Chapter 7

“How long is this maze?” Nicole asked. She remembered Albert and Brandy telling her that the first time they came here they’d been forced to continue from the sex room without their clothes. She could hardly imagine treading these cold, stone corridors barefoot, much less stark naked.

“I don’t remember exactly,” Albert replied. He had wondered for a moment if he’d be able to remember the way. He did not mark it the first time he came through because he’d lost the paint can along with his backpack, but as he walked, he found that the path was burned perfectly into his memory. It was as though he’d only been here yesterday. “If I remember right, this last passage was pretty long.”

“Just as long as we don’t get lost,” Nicole replied.

“I don’t think so,” Brandy said. “This feels right to me. I’m more worried about what we’re going to do when we get to the hate room.”

“I know,” said Albert. It seemed to be true that those rooms relied on vision in order to affect people. Brandy had been able to navigate the hate room safely without her glasses, both on the way in and on the way out. And for a time it had even worked in the fear room, until her fear got the better of her. But the trick failed her in the sex room, where she’d already been exposed to the perverse statues on her way in. But by using Brandy’s glasses to encumber her own vision, Nicole had been able to navigate the sex room much as Brandy had done the hate room. That told him that the trick ought to work for any one of them, assuming they weren’t already familiar with the statues in the room he or she was attempting to navigate. But Beverly’s psychic abilities apparently allowed her to see the room even with her eyes tightly shut.

He wondered how her abilities worked. What was it, exactly, that had allowed her to see the sex room? “Beverly,” he inquired, “when you said you dreamed about us coming down here last year, what exactly did you see?”

For a moment, he wasn’t sure she was going to allow him a reply, but she did. “It was…only half a dream, I think,” she explained. “When I saw you go in, I’m sure I was dreaming, but by the time you came out, I was wide awake in bed, staring up at my ceiling, but also directly at you. I saw you like I was there with you.”

“I see. What did you feel when we went into the sex room?”

“I…I saw you having sex in there,” she said bluntly.

Brandy’s breath caught in her throat. The thought that this woman—or anyone, for that matter—had seen them down here at that precise moment, when they both had lost control and given into unjustified lust, was mortifying. She had felt pity for her, but at that moment she felt violated. At that moment, she almost hated Beverly Bridger.

“I was turned on,” Beverly went on, a little embarrassed, “but not by the room, I don’t think. I was more turned on by the two of you, the furious passion of it all, by the suddenness of it. It was so…unexpected.”

Albert nodded. He was neither mortified nor angry. His interest did not lie there, but in more important matters. “Could you see the room? Could you see the statues?”

She considered this for a moment and then shook her head. “I don’t remember exactly, but I think so. I’m pretty sure. When I was in there just now, I could remember the statues from my dream. It was like I knew everything that was around me. I didn’t have to see it.”

Again Albert nodded. It was similar to how Brandy had remembered the sex room when they passed through it the second time. She fell victim to the lust again simply because she could remember it from the first time. “And what about the hate room? Did you see it?”

Beverly opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it again. She had been about to say yes, of course she had seen it, just as she had seen the sex room before it and the fear room after it, but that was not quite true. “I don’t know,” she confessed instead. “I feel like I did. I saw you in there, but…” She shook her head. “But I don’t remember seeing the statues…or any of that room for that matter. It’s like…it was dark or something.”

Again he nodded. “Is it possible that you saw the temple through us? Only through us?”

Beverly considered this. “Yes. That’s possible. It’s likely, actually.”

“Because we saw the sex room. But we never saw the hate room. Brandy wasn’t wearing her glasses. If your vision was based entirely on ours, then you won’t have any memory of the things in there.”

“And she’ll be able to cross the hate room!” Nicole exclaimed.

“You really think that’ll work?” Wayne asked, doubtful.

“No, I don’t,” replied Albert. “It’s just a theory. But we have to try. The only other option is to abandon her between the two rooms.”

Wayne glanced back at Beverly as he imagined leaving her behind in these dark corridors, abandoning her the way she abandoned Olivia to her awful fate within Gilbert House. He saw her face pale with dread, and was a little surprised at the lack of satisfaction he felt. He still blamed her for what became of Olivia and her friends. He still hated her for what she did. He would never trust her. But neither could he be so cruel as to leave her behind in this cold darkness with no way out.

They turned the final corner in the passage and found the praying sentinel. This time, no one seemed startled by its appearance.

Albert paused and gazed upon it, remembering the last time, when he and Brandy were fresh from their intercourse, cold and naked. She was so beautiful, so angelic. A part of him almost wished they were like that again, alone and naked, intimate and vulnerable.

“Faith,” he said, chasing the thoughts from his head. Without explaining himself to the others, he went on.

The other four followed, traveling ever deeper down the gentle slope. Along the way, something appeared on the path before them and Albert paused to stare at it. It was the green cap from the spray paint can they used to mark their way the first time they came down here. He remembered passing it on their way out without bothering to stop and pick it up. At the time, they were still desperate to put distance between themselves and that thing that chased them into the water. He took the time to gather the paint can, which was still at least half full, but the lid had seemed irrelevant at the time. Now, as he stared at it, the familiarity of the scene struck him with a chill.

“What is it?” Wayne asked.

“The lid from the spray paint can,” Nicole replied. It was such a small detail, such a minor thing, but it was just another part of Albert and Brandy’s amazing story that was unfolding before her eyes in brilliant reality. She could still scarcely believe she was actually here.

Brandy bent and picked it up. “It feels like ages, but it’s like we dropped it here yesterday.” She ran her fingers across it. “No dust.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any dust down here,” Albert said. “It’s amazingly clean.”

“No cobwebs either,” Wayne said.

“I know.” Albert started walking again. He remembered Gilbert House and how it had been void of cobwebs, as though spiders and bugs were afraid to go inside. Could it be that bugs could feel what Beverly did when they approached Gilbert House? Could they feel the burning? But if that was true, then what kept them out of these tunnels?

Brandy lingered. She started to drop the lid, to just leave it where they found it, but somehow that seemed wrong. It was like littering. She removed her backpack instead and slipped it inside. There was no reason to leave it behind again.

Ahead of her, Albert stepped up to the water’s edge and stopped. For a moment he stood and stared out over the still water, into the shadows beyond. On the other side was the round room with the dying sentinels. That room was where they found that creature last time. It came out of the darkness of one of the other tunnels and chased them. He never saw what it was. He hadn’t dared take the time to look back. Not a day had gone by since that he hadn’t wondered what that thing was. What was the peculiar noise it made? Why did it stop chasing them?

“We have to swim,” he said when the others had gathered around him.

“What?” By the tone of Wayne’s voice, one might think that he could not swim, but it was surprise rather than panic that gave an edge to his words.

“It’s going to be cold as hell,” Albert warned, “but we have to go.” He removed his backpack and unzipped it.

“I brought suits,” Brandy said. “But only for three of us.”

“I should have planned better,” Albert apologized. “I was in a hurry to get back down here. I should have stopped and made sure we had supplies for everybody. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Even if you had,” pointed out Nicole, “you couldn’t have known Beverly would be here.”

“That’s true,” Albert admitted. “But we could have bought some food and water to bring with us.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t think about it. I’m better than this.”

“You were distracted over what happened in Gilbert House,” Brandy soothed. “We all were. We didn’t think about it either.”

Albert shook his head. He was smarter than this. The sodas and candy bars Brandy packed had been exactly what they needed when they found Olivia. That alone was reason enough to at least restock her backpack. But he had merely driven everyone straight here in his haste, not once even thinking.

He opened the box and removed Beverly’s envelope from his bag. He intended to stuff it inside so that it would stay dry.

Beverly caught sight of the envelope and had to resist an urge to snatch it from his hand. “How did you get into my apartment?”

Albert looked at her. “What?”

“When you took that.”

Albert looked down at the envelope. He remembered the accusation she made outside Gilbert House, that he had somehow stolen the envelope from her. She had even called him a liar when he told her about Andrea Prophett. “I told you how I got it.” He looked up at her, curious. “You’re really telling me that it wasn’t you who gave it to that girl?”

“Why would I want you to have that?”

Albert stared at her, not understanding. “If you didn’t want me to have it, why did you write my name and address on the front?” He held it up and showed it to her.

Beverly stared at the writing on the envelope. “I didn’t write that.”

Albert turned it and stared at the writing. “But if you didn’t…then who did?”

“It wasn’t me,” Beverly insisted. The tone of her voice was turning defensive. She truly seemed to believe that he was trying to deceive her.

But Albert wasn’t listening to the venom in her voice. He was staring at the envelope, thinking. “If you didn’t write it…” he said, his thoughts whirling inside his head. “That means somebody else knew we were down here.”

Now Brandy was also staring at the envelope. “But who?”

Albert had no chance to answer. Behind him, Nicole shattered the empty silence of the temple with a startling scream. He twirled around, almost stumbling in his haste to see what was wrong.

For just an instant he did not see what had frightened her, but then he did and suddenly he felt a sick dread fill him as he realized that he knew nothing about these empty passages. All those months ago, he had stalked these tunnels so carefully, cautiously watching both his front and back, making assumptions and calculated judgments, but he was not so clever. He was a fool, in fact. He was stupid. He had looked back often, but how many times had he looked up?

It came not through the water but over it, clinging to the stone ceiling like a giant, pale spider, a swift, hairless thing scurrying toward them. For a moment its form remained a mystery, but then its shape caught up with the eye and Albert recognized it for what it was just before it dropped to the floor in front of them.

The five of them stood motionless, staring at the strange new arrival. Not one of them knew how to react.

The naked man seemed to stare back at them, yet it was physically impossible for him to see at all. Like the night Albert and Brandy first looked upon him, he had no eyes with which to see.

He took two deep sniffs of the air, as though he found their odor curious, and then immediately turned his eyeless face on Albert. He took two steps forward, closing to within an inch of Albert’s face, and drew deeply of his scent. “You,” he said, his voice hoarse and raw, as though his larynx were a rusty machine. He turned slightly and sniffed quickly three times in Brandy’s direction. “And the woman.”

Albert and Brandy exchanged an uncertain look.

The blind man took another deep inhalation of the air around him, slowly turning his head from left to right as he did so. He paused for a moment, as though considering the others who were there. He was facing Nicole, as if she was of particular interest, but then he turned his bald and eyeless face back to Albert. “Hurry.” He stepped back, giving him room. “Remove your clothes.”

“What?” Nicole sounded horrified.

“You must continue naked,” the eyeless man explained. “Give me the ones closest to your skin. Leave the rest where you stand.”

“No way!” Wayne felt suddenly trapped. A rush of anger toward this blind freak boiled up from deep inside.

“Why do you need our clothes?” Brandy asked.

“The clothes smell,” the blind man said simply. “Leave them and bathe in the water or the hounds will smell.”

“The hounds?” Albert felt overwhelmed.

“Hurry now!”

Nobody moved. Albert stared at the blind man for a moment, puzzled. Could he really be serious? “Are the hounds those things we heard last time? The things that make that noise?”

“Yes,” replied the blind man. “They are deaf and blind but they smell.”

“I see. And our underwear? The clothes closest to our skin?”

“I will take them ahead, to draw the hounds away.”

Now Albert understood. This was why their clothes had been stolen the first time, why their underwear had been hung in that strange maze.

“Hold on,” said Wayne. He felt overwhelmed. Hounds? This was the first he’d heard of such creatures. “This doesn’t make any sense. If those…whatever they are…have such a good sense of smell, then how are we going to be safe just by being naked? They won’t just be able to smell our clothes. We smell too.”

Albert nodded. This was exactly what he was thinking. “That’s right,” he said. “Why can’t we just give you what you need to take ahead and put the rest back on?”

“It is the way it must be done,” said the blind man. “Go forward without your clothes or turn back now.” The tone of his voice told them he had no patience for further protests.

“Is there more we should know?” pushed Albert. “Something that’ll help us understand why we have to leave our clothes here?”

“No. Now hurry.”

“I’m not taking my clothes off,” insisted Nicole. “I came to see the Temple of the Blind, not to be on Girls Gone Wild.”

“It’s unreasonable,” agreed Wayne. “There’s no sense in it.”

Brandy turned to Albert, her eyes pleading with him to say more, to convince the eyeless stranger that he couldn’t expect them to do this.

“I’ve said how it will be,” the blind man said. “You may take your bags and that is all. If you do not agree, then turn back now and never return.”

Wayne opened his mouth to say more, but the blind man cut him off.

“I will discuss it no more.”

Albert glanced back at the others, saw the expressions they wore and then looked back at the blind man. It didn’t make sense. By allowing them to take their bags, this stranger had completely undermined his original argument. If the scent of the clothes would attract the hounds and not their bodies, then his backpack would be no different from his jeans. But then again, it was this man, he was sure, who got them in and out of the temple the first time. He glanced back up into the darkness behind them. There was a statue back there. Faith. Faith in the sentinels. Faith in the temple. Faith in whatever was down here. He looked back at the blind man and knew what he had to do. “I’m going,” he said. He bent and untied his shoes. “Anyone who wants to turn back, go ahead. It should be pretty safe going the other way, just follow the marks on the walls.

Brandy stared at him. He couldn’t be serious. She wanted to urge him to stay, but she knew he wouldn’t.

“Me too,” said Beverly.

Nicole looked at her and then at Wayne. This wasn’t a part of the story. Albert and Brandy lost their clothes when they got stuck in the sex room. Albert had told her he suspected it was the blind man’s way of urging them forward. But they knew the way now. They’d conquered the sex room. It wasn’t fair that he take their clothes this time.

Wayne turned and looked back up the path behind them. He could find the way back. It wouldn’t be hard. The tunnels were marked. The maze was small. He thought he could remember the turns. He could probably even feel his way through the sex room if he just kept his eyes closed and took his time. But then what? What would he do when he finally got home? He turned and looked back at the others. Beverly wasn’t budging. She had little choice but to go. And Albert had already made up his mind. He was already taking off his shirt. That only left Brandy and Nicole. He wished like hell he knew what they were thinking. If either of them refused, he could return with her. He could make sure she was safe as they made their way back to the campus. He wouldn’t even have to feel guilty for leaving.

As Albert unbuttoned his jeans, Brandy grunted and peeled off her shirt. She did not like this. Taking off her clothes again was bad enough. Doing it in front of everybody was countless times worse. But Albert was going to go. He was determined. Knowing the dangers ahead, he would gladly go without her, but she couldn’t allow that. She came here to find an end to this nightmare, and she’d be damned if she was going to let him go on alone. The very thought of sitting down in her empty apartment and just waiting for him to come home, never really sure if he would even make it back… It would drive her insane.

Behind them, without hesitating, Beverly untied her shirt and dropped it. In almost the same motion, she reached behind her and unfastened her bra. This was a choice that had already been made for her. For decades something had been beckoning her. She would not be turned away now, not for the sake of something as trivial as her modesty.

Nicole watched, embarrassed, as her companions undressed. She couldn’t believe they were really going to do this. It was absurd. This eyeless man wouldn’t even give them a good reason. She caught Wayne’s eye, saw that he, too, was hesitating. If she refused, he would turn back with her. She was sure of that. But that would mean leaving Albert and Brandy to go on alone. And what if she let them go on without her? Then what? Reluctantly, she unfastened her pants and pushed them down. She could not believe that she was doing this, but if her friends were willing, then so was she. She could not abandon them. If she turned back now, she would regret it for the rest of her life. And what if they needed her? She couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to them because she refused to strip.

For a moment, Wayne watched as Brandy and Nicole stripped off their shirts and pants and bras. He did not come down here to go skinny-dipping, but he also did not come this far just to turn back because he did not want anyone to see his junk. With a grimace, he pulled off his shirt and gave in to the blind man’s unreasonable request.

Seconds later, the five of them stood naked and embarrassed. Brandy gathered everyone’s socks and underwear, noticing the interesting variety of styles from Wayne’s boxers to Albert’s briefs and from Beverly’s practical, cotton panties to her own little pink thong that she wore just for Albert. When she had all of them, she turned and put them in the blind man’s outstretched hand.

“The hounds are fast,” the blind man warned, “but they cannot jump. Stay on the path or you’ll be in the maze. Do not forget to use the box.” This said, the blind man leapt to the ceiling and scurried away like a huge, pale insect, vanishing into the darkness as quickly as he’d appeared.

The five of them stood there awkwardly for a moment, each of them embarrassed and scared. Albert noticed from the corner of his eye that only Beverly was not trying to hide her nudity. While the others stood with their hands covering their privates and their bodies turned away from one another, she stood straight and proud, with her hands clenched at her sides. Perhaps she was too distracted by whatever it was she felt in this place to be concerned with modesty, or perhaps she just refused to be embarrassed of her nudity when she was so much older than the rest of them.

Nicole stood with her back against the cold, stone wall, one hand timidly covering her naked crotch, the other arm crossed over her breasts. “So do we swim now?” She asked.

Albert glanced at her, but it was only a glance. This was incredibly uncomfortable. After his last experience in these corridors, he would have thought that he’d be used to something like this, but being here naked with only Brandy had been much different. Even though he had hardly known her, there was something more natural about standing unclothed in front of a single member of the opposite sex. Being in a group like this was strange. And surprisingly enough, he felt that being naked in front of Wayne and Beverly, who were virtually strangers, was not as bad as being naked in front of Nicole, and seeing her like that, even from the corner of his eye while she kept herself covered, made him feel almost sick with a combination of childish curiosity and guilt. His sex drive, still in overdrive from the first night he came here, made him want to look at her, to see her, to relish the beauty of her nakedness, but his relationship to her, and more importantly to Brandy, made the idea of even snatching a glance in her direction seem like absolute betrayal. Though she was a beautiful woman, she was still his friend, a good friend, almost family. He forced his eyes forward instead, into the darkness that hung over the cold, still water, and then nodded. “We swim now,” he confirmed.

He looked at Brandy, who stood with her arms crossed over her breasts and her body turned toward him and away from the others. She was hiding from Wayne, he knew. The only member of the opposite sex present besides her own lover. He glanced at him, saw that he was standing back from everyone, his hands crossed over his groin, his eyes fixed awkwardly on a random place low on the wall, as though the stone there was suddenly very interesting to him, and he felt a surprisingly intense surge of jealousy. He fixed his eyes on Brandy and tried to focus his attention on the task at hand. “Ready?”

Brandy nodded. She was as ready as she was ever going to be.