CHAPTER#26

Carmina flew ahead up the stairs and they followed at a slower rate. A lump had formed in Mike's throat. He had expected to end up in the Rat King's lair again, not in an ancient mansion. He felt woefully outmatched here and wished he had more of the girls with him.

The stairs stopped at an open archway and he stepped through. He now stood in a library, the shelves stuffed full of books. Large curtains covered windows on the far wall and Carmina hovered before the next door, waving them over.

"Your turn," he told Cecilia. She phased through the door and stopped halfway. She backed up, a puzzled expression on her face.

"I can't go any farther." She looked toward Mike. "There's a barrier."

"Magic?" He grabbed the handle of the door and pulled. There was no latch and it swung open with a loud creak. He winced, then looked through the crack. He pulled the door open even farther, unsure of what he was seeing.

It was solid rock. He touched the cool stone, feeling around the edges of the door. There were no gaps between the frame and the stone itself. It was as if any leftover space had been filled.

"Whoa." Tink was looking at the door itself. The surface was uneven, as if it had been sanded down in random places. Mike stepped back to examine it and realized he was looking at a reverse image of the stone wall itself. He gently closed the door until it was open only a crack. Using his flashlight, he saw that the door's surface matched perfectly.

"I don't get it." He looked at Tink. "Why would someone do this?"

"Tink think not on purpose." She pushed the door shut. "Need find way out."

"Windows maybe?" He walked to them and pulled on the curtains. They fell apart when he pulled, sending a cascade of dust across the room. He coughed, walking out of the cloud. He really wished they had brought some water to drink.

He looked up to see Tink, Cecilia and Carmina all looking out the window. When he turned around, he couldn't help but stare too.

The windows gave him a birdseye view of the city, as if the room had been tilted perfectly sideways. They were high enough up that Mike could actually make out some surrounding clouds and a plane that flew beneath, and he instantly felt a small bout of vertigo take over.

"We're in the sky." He looked at the door across the room. That couldn't be true though, because they were also embedded in rock. They were easily a couple of miles up, but somebody would have noticed a large house embedded in an even bigger rock just floating there.

Right?

He snapped a picture of the city with his phone. This was a mystery he could deal with later, but he didn't feel like coming back to do so.

"Tracks!" Tink shouted, making Mike jump. She was walking all over the room. "Stinky rat tracks, all over!"

"Where do they go?" He watched her circle the room for a few minutes then approach one of the shelves. She walked along it, her fingers tracing the titles. She eventually settled on a pair of thick books at the end and pulled them out. She stuck her arm in the gap and twisted something.

There was a loud click. She walked to the end of the shelf and grabbed the edge.

"Husband help too." She was pulling on the shelf. Mike pushed from the other side and the whole shelf slid along a hidden track in the floor. They revealed a passageway that went about ten feet back and terminated in the same stone behind the door to the room. However, a hole had been chewed into the floor right in front of the wall.

"Hey, great job!" He gave Tink a high-five then ducked away when the books on the shelves launched themselves in his direction. He was knocked off his feet, the old tomes clamping down on his arms and legs. Several more collided with him, their covers flapping like angry birds.

"Tink!" Mike couldn't see where he was going. The books that landed on the floor would flop around like fish then flip their covers open violently, launching themselves toward him. The books passed harmlessly through Cecilia who grabbed Mike by the hand to guide him toward the door. Some of the books were heavy enough that they felt like punches and kicks when they hit him.

The room stank of old paper and mildew. He squinted through the chaos and saw a faint red glow near the floor. He knelt down and grabbed Carmina from underneath a book that was actively trying to chew her up. When they entered the tunnel, a few books were able to follow, but the majority kept flopping around randomly.

He swatted away the few that had followed them, marveling at the large bruise that had already appeared on his arm. They got to the edge of the hole in the floor and looked down.

"Well. Okay then." There were no tricks this time. The hole was in the ceiling of a large bedroom. A magnificent four poster bed was right beneath them. MIke jumped first, his stomach lurching into his throat before landing on the mattress with a thud. He rolled out of the way just as Tink landed.

"That wasn't so-" the mattress snapped shut like a venus flytrap. Mike drew his knife and sliced it along the fold while Tink tried to squirm free from the inside. The bed was hopping up and down, making him think of countless horror movies with nasty poltergeists. The huge frame bent inward, trying to swat at him while he cut. Cecilia was holding onto one of them, keeping it from clubbing MIke in the head.

"Fuck!" One of the posts smacked him hard, his vision going dark around the edges. Growling, he sliced the offending post cleanly off, then did the same for the other one near him. Digging the blade into the frame beneath him, it took only seconds to slice the bed cleanly in two. It sagged and was unable to hop in the air nearly as far. He turned his attention back to the mattress and finished the job, pulling Tink free. Using the knife, he sliced off the other posts and then cut the legs off as well. The bed was now a small pile of wood, flopping limply on the floor.