Chapter 21
He didn’t know where to start. He wasn’t even sure if anybody was left in the building. The uncertainty of it all made him uneasy. Everything else he had been through up to this point had been small. It was usually just him and a monster of some kind. Now it could be any number of people or things. This was turning into a perfect time for someone to arrive from the future. Royden stood still for a minute hoping someone might suddenly appear. Unfortunately nothing happened.
Royden started through the basement at a quick pace, making sure to look out for anybody at all. The laundry room was empty. He didn’t know where Ms. Carol could be. He tried to call for the ghosts but not even they could be found. The elevators didn’t work and he didn’t know how else to get to the thirteenth floor. The power to the whole building must have been off.
His footsteps echoed loudly through the stairwell. Someone could be on the seventeenth floor and hear him perfectly. He wandered through each floor on his way up. All the doors he tried were locked. That is until he reached the eighth floor.
He heard it as soon as he came out of the stairwell. Something stirred down the hall. Royden proceeded with caution. Whatever it was it probably wasn’t friendly.
The door to one of the apartments stood ajar. Light poured out into the dark hallway. The boy went up to the edge of the door and listened. Someone talked in a language Royden didn’t understand. He wished that everyone would just speak English. It sounded like a one way conversation, probably a phone call of some type.
He poked his head around the corner. The sun shined bright through the windows. The youngest Tezera, Taddy, stood with his back to the door. He looked about five years old. His voice did not match that of a five year old. It sounded deep and hoarse.
Taddy’s words may have been unintelligible, but their tone sure wasn’t. He sounded distressed about something. He threw his free hand around as though trying to explain something to whoever he was talking to. Royden thought he heard him say Jessa, but perhaps not. Maybe he was getting worried because she went missing.
Taddy put his phone like device in his pocket and flipped around. Royden swung his head from the doorway and started down the hall. He wasn’t quick enough.
“Hey!” Taddy shouted with his hoarse voice.
Royden stopped. He thought about turning around but thought better of it. He walked purposefully toward the stairs.
“I said ‘hey’!” Taddy shouted menacingly.
Royden stopped again. He looked back. “Oh, hey.” He said quieter than he had intended.
Taddy stared at him stupidly for a moment, and then something clicked in his mind. “You! How did you get back?”
“When you wish on a dollar.” Royden said, and then quickly wished he hadn’t.
“What’s that?” Taddy asked, confused.
“I wished on a dollar.” Royden said, trying to stall for time until he figured out if he should run or ask questions.
“Like a dollar bill?” Taddy asked after taking several seconds to try and figure out Royden’s meaning without help.
“No, like a dollar coin.” Royden said, amused by Taddy’s apparent lack of intelligence.
“They make dollar coins?” Taddy said, his mouth opening wider and his eyelids sinking lower as he attempted to comprehend the meaning of what was said to him.
“Oh yeah, they mostly are used at train stations. At least it seems like that to me.”
“Train stations? Coins at train stations?”
Taddy was clearly not the intelligent type. There must have been some other reason why his boss hired him.
“Hey,” Royden said, feeling a little braver, “why are you here anyway? Shouldn’t your family have evacuated?”
Taddy’s mouth closed. His eyes grew mean and focused. Royden apparently asked the wrong question. This didn’t require any thinking on Taddy’s part. He knew exactly what to do when that subject appeared.
“Royden Doble.” He said ominously. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
Royden’s stomach lurched. He figured Jessa was supposed to leave him in that weird place with the purple grass, but dead? That’s the first he heard of that. Though she did come at him with sharp claws so it shouldn’t have been that much of a shock.
“And why am I wanted dead?” Royden inquired, still feeling as though he had the upper hand on Taddy.
“Because that was the plan.” Taddy said, his eyes twinkling with menace.
A deep growl erupted deep within the faux five year old. His hands clamped in fists and shook violently. The growl grew, spurting forth from his mouth. He opened his mouth wide and the noise filled the whole hall, possibly even the whole building.
Taddy began to grow. His face aged right before Royden’s eyes. He was growing up. The years passed in seconds. Little Taddy hurriedly passed childhood and his teenage years in under a minute.
The growling died down. He closed his mouth. What stood in the hallway was nothing like the five year old Royden had just seen. A beat up looking thirty something year old man took its place. His eyes sunken, his skin graying, his hair in mismatched clumps of white and black. This Taddy had been through a lot. Now his voice perfectly matched his shabby body.
“My little boy’s all grown up.” Royden said derisively. He still felt like he could take on Taddy if he had to, even now.
Taddy laughed gruffly. “I guess Jessa failed. That’s alright, it will be my pleasure.”
The tattered man ambled down the hall. His thin arms hung loose at his sides, his head tilted back, a strange and satisfied smile across his face.
Now Royden started to worry. This man looked like he would use any and all tricks he could find to get his way. If that was the case then so could he.
Taddy lunged forward, arms outstretched reaching for Royden’s neck. Royden took off down the hall. He flung the door to the stairs open. Taddy’s arms closed around Royden’s neck and squeezed.
Royden fell, his face hitting the cold metal floor. The hands loosened slightly. Royden kicked Taddy while trying to pry the hands away from his neck in the dark stairwell.
Neither had any idea what was going on. They kicked and wrestled on the floor in the dark for several minutes. Royden pulled away and slid on his back down the stairs to the mid-floor landing. He got up, was caught around the middle, and thrown down the next flight of stairs to the seventh floor.
Everything ached. Royden found Taddy’s neck and took it with both hands. He shook it around, trying to disorient his foe. It worked. Taddy let go of Royden and tried to break free. The boy pushed him down and managed to get to his knees and half crawled and half fell down to the sixth floor.
He stayed very still. Both listened for any movement from the other. It was too dark to see. Royden tried his best to sneak down the stairs. Every movement sounded loud on the metal stairs.
He grew tired of this. Without much thought Royden took off down the stairs. The heavy footfalls of his adversary sounded close behind him. The boy thought he felt a hand swipe at his back at one point but couldn’t be sure.
Royden burst out of the stairwell into the basement. He sprinted to the laundry room and hid behind the open door of a drier in the back.
Heavy breathing followed him. It came in wheezy spurts from the doorway. Royden didn’t dare move to look. The sound quieted slightly. Taddy all but silently edged his way down the first row of washers and driers. He grew closer. His breathing now slow and determined. Royden got on his hands and pushed himself warily down the other row away from the breathing.
Taddy quickened his pace just a little. He turned the corner. Royden jumped up and ran from the laundry room, slamming the door behind him.
He gave a quick glance down the hall. Keep Out Employees Only, the door read. He hesitated for just a moment and went for the door. In a flash he disappeared inside. He waited for a
second and then closed the door loudly.
Slowly backing up through the dark hallway he could hear the sound of scratching coming from behind him. Royden forced a shaky smile. He wiped his quivering and sweaty hands on his jeans. The crawling grew louder as it approached.
The door opened. Taddy’s outline could be seen. He kept the door open. The faintest light came in with him. The crawling from above stopped.
“Who are you working for?” Royden asked, shuddering.
Taddy didn’t respond.
“Is it Mr. Tezera? Is he the one behind all this? Or is he working for someone else?”
Still no response. Taddy left the light behind. He continued to walk cautiously.
“Why here? Why now?” Royden asked, trying to keep as calm as he could.
The crawling returned. It came from all over the walls and ceiling.
Royden put his hand in his pocket. “This is turning into one of those ‘as long as I outrun you’ things isn’t it?”
Taddy chuckled. “They sound hungry.”
Royden snickered. “I just hope you have enough meat on you for all of them.”
Taddy threw himself at Royden. Claws sprang out from every direction, latching on to any flesh they could find.
Hands wrapped around Ryden’s neck. He dropped to the floor, the hands tightening. He couldn’t breathe. The sting of claws tore at him all over. He raised his hands and flipped open his father’s phone. The light shined down on his face and chest. The claws sprang away.
Taddy lay across Royden, his hands crushing the boy’s neck. And then, very suddenly, the hands loosened. Taddy let out a horrible scream. Claws ripped and slashed at the parts of him still in darkness. Royden kicked him away and stood up. The light from the phone was weak, but it was enough.
He took the advantage and ran back to the door. The agonizing screams of Taddy became guttural and hopeless. The gremlins shrieked with pleasure. Royden got to the hall and shut the door.