From the gloomy depths of dementia, it’s Ell chapter 4!  Again, I haven’t even bothered to edit. I’ll probs do that after I finish the book.

More of a transition chapter, so it’s gonna be shortish. Sorry. I’m thinking of writing more on the Bullet Dancer story…  what do you think?

As always, critique is welcome!
Chapter 4

 

The light flickered, dimmed, then brightened again. Mei wobbled in the unstable glow, staying close to Ell’s shoes.

“Mei, it’s okay. It looks like this bulb’s been on for a while. There’s no way it’ll go out now.”

The bulb in question was affixed to the wall of what appeared to be an old school, though the building had clearly seen better days. Ivy and creeper vines covered most of its surface, and flowers grew from cracks in the stone steps. The large wooden nameplate above the door dangled by one corner, its letters long since faded beyond coherence.

“This is a creepy place, Mei. Who builds a school in the middle of a forest? How will the children get to it? They didn’t think this through. Maybe that’s why it’s all run-down. No one could find it after they built it.” She smiled, imagining the children and teachers hunting through the woods for their lost school.

“Maybe someone’s inside. I hope it’s a nice person with food. I’m kinda hungry.”

She knocked on the door. The noise echoed hollow, fading into the depths of the dilapidated school.

“Hello?”

No answer. The few unbroken windows watched her with an empty glare, cold and uninviting.

“Well, someone left the lights on. Maybe there’s a back door.”

Mei shook her head, worming through the cracks in the stone just for the heck of it.

“Oh, right. Stay in the light. Don’t worry, Mei. The whispers can’t find us all the way out here…”

Somewhere in the darkness, something muttered to itself. Ell froze, listening. A bush rustled, a twig cracked sharply, and a weird, ghostly form slithered from the forest. She caught a glimpse of wrinkled black flesh, an arm grossly elongated… and turned away quickly. If she didn’t look at it, it might not notice her.

The Whisper was alone, dragging itself noiselessly through the grass. Ell couldn’t remember ever seeing one by itself. The things usually appeared in droves, coiling about her nightmares, tormenting her in her sleep. This one was different, somehow.

Mei had seen it too, and was shivering violently beneath Ell’s foot. Moving as little as possible, Ell reached down and scooped her up, hugging the shadow close to her chest.

The whisper paused, rasping a few unintelligible sentences to itself. Ell snuck a peek in its direction, and immediately wished she hadn’t; it was looking right at her with the shriveled mess it had in place of eyes.

Then it moved, but not towards her. It was wafting towards the school, its deformed arms stretching out as if to hug the building. Gnarled fingers wrapped around the sill of one shattered window, and the thing heaved itself up, dissolving into the darkness within.

Ell remained still for another minute, her heart thumping in her chest, half-fearing that the thing would return.

It didn’t. The empty window remained, but the Whisper was gone.

Mei was no longer in her arms, having dropped to the ground again. The shadow spelled out a long word that took Ell a minute to decipher; HALLUCINATION.

“H-a-l-u… oh, right, daddy says that sometimes. No, I definitely saw it, Mei. I thought you saw it, too.”

Mei shrugged, turning herself upside down. She signed out several words in rapid succession; WE BOTH SEE THINGS THAT ARE NOT THERE.

“Like Dr. Mortimer? He was different. I could wish him away, and he’d be gone. Just like all those other imaginary people back home. But this is different, Mei. When I tried to make that Whisper go away, it wouldn’t. He just… went inside. He kinda looked different, too. The ones in my dreams are flickery and shifty, like black fire with teeth. That one was all solid and gross. Like Mr. Flannigan was last year, before the men in white took him away. Except Mr. Flannigan didn’t move.”

Mei twisted herself into a question mark, her way of showing confusion.

“You remember him. Daddy said he was ‘dead’. I think that means I can’t imagine him any more. He’s never tried to talk to me since then, anyway.”

There was a sound inside the school, a heavy rumble, like a steel drum being rolled across the floor. Ell turned, pressing her face against the door’s dusty glass pane. The interior of the school was not as dark as she had been expecting; a few lights flickered sporadically within, illuminating the peeling paint, dark doorways, and cracked floor tiles.

“Looks spooky, Mei. Like that horror movie with the hotel and the man with the knife…”

Mei rustled a pebble, and Ell glanced down. The shadow flexed her arms, smiling with half its head.

“Silly, I wasn’t scared. As long as you’re around, nothing can hurt us. Nothing but the Whispers, and they are all right-”

Something splatted against the glass. Ell glanced back through the glass, and the Whisper’s watery eye stared back at her. She tried to avert her gaze, but her body moved sluggishly, as if she were swimming in wet concrete. The thing was most certainly solid now, rotting tendons stitching its makeshift face together. A good deal of its face remained on the glass as it pulled away, taking a step back. Ell found she could move again, but she still did not look away, morbidly interested in the weird creature standing inside.

It lifted its hand, pointing at Ell, then beckoned with one long, long finger.

“You want me to come in there?”

The Whisper didn’t seem to hear, continuing to wiggle its index finger back and forth.

Ell still wasn’t sure. “How do I know you won’t hurt me?”

The thing’s arm dropped to its side, and it stood perfectly still, staring, staring…

“What’s in there?”

To her surprise, the Whisper made a noise with its mouth, as if trying to speak. It might have been a cough, or maybe it had something stuck in its throat, but the sound conveyed meaning somehow, a simple command: “Come with me.”

“And if I don’t?”

The Whisper screamed, a demented, high-pitched keening noise, and slammed itself against the door with such ferocity that the glass blew apart. Ell jumped back with a tiny gasp of fear, lifting her hands to fend off whatever attack might be heading her way.

The door seemed to sag on its hinges, the faint smell of mildew and stagnant water wafting from the hole where the window had been. Nothing moved within; all was still.

Ell took several deep breaths, trying to calm down. “Mei, are you okay?”

In jumping back, Ell had gone almost all the way out of the light’s radius. Mei bobbed in what little space there was, clinging tightly to Ell’s ankles. The shadow was obviously terrified, but she still managed a tiny smile and wave.

“I think… I think we have to go in there, Mei. I don’t want the Whisper to be mad…”

The shadow’s nod was barely perceptible. Ell grasped the door handle, and was about to pull it open when something caught her eye. Her hand had been cut somehow, all across the back.

“The glass. It must’ve hit me when the window broke.”

Her theory was proven correct seconds later, as further inspection revealed several small shards planted firmly in a lattice of cuts across the back of her hand. She picked one out, holding it up to her face.

A single drop of blood rolled down its edge, falling to the ground as a perfect orb of red.

“It’s very pretty, isn’t it, Mei? I don’t bleed often.”

She turned her hand palm-up, allowing a few more drops to fall free. They pattered to the ground, spreading across the pavement like miniature roses.

“So… nice…”

The world tilted slowly, softly. Ell almost let it, the exhaustion of her long trek across the countryside finally beginning to present itself.

Mei contorted into herself in sudden fright, and Ell shook the daze from her head, bringing life back into focus. Inside the school, at the far end of the long main hallway, the Whisper waited; silent, staring, lifeless as a corpse. Its arm was outstretched towards her, its meaning obvious.

“Come…”

Ell suppressed a shiver, drawing open the door. Her shoes clacked on the dusty floor, surprising a cockroach that had been resting nearby. A light flickered on above her, buzzing loudly before dying out again with an abrupt pop. Ell swallowed, her throat suddenly dry.

“Don’t worry, Mei. I’ll stay in the light. We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine…”

The ancient door latch let out a strangled screech of protest as it fell into place behind her, and Ell was inside the school.