turned. However, as they drew closer he saw that beneath the veils they were wearing dwelt the same, soulless eyes and hideous visages as those of the guards.
They proceeded to weave an insufferable dance around the group, shaking their deathly grey skin in front of them in a way that wasn’t in the least bit arousing. When one of them sidled up to Ryan and draped itself across his lap, he had to turn away from the stench of the thing.
‘What’s the matter boy?’ shouted Kaikias, delighting in his disgust. ‘You never had a belly dance before?’
Ryan glared at him, trying to quell the rush of nausea that was building up inside.
‘Show him what you’ve got girls!’ encouraged Skeiron.
Just when Ryan thought the dance couldn’t get any more repulsive, the creature in his lap reached down to its midriff and tore it wide open with its ragged nails, exposing a mess of blackened, rotting entrails. The sight of it pushed Ryan over the edge and he vomited violently in the creature’s face; something he did derive a small amount of satisfaction from.
The dancer merely squealed with delight and started wiping its face with its hands, licking them in a despicable manner, while all around them the other creatures were gleefully disembowelling themselves.
‘That’s it girls, let it all hang out!’ screamed Skeiron, leaping up onto the table and joining in the dance. His brother swiftly joined him and together they pretended to tear out and consume one another’s insides, scattering crockery which smashed on the hard stone floor and only added to the ever-growing din.
Ryan Butler had watched his fair share of horror movies. He had also experienced several pretty nasty nightmares. But what was playing out before him was another level of depravity and derangement altogether. He looked round the table at his friends. Sophie’s tear-streaked face wore a deathly mask and Daisy had her head in her hands and was sobbing uncontrollably. It had to stop.
Ryan turned to Tristram, who appeared to have sensed that he had reached the end of his tether and was looking straight at him.
‘I don’t think I fancy sticking around for dinner,’ said his tutor.
‘It looks like they’re about to serve it up,’ replied Ryan as an entrail landed on the plate in front of him.
‘I think you’re right,’ said Tristram. ‘I’ve had enough of this.’
He grasped the edge of the table with both hands.
‘Remember what I told you,’ he said.
Ryan nodded.
Then Tristram lifted the end of the table as if it was just a bed sheet and threw it down at the ground. A huge ripple surged down its length, sending everything on top of it flying into the air, including the two brothers. It was such an awesome spectacle that for a moment Ryan just sat there, mouth agape, as everything around him seemed to hang in mid-air.
‘Ryan, what are you waiting for?’ yelled Tristram, who was on his feet and preparing to meet the two giant guards, who were already charging down the room towards him.
Ryan snapped out of it immediately and looked across the table at Jack, who appeared to be just a passenger on the spiralling train of chaos.
‘Oi! Jack, you dopey git! Help me get the girls out of here!’ he shouted.
His friend nodded in dumb agreement, and Ryan turned to Sophie and grabbed her by the arm.
‘We need to go,’ he said firmly.
‘What’s happening Ryan?’ she cried. ‘What is this?’
‘It’s a complete bloody mess and we’re leaving,’ he said, getting to his feet and pulling her with him. Across the table he saw Jack doing the same to a distraught Daisy.
He began coaxing Sophie down the room, while trying to protect her from the rain of plates, knives and cups that were falling all around them. Suddenly he heard the thunder of feet and only just managed to push Sophie out of the way as one of the guards came hurtling past. As he scrabbled on the porcelain and entrail-strewn floor, he looked over his shoulder to see the two huge creatures bearing down on Tristram. His tutor had cast his chair to one side and was standing ready for his attackers.
‘They’re going to destroy him,’ thought Ryan as the two beasts closed, preparing to run him down.
However, in the split-second before the moment of impact, Tristram moved. He stepped forwards into a long stance and thrust forwards with both his elbows. There was a sickening crunch as the two creatures hit him, and for a moment Ryan thought Tristram’s arms had been ripped clean off. But to his astonishment his tutor did not move an inch. Instead, the two beasts folded as if they had just run straight into a steel bar. Their legs flew out from under them and their shattered bodies crumpled to the ground at Tristram’s feet. His tutor appeared totally unharmed.
‘Jesus,’ said Ryan out loud. ‘Perhaps he really does know what he’s doing.’
He turned back to Sophie to keep her moving and saw Kaikias climbing to his feet nearby. The man’s eyes flicked from them to Tristram and back again.
‘Get them!’ he screamed at the disembowelled dancers, who had been running around like headless – or gutless – chickens since the carnage had begun. ‘Feast on them! I want nothing left!’
Immediately they responded, rounding on the four escaping prisoners.
‘Go Soph!’ cried Ryan, pushing her towards the door and breaking into a run himself.
Suddenly in front of him, he saw the remains of the baguette he had brought into the room. He scooped it up without breaking stride, and as one of the grotesque creatures stepped into his path it had already changed into a baseball bat. He swung it hard at the beast’s head and there was a strangely satisfying SPLAT! as the dancer collapsed to one side. Out of the corner of his eye he spied Daisy and Jack racing towards the door up ahead. They were going to make it.
When the others were clear of the threshold, Ryan turned to take one last look at the decimated room. Tristram was at the far end, squaring off with the brothers in front of the huge window, while closing in on Ryan’s position were a dozen or so of the disfigured dancers. Suddenly there was a blinding flash from the far end of the room and the creatures screamed and fled towards him. Ryan turned and ran.
20
The others were already heading down the stairs to the kitchen level, and Ryan followed them, the dancers hot on his tail. The whole castle was now just a ruined shell; a grim shade of its former self. The stonework was crumbling and there was a damp, foul smell in the air. As Ryan and the others headed down into its bowels he knew that the kitchens were unlikely to be there. And if by a small miracle they were, who knew what horrors lay in store? Their only chance was to make it outside, and Ryan hoped to God that the cable car was still working.
At the bottom of the stairs the others stopped and Ryan piled into the back of them.
‘Keep running!’ he cried.
‘Where to?’ replied Jack, who had been leading them.
Ryan looked down the corridor in both directions. There was barely anything left of either of the doors at its ends and he had no idea which of them to go for. Hearing the clamour of the creatures on the stairs close behind, Ryan took a guess and pushed his friends in the direction of one of the openings.
‘Go! Go!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll fend them off.’
‘Ryan, wait!’ cried Daisy, grabbing him by the arm. ‘You’ve got to come with us.’
‘No, you go. I’m gonna give these bitches a beating,’ he snarled.
‘Then I’m staying with you.’
‘No Dizz…’
At that moment the first of the hideous dancers appeared, leaking a trail of black fluids behind it. Ryan brandished his bat and when it was within range took a swing. There was a horrible squeal and the beast collapsed onto the stairs. The second arrived and tripped over the fallen body of the first. Ryan pounced and clubbed it over the back of the head. Daisy gave a cry of revulsion as a shower of black fluid sprayed into the air.
‘Dizz, get back!’ shouted Ryan.
‘They’re coming down the other side,’ she replied.
Ryan looked over and saw another of the creatures creeping towards him. He began backing down the corridor as yet more of them arrived.
‘Ryan, come on!’ said Daisy, pulling on his arm. ‘There’s too many of them.’
‘I’m coming,’ he shouted, felling another of the dancers.
The others snarled at him and lunged forwards. He and Daisy backed up further. They were almost in the passageway now.
‘You can’t take them all on,’ said Daisy. ‘But we can cut them off. Come on, let’s get in the passage.’
Ryan looked behind him and saw the steps leading away into the darkness.
‘Come on Butler!’ he heard Jack shout.
Already Daisy was on the first step, grasping the broken remains of the door.
‘All right,’ said Ryan, joining her. ‘Do it.’
Daisy closed her eyes, but for a moment nothing happened except that the creatures in the corridor stopped in their tracks, apparently sensing something otherworldly at work. Then Ryan saw it; the smashed remains of the door were knitting back together, creating a solid barrier between them and the dancers.
‘That’s great Dizz,’ encouraged Ryan. ‘Keep it going.’
The doorway was already half closed.
‘That’s it,’ he said, and then suddenly, while there was still just enough room for his frame, he squeezed back through into the corridor.
‘Ryan, no!’ he heard Sophie call.
‘Butler, what are you doing?’ came Jack’s voice.
‘Me and the bat are going to pay a visit to whoever was playing those damned bagpipes,’ he growled.