Wherein a house moves.
After my trip to and from the Dark, the old man retreated to his study. When he freed me from my imprisonment in my room, I was told that the second floor was off-limits as well as a first floor room behind a heavy door. It is this room he entered and then closed the door. I guessed it to be a study, but in truth I had no idea. The door was always closed.
A few minutes later, that same singing began emanating from the room, filling the house. I wasn’t sure the acoustics, but there was not a room in the house you could not hear it well. I’m not sure if there was some resonance, but even the pots, pans, and metal strangeness hanging from the ceiling of each room seemed to resonate with that sound. It was all a little too weird for me and it made my head feel funny. I retreated to the deck.
There was one admonishment that the old man had said before secluding himself in that study. He said not to leave the deck or the house. That was fine with me when he said it. There was nothing for miles around, and all that was left from our foray into the Dark was the smoldering embers of a fire pit. But now with that weird vibration, I wanted to go for a walk and get away. Instead, I stood on the deck, leaning on the railing and staring out into the wasteland.
I sensed her before I heard her, that latter probably impossible, since she moved with an amazing silence across the planks of the deck. Emily came around the deck from the back side of the house. At first I didn’t turn to face her.
“Climb out a window or something?” I asked, referencing the fact that there was only the single door to the house.
“Something like that,” she said, walking over and leaning on the railing about ten feet to my left.
“I had to get out of the house,” I said idly. “Something about that singing rattles me right now. Not sure if it’s the fillings in my teeth.”
“Trust me,” she said, “you have no idea how much I agree with you. He wants me to stay in the room when he does this, but… I think I’d be ill if I stayed in there.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, seems like it could get that bad.”
What I missed at the time was her staring back at me, her face completely serious.
“I’m guessing things went well out there,” she said finally, changing the topic.
“I guess it did,” I said. “Why did you think that?”
“He’s happy for once,” she said. “You can feel it all through the house.”
“Yeah, I bet that is a rare event.”
“How are you after all that?” she asked.
“Me? I guess I’m okay,” I said. “Rattled, mainly. That Dark is some fucked up shit. I’m unharmed I guess, if that’s what you’re asking.” I raised my left arm to her and showed her the bare skin where the handprint once was. “No longer marked, that’s something.”
“That’s good,” she said, trailing off. “But that’s how he works. He makes you think he’s doing something for you, but it’s ultimately more for him.”
“Well, I have no illusions that it was all done for him. I just got something out of it.”
“Yes, but after a while, he stops pretending that you’re getting something. Then it’s all about his plans.” She paused. “Please leave as soon as you can.”
I waved my hand at the expanse of wasteland. “Go where? There’s nothing for miles. I don’t even know what direction to go. I’d need a map, a compass, a bunch of water. Stuff he’s not going to just give me when he thinks he needs me. Maybe when we’re done.”
“He’s never going to be done with you, not before it’s too late. Just leave while you can.”
“What about you?” I said, turning towards her pale face. “You could get a map, we could leave together.”
“No, I can’t leave. At least you can. Being out there would be much better than being here,” she said gloomily.
“Why does he keep you here?” I asked.
“He believes that being with me will bring him power,” she said. “I don’t want to be here. I wish I was… elsewhere.”
“Then leave! Walk out into the desert. Or come with me. You act like he has you in chains, but you are out here disobeying him. I’m not sure what codependency he’s brainwashed you with, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can walk away if you want to.”
There were tears in her eyes when she looked away. “You think you know what’s going on, but you don’t! You’re like him! You just think you can make everything better by pushing and forcing!”
There was a silence as she looked away and sobbed. My face flushed with embarrassment, I looked back at the wastes. The sound of the singing was louder, reverberating through the entire house.
A few minutes later she spoke again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I don’t really know you, and I know you’re trying to help. But you can’t, really. No one can. But I can help you. Run. Please leave when you can. Others have come before you, others who sought him out. He chewed them all up, taking everything he could, then cast them off.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” I said. “But I’m strong. I can keep myself from getting too deep into anything weird.”
“That’s what the others said. He is a wicked man, more wicked than you think. You’ll think you’ve beaten his game and you’re playing him, then he’ll drop the curtain and realize it’s been his game the entire time.”
“Is that what happened to you? Are you one of the ones who looked for him?”
“No, he… found me.”
“How did he – “
“No,” she said sternly. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Something rippled through me. Emily and I locked eyes. She felt it too.
In a moment, the house started rumbling and straining. Was it an earthquake? I grabbed the railing to steady myself. Emily did the same.
“This is one of the few fun parts of being here,” she said with a wan smile.
The rumbling continued as I struggled to keep to my feet. With a strange sense of vertigo, I noticed that the ground was falling away. In a moment I realized that the ground wasn’t moving, the house was rising up into the air. It slowly rose until it was twenty feet in the air. I grabbed the railing and looked down, craning my neck to see under the house.
What I saw were two long legs sprouting from the house. They were thin animal legs, with two clawed feet clutching the ground. Once the house was at its full house, the legs took a step forward, then another, beginning to move at a good pace.
“Huh, chicken legs,” I said, mostly to myself.
I looked out into the wasteland as we moved forward, feeling the wind in my face. I kind of understood what dogs felt like when they stuck their heads out of cars. But in my case, it was a chicken-powered house that I rode in. Perhaps said dogs would be unimpressed with my choice in locomotion. Dogs are haters.
I watched for some idea of where we were moving, but it all looked the same. Dunes and broken earth. Occasionally there was a dead tree or bones of some animal. I’m not sure how anybody navigated in this. Just where exactly was I? I don’t remember hearing that Texas or New Mexico were this desolate. I had heard people complain there was nothing in them, but this went beyond such flip complaints.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Emily shrugged. “He’s the only one that can make sense of this place.”
“This place? America?”
She slowly shook her head as her eyes revealed disappointment. “We’re not in America. Or rather, not the America you’re thinking of. I’ve never seen a map, but he might have one. I’ve only been in his study once, but it’s full of strange things. All his secrets are in that room. I can’t even get inside even though I’m…” she trailed off and then caught herself. “Resourceful. Even though I’m resourceful, I can’t get in.”
“So he just walks around the wasteland in his house?”
“He’s got some plans,” she said. “He’d say ‘wheels within wheels’ or some such thing. He’s always at war with someone. It’s all in pursuit of power. That’s all he’s ever cared about.”
“Power? To what end?”
“Power is the end. Power leads to more power.”
“That’s somehow sad to me,” I said. “Power seems like it’d be cool, but it’s about what you can use it to do. I don’t think I’d want power to sit in a house in the middle of nowhere and chase more power. I’d want to go live large or something.”
She gave something akin to a muffled chuckle. “I’d love to see his face when he heard such an idea. It would probably be his version of the Emperor having no pants.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you even close to happy,” I said.
Her expression instantly dropped. “I’ll say that precisely because you don’t want power is why you need to leave here immediately. Power and control are his hooks. If he finds he can’t use you like that, you won’t last here long.”
“Can he really do that? You make it sound like he can just murder people and get away with it. Are there bodies stacked in the basement? Err, in the chicken legs?”
Her face was glum as she answered. “Out here, the only law is the law you bring with you. And while we’re in his house under his will, it’s his law. Don’t delude yourself. He can do anything he wants to you here.”
“That’s not encouraging…”
“No, it’s not. It’s why you must leave.” She then cocked her head. There was a definite reduction in the volume of the singing. “He’s finishing up. I need to go back before he notices I’m gone. Please, leave while you can.”
I gave a shrugging nod as she disappeared around the back of the house. I looked down and notice that the legs were walking slower. We would be coming to rest soon. I thought about what she said. This did seem an odd place and I didn’t trust the old man. I knew I should leave and I should bring Emily with me. But where would I go? But after all Emily said, there was a bigger question.
Would he even let me leave?
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