This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I should really change the category to supernatural (but I still like to think of it as a mystery). Sorry about the weirdyness. :S I'll try to reform if I write another story.
~ Chapter 10 ~
Jane winced as he hit the floor, his fall only very slightly cushioned by the thin, patterned carpet of the corridor. He immediately scrambled to his feet, looking frantically left and then right. The pale orange light that dimly illuminated the hallway showed his surroundings as best it could. The beast was gone, and so was Lisbon.
"Lisbon!" He shouted, running back in the direction he thought they had come from, listening as the echo of his cries sprung and bounded across the walls. "LISBON!" He shouted again, but there was no reply. The muffled sounds of his footsteps seemed to roar and thunder in the deserted corridor, he was alone. She wasn't here. She was never here…
Jane spun around to see a dark figure at the far end of the hall, their face concealed by shadows.
"Lisbon?" He knew it wasn't her, it couldn't be her… but it was like dialling the number of a friend and still saying their name in confusion even when its clear that the stern, gruff voice on the other end of the phone could not belong to them. It was hope.
You will not find her here, she was never here…
"Who are you?" Jane asked, but he did not approach the figure.
The question is who… are you?
The voice of the figure was distorted, as if they were talking over a radio. There was no way of knowing if it was male or female. The shape of the figure became warped and began to flicker, much like an old TV set, and was then as it had been before, although maybe a little closer.
I doubt you even know, but then, who does… really…
"Tell me who you are, or at least your name if you have one."
You have but to know an object by its proper name for it to lose its dangerous magic…but you… I know you…
"Then tell me who I am, if you're so sure," Jane took a step towards the dark form, his usual façade sliding into place. This creature was not human, of that he was certain, but that did not necessarily meant it was something to be feared. So he would play his game, and by his rules, to an extent. Until he found what he needed.
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You - - You are the embodiment of the information you choose to accept - - You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…
"Why do you speak in quotes and riddles? You say you know me but you can't even tell me my name."
What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet…
The figure flickered again, it's shape shifting and twisting, and once again it moved a little closer. Jane had grown accustomed to the dream-like occurrences within the hotel and he was not surprised by the stranger's behaviour, but this did not denote that he was by any means comfortable with it. He was used to always being one step ahead, and he found the nature of his current conversation to be slightly unsettling.
I know of you what I need to know, and that is enough… and I know of you sweet Teresa, and that she is what you seek…
"Lisbon? Tell me where she is, where did they take her?" Jane moved toward the figure and the figure flickered and moved jumpily towards him, the same way an old tape would jump, missing out sections.
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows…
"Stop that, tell me where she is!" Jane was face to face with the figure now, and he could see it was wearing a black hooded cloak which it wrapped around its front, concealing its body. It had no head, and in the space where the head would be it held a plain white mask, and it was the mask that was talking.
There she blows!--there she blows…
"Where?" Jane pleaded and the masked stranger looked upon him with and expression of both pity and grief.
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes…We are all connected, I so desperately wish we knew it…
Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!
"Please, tell me what you know."
The masked figure began to fade, its cloak disintegrating until only the mask was left, and then that to was gone.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon…
They danced by the light of the moon…
Lisbon awoke in a what would appear to be a great library, with an impossibly high ceiling and many shelves of books that nearly reached it. Each row was neatly stacked, and every book was in its rightful place. She lifted her head from where it was resting against the arm of a red, cushioned chair, placed on a rug in front of a small fire. Next to the chair was an old, shallow table and on top she saw two well-used books but the titles were too faded for her to read.
Her eyes drifted back to the fire, which at first had not seemed any more significant than any other aspect of the room, but now she felt herself drawn towards it's flames. They curled and licked at the grate, dancing gracefully across each other. As she continued to watch, she thought the flames were beginning to form shapes, warped and distorted at first, but then something more solid… and the more she thought them to be real, the more alive they became. Small figures that ran and jumped through the smoke, their fiery bodies separating and then reforming as they leapt between the flames.
"They're rather beautiful, don't you think?" Lisbon turned to find the owner of the voice, her hair swirling around her face. Gustav stood behind her, his hand resting against the edge of the chair.
"They're my people," he continued, gazing fondly at the fire, "I keep them safe. They hate me for it and they will make that known one day or another, but for now, they belong to me." He came to stand in front of her, his hands on either side of the chair, preventing her from rising.
"My true name is Dance, if you want to know, and although that was a long time ago, I like to keep it. There is a great power in names you know… Teresa." She felt the back of his hand lightly stroke her cheek. "I knew it was one of you, but you were always so close together, but now I see you. How could I have missed it? There is not a movement or glance or breath that does not betray you. Maybe I'm finally getting old." He chuckled slightly, taking her hands and gently pulling her from the chair. She did not resist, instead allowing herself to fall against him and rest her hands on his shoulders as he wrapped his arms loosely around her waist.
"You are different from the others. You are one of them, I do not doubt that, but you are something greater, something powerful. You are the last, and it would be the last in the world to set them free."
She listened silently, aware that she was not quite herself and that this was indeed the man who had taken her, who had taken her team, but she did not feel any desire to pull away. She felt safe, comforted, as if the world was melting away. She felt no confusion over what she heard, even though what he said made little or no sense… but there was something. Something flickering at the back of her mind, like a low, consistent buzzing.
It vibrated throughout her thoughts, murmuring and glistening against her subconscious. She couldn't ignore it, or block it out, but it wasn't loud enough to really hear the words that were said. Occasionally she caught the odd word, somewhere or searching, but could never form a sentence or even put two words together.
She felt herself begin to fall, her eyelids drooping as a dull mist lightly covered her mind. No, she thought, trying to clear the haze in her head but it only grew, thickening as is ran over her thoughts like oil. I mustn't fall asleep.
Sleep…
She tried to focus on the buzzing but it was starting to fade. She clutched at it desperately as she felt herself slipping , falling, further and further away. Soon it was just a faint drone and then she could no longer hear it at all.
Sleep…
No, I mustn't… I need to… I have to…
Sleep…
No…
Jane stood in the place the masked stranger had just been. He had tried to help, Jane thought, but all he knew were songs and rhymes. Had he even known where Lisbon was?, or was it just another of his riddles? He had said she wasn't here, and he had said it with such certainty that Jane believed him to be telling the truth to the best of his ability. But if she was not here, where was she, and by what evil force was she taken? Because her knew now that whatever had taken her was not of this world, or any world discovered by man.
He wanted so much for this to all be a dream, that he would wake up now, as he always did, to find himself on his couch, and find her sitting at her desk… but he remained, and he knew he would not wake. He had promised, promised to take care of her. He knew then that she would not accept his protection, just as she would not hold it against him now, and yet he longed for her forgiveness, or simply to see her face.
He realised he was walking down the hall, and must have been for a while now. He did not know where he was going, but then he wouldn't have known how to get there if he did. Every hallway looked the same, every doorway looked the same, same patterned carpet, same rough ceiling.
He watched his shadow dance over the walls, wavering over the doorframe and casting a dull shade over the shiny silver numbers. As he watched, he was sure he saw it warp slightly, briefly changing its shape, and then reforming. And had it not been for the beast, the pictures, the lions and the overall strange, dreamlike behaviour of the hotel, he may have paid it no mind.
He watched intently, and as the shadow shimmered over the door, it morphed again, this time to a more distinctive shape, and it stayed.
Lisbon woke again, blinking as she tried to focus on her blurred surroundings. Everything was fuzzy, swirling around her like smudged waves of colour. If she could only think straight, but the flies, they buzzed and hummed in her head, and they would not let her be.
"I see you are awake," Lisbon looked up to see Gustav, or Dance, or whoever he was, standing over her, but his image had been broken. She could not see his whole figure. As the room became clearer, she saw she was in a large golden cage, one that looked like it might once have held a bird, and the man's figure was broken by its bars. Despite her prison, Lisbon still felt no anger or even worry. Everything seemed to fit, everything it its right place.
Dance waves his hand in front of her eyes and receives no response. "Just as I thought," he continues, "I have most of you, enough for now at any rate, but there is still something…" he reaches though the bars and gently cups her cheek in her hand. Part of her tells her to pull away, tells her to scream, to fight… but she remains still.
"You see my dear Teresa, you are not all here. Part of you has been left behind and until I retrieve it you will not be complete and so I, in turn, will not be complete. The mortal, he has taken a piece of you and that piece is with him yet. He will not give it up easily." He removed his hand, withdrawing from the bars of the cage.
"You must understand, I only want what's best for you. You may not see it now but you will realise, in time, that we are not so different, you and I. For we have both known the mortal world and it is not a world that leaves us easily. But you are better off here ,they would kill you if they knew what you are, you're safe with me, where they can't get to you." He looked at her affectionately, and that same part of her was telling her to run, to never look back.
Don't look back…
But she only sat mutely, unable to act upon the voice's wishes even if she had wanted to. If she could only think straight… but the flies, they buzzed in her head.
Not too sure why I went with flies. There's one annoying me right now though. The quotes at the beginning or the chapter are from Alice In Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet, Moby Dick, Hound of the Baskervilles and The Owl and the Pussy-cat (from which this chapter also takes it's name).