“Afraid?” Not-Jane laughed, but her voice cracked in the middle of it, growing rusty. Then her short blond hair started to turn black and wispy on the ends. The edges of her face softened and darkened, along with her shoulders and arms. Her body shifted, floating, turning smoky gray and then black.
Well, hell. I’d been thoroughly duped.
The lidérc floated in front of the door. Sparks of fire dripped from it onto the wooden walkway.
Get out! A voice shouted next to my right ear, making me flinch. It had sounded like Doc but scratchy and far off, as if from an AM radio station somewhere out in west Texas.
Something creaked behind me. I looked around.
The other gray door now stood wide open. The hulking creature stepped toward me, filling most of the doorway. Its eyes glowed even brighter. Now I could see more of it—maybe too much. Like the imposter’s version of Jane, it wore a fiendish grin too big for its face, filling up all of the real estate below those shining eyes. Its teeth were several inches long and sharp, reminding me of pikes in medieval times minus the heads mounted on them.
A stone clattered to the floor next to me. A quick check on the hole in the wall made me grip the steel rod harder. The red-armed, long-clawed swiper had knocked a chunk of wall loose in its effort to reach me, widening the hole.
Oh boy, I was really fucked now.
Get out, Killer! Doc yelled in my head. This time there was no doubt it was his voice. He must have found me.
“How?” I whispered, inching back toward the lidérc with the bar held out. Of the enemies surrounding me, at least I knew how that one fought in the ring and had a slim chance of not ending up ripped to pieces or chewed up by those spiky teeth.
“That bar will do you no good, Scharfrichter,” the lidérc said, back to using Jane’s voice now. “You are no match for me. I’ve played with your kind before.” It shifted before me, returning to Jane’s image and that big, freaky-ass smile. “And they are dead.”
A movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention. The brown “Stairway” door stood wide open.
Now! Doc’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Who’s that?” Jane asked, the creepy smile slipping. She sniffed the air several times. “It appears you brought a mate along to play, Scharfrichter.”
I didn’t dally to share locker room tales about Doc. While the imposter was distracted, I darted in the direction of the stairwell door as fast as my legs would carry me, passing by another hallway leading off to my left with a sign that said something about a boiler room near the end. As I raced through the open stairwell doorway, the steel bar hit the door jamb and broke free of my sweaty grip. It clanged onto the cement floor behind me out in the hall. I turned to go back for it, but Jane-the-lidérc was racing toward me, its feet clomping on the wooden walkway floor, its manic grin leading the way. Sparks flew behind it as it ran.
I glanced down at the carbide lamp still in my hand and then back up at the lidérc. Without thinking, I threw the lamp at the devil, yelling, “Burn, you bitch!”
The lamp sailed toward Jane’s imposter, burning brighter and growing larger as it flew. By the time it reached the devil, the fire was the size of a beach ball. It hit Jane in the chest and lit her up in bright blue flames.
A loud screech filled the basement, but she kept coming. I covered my ears and stumbled backward. A whoosh of air blew across my face as the stairwell door slammed closed, shutting the devil on the other side. Something heavy thumped against the door, making it shudder, but it held.
Then the lights went out, leaving me in a world of silent blackness.
Holy freaking hell! Had I run right into the lidérc’s trap?
I felt in front of me, touching nothing but air, and cursed.
“Open your eyes, Boots,” Doc said quietly. His voice was velvet in my ears, smoothing the edge off of my panic.
“They are open.” I reached out to the side.
A hand caught my arm in the darkness, then another, holding me when I tried to tug free. Warm hands, the touch soothing. They were too small to be Doc’s hands, but the grip was firm as it pulled me forward.
“Focus, Violet,” Doc ordered. “Focus and open up.”
I concentrated, returning to my old standby—a single candle flame. After taking several calming breaths and realizing that my eyes had been closed, I opened them.
I was back in Jerry’s office, standing in the center of the circle next to the chair I’d been in at the start. Only now the chair lay on its side on the floor.
Natalie was holding onto my arm, her brow lined.
At the sight of her brown eyes, and the light reflecting in them, I started to tremble. “Nat? Is it really you?” After being fooled about Jane by the lidérc, I was half afraid this might be part of its game still.
“Alive and kicking, Outlaw Curly Bill,” she said with a grin, using one of my brother’s nicknames from when we were kids. “Welcome back, babe.” She pulled me in for a hug, feeling and smelling like Natalie.
I clung to her for a moment, staring over her shoulder at Doc, who was looking up at me from his spot next to the closed closet door. His face looked pale in the bright overhead lighting, his eyes haunted. His chest was moving up and down rapidly, like he’d just finished running a mile.
Natalie patted my back, and then she coughed, turning her head away from me. “Whew, girl! You stink like bad milk. What sort of hell did you end up in this time?”
