CHAPTER#24

Mike walked slowly through the long tunnel, marveling at the random bits of furniture stuck in the walls. Occasionally they would pass a window that overlooked a random geographical feature. Mountains, lakes, and underground caverns were on full display for him, and he wondered if these were places contained inside the house or something else altogether.

"Hold up." Carmina stopped the group, her body flashing three times. The tunnel branched off in two directions. She flew quickly down one path, her light fading away. Soon, the only light they had was the glow of Cecilia's body, her eerie hair floating in the stillness of the cavern.

They waited in silence for several minutes, Mike's eyes adjusting to the gloom. He knelt down to examine a piece of wood embedded in the floor. He touched it, wondering where the other side was. The wood radiated enough heat to warm his fingers.

"What the hell?" He waved Tink over, who touched it with her hands. She examined it with her goggles, her face screwed up in concentration.

"Hot wood attached to hot room." She shrugged at him, the lenses flicking away from her face and disappearing. "Tink out of ideas. Maybe sauna?"

"Fair enough." As long as the hot room wasn't secretly on fire. He didn't need the house to expand and then promptly burn down. What happened in the unrevealed rooms anyway? Tink and the others had told him they fell asleep, but he suspected it was more than that. Did time just jump forward or was everyone in suspended animation somehow?

His mind went through all the possibilities, his theories getting deeper with every minute. It suddenly occured to him that Carmina had been gone for a very long time.

"Do you think we should go after her?" he asked.

Tink jumped at the sound of his voice. She had been leaning against the wall and had apparently dozed off. Her hands tightened around her hammer and she jumped forward, brushing her skirt off. Cecilia was staring down the tunnel Carmina had traveled down. Her milky white eyes couldn't see, at least not on the visible spectrum. Her view of the world was completely different than his, and she was currently focused on something.

"What is it?" Mike moved in front of her to see better, his body blocking her glow. His eyes quickly adapted and he saw a faint red glow swirling down the passage, steadily drawing closer. It was like watching a star fall from the sky.

"Run!" Carmina's voice was full of panic. Mike turned to go back toward the house, but Carmina took the other turn, pausing just long enough to lock eyes with him.

"Not toward the house!" She sped away, her wings beating frantically. Loud clunking sounds came from where she had been, so they followed behind her, moving as quickly as they could. Tink was the slowest, so Mike picked her up and carried her slung over his shoulder.

"Husband go faster!" Tink patted him on the back to urge him on. Mike rolled his eyes.

"What is coming after us?"

"Scary chair!" Something metallic pinged off of the walls causing Mike to tap into his inner sprinter. They moved through a couple of twists in the tunnel and a dim light appeared at the end of the tunnel.

"Chair?" He wanted to turn, but he heard that metallic sound again. Tink's legs kicked and she swung her hammer. She connected with something and he felt the shock travel through his shoulder.

"Run faster!" She smacked him with her free hand. His chest already burned from running with a goblin and he charged into the light. Gravity shifted dramatically, the world spinning rapidly around him while he fell sideways and crashed into the floor.

He was in a large food pantry and the hole had been chewed into the floor. The sudden shift in gravity had caused his fall, and he tried to stand. Tink had tumbled farther than he had and she was already up.

A shape burst through the opening and arced toward him. He rolled to the side, narrowly dodging it. He stood up and saw that he faced an old wheelchair that had been modified to hold a pair of machetes on sticks and some whirring saw blades affixed to the end of metal pipes. The blades whirred ominously without a motor to power them, and the chair spun in place, facing Mike.

Cecilia floated in front of him and moved away. The chair followed her instead, swinging at her instead. She dodged out of the way to hold its attention, her ethereal form safe from its sharp edges.

Tink leapt on the chair from behind and whacked at one of the pipes with her hammer. The chair bucked and nearly dumped her. Between spinning around and swinging, Mike couldn't get close enough to help.

Carmina pulled on his ear.

"Block the hole!" She flew next to one of the empty shelves. "That wasn't the only thing after us!"

"Jesus." Mike looked down the tunnel and could hear them coming. He stayed on the other side of the hole and grabbed at the empty shelves, pulling them down. They were heavy, but easy enough to tip. He shoved them across the opening just as Tink knocked one of the machetes off of the chair.

"Stupid fucking slashy chair." She swung at the center of the wheel and knocked something loose. One wheel wobbled dangerously when the thing turned, slowing it down substantially. Whoever had designed the chair hadn't accounted for an attack from behind. The chair kept circling around the hole toward him and he kept dodging away, grabbing onto anything he could stack on top of the shelves to hold them down.

Something heavy slammed into the shelves, making the pile pop up a couple feet before slamming back into place. Blocking the hole wasn't going to accomplish anything.

"Tink, let's go!" He opened the door of the pantry and looked out. It was a room that looked similar to a kitchen, but more industrial and much older than his own. He didn't see a fridge and the oven was woodburning. Cecilia rushed the chair, passing through it and grabbing Tink by the wrists to pull her free. Mike held the door open long enough for them to pass through then pulled it shut. The chair crashed into the other side, the saw blades piercing through the heavy wood.