There was a clammy hand on my shoulder. The red suit was still piled by the door, yet the suited man stood right behind us too.
“Form B!” Myles snapped.
They tried to push us away from it, but the suited man grabbed me and held me like a shield. A cold seemed to leak from his hand and through my skin.
“Move an inch, and I’ll end her.” The suited man said.
“I have the shot, Myles.” Alison said.
“Go on, Myles. Make the call.” The suited man said.
“You need her as much as us.” Myles said.
“I suppose we’ll figure something else out, won’t we, West? You always do, and I have all of the time in the world.” The suited man said.
I felt someone tug on my shirt. I looked down to see May once again, face dark with shadows. Her face looked pale and gray. No one else acted as though they could see her. She put a knife in my hand. One from the kitchen? I nodded and waited for my chance.
“Is that true? You need me?” I said to the suited man.
“I can always find another. I have May now, and we will be the best of friends.”
“Really? Because I’ve heard from May, and she says go to Hell.”
I swung my arm back. Only a moment passed before I felt a piercing pain near my side ribs. I cried out, but kept my swing going until the knife reached its face. There was a sickening crunch as the blade went through the suited man as if through paper mache. The suited man dropped me and stepped back. He stumbled and grasped at the knife in his face. A strange, bubbling noise came from him as if he were gurgling ink.
I was suddenly dizzy. I looked down at my side and saw blood where the suited man had attacked me.
“Shit.” I muttered.
That was when I heard several rounds of gunfire. The muzzle flashes blared in my peripherals. The echoing sound of the bullets started to dim. The lights were blurring. Eventually they stopped firing. I was losing awareness. Carol appeared. Was I on the ground? Myles and Alison loomed over me.
“Megan? Are you okay? Megan?” Carol said.
“You’ve had to ask that a lot lately.” I said. She gave a sad little smile.
“Don’t be stupid.” She said.
“Fuck! It’s not dead yet.” Alison yelled, but her words were distant. Carol pulled me away as Alison and Myles closed in.
“Shit– where did it go?” Myles said.
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Alison said. Their words were all so far away.
“Hello, she’s injured here?” Carol said. That was the last thing I heard as I passed into unconsciousness.
~
I woke up in bed. All of them around me. Carol, Alison, Myles, Lenny, and even David. The room was dark still, but my side was patched up.
“Look, I think she’s up.” Alison said.
“Megan, are you awake?” Carol said.
“Megan.” David said weakly.
“Hey, yeah I’m up. David, you’re okay?” I said.
“I am. They patched me up too, but I’ll need some time. Are you okay?”
“I think so.” I tried to sit up, but it didn’t go so well. Alison gently pushed me back down.
“Woah there, tiger. Take it easy now. It’s not as serious as we thought, but you should still take it easy.” Alison said.
“It’s good you’re awake anyway, because we have important matters to discuss.” Myles said.
“Myles, can’t we go easy? These two have sort of been through Hell here.” Lenny said.
“No, it’s fine. I have questions too,” I said. “What the hell are these things? Where did they come from? What do they want with us?”
“That’s all a long ass story.” Myles said.
“It’ll take longer if you preamble it like that,” Alison said. “Look, we have answers, but what we know is dangerous knowledge to have. If we tell you, you might be putting yourself and everyone you know in danger.”
“Danger from what? This company that Lenny talked about?” Carol said. Myles sighed.
“You already told her?”
“Well, yeah. What was I supposed to do?” Lenny said.
“Seems that ship’s sailed. Thanks for stealing my chance to be dramatic,” Alison said. “We may as well answer then. First off, we call these monsters, ‘Eidolons’.”
“They’re better known as Instance 75D46.” Myles said.
“Yeah, well not everyone’s a by-the-book-berry like you. Plus, it doesn’t translate well to the plural.” Alison said.
“Why that name?” Carol asked.
“That leads me to the second question, where they came from,” Alison said. “The first encounter we had with these things was in Italy. Specifically, when Delta squad and I dug them up in a cave. We found ruins submerged deep underground. By our best estimates, the ruins can be tied back to Roman origin.”
“Everyone opted to call them ‘Eidolons’ in reference to ancient Greek literature, but you would still be better off calling them by their classification ID.” Myles said.
“Wait, you said that a squad dug up these Eidolons?” I said, glancing at the three of them.
“Don’t look at me, I wasn’t anywhere near when they found those things.” Lenny said.
“Lenny came in later. He actually arrested my uncle at one point.” Alison said.
“Right, Lenny told us about that.” Carol said. Myles gave Lenny a look, and he smiled.
“Basically,” Myles said. “Alison was part of the team that initially dug these things up. We used to work for the company that initiated this dig. I was in Charlie squad, the squad they sent before Delta, and I was arrested after trying to inform Delta squad about what they were in for. They sent Delta team there to die after trial and error three other times. Headquarters wanted to start up some esoteric rite. We believe that this rite is what awakened Instance 23S47D.”
“What you call the ‘suited man’.” Alison said.
“Lenny was the officer who arrested me along with Johnathan Cartman, who was then hired to be a night guard at a museum the company owned. They were using the museum grounds purely as a middleman to smuggle these Instances across the country. John was killed by an Instance 75D46. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company was also testing its abilities there with expendables.”
“So how did you end up working with a guy you arrested again?” Carol asked.
“Like I said before, I tried to warn John because Myles showed me all of the evidence. I only wish I had listened sooner.”
“Plus he nearly shot me when I approached him.” Myles said.
“I’m sorry, did we forget the part where you’re a fugitive?” Lenny countered.
“Anyways?” Alison interrupted.
“Anyways, that thing that pretended to be John earlier? That was the one that killed him. It can take over bodies and objects, which seems like a trait that isn’t unique if one took over Grant.” Lenny said.
“As for your last question, we don’t know what they want,” Alison said. “We could guess of course, but we just don’t know. Clearly whatever they have in mind is dangerous for us to say the least. We weren’t sure how to fight these things at first, but that’s when we heard about people like you. People that can interact directly with them in some unique way. People like your mother, who managed to seal it away.”
“We need to find out how she did it.” Myles said.
“When I spoke with the suited man for the first time, he went on about intent,” I said. “That there was no specific ritual involved with releasing him, that it was just my intent. Could it apply the same way?”
Alison, Myles and Lenny exchanged a look.
“Maybe so. The Eidolons have influenced your nightmares, even your daily senses, right?” Alison asked.
“Yeah. They have been obsessed ever since we came here, trying to get me to ‘play the music box for them’. Though I realize now that even while I was a few states over, the suited man was following us.” I said. Carol ran a hand over my back.
“Why did you come back?” Myles said.
“My mother sent me a letter. She said that she was sick, that she needed me to watch the house, but when I visited her at the hospital, there was a point where she seemed like herself again. Instead of angry, she was worried to see me there, as if she hadn’t asked me to come.”
“Why a letter and not a phone call?” Myles said.
“She didn’t like phones. Doesn’t use them.”
“That settles it then. It was Instance 23S47D that brought you here. Some of the Instance 75D64s can use the phones, but if it had called you, it wouldn’t have been able to pretend like it was your mother.”
“Their true voice is what comes through.” Alison said.
“We heard and saw you shoot it a thousand times. It seems like you can’t kill it like that, so what do we do?” Carol said.
“We don’t know much about the suited man, but we’ve learned a few things as we’ve followed it around the country.” Alison said.
“It seems to have a lair each time. That was the case back in Italy. It had been set to sleep with some kind of rite, until it was woken up with sacrifices.” Myles said.
“They completed it even though Delta squad escaped.” Alison said.
“By ‘rite’, are you talking about the thing that Lenny did?” I asked.
“Sort of. We can seal them into areas. We didn’t know why it works, but if the suited man told you about intent, that might have something to do with it.” Myles said.
“It seems that the stories were right in some ways. You can seal demons with salt and Latin.” Lenny said.
Alison chuckled. Myles frowned.
“All of this to say that we need to find its lair. It can move its lair, but it takes a lot of effort for it to move. Do you have any idea where its lair might be?” Alison said. We thought for a moment.
“Megan, didn’t you say that you saw the suited man in your mother’s hospital room?” Carol said.
“Yeah, but I saw him in the hotel too, and at home. Its lair must be the upstairs hallway, right? The room it’s locked inside?” I said.
“We went up there to see if we could hunt it down.” Myles said.
“There was nothing up there. The end of the left hall upstairs only has a storage closet against the wall.” Alison said.
I glanced at Carol.
“But you were up there with me, you pulled me from the hallway.” I said.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you. I found you leaning against the wall upstairs, I didn’t see another hallway like you described.” She said.
“That means that there’s only one way. We hoped that it wouldn’t come to this, but we need you to dream tonight. Confront the hallway in your dream. Who knows where it will escape to if we don’t stop it now, and it seems to be the only way you can get to it.” Myles said.
“Or where it could bring your sister.” Alison said.
“I have to trap it for good?” I surmised.
“We think that if you had opened that door in your dream, you would have unleashed that thing. This might be the only way to save your sister and your mom.” Alison said.
“Seems like the only way. I can fluff your pillows if you want.” Lenny said.
“That thing was making me choose,” I said. “If I close it in, it might keep May in there.”
“Imagine what destruction it would cause if you–” Myles’ rant was interrupted by Alison. She slugged his shoulder and stepped forward.
“We don’t know that for sure, but if that is the case, *we* understand if you choose your sister. However if you let this thing out? We don’t even have the ability to fathom what it will do.” Alison glanced at Myles with each emphasis.
I stared off at the floor. Thinking about having to confront the nightmare again was as scary as it ever had been. Save May, or release the suited man? If I do have to choose, which would I? What would May want?
“Fine, I can do it. Or, I’ll try to anyway.”
“Do or do not, there is no– ow!” Lenny said, stepping away from Alison’s punch.
“Is now really the time?” She snapped. “We’ll keep an eye on the Eidolons around the house, try and clean some of this up too. Lenny can give us the rundown.”
“All right then. It’s time to move out. You two, come on.” Myles said.
Alison and Myles left the room. Alison gave me a last smile.
“I’ll go too, Megan. Carol, take good care of her.” David said. Carol nodded as Lenny helped David walk out. They closed the door behind them.
“How am I supposed to sleep on command? I’ve been having trouble all week.” I said.
“Don’t think about it. Let’s just lay here for a minute.”
She laid next to me, staring at the gaudy canopy over the bed. I could hear a distant clock in the hallway.
“Do you remember at our wedding when you threw the bouquet?” Carol said as I laid on her shoulder. I chuckled despite myself.
“Right, that raven swooped down from nowhere and snatched it. That’s what I get for putting a silver ribbon in it.” I said.
“I wonder if that raven is happily married now.” Carol said.
We both laughed, and I did forget it all, if only for a second. Everything was so odd, so strange, but in that second I felt like nothing could touch us. Perhaps that’s what helped me finally sleep. I laid there in peace and started to think of May.
“We’ll get her back,” Carol said. “We’ll all be right here when you two wake up.” That was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.
~
My nightmare started like it always did, but this time I felt more awake in it. I heard the music box circling my consciousness like a whisper.
“Into the lion’s den.” The suited man said.
“Megan, I’m sorry. This is all my fault.” I was in a hospital room. My mother’s to be exact. The edges were dim and vague, but I could see my mother lying there.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” I said.
“How could I? No, it was just better for you to stay away. I had already wronged you so much in your life. I needed to keep you away from here. I’m so sorry, Megan.”
Her words felt distant, yet so near. I couldn’t think of anything to say at first.
“I need to know where that thing’s lair is.” I said.
“Are you sure? You could still leave. It doesn’t have full influence on you yet. Let it die with me.”
“It took May, mother. The suited man has May.” The heart rate monitor beeped quicker.
“No, no, it’s my fault, all my fault. I’m so sorry Megan. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, mom. This is all beyond us. I’m just glad that I know the truth now.” She smiled at me, and placed a hand on mine.
“I have been so absent in your lives. I’ve missed so many milestones and all for my pride. I am ashamed now that I ignored my own daughter’s wedding.”
“We even had crème brûlée just for you.” I said with a sad smile. My mother nodded.
“Carol is a wonderful person, and I know that you two are lucky to have each other. I was a coward. I couldn’t set myself aside, and I was jealous in a way. Your father and I were arranged after all.”
“It’s okay, mom,” I said. “We all forgive you.”
“I am glad that we could share this moment. I still have a connection to it, I can show you its lair. Please, save May. Save May.”
Suddenly, her face took on a look of agonized fear as something seemed to twist in her. She raised an atrophied, shaking arm, her skin thin and sickly. I followed her gesture.
Where the wall once was, that long stretch of gray hall had appeared. The wallpaper peeled, the plants curled and dead, with only a black door at the very end. Someone stood there, facing us from afar. A disproportionate man of red, pale face concealed in thick shadows. That song grew from a whisper, notes jangled and broken.
“The music box,” Mother said. “Be careful. Save May, please save her, Megan.”
“It’s okay, Megan,” I looked down, and saw May holding my hand. “Let’s do it together.”
“May? How do we get you out?”
She smiled.
“The music box.” Her and my mother said together.
“Are you okay?” I said.
“Yeah. It’s dark in here, but I could still feel you and Carol near me. I could hear you– but Megan?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe we should trap the suited man instead. He’s too scary to be let out. I’ve seen what he wants to do.” May said. We began to walk.
Purple butterflies circled around us, lighting the space as we went. Walking in dreams always felt odd, slow, with no progress, but soon the hall engulfed us.
The butterflies seemed to chase away parts of the darkness, but the closer we came to the suited man, the more twisted everything became. The hall seemed to stretch and groan like a living thing. The paintings seemed to watch as we passed, then we finally reached the door.
The suited man towered over us.
“You don’t want to do this.” He said, countless voices repeating his words.
“And why is that?” I said.
“Must I spell it out for you again? If you try to interfere, I’ll take May and your mother forever. This was a lot of struggling and blood for the same deal that I offered you to begin with, but I am generous. I will give you one last chance. Free me, and I will leave your family out of my plans forever and forevermore.”
“None of us even know what you are. How can I trust you?” I said.
“My promises are binding. Do you remember your tales of demons? Where do you think they come from? Or the true forms of angels in your bible? It was us. Always us. No God, no Yahweh, it has always been just us. We’ve been quiet since those times, trapped, but now we will be free once again.”
“And what? Am I supposed to just let you wreak havoc on the rest of the world?”
The suited man smiled a wide, mad grin.
“In a sense, but don’t get the wrong idea. If we simply killed all of you, what would we have to feed upon? No, we will be quiet, creatures of mist, no overindulgence like the times of old. We have learned from our mistakes. Our actions will be nothing more than odd mysteries left unsolved. You humans can go about your little lives in peace.”
The butterflies flickered like fireflies. The hallway moaned as it churned under our feet, dust fell from the ceiling. The music box seemed to growl behind the door.
“I never possessed your mother, you know. Not like you are thinking,” The suited man said. “I simply made her forever be herself, the self that is always shouting in the back of her mind. It was what she brought upon herself. I could end it, if you wished.”
“Don’t touch our mother,” I said. “You’ll leave her alone as part of our deal.”
The suited man tipped his head in a bow.
“Your wish is my command.” He said.
I looked at May, I looked at that thing, I thought of what I had seen behind the door. I squeezed May’s hand.
The suited man twitched. May’s butterflies fluttered. The purple light around us was bringing life back to the hall. The color returned to the wallpaper, the plants grew greener. I didn’t understand any of this, but I had a feeling. I knew that I could hurt it.
“Do it, and May will be mine.” The suited man said with fear. That’s right, fear. It was afraid of us.
“We can’t let him escape. He’s a bad man.” May said.
Fear settled in my gut as the doorway loomed over us. I felt like a kid again, like I was looking at it from far below. Parts of the thing, the suited man’s true form, oozed in retreat from the purple light.
I could make out the inky details of the monster in that room. I studied the wings, and the countless eyes set upon those wings. I saw the many limbs, the head hiding behind the dangling light. I knew now that I was presented with the choice.
I had to step inside, or shut the door. Save May, or end the suited man.
I stared. My hand shook as I reached out. The music box played its sickening tune as voices whispered around me.
“Save May, save you sister.” My mother pleaded.
“We have to stop that thing. Who knows what it can do?” Lenny said.
“Is she still in the dream?” Myles said.
“Myles– the wards won’t hold much longer. The Eidolons are getting impatient.” Alison said.
“Just give her some more time.” Carol said.
“We don’t have any more time!” Myles said.
I thought about May. She had always been left behind, forgotten, even by me sometimes. How must she feel? Always locked away, with no one to help her? I was tired of making her feel that way.
“It’s okay, Megan. I’ll be fine.” May said, but she was afraid. That fear in her eyes made the decision for me.
All of that thing’s eyes were on us. My hand that held May’s shook, and we stepped into the room. I reached for the table. The suited man smiled.
~
I sat up in shock. The bed was surrounded by Carol and David.
“Megan, you’re awake.” Carol said, and gave me a hug.
The curtains were drawn over bright light outside.
“How long was I out?” I said, groggy.
“Almost twelve–” The door flashed open.
“What did you do?” Myles snapped, marching towards the bed. “The two trapped Instances are gone. What did you do?”
Without a word, I got out of bed, and went to May’s door.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.” Myles said.
I opened the door to my old bedroom and saw where May laid on the bed. She was leaning against the headboard, wiping her eyes.
“May!” I ran to her side. She returned my hug.
“It was so scary in there– I know we shouldn’t have, but I don’t want to be alone again.” She said.
“You won’t be. Never again, okay?”
Myles stood in the doorway.
“You let him escape, didn’t you? Do you even know what this means?”
“It just means we have to track him down again,” Alison said. “We’ve done it once, Myles. We’ll do it again. Come on. We have work to do.”
“Wait,” I said. They stopped. “This is what I chose, and I get that there will be consequences, but you said that May and I have a connection to these things, right?”
“Yes.” Myles said.
May and I got up. She studied me for a moment, then nodded.
“We’ll help you catch the suited man.” May said. Myles studied her, then me.
“Fine, but this is a dangerous road. In order to end this once and for all, we’d have to take the fight to Headquarters and the suited man.”
“There aren’t very many of us,” Alison said. “Only a handful of people other than us three.”
David leaned into the room. It looked like he had rushed to get to us despite his injuries. Lenny caught up.
“He just ran after a phone call.” Lenny said.
“Megan, it’s your mother, she’s–” My heart sank. May squeezed my hand. “She just passed away moments ago. The hospital called just now.”
Myles looked at my surprised face.
“I’m guessing it broke your ‘deal’?” He said. “Looks like your suited man just spit in your face.”
I walked the house for a time afterwards with May holding my hand. Myles was right. ‘John’ had disappeared, alongside the one that had killed Grant. We found both human bodies in the room. We buried them on the grounds.
May and I went upstairs. To the third floor. The hallway really was gone. There was only a closet door against the wall as Alison had said. I opened it. Inside, on the single shelf there, was a music box and purple butterfly doll. The music box was silver, and stamped with a golden moon.
“Don’t worry, Megan,” May said. “We’ll stop the suited man.”