Fractured (27 page)

The old woman knew that she could see her and had cursed her to be blind, to keep the secret for twenty years. Bash had forgotten about the creepy old woman no one else knew of, and her life had continued in a dark, sightless world.

All because she could see Abyzou’s manipulation of her twin sister.

The unveiling of Bash’s sight seemed to unveil her memories as well—she could remember everything. She knew what she had to do.

She abruptly stood up, her decision made.

“What are you doing?” Seth asked, alarmed.

“I’m saving my sister,” she told him. “I’m going back inside.”

She had been blind for twenty years, but she recognized the expression of fear on his face. He didn’t want to go back in. He didn’t want to face the horrors that lay inside the hotel.

Bash could no longer wait around for something to happen, for someone else to take care of her problems. Her entire life had been screwed by that bitch. She was really tired of her family getting screwed.

I’m ready for it
, she thought to herself. She was no longer frightened. She was just ready to end this terrible night.

“If you go back in there,” Seth said, “you might get lost again. You might not ever come out again. You might not even find Lily.”

“If we stay out here, we’re never going to be able to leave this hellhole,” Bash said. She saw the skepticism in his eyes. “You can stay out here if you like,” she said. “I’m going in. I can’t stay out here another moment.”

He waited about a heartbeat before standing up. “I’m coming with you then.”

She opened her mouth. She knew that he was frightened out of his wits. She saw the determination in his eyes. He might have made some terrible mistakes in his life, but he was still a good person. He was still her Seth. She reached out and grabbed his hand.

“I love you,” she whispered truthfully.

“Love you too,” Seth said, white with fear.

They faced the doors, and Bash pulled one open. The rush of stale, dank air hit her full on and she coughed. The air inside the hotel had gotten worse since they had left. Bash was reminded of her father’s smell at his burial, a mixture of decomposing bodies and formaldehyde. The hotel had become a tomb.

They stepped through the doors, which slammed shut with a loud bang behind them. They had returned to the palace of nightmares.

She heard whispering. It was so dark inside, she blinked twice to make sure she could still see. As her eyes adjusted, she gasped as she saw who—what—was whispering.

She reached over and flicked on a switch, half thinking that the power was out. No, the lights in the entire hotel fired to life with an intense glow. She was looking upon a horrible scene that greeted them in the foyer.

She now knew what had happened to Neil, Lindsay, and Ben who had been with them in the ventilation shafts. Or at least what their end was. They were crucified on crosses in the entryway, creating a semicircle inside the dual staircase. Their skin was red and raw, like they had been burned by acid while they writhed and squirmed on the crosses. Their eyes were sewn shut. Their lips weren’t, as Bash would have suspected. No, their mouths were still working, and that was what had been whispering.

“Welcome. Back. Bathsheba,”
they spoke haltingly. One would speak a single word, while the next one spoke another word, creating a disjointed, eerie way of communicating. Their squirming bodies didn’t make for good concentration either.
“Back. For. More. I. See. Fitting. Since. You. Left. Us. To. Die.”

“I’m here to save you,” Bash told them. “And I can see you now, demon.”

The three on the crosses started laughing, each
“ha”
spoken in succession. Seth’s hand felt hot and sweaty in hers.

“You’re. Going. To. Rot. Here,”
the bodies told her.
“I. Told. You. That. You. Would. Never. Be. Able. To. Leave. Again.
” They cackled once more, but Bash ignored them and she started climbing up the stairs practically two at a time, dragging Seth with her. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew that she was exhausted and injured and losing blood. Adrenaline filled her now. She had a purpose and she was going to save them all.

“Shouldn’t we do something about them?” Seth asked. He looked pale as they went up the stairs.

Bash glanced at them and a wave of sorrow hit her. It wasn’t their fault they were like this. Hopefully, when this was all done, she’d be able to put them to rest. She had to find the demon and kill her.

“We’ll help them,” she assured, her throat dry. She hoped that was true.

A pile of burning books lay in the middle of the semicircle the three crosses made. Even though Bash couldn’t read the printed word from never being able to see printed letters, she got the feeling that the pile was all the Gideon Bibles that the hotel had kept in each room’s nightstand. Apparently the demon was afraid of being exorcised by someone finding the Bibles. Before all of this, Bash would have never considered herself a religious person, but seeing what Hell was like and meeting a demon, she was willing to believe. With the Bibles being burned, though, there was nothing they could do with them now.

She led Seth up the stairs.

The hotel looked even creepier than she could have imagined. Her hearing had alerted her to the things in the walls and the voices of the demon’s undead puppets, but seeing the towering doors loom towards them, the misty fog indoors, and the pulsating walls, she felt suddenly like she was in the belly of a giant beast.

“Was it always like this?” she muttered.

“Was what like what?”

“The hotel,” Bash said. “It feels...creepy...”

Seth glanced around and visibly shivered. “It feels different. Like it’s...gotten more evil. Or something.” He shuddered. “I can’t believe we’re back in here. I never wanted to come back here ever again.”

Bash couldn’t believe it either. She didn’t want to admit that to Seth. She just knew that she had to be here, to finish this horrific tale.

“Where are we going?” Seth asked finally. “You seem to be walking like you know where to go.”

They reached the landing for the second floor. From there, they could take the stairs to the third floor. Bash knew exactly where they needed to go: the fourth floor room where she and her sister had been conceived. She didn’t have a set reason why she knew she needed to go there. She felt in the depths of her heart that was where her sister would be. With Abyzou.

It felt like there was some sort of string that was pulling her along up to the fourth floor, exactly to where her father had pointed earlier. Eric hadn’t said the room number, but it didn’t matter. Bash would know exactly where she had to go.

“We’re going to Lily and Abyzou,” she said simply. “I know where we’re going.”

She saw what looked like a giant tumor growing out of the wall by the stairwell. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, a thick, raw swath of flesh with boils pulsating all over it. Large, blue veins greeted them. The stench from it would have woken the dead, a mixture of bile and ammonia.

Bash gagged when she looked at it.

“That wasn’t there before,” Seth said dumbly. He looked like he was going to be sick.

They stayed at the opposite side of the hallway as they inspected it.

“It’s like she’s grown into the hotel,” she said. This place was so much more terrifying when encountering it with sight, she realized.

They had the problem of having to walk in the stairwell to get to the fourth floor, which meant they had to get closer to the mass of flesh.

Bash gathered the courage to walk over to the stairwell. Miraculously, the actual door handle wasn’t covered in flesh, which meant that she could open the door without touching it. As she passed it, she reached out as if to touch the flesh, but she recoiled at the last moment. She wanted to touch it, but she was afraid of what would happen if she did.

“Come on,” she whispered, beckoning Seth.

She pulled open the door and instantly regretted it. A whoosh of fetid air came out and hit her full on. She gasped, sucked in a breath and trudged on. She took her first steps on the stairs, avoiding the walls, which had the growths accumulating on them. Seth came in behind her. He moved slowly, not wanting to disturb the masses around him.

Bash kept a wary eye on the walls, keeping as far as possible from them. There were areas where the tumor spread onto the floor and they had to step over it. Yet another reason she was thankful to have her sight back. She was terrified, yes, but at least she didn’t accidentally knock into anything.

The fluorescent lights of the stairwell began flickering, some lights going out completely. It cast their surroundings in an eerie, bluish glow that was never constant. As she turned the last corner to the third floor, Bash saw a pair of eyes watching them from the level above. Even through the dark, she could still make the outline of a broken body and a face looking down at them.

Rodney,
she realized, judging by the ripped piece of metal shelving still through his chest. She felt a wave of sadness for her innocent ski guide.

Seth took in a quick hiss of breath when he saw Rodney. He moved as if to block Bash from the monster, but she held him back.

She whispered, “I don’t think he’s going to hurt us.”

“Then what is he doing?” Seth shot back. His eyes didn’t leave the creature on the fourth floor.

“I...I think he’s keeping guard,” Bash explained. Judging from the distance he was keeping and his alert gaze, that had to be it. He was acting like a loyal watchdog, making sure they weren’t doing anything too suddenly or quickly.

Seth watched Rodney, his jawline tense. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “I mean, at any moment—”

“I think Abyzou wants us to see her,” she said gently. “She wants us to get to the room.”

“Why?”

Good question,
she thought ominously, and she suspected it had to do with Seth, but didn’t voice that to him. “Come on,” was all she answered. “Before he changes his mind.”

As if in answer, Rodney actually growled like a dog. That was all the convincing Bash needed to continue. She pushed herself through the door and they were on the third floor. Here, the flesh that grew on the walls was even more pronounced, like they were in the throat of the beast. A low fog hung to the floor, so thick she couldn’t see her feet. Judging by the squelches from each step they took, it was a good thing she couldn’t. The mist swirled and dipped as if there were things moving around the mist as well. More little creatures to get in the way.

“It’s that one,” she said, pointing to room 409, which was at the end of the hall. She recognized the number as the room that Rick, Maria, and Lily had shared their first night in the hotel. Ironic that Lily and Bash were conceived in that room, as ironic that they were there now.

It made sense on some weird level.

“How do you know that?” Seth asked. “It could be any of these rooms.”

“I...just know...” Bash whispered. Seth gave her a frightened look, but she shrugged it off. There was no use in trying to explain it to him. She was frightened herself, but she had to focus on doing what she needed to do. Otherwise she was going to lose her nerve.

The entire hallway seemed to constrict as they headed toward the room, spurring Bash to start running. She kept a firm grip on Seth’s hand and pulled him along until they reached the room. The door was slightly ajar, as if in expectation of their arrival.

Bash let out a deep breath, closed her eyes.
Lily
, was her last thought before she pushed through the door.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

She door opened with an eerie creak, revealing a dank yellow light from inside.

Seth took in a sharp breath. “Ruh...Rick,” he whispered.

Bash followed his gaze to see the blackened corpse watching them. He crouched at the foot of the bed, his head swinging from his broken neck. His tongue lolled about, like he was licking his lips.

Seeing his burned, mangled body made Bash want to vomit.

There were other burned bodies trapped in the mountains and ripples of flesh that encased the room. Bash counted ten bodies—which was the number of people that were left behind in the break room with Maria, plus the three corpses of Darius, Naomi and Jeb. All of them had died when the fire had consumed them, but they had all been brought back as puppets.

“Oh my God,” she whispered in horror. Her eyes then moved to the thing on the double bed. “
LILY?
”

The source of the flesh on the walls came from Lily, as the strings of sinew connected to her, like she was some sort of power source being drained. She was sitting upright in the bed—at least Bash thought she was—but the flesh wrapped around her, creating a cocoon. Only her face was open from a hole in the layers of skin and sinew. Her dark hair spread about her like a crown. Her eyes were rolled back into her head, and her mouth was moving as if she was speaking in tongues, her nose was bleeding profusely.

That wasn’t the scariest thing. Someone else was with Lily, someone whom Bash recognized from the visions of her father.