First of all I need to make a sincere apology to all those who have been waiting for me to update this story. I have no excuse for my extreme tardiness and I hope you can forgive me.
Chapter Seven
"Woohoo!" Gordon cried out as he flew open the door to the next floor. "Just another fourteen more floors to go. Come on guys, lets go find…"
He suddenly stopped and gazed about him, fully taking in his surroundings for the first time.
He couldn't believe it.
Whereas the previous floor had been a reflection of the 1950's era - around the time the hotel had been built -, this floor looked like the interior corridor of a medieval castle. A long tapestry stretched the length of the corridor, depicting the image of an ancient combat ( Gordon guessed that it was the battle of Hastings, though he couldn't be sure).
The walls of the corridor were made of stone and a cold draft was whistling through the gaps causing Gordon to shiver slightly, though this might have been from the creeps he was getting rather than the cold.
Virgil and Alan appeared beside him. They too gazed in shocked silence at the corridor.
"Ok, we have officially entered the Twilight Zone," Alan whispered. He turned to look at the tapestry and jumped back when he realised that the figures were actually moving. One of them suddenly drew his sword and decapitated the head of his enemy. Blood spurted out of the headless soldier and trickled down and out of the tapestry, trailing its way down the stone wall.
"You mean we weren't in it already?……Oh that is gross!" Virgil leapt back as the crimson blood began to pool around his feet. "I just cleaned these boots before I came here."
He was about to kneel down and wipe the blood off when he felt Gordon tap him on the shoulder.
Virgil turned to his brother. "What is it?"
But Gordon didn't answer, instead he continued to stare up at the other end of the corridor, a look of horror on his face. He raised his finger and pointed with a trembling hand.
Virgil followed his line of site and when he saw what Gordon had spotted a look of terror appeared on his face as well. Without taking his eyes off the sight he tapped Alan on the shoulder.
Alan, who had been continuing to stare at the tapestry, slowly turned and looked at what his older brothers were staring at. When he saw what it was a scream caught in his throat and he lifted his hand to tap Scott on the shoulder, before realising that he wasn't there and letting his hand flop back down to his side.
Lumbering up the corridor towards them, wearing a long black robe and a hooded mask obscuring his face, was an executioner. Gripped in his hands and dripping with blood was a large silver axe, which he lifted and swung above his head every couple of steps.
"Chip, chop, I'm going to slice your head off from on top!" The executioner's voice boomed down the corridor.
"What are we going to do?" Alan asked, anxiously tugging on Virgil's uniform. "There's no where to run to!"
Virgil looked around frantically before spotting an open entranceway into one of the rooms. He grabbed hold of his brothers and shoved them in to it, "quick get in there, now!"
When all three had made it into the room, Virgil slammed the door behind him and gazed around, trying to find something with which he could block the door with. He soon spotted an antique chest of drawers.
"Gordon, get over here and lean against this door!" Virgil demanded before turning to the younger sibling. "Alan, come and help me move these drawers, I want to use them to block the door."
Allowing Gordon to replace his position at the door, Virgil crossed the room and together he and Alan lifted the chest off the floor. Fortunately it wasn't as heavy as they thought and they managed to carry it across the room and position it by the door.
Suddenly the executioner's axe came crashing through the door. Virgil was lucky to miss impersonating one of his favourite artists, Vincent Van Goth, by an inch as he leapt to avoid the deadly blade.
"Virgil, are you ok?" Alan asked, concerned for his brother's close call.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Virgil reassured him before realising that he and his brothers were now trapped in this room.
"How are we going to get out?" Alan asked, seemingly reading his brother's mind.
In answer Virgil crossed the room and went out onto the balcony. A few seconds later he came back in. "Listen guys, the balcony next this one is relatively close. If we're lucky we can jump across and swing ourselves up, then maybe we can sneak past Choppy before he notices that we're gone."
"Are you sure that's going to work?" Gordon wanted to know.
Before Virgil could answer the axe came crashing through the door again.
Gordon walked onto the balcony. "Never mind, I'm willing to risk it."
Virgil had been right. The adjacent balcony was only a couple of feet away and Gordon felt sure that he could jump it and then use the bars and the hotel wall to climb up and over. He hoisted himself up onto the railings and stood swaying slightly, leaning a hand against the wall so as not to overbalance and plunge to his death.
"Be careful, Gordon," Alan warned, coming onto the balcony along with Virgil.
"But hurry up," Virgil added. " He's almost broken the door down."
Gordon took a deep breath, tried not to look down, and jumped. Time seemed to stand still as he flew across the gap and he could almost swear that the opposite balcony was getting further and further away, but eventually he felt his fingers connect with the opposite railings.
"Yes! He's made it," Alan celebrated. "Come on Gordon, climb up."
Moving side to side to get some momentum into his body, Gordon managed to swing himself up and place his feet on the balcony ledge before using his hands to climb up the railings and to the safety of solid ground.
"Ok Alan, it's your turn now," Gordon called across after getting his breath back.
Alan was a little more confident when it came to the leap, probably because he had already witnessed Gordon make it successfully. He climbed onto the balcony leapt easily across with Gordon pulling him up on the other side.
"Virgil, hurry up!" Alan shouted.
"I'm coming!"
Virgil was just about to climb onto the balcony and join his brothers when something grabbed him from behind.
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Clutching his stinging face in one hand, Scott stared in amazed bewilderment at the figure who stood before him.
Lucille Tracy hadn't changed a bit since the day of her funeral. Her long brown locks that reached all the way down to her waste were tied up in a pony tail, and she was attired in the green silk dress and matching pearl necklace that she had been buried in. The emerald earrings (Lucy's birthstone) that the boys had bought for what would be her and their fathers final anniversary were still dangling from her ears.
No, she hadn't changed….save for one thing.
Her eyes.
The honey brown orbs that were usually alight with mischief and sparkling with love were now blazing with fury. She stared at her eldest son with a look that Scott could only feel was contempt.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the first of my brat pack; the beginning of my nightmare known as motherhood. Come to see your mommy have you?"
"You're not my mother," Scott whispered, taking a step back. Charlie had hidden behind his legs, staring up at the woman with scared, anxious eyes.
Scott lightly squeezed her shoulder to reassure her. "It's ok, Charlie. Everything's going to be ok, I promise."
Did he really believe that?
"You haven't changed have you Scott," Lucy commented. You're still the same selfless, caring, interfering little git I remember."
"What the hell are you talking about…'Lucy?'"
The woman ignored the fact that Scott had used her first name rather than 'Mom'. "Oh, come off it you little bastard! I got sick of the fact that whenever one of your brothers got hurt or upset it was you they ran to, never me. You, you, you, always you! It drove me crazy! So crazy in fact that I actually planned to get rid of you…permanently. I was going to make it look like an accident; falling down the stairs, something like that. That way the boys would no longer be able to run to you, they would come to me, like they should have done in first place!"
Scott's face had slowly gone pale as he listened to those words. Had his mom really felt that way? It was true that his brothers had usually gone to him rather than their mother when they had a problem as kids, but Lucy had been pleased about that because it meant that the three of them trusted their big brother immensely. The fact remained true when Alan had been born, though his mother was no longer there to confirm it.
He vehemently shook his head. No, this woman wasn't his mother, no matter how alike they looked. His mother…his real mother…would never contemplate getting rid of one of her children, especially in such a cruel and barbaric way.
"You're not my mother!" Scott repeated even more venomously. "My real mother would never say such venomous things, she was a sweet, caring woman to all who knew her until the day she died."
'Lucy' threw back her head and let out a cold laugh that echoed chillingly around the room. It was a sound that Scott had never heard coming from his real mother and it made his spine tingle.
"You foolish twit," 'Lucy' snarled. "When are you going to get it into that thick head of yours that I am your mother. I'm everything your mother wanted to be, everything your mother should have been but couldn't thanks to you and your brothers. Because of you I was forced to act the part of a caring mother, even though deep down I despised all five of you for wasting my life."
"Wait a minute, five? Why would you despise Alan? You…I mean my mother….was only with him for a couple of hours before she died, that isn't long enough for Alan to have 'wasted her life'.
"I still had to carry that little brat around for nine months!" 'Lucy' snarled. "And in causing my death he ruined the one thing I was good at, being a mother, even if I was just pretending. He also unintentionally destroyed my plans of maternal filicide."
Maternal filicide: The act of a mother killing her son or daughter.
"What possible reason do you have to think that my mother would want kill her own children?" Scott asked, his eyes narrowing in disbelief.
'Lucy' shook her head. "Not children, Scott, child. When I realised I was to be saddled with another of you brats, I knew it would be the same as it was with Virgil, John and Gordon. I would spend nine months having to carry him before going through the pain of childbirth, only to have him doing what all the others did before."
"And what's that?"
"As soon as he got old enough to walk he would ignore me in favour of you. Well I wasn't going to let that happen this time, not again," 'Lucy' replied. "I started to plan what I was going to do to get rid of you. The best thing I thought of was to drown you. I would come in while you were bathing and hold your head under the water until your lungs filled and you drowned. Yes, you would struggle, but I figured that you would be too shocked and scared to put up much of a fight. And when your father returned with your brothers he would discover me holding your lifeless body and sobbing hysterically about how you must have slipped and fallen."
Charlie, who had been listening in shocked silence this whole time, felt Scott's body tense beside her. She looked up to see that his face had gone even paler than before.
"Scott," she whispered. "Don't listen to her. Remember, she's not your mother."
"I…I know that," Scott reassured her, never taking his eyes of the woman that looked so much like his mother.
'Lucy' continued her description of the planned murder. "Your brothers would have all been devastated and your father would have been even worse. With everyone too hysterical with grief to provide any comfort for the boys, they would come to the one person who would be able to provide them any sort of comfort…me."
"I can't believe you would have the gall to stand there and say that," Scott snarled. "You're not a mother, you're not even human."
"IT'S YOUR FAULT!!" she shrilled so loudly that Charlie gave an audible whimper and backed up against the wall. "IF YOU HAD KEPT OUT OF THE GODDAMN WAY, I WOULDN'T HAVE PLANNED TO DO IT! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SO CARING SCOTT? WHY?"
She took a deep breath in order to calm down and her eyes fell on Charlie. Before anyone could respond she reached forward and grabbed the young child pulling her towards her chest, wrapping her hands around her neck and digging claw like fingers into her throat.
"Tell me, son, is it just your brothers that you were so annoyingly protective of or everyone?"
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"Virgil!" Alan gave a terrified cry as he watched as his older brother was suddenly grabbed by the executioner.
Virgil struggled out of his attacker's grip and backed up into the corner of the balcony. The executioner gave a snarl of rage and swung his axe at the brunet pilot, who dived to avoid to deadly blade.
He barely made it and gave a cry of agony as the blade cut into his thigh. Virgil crashed to the floor and tried to scramble away as the executioner stalked towards him, at the same time trying to stem the blood flowing from the leg. He rolled to the left as the axe came down again and scrambled to his feet.
"Get out of there, Virgil!" Gordon cried. "He's going to kill you!"
'Way to state the obvious, Gordie,' Virgil thought. If he could, he would have turned to scowl at his younger brother. As such, he was too busy trying to avoid being sliced and diced.
When the executioner moved towards him again, Virgil took his chance and swung his fist in a fast right hook. Surprisingly, his fist didn't sail through, instead it caught him squarely on the jaw, causing the villain to stagger backwards and drop his axe.
Virgil used this pause in the attack to get his breath back and to prepare himself for the next onslaught that he knew was coming.
"Virgil move it!" Alan cried, "Now's your chance."
But before Virgil could move the executioner lunged at him. However, Virgil had anticipated this and dived to one side. The three brothers watched as the executioner toppled over the balcony railings and plunged towards the ground below.
Virgil, Alan, and Gordon each breath sighs of relief at the lucky escape.
"Are you ok?" Alan asked. "He got you with the axe didn't he?"
"Yeah, he got me," Virgil replied. "But it's not as bad as it looks, I'll survive."
He removed his sash and wrapped it around his leg as a makeshift bandaged, careful not make it so tight as to cut of the circulation. Then he climbed onto the balcony rails and leapt across to join his brothers who greeted him with a double hug.
"Oh, thank God," Gordon said. "I was so scared that we'd have to come back with a dustpan and brush to sweep up the pieces."
Virgil gave the aqua naught a small smile, "Thanks the vote of confidence."
"You're welcome."
"Come on guys," Alan urged. "Let's get out of here, we still have to find the next key."
"Ok, we're coming Alan," Gordon reassured his brother. " Gee, I hope Scott's having better luck than we are wherever he is."
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Charlie looked at Scott with an expression of pleading fear. It was as naked and bare as a tree in winter."
"Let her go," Scott demanded.
'Lucy' dug her nails in a little deeper and Charlie cringed as her skin was pierced. A tiny trail of plasma ran down her neck and to her chest.
"Stop that!" Scott shouted.
'Lucy' paused and looked up her 'son', cruelly at him.
"I'll tell you what, I'll let her go after you apologise," she said.
Scott was confused. "Apologise? For what?"
"For what? For what! For making your brothers ignore me, for taking them away from me, that's what!" 'Lucy' shouted, shaking Charlie a little. "I want you to apologise for making me feel so useless!"
Scott opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again.
"Well?" 'Lucy' pressed, "I'm waiting."
"I'm sor…" Scott started to say, then stopped. In his head he suddenly got an image of John at four, being taught to ride his first two wheeler. He kept falling off and each time he would come to his big brother who would gladly patch him up. Then there was Virgil at approximately nine or ten. He was crying to Scott about a kid at school who was constantly harassing him. Scott comforted Virgil and then went to the school and gave a few angry words (among other things) to the bully who never touched Virgil again. Finally he got an image of Gordon and Alan aged five and four respectively, listening intently as Scott read them a bedtime story.
"No." Scott whispered quietly.
'Lucy' stared at him in astonishment. "What did you just say?" she hissed.
"I said no," Scott repeated. "Listen, I'm sorry that you're a bitter, twisted woman, who happens to look like my mother, but nothing more. I will not, however, apologise for caring for my brothers. No way, over my dead body."
"Over your dead body, huh, Scott?" 'Lucy' snarled, "Well.." She tossed Charlie to one side who fell dazedly to the floor, and walked towards the pilot with her clenching hands outstretched, "that can be arranged."
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AN: Yey, another cliff hanger! Don't you just love 'em? Don't worry I promise I won't take as long as I did to update the next chapter. Apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors that I may have missed.