right,” Alan said. “It was like the weather conspired to keep the rest of state safe. When the migrators came to the surface, a storm rolled in and flooded the roads. It kept the danger segregated from the rest of the state.”
“The same thing happened when there was that trouble in town,” Liz said. “A number of years ago, there was this disturbance in the village. We never got a clear story on what happened, but several tourists went missing and a bunch of buildings were vandalized. But even that was cut off from the rest of the world during the disturbance. At the time, we didn’t even really know about it.”
Amber shook her head.
“I’m not sticking around to find out what else is in store,” Amber said. “I was on the fence before. Seemed like maybe I had imagined some things. Now, I’m convinced—this area is not safe.”
Like the sound was called by her statement, the tapping resumed. Amber rolled her eyes and threw up her hands.
“I wonder whose room that is,” Liz said.
This time, the tapping was coming from the other wall.
“I didn’t notice,” Amber said.
“I wonder what happened to the people who were staying there,” Alan said.
“I think we know,” Amber said.
She stood up and picked up her flashlight. Once she was in the bathroom, she turned it on so she could see what she was doing. The tapping was louder in there. It was like the whole room was a drum and the tapping sound amplified in the small space.
Amber put her flashlight and stake on the counter and sat on the toilet. She closed her eyes while she peed. The sound had been going slower and faster, slower and faster, but now the tapping settled into a pretty consistent speed. With her eyes shut, Amber
