What the Dead Fear Read online

  Part 8

  Gareth trudged into his prison, looking as exhausted as any mortal man who worked a physically taxing job. His jackals were on his heels, as always.

  The lost souls raised their voices once more.

  "Shut up! Be silent a while, for the love of God."

  Gareth disappeared into a shadow and reappeared with a table and chair, which he dragged over to the side of Juniper's cage. He set the chair to face her and seated himself.

  She moved the cot over so she could sit on the edge to face him from across the table.

  "You told me that you tortured people."

  He chuckled, "Are you placing a request?"

  "No. I just hadn't seen you do any torturing. I thought maybe…”

  “I was a liar?"

  Juniper shrugged.

  Gareth rose from his seat and approached the nearest cell.

  "Wait! I didn't intend for you to hurt anyone. Please."

  He unlocked the door, threw it open so hard the sound of it striking the wall echoed, and he went inside.

  The prisoners around them fell silent.

  The woman in the cell screamed something bordering on an intelligible, “No!”

  Juniper couldn’t see them. She curled her fingers around the bars and tried to discern their forms in the dark beyond her spotlight.

  They struggled, giving glimpses of pale skin and overcoat shadows.

  “Hold still.”

  Flesh thumped against the floor and the wall and there was a sickening smack as he struck her.

  The lost soul unleashed a vehement, pained screech that was cut off by a sound like choking.

  “Please stop!” Juniper pleaded.

  Gareth emerged. He wiped his hands on his hips and slid the door closed.

  He returned to his side of the table. He removed his long coat and hung it on the back of his chair. His shirt was a fisherman's crewneck sweater of a dingy oyster color.

  “Don’t look at me like that. This is my duty. People must respect the boundaries.”

  “What good is punishment if the lessons can never be put into practice? You’re a sadist.”

  "I am necessary.” He sighed. “Do you know how to play checkers?"

  What in the world?

  "Checkers?"

  He nodded, ever so solemnly.

  Her pregnant best friend might be hurt, dying or dead, and her warden wanted to play checkers.

  "Sure. Why not?"

  He took the game, a cloth game board and a burlap bag with the pieces inside, from a pocket in his coat. He rolled out the cloth.

  "Would you like to play red or black?"

  "You carry the game around with you?"

  He responded calmly, "If you plan to mock me, I can put the game away and go torture someone else. I can assure you that listening to them scream is far more unpleasant than a game of checkers with me."

  Juniper glanced at the cells nearby.

  "I'm not mocking you. Red, please."

  He opened the bag to spill the game pieces onto the cloth. They were pebbles. The red half of them appeared to be painted.

  "How did you color the pebbles? That isn't blood, is it?"

  Gareth smiled, baring his pointed canine teeth.

  "Now where would I find blood in Limbo?"

  "Where would you find paint?"

  He waved away her inquiry as he set up the game, "Let's not worry about such things. It's not blood. Leave it at that. Go first. Make a move."

  She moved a pebble from her front line. He did the same.

  They played for a few minutes before Juniper asked, "Can you see into the mortal plane?"

  "I'm not checking on your friend for you."

  "Why not?"

  Gareth cleared his throat and smoothed the front of his sweater. "If she is still in distress, you might try to escape to make another attempt to save her. If you did indeed save her life, others may be encouraged to imitate your behavior."

  "Who? The only other human souls I've seen in Limbo are your prisoners. Is there anyone else or did you lock them all up?"

  "Doesn't matter." He growled. "I refuse to justify your actions by offering you conclusion."

  Juniper put her attention back to their game.

  Then Gareth asked, "How did you manage to break the law during the day? You accessed the living world during a time in which you shouldn't have been able. How did you cross?"

  "I want to know if Nikki and her baby are alright first."

  He slammed his hands on the table.

  "Tell me."

  "Why should I?”

  He snatched her hand and pulled it close to him. He pressed the palm of his free hand against hers.

  Pain, first icy, then sharp, stabbed up her forearm into her shoulder, down the left side of her back.

  She screamed.

  The imprisoned souls around her screamed too.

  "Tell me." He snarled.

  "Stop."

  He released her.

  She fell back onto the cot, head spinning.

  "There was a man with a mirror. It looked Egyptian or something. It was a window."

  Gareth's eyes widened, "Mordecai? Where is he?"

  "He had a house at the bottom of the trench where Cricket brought me to you."

  The jackals lying on the floor stood in unison.

  With a gust of wind, Gareth and his entourage vanished.

  "Asshole."

  The cacophony of screams around her subsided.

  She lay on her side and faced a shadowy corner and tried to think of ways to escape.

  After a few minutes of blessed silence, she heard the tick of claws across the stone prison floor. A shadow appeared near the cot, on the other side of the bars.

  "Juniper." A voice whispered.

  She looked over to see Cricket in a smaller version of her insect form. Her eyes were no longer glowing.

  "Glad to see you." Juniper snapped. "Hope you don't plan to attack me."

  Cricket hung her head, "I'm sorry, Jun. I didn't have a choice. Please forgive me."

  She remembered the way Cricket resisted Mordecai’s order.

  "What are you?"

  The insect put her hands on the bars.

  "When Mordecai was guardian, I served him."

  "Like Gareth's jackals."

  The insect nodded.

  "I wish you'd told me."

  "I should have...I just wanted a friend.” She looked at the floor, “I came to you on the night you died because you hadn’t yet traveled to Limbo. You didn’t know what I was. If you knew I was a monster, you would have run."

  "Probably. Can you break me out of here?"

  "Only Gareth can open the cage."

  Juniper groaned in frustration, "Have you seen Nikki? Is she safe? Can you at least give me some information?"

  "She isn't safe. The man is afraid of her, but he still won't let her leave. He slept on the couch with a loaded gun under his pillow."

  "I have to get out of here."

  "No one escapes. It's impossible."

  "You got in."

  "I'm a minion, like the harpies outside. They can tell I'm one of them so they leave me alone. They'll attack you."

  "Oh," She frowned, "Gareth is out looking for Mordecai. I told him about the house in the trench."

  "He already moved it."

  “Good. The fact that he’s still out running around seems to piss off Gareth.”

  A plan began to form in Juniper’s mind. She wondered if the capture of Mordecai exceeded the value of her own captivity.

  “Mordecai’s freedom is Gareth’s humiliation.” Cricket confirmed.

  Juniper couldn’t ask her to trade her guardian for someone she just met, could she? No. But there was one question she would ask.

  “Do you think Gareth would bargain for my freedom?”

  “What kind of bargain?”

  “Maybe we can offer him the mirror.”

  That was a reasonable suggestion, not
a soul for a soul. A mirror was simply an object.

  Cricket’s black eyes narrowed.

  “I don’t think either of them will go for that.”

  “I’m going to offer it to Gareth as a trade so he’ll take me outside. I don’t stand a chance in here.”

  The insect girl nodded, “I’ll watch for you. I have to go.”

  She put a slim, insect arm and three-fingered claw through the bars.

  Juniper took the strange hand in her own.

  Cricket said, “Be careful.”

  “You too.”

  Juniper watched her back away and blend into the shadows.