AncilMegan just lay hunched over her mother’s body trying to hide her face. I really couldn’t tell what she was feeling. I decided to just leave her undisturbed.
“Who’s your master?” I asked the Bookman. I wasn’t as afraid of him as I was before. He stood right next to me and showed no signs of actually harming me.
“My master?” The Bookman said. “He is not my master. He is everybody master. He is the Midnight Robber.”
The sound of his name sent ripples of fear throughout my entire body.
“The Midnight Robber always get what he want. He always win,” the Bookman said.
“Where is he now?” I asked
“He is everywhere! You never know when he could…..” The Bookman then threw his hand in front of my face and the whole room lit up with a blinding bright light that went off with a loud screeching sound that only lasted about five seconds. As the light diminished the room went completely dark.
“Jed!” Megan screamed
“I’m here, I’m still here,” I said as I fished around the dark in order to find Megan. I grabbed her by her hand and held it tightly.
“I can’t see,” she said in panic.
“Me neither, the lights just went off.”
I had no idea what was going on but I was certain that I would have known shortly. A snarling sound shook the room. No, not one snarling sound, a number of snarling sounds. My gun was pointed out into the darkness but I had no idea what was there.
“Who’s there?” I asked frantically. “Bookman, that’s you?”
There was no answer but dozens of blood red eyes lit up the room. That was the only cue I needed. I tightened my grip on Megan’s hand then darted off. The snarling grew more aggressive and the sound of flapping wings was heard. The room smelt like a wet dog. A dirty wet dog. I kept on running pulling Megan along with me even though I had no idea what was in front of me. Suddenly the room lit up with a bright white light that illuminated a thin corridor. I turned around while running and noticed that the only thing behind us was a large wall. I slowed down thinking that it was safe but as soon as I did, huge black bats stormed in through the wall as if it wasn’t even there. The bats shared many characteristics of a human. They had long arms with a hand at the end. But instead of a small hand, the bats had large and clawed hands. They had legs covered in black fur and they faces were that of a bat and a human, meshed into one. They were bats. Like real bats. They didn’t look like any costumes at all. I spun around and fired a shot at the bats but I apparently didn’t shoot the gun correctly or activated the exo-suit properly. I was hurled back into the air and unto the floor from the power of the gun pushing Megan along with me. The bullet ripped through and incinerated a couple of the bats slowing them down a bit but they were too much of them for the bullet to make a huge dent. I quickly got up, helped Megan up and continued running down the corridor. Things didn’t look too good for Megan and I as we were running through the winding corridor because we were nearing a dead end.
“What are we going to do?” Megan shouted frantically.
“Just keep running!” I shouted. “Just keep running!”
I had faith that the dead end at the end of the corridor wasn’t a dead end. If the same technology used in the Red House was used on the wall then we would have safely run through it without any collisions. I had my doubts but it was either we crashed into the wall or we got mauled by blood hungry bats. Or both. As we got closer to the dead end I closed my eyes and kept running and I felt no collision. We had passed through the wall safely, but I also felt no ground below my feet. We plummeted down from the sky into a sea of skeletons in a large ditch of a room. The bats flew through the same wall and just kept on flying over into the wall on the other side of the room. Despite all the skeletons that were surrounding us, the place did not smell like rotting flesh. It smelt more like burning candles.
“I can’t live like this anymore,” Megan complained. “It’s too much. Just kill me now.”
“I know what you mean,” I said while getting up.
Across from the skeletons there were dozens of candles perched on the ground in a straight line across the room looking almost ritualistic. The candles alone lit the room that would have been pitch dark. Slow footsteps were heard somewhere in the room then the Bookman came walking through the wall with his book and feathered pen in his hand. He looked different. Before when he saw him he looked more human. This time around he still looked human but his face had huge green veins that penetrated the redness on his skin. His eyes were bigger. Much bigger. They were huge. His eyes were unnaturally huge before but this time it was just ridiculous.
“I see you meet my pets,” the Bookman said. “Them rascals like to play. But they is the type that does only play mas and fraid powder. You know them types?”
I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Kinda like you two. Allyuh playing mas but fraid powder. You can’t play mas and fraid powder.” He said it melodically and started dancing around. “You can’t play mas and fraid powder.” he kept repeating the melody and danced around showing off all the colors on his fancy robe spinning the garment around. He just kept on going and he wouldn’t stop.
“Is this man crazy or something?” I asked Megan.
“It look…..” Megan was interrupted before she finished her sentence.
