Part 18

The silver scarf hangs loosely about her neck and I can barely make out the tip of a tattoo, maybe a snakes forked tongue, poking above the fabric. 

“You must be Dairy Mary,” she says, her voice nasally and her words clipped.  She follows this with a forced smile, revealing porcelain-like teeth.

“Yes, and you are?”  Mary responds, trying to maintain an air of confidence.

“You can call me Catherine, or Cat if you must.”  She turns and peers down her beak-like nose at me.  I stand my ground and glare back, resisting the urge to look away.  She blinks first and glance at Freak Beans, who refuses to make eye contact with her.  As she turns back to Mary, her scarf slips down, revealing that the tattoo is indeed a snake.  I blink and I swear the snake moved. 

“Well Catherine,”  Mary says, “What can I do for you?”

Again with the blinding smile.  “I just wanted to meet the object of my Cyrus’ affections.”

“Your Cyrus?”  I ask, and the snake does move, slithers up her neck until I can see it’s entire head.  As if I am watching a 3-D movie, the snake peels away from her neck.  I shudder as I watch the snake taste the air with it’s tongue.

“Yes, he’s my, partner of sorts.”  The snake climbs further out of her coat, coiling about her neck and left shoulder.

“You can’t go in there!”  I hear someone shout out in the hallway and a moment later, the Russian bursts into the room and shoves Catherine.

“Come on!”  He says and grabs my arm, pulling me out of the room.  Benny does not need to be told twice and falls in line behind us.  I watch over my shoulder for Mary, who appears a moment later.  We run deeper into the hospital and Rush jerks me into an unoccupied room, followed closely by Freak Beans and Mary. 

Giving the door a kick, it closes behind her.  “What was that all about?”  She asks, but the Russian cuts his eyes at her, pulling aside a time-stained curtain and revealing a ladder mounted against the wall leading up to the next floor.

“Up!”  He says and pushes me toward the ladder. 

I look over my shoulder at him and he motions with both of his hands for me to get moving.  I begin my ascent and he herds my other companions into the corner and drops the curtain back into place.  As I poke my head into the room above the ladder shakes and I look down to see Benny right behind me.  I turn my attention back to the room I was entering.  A layer of dust coats almost everything, save a path from the ladder to the closed door.  A rusting metal rack lay on it’s side on the floor near me.  I climb out of the hole and into the room, coughing as I kick up some of the dust.

“Shhh!” I hear from below.

“What happened back there?”  I hear Mary ask again.

“Go.  Up.”  Rush says.

“Not until you tell me what that was about.”

“Nyeht.”

I can imagine him shaking his head.  I scramble further into the room as Benny climbs off of the ladder.

“Bah!” I here the Russian say.  “I do not trust witch!”  All is quiet for a few seconds and he joins us.  I look down through the hole and my head almost collides with Mary’s as she ascends. 

“She’s a witch?”  Benny asks, standing up and dusting himself off as he walks toward the door.

Rush nods.  “Yes, and she’s his witch.”

“It’s locked,” Benny says, his hand still on the doorknob. 

The Russian tilts his head slightly and pulls out his Sigil Sphere.  “Are you Prince?”  He asks, then adds, “Back to the tunnels.”

I close my eyes, but can see the bright flash of light through my eyelids.  I open them and he is gone, leaving Benny, Mary and myself. 

“What was that all about?”  Mary asks again, ignoring the choice before her. 

I begin fishing my own sphere out of a pocket and I see that Benny is doing the same.  I hear Cat’s voice somewhere below us, “I just wanted to say ‘Hi.’  I was hoping we could be friends.”  She shouts. I hear a door open below us, but no further noise.

“Come on, we’ve got to go now,” I say, holding out my hand so Mary can take it.  Benny does the same.

“Ah, there you are,”  I hear the metal grating against metal as the curtain is pulled aside in the room
we had just exited. 

Mary grabs both of our hands and as we all disappear, I hope that Benny picked the same tunnels I had to transfer us to.  The last thing I see as we blink out is the head of the snake appear through the opening in the floor.