Chapter 16
A rush of warm air met his face as the metal tube turned sharply to the left. Royden slid down at great speeds unable to stop or even slow himself. He fell for several minutes in darkness. He feared that he might crash into a wall and brought his feet up to his chest. Very suddenly his body stopped all motion. It should have hurt to stop so suddenly and yet it didn’t.
Royden found himself standing in someplace dark. Something soft rubbed against the side of his face. He touched it. It felt like fur. His hands reached out and found a handle. He opened the door to the closet he was in and looked around a small bedroom.
It was a mess. A bed rested on end against the wall with torn sheets and pillow stuffing all over the room. Long thick scratch marks marred the walls and floor. Books lay torn and a dresser lay smashed all over the small room.
Royden carefully stepped out of the closet. This definitely wasn’t any sort of place he thought he would come out to in 1965. There must have been a mistake. He must have done something wrong and ended up somewhere else. Why would Ms. Carol send him back to this mess?
A sound jolted him to attention. Something heavy slid across the floor somewhere in the house. Royden wrung his hands. He felt more scared now than he ever did before.
The sound started and stopped in short intervals. It came from below him, directly below. All at once a loud bang rang out. Royden grabbed the doorway of the closet for support. Whatever was down there dropped something heavy.
Another sound came to him from below. A faint tapping. It must have been loud because he could hear it all the way from where he was. It buzzed on in perfect intervals. With every fifth or sixth tap the sound grew just a little closer. It was such an infinitesimal movement, but he could tell it grew closer.
Royden only had ten minutes. Whatever was in that house with him might know something important. He needed to find out why Ms. Carol would send him there.
He slowly crept to the door of the room and looked out into the hall. The long scratch marks he had seen covered the walls and floor. They led to a room down the hall.
Halfway to that room Royden came across three holes bored into the wall. Something dark seeped out. He glanced to the door. From where he stood he could make out a bed with torn sheets. The walls were smeared with dark red. On the bed he caught a glimpse of something. He jumped in shock at the grizzly image. His feet stepped back automatically and the floor creaked.
Royden Doble stood very still. The tapping stopped downstairs. Through the tense air he could tell something listened closely. For the longest time both Royden and this something else listened intently for the other to make a sound. Neither did.
For a crazy moment Royden wanted to call out and find out for certain if the noises came from something sinister or if it was all in his mind. Clearly the state of the house was not just in his mind and he decided to avoid any sounds.
The boy followed the scratch marks with his eyes. They went all over but seemed to follow some sort of pattern. They all appeared to be leading to something, a door at the end of the hall. It stood out among the rest of the house because it was scratch free. Something behind that door must have some type of answer.
Cautiously he made his way over to it. He picked up yet another sound, this one softer than all the rest. It was rhythmic—musical even. It came from downstairs. Royden tried to ignore it. What he wanted was behind that scratch free door, he knew it.
The handle twisted and the door squeaked open. The room was bare and dark. An object sat in the very center of the floor. As Royden’s eyes adjusted he saw that it was a little person with long brown hair shaking in a huddled mass. Royden stepped forward.
“Hey.” He whispered.
The face of a scared little girl shot up and looked at Royden.
“What’s the matter? What’s going on here?”
The girl put her head back in her hands and began to rock back and forth.
Royden knelt down beside her. “What is it?” He asked as quietly as he could.
The girl mumbled something incoherently.
“What’s that?”
She mumbled it a bit louder but still he could not here it.
He leaned in close. “One more time.”
“Badchi.” The girl said, her voice shaking.
“What is that?” Royden asked soothingly.
Something shifted in the room. A nauseating feeling of dread and pressure filled the space. Royden turned his head with difficulty toward the doorway where the presence emanated. The door stood wide open with something standing in the frame. Royden’s breath caught somewhere in his throat. This man, he looked somewhat like a man, was unlike anything he had ever seen. Its body was pale white with thin black stripes running down the course of it. It had no discernable features in its face except for its eyes, which were large and dark. Black make up covered the eyes in an intricate diamond pattern. The makeup ran all the way down its cheeks in thick black lines that stood out from the others. It looked like it had been crying. Its mouth, a thin line, curved in a deep frown. It looked very sad. It wore shorts that bulged like onions just above the knees. It croaked out an unusual sound. It kept repeating the sound. Royden had difficulty with it but eventually heard it as words.
“Ba—d—chil—dren” It repeated over and over. Its voice was high pitched and hoarse. The shrill sound swiftly disappeared into the air.
The girl rocked back and forth quickly, mumbling under her breath. Royden stood up bravely and faced the thing.
“This isn’t your house.” He said courageously. “Get out now.”
The thing, which Royden realized must be known as Badchi, lowered its head. Its thin mouth trembled and the thick black lines below its eyes grew thicker as tears streamed down. Its hands, which Royden now saw had long thick claws, rose up and covered its face. It whined softly for a minute, continuing the same two words over and over.
“Ba—d—chil—dren”
Royden felt a little stronger. This thing looked weak—afraid. He had the upper hand now. “Go on, get out of here.” He turned to the little girl. “Come on, get up, I can get you out of here.”
She pulled away from his grasp.
“Come on. I can help you.”
She refused to look at him.
“Get up now!” He roared.
The thing in the doorframe continued its incessant whining. It got into Royden’s mind. He could hear little apart from the thing’s shrill cries and the constant notes of “Ba—d—chil—dren”. It looped around and Royden couldn’t tell which part of the words he was listening to.
The girl wouldn’t look up from her hands. Royden grew tired of her refusal to get up. He got down and pulled her off the floor. He held her tight. She buried her face in his shirt and shook violently.
“Hey!” He yelled at Badchi.
It brought its hands down and quit whining. The thing stared at Royden with its sad eyes.
“Move.” Royden said calmly.
To his immense surprise Badchi sidestepped out of sight.
Royden went to the door and looked out. An inch from his face stood Badchi, knelt down to be face to face with him. Royden froze for a moment in fear. He stared deep into the endless darkness of Badchi’s eyes. Slowly the boy pulled his head back, unable to look away from the devilishly pale face and devilishly dark eyes. Badchi didn’t move. It remained as still as can be. Its eyes showed no signs of life.
Royden held on tight to the little girl and walked backwards down the hall. Badchi didn’t move. Its eyes fixed on the spot Royden had been.
Finding it within himself with great difficulty Royden pulled his eyes away from Badchi and took off down the hall. A great rush of air filled the whole house. It blew from every direction at once. He turned back through the torrent. Badchi’s thin mouth slowly separated. Its lips stretched apart revealin
g long silver pins. The lips continued up and down its face until Badchi’s eyes disappeared. In place of its head was the long pins pointed to the ceiling, now showing their sharp tips. Royden shook as violently as the little girl. His jaw clenched tightly.
Badchi let out a high gargled “Ba—d—chil—dren”, lowered its head, and with the pins pointed at Royden flashed down the hall. Royden jumped out of the way as Badchi collided with the wall. It turned on a dime and faced him again.
The boy sprinted through the hall and tore down a splintered and broken set of stairs. There didn’t seem to be any way out of the house. There were no windows and no doors to the outside. He ran behind the counter in the kitchen and looked out, holding on to the girl with all his might.
The wind died down. Everything became still.
“How do we get out of here?” He asked softly.
“We can’t.” The girl said. She seemed to be starting to trust him.
“Where are we?”
“In its house.” She said through tears.
“Its house? You don’t live here?”
“No. This isn’t my house. It brought us here. It looks like ours, but it’s not. We woke up here.”
“Who.”
“Me and my parents.”
“Where are they?”
She buried her face into his shirt. He remembered the scene from that one bedroom and felt bad for asking. “I hope the bellhop can find me. I came here from the future.”
She looked up at him. “Why?”
“I guess to save you. Are you Susanna?”
She nodded.
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Miss Susanna.”
She held on tight. Royden could tell she was giving him a hug. He squeezed her in return.
The tapping returned. The music returned as well. Something sang softly in the quiet house. It sounded haunting.
Royden suddenly got an idea. “The thing, it didn’t claw at the door you were behind. Why?”
“It doesn’t want to hurt me.” Susanna said.
“Why?”
“It needs me.”
“For what?”
The singing stopped. The tapping grew closer. It came from above. From on the ceiling.
“Then why is it coming for us now?” Royden wondered aloud.
“It’s only after you.”
Royden set Susanna down. “If that’s the case then I need to get out of here. But why would you send me back?”
“I didn’t.”
“You will. Do you know of a black ring that can turn into a black suit?”
She nodded. Royden didn’t notice. Badchi clawed at a wall in the next room. It didn’t seem to be in any type of hurry.
“Something here must be a clue to the black ring and whoever is making people disappear. But what?”
Susanna shrugged.
Badchi appeared in the living room within sight of the kitchen. The pins were gone—its head was back to normal. It stepped carefully around the mess of destroyed furniture and claw marks. It moved slowly and rhythmically as if dancing. It continued to sing softly to itself. Occasionally it picked up a piece of wood and dropped it again. Its movements made it look confused and lost.
“That creature must know something.” Royden whispered. He felt stronger again. He came out from behind the counter and faced it. “Badchi!” Called the boy loudly. “Why are you here? What are you trying to do?”
The thing turned and faced him. Its lips quivered and it began to cry again.
“That won’t work, Badchi. You have to tell me what you’re doing here.”
“Ba—d—chil—dren” it croaked through tears.
All at once Badchi’s needle teeth reappeared and replaced its head. The pins extended until they were several feet long. Badchi roared loudly, shaking the whole house.
Royden ran back up the stairs. He didn’t know what to do or where to go. He knew that Susanna was safe, but what about him? Why on Earth would Ms. Carol send him there? Maybe it was a trap. Maybe she sent him there just like the siren sent him to Pooly’s.
He went into the room he arrived in and closed the door. Only a second later Badchi’s teeth shot through the door. Royden backed up to the closet and watched as Badchi tore the door apart trying to get in.
The closet door opened and a tube appeared. Royden jumped into it as Badchi ran across the room toward him.