Chapter 18
“They’re late.” Uriel was holding one of the blinds half an inch away from the window, staring off into the distance.
Ellery tapped his foot impatiently nearby, eyes on his multi-slate. “Where the hell is your man, Ryk?”
Ryker didn’t know.
That was a problem.
“He’s not so delicate,” Uriel said. “You both treat him like he’s one of them, but he isn’t.”
“If he’s one of us, he’s the lowest rung,” Ellery stated.
“He is one of us,” Ryker growled, but Uriel was also right.
Rue wasn’t as weak or na?ve as they always pretended he was.
Growing up, he’d been more than capable of holding his own against any one of them, Ellery included.
After the incident with Ryder and Uriel and the game, Rue had changed, but he couldn’t be that different.
“He’s a decent person,” Ell argued.
“Illya is a decent person,” Uriel countered, and before Ryker could thank him for defending Rue, he let go of the blinds and turned toward them. “We can’t wait any longer.”
“It’s half past,” Ellery agreed. “If they haven’t done it by now, they most likely aren’t going to. Something must have happened.”
“I’m going back.” Ryker took a step toward the door, only for the other two to block his path.
“Hold on.” Ell held up a hand. “You can’t just go running out there blind.”
“We need a plan.” Uriel crossed his arms.
“Screw that.” Rue might not be weak, but that didn’t mean he was immune to being bitten in half by a hell beast. The longer Ryker waited, the more his worry grew.
Rue had been against him coming out here in the first place, there was no way he’d leave him to fend for himself.
“Something must have happened. He might be in danger.”
“We’re all in danger,” Uriel reminded. “I spotted three of those things moving outside. There might be more. Without the music to draw them away, it’ll be difficult for us to make it.”
“What about the plan to take one of them out?” Ellery asked.
“Put it on hold,” Ryker ordered, glaring when his friend bristled and clearly didn’t agree with that choice.
“He’s right,” Uriel sighed and sided with him against his cousin. “It’s too risky now. We should go back and come up with another way. One that doesn’t rely on others to get the job done. Clearly none of them can be trusted.”
They’d drawn up a play using paper and pen, and had collected things they’d need to execute it, like rope, but it seemed like that had all been for nothing.
Even if they went through with it, approaching the situation like they would on the hypovolley field, they couldn’t exactly drag the creature back here.
Killing one of them would also draw the attention of the others, and the pool house was nowhere near as secure or sturdy as the main lodge.
“Fine,” Ellery gave in. “What’s the play then? How are we going to make it back? And what do we do if the door is locked?”
Shit, Ryker hadn’t even considered that possibility, but it was safe to assume if something had prevented the group inside from following through with the plan to use the second speaker, then they most likely hadn’t bothered unlocking the back entrance either.
“The lounge is made of glass,” Uriel said. “The sliding doors that separate it from the lobby lock, I checked last night. We could always break in and then lock the door behind us.”
“It’ll cut off the entire room,” Ryker pointed out. “With the power down, that’s the only area with fireplaces.” And it got fucking cold this high up in the mountains.
“The rooms have plenty of blankets,” Ellery suggested. “We can just go door to door and take them all. Better than breaking in through the dining hall and cutting us off from our food source.”
He made a valid point.
Ellery picked up the fire extinguisher they’d collected and planned on using to help herd one of the monsters. “We use this to clear a path if they get in the way and book it as fast as we can.”
“It’s a partial plan,” Ryker said. “But we need more.”
They all considered their options in silence for a moment, then Uriel moved to the back of the room, disappearing into a storage closet they’d already picked through. When he returned, he was holding a stack of gallon sized plastic buckets and a large bottle of some chemical.
Uriel separated the three buckets and then grabbed the coil of rope and dropped it into one of them before dousing it in the chemical solution.
“What’s up?” Ellery’s brow furrowed as he watched.
“One of us walks this out as far as it’ll reach, and then we light it on fire,” Uriel replied.
“The flames will hopefully act as a barrier on one side. Then we only have to worry about them coming at us from the other. There’s not enough rope to do both, and it’d be too risky for two of us to go out there anyway.
Fill the buckets with the rest of the chemical and take them with us.
If we see one of those things get close, douse it and light it on fire too. ”
“That’s…dramatic as fuck. I’m in. You?” Ell looked over to Ryker.
There’d been a match box on the counter next to a candle that employees clearly lit for people relaxing in the pool house when it was open. He snatched it and shook them once, wordlessly agreeing.
“Everyone take a couple.” He slid the box open and took out four, handing two over to each of them, then grabbed some and stuck them in his own front pocket.
There were still plenty inside. “If there’s a creature, whoever is closest splashes them with the chemical while someone else lights their match.
Toss right after. Even a second between could be the difference between life and death for us. ”
“They move fast,” Uriel said. “That’s smart. The two of you can move together, I’ll bring out the rope and then wait for you at the end of it. It looks like there’s enough to get us almost to the back door. The last couple of yards we’ll just have to make a run for.”
“I’ll go,” Ellery offered. “You hang back with Ryk.”
“No, it’s got to be me. I have experience with this sort of thing.”
“Be so for real right now.”
“I am,” he insisted. “There are all sorts of creatures in Belladonna.”
Quiet settled over them as they were all reminded where Uriel had been these past few years.
“How many times did you die in situations like this one?” Ryker finally asked.
Uriel didn’t so much as flinch. “Only a dozen or so.”
“Only—” Ellery cursed.
“But it’s been a while,” Uriel finished, as if to placate them. “I got better at it and haven’t had to re spawn because of death by monster in a long time.”
“Lovely.” He pinched his brow.
“He has a better chance than we do,” Ryker pointed out, though he was admittedly nervous now as well. They were all psychotic in their own special ways, but he and his friends were close, and they’d only just gotten Uriel back.
“If it was me or Rue,” Uriel said absently, as though reading Ryker’s mind, “you’d feed me to those monsters in a heartbeat.”
“You are my best shot at returning to him in one piece,” he didn’t bother trying to deny it.
They laughed, and then Ellery grabbed one of the buckets, moving it over to the door, and Uriel and Ryker followed suit.
“Hold this end.” Uriel handed one end of the rope to his cousin, then cracked the door open and peeked outside, scoping the area. “I’m going to walk it as far as it’ll go and then will tug when I’m there. Place it on the ground and light it once you get the signal.”
“We’ll wait ten seconds for the fire to spread,” Ryker told him. “Then head toward you.”
“Take the fire extinguisher.” Ellery didn’t have to point out it’d be harder for him to splash a monster and light a match on his own. At least the extinguisher would give him some form of defense if it came down to it.
His cousin grabbed it with his free hand.
They didn’t waste energy talking after that.
Uriel slipped through the gap in the door, carrying the drenched rope, and began uncoiling it as he moved low and quiet.
As soon as he was swallowed up by the fog, Ellery and Ryker tensed, practically holding their breath as they waited for him to reach the end.
It seemed to take an eternity, but was probably less than two minutes.
As soon as Ell felt the tug, he opened the door the rest of the way and set his end of the rope off to the left.
Ryker struck a match and lit it, and they waited on a count of twenty, watching as the flame spread.
The glow illuminated the thick white and gray, causing bursts of light to create a shadow play, even as the heat dispersed the fog.
It left them more vulnerable in the sense there was less coverage, but they darted out of the pool house, eyes tracking the rope as they carried their buckets, paying more attention to their right side where there wasn’t a wall of flame protecting them from attack.
Ryker caught sight of the massive dark figure approaching first, not waiting to get a clear view. He lifted the bucket and splashed the creature.
Ellery already had the match lit and tossed, and the hiss the creature made turned into a roar as its hulking mass was set aflame. They caught sight of damp wet fur and long teeth, the fire spreading over the monster quickly, causing more of the fog to lift from around it, but they didn’t linger.
They took off faster, knowing the screams would draw more attention, and finally met with Uriel. He led the way, knowing exactly where to find the back entrance to the lodge even in this weather.
The door was locked.
He tried pounding on it a few times, hoping to catch the attention of someone inside, but nothing happened.
“Swap.” Ryker dropped his bucket and switched places with Uriel. Sticking close to glass door. “Spread the chemical.”
When they’d been teens, Rue’s dad had been involved in a helicopter crash.
The chopper had suffered mechanical issues and nosedived into the ocean.
By the time the coast guard had reached it, it’d been entirely submerged.
The coroner had announced the cause of death to be drowning, and the police had revealed that both his dad and the pilot had survived the initial landing, but had been unable to open the doors due to water pressure.
Ryker slipped the switchblade Rue had gifted him out of his pocket and turned it around. The end had been designed specifically to break through thick glass.
Rue had been afraid Ryker might one day find himself in a similar situation as his dad. He’d wanted him to be prepared.
At the time of the gift giving, Ryker had teased him for it.
Now, he was going to kiss him for having such spectacular foresight.
Uriel and Ellery created a semi-circle around the area, keeping within it, and then the latter pulled out his last match, and set the ground ablaze.
The moment he felt the heat at his back, Ryker brought the end of his tool to the spot just above the doorhandle and slammed it against the glass with all of his strength. The sound was loud enough to attract anything with ears even remotely close by.
The entire door shattered, glass tinkling as it exploded into pieces, cascading across the floor of the lounge.
The three of them ran through the opening and sprinted through the lounge without bothering to look back and see if the fire they’d set was doing its job. The sliding doors came open with a clatter, and they entered the lobby, finding it empty.
Ellery and Uriel went straight for one of the heavy benches lining the walls, hauling it over as Ryker shut the doors once more and flicked the lock at the top and bottom. They used it to brace the doors closed after, then went back for another for good measure.
“You think this will hold against one of those things?” Ell asked as soon as they’d barricaded it.
“No clue,” Uriel admitted, wincing when more animalistic cries could be heard from outside. “They’re outside the ring of fire, but there’s no telling how long that will keep.”
Ryker moved to the check-in counter and grabbed the square shaped speaker, the one the others were meant to have used as a distraction for them to return safely. “Connect your device,” he ordered Ellery as he moved to the front door, shoving the bench there away and deftly undoing the locks.
He pulled it open just enough to toss the speaker outside.
Since it wasn’t circular like the first, he needed to throw it further away to ensure they didn’t come pounding on the front door, and he prayed he didn’t inadvertently break it in the process, even as he shut the entrance and locked back up.
“Hear anything?” Ellery asked a moment later, holding up his wrist where he’d turned the music on with his multi-slate.
Ryker frowned and pressed his ear to the wood, then shook his head.
“Fuck.”
“The fire is still holding,” Uriel told them. “We have some time.”
“Still, it’d be better if—” Ellery shut up abruptly when Ryker held up a finger.
Through the wood, the first notes of a metal song carried toward him. He blew out a breath and straightened.
“Music is playing.” Ryker ran a hand through his hair and walked back over, shoving the switchblade back into his pocket.
Uriel joined them a minute later. “They’ve retreated from the fire. The speaker trick worked again.”
“Which means they’re not that intelligent,” Ellery stated with a chuckle.
“So then, they shouldn’t be able to open doors, right?” Uriel motioned over Ryker’s shoulder.
An employee’s body was at the foot of the stairs, lying in a pile of blood.
It was impossible to tell who it was since he was missing a head.
His right arm was gone as well, and his right foot.
If the state of the body itself wasn’t enough, upon closer inspection, they could easily make out two-inch-wide teeth marks left in the flesh.
Ryker hadn’t noticed it in his haste to get the speaker outside, but now a fresh wave of fear swept over him, and he was leaping over the body and bounding up the stairs before he even knew what he was doing.
His friends called after him, cursing when he didn’t slow or respond, then followed, but he was too caught up in his head, the need to find Rue and make sure he was all right driving him forward.
He’d left Rue here to keep him safe, yet somehow it seemed like the lodge had turned into a death trap.
Ryker couldn’t lose him again.
He wouldn’t survive it.
And neither would anyone else.