Authors: H. P. Mallory
“Jenny is an auld friend o’ mine,” Tallis answered. I stepped over another doll, this one with clumped, faded blond hair and bright blue eyes. Just like the doll head I’d kicked with my toes, this one was also filthy. Although its torso was still intact, it was missing an arm and one leg. The arm was resting on the ground directly beside the doll, but there was no sign of its leg.
I didn’t respond to Tallis’s admission that Jenny was an old friend. Instead, I just continued crutching forward, trying not to sink into the mud or trip over the various dismembered toys that littered the ground. A cool breeze blew around us, and the trees in the distance shook their leafless branches, sounding like rattling bones. The smell in the air was one of damp mustiness, not necessarily bad, but not good either.
We reached the front steps of the lean-to, which were constructed from some kind of ancient wood that was now rotting and broken in some areas. Regardless, Tallis started up the steps, so I followed. The wood creaked loudly underfoot, as if it were mere seconds away from simply collapsing.
The shack was surrounded by a three-foot railing. Most of the slats were missing and those that weren’t were in clear disrepair. Sitting atop the railing, and leaning against one of the columns that flanked the staircase and held up the overhang, was a toy monkey. It wore red-and-white-striped overalls, which were ripped and falling apart. It held a cymbal in one of its hands, but the other cymbal was missing. Its face was dirty and stained, but its eyes were even more off-putting. Both pupils were painted black with rings of red around the white parts that made the toy look as if it were completely crazy.
We approached the front door of the shack, which was just as faded and worn as the walls and the staircase, and Tallis knocked on it. The paint on the house looked as if it were once white, but now the wood showed through in most places, while in others, the white paint was permanently stained with dirt and age. The front door hinted at shades of pink; but now it, too, was a much dirtier and run-down representation of its former self.
When the monkey suddenly slapped its hand into the cymbal, it made a high-pitched, tinny sound, and I heard myself utter a little cry before nearly jumping right out of my skin. The monkey’s eyes started to spin, and the red lines around its pupils looked like they were meant to hypnotize the onlooker. Tallis glanced back at the offensive thing with a frown before he simply knocked it off the banister with the tip of his sword. It crashed into the dirt with another tinny sound from the cymbal.
When he faced forward again, the front door opened, and seemingly of its own accord. Tallis glanced back at me and nodded, tacitly indicating that it was safe to proceed forward. When we entered the room, I was surprised to find it completely empty, as in it was devoid of any furniture or … toys. There were three doors in the room, but all were shut.
“For a toy store, it looks like your friend could use some inventory,” I snickered to Tallis.
He smiled and I couldn’t recall a time when he looked more striking. Smiles on Tallis were such rare occurrences, yet he looked absolutely beautiful whenever one happened to visit.
You have to stop thinking like that!
I reprimanded myself.
You and Tallis are and only ever will be friends. He’s already made that abundantly clear.
“We hae yit tae enter the store, lass. This is merely the vestibule,” he replied as I forced my sudden depression down, refusing to grant it power. Instead, I turned my attention to the paintings decorating the wall farthest from me. The four paintings were assembled right next to one another and were in a single word—odd.
The first one depicted a little girl who was maybe ten years old. She had platinum-blond hair that was cropped to her chin. Her skin was pasty white and her dark greenish-blue eyes were so large, they dwarfed her small face. She wore a birthday party-style hat on top of her head, but the placid expression on her face suggested she wasn’t very happy. Her dress was black and white, which contrasted nicely next to the backdrop of green clouds behind her. In her hands, she held a marionette doll, but the doll’s head was severed, a replica of the girl’s birthday hat also atop the doll’s head. The doll’s body, which was clad only in pantaloons, lacked one arm, which lay beside it.
I couldn’t help the dread that settled in my stomach after viewing the macabre painting. The next three pictures featured the same little girl with the same placid expression; and in each instance, she was represented in off-putting ways.
“A huge needle and shears hidden behind the skirts of her dress,” I announced, looking back at Tallis with arched eyebrows to say I found the artwork distasteful. Tallis didn’t respond so I simply started viewing the picture directly beside this one and continued my commentary. “A pink nurse’s uniform, a pig and a bloody knife.” Tallis didn’t say anything, but shrugged as if to reply he hadn’t been the one to choose the artwork, so why was I bothering him about it? “Somehow this one evokes a whole
Fatal Attraction
sort of vibe, doesn’t it?” I asked him even though I figured he had no idea what I was talking about.
“Aye,” he answered with a firm nod.
“You’ve seen
Fatal Attraction
?” I asked dubiously.
“Joost because Ah live in the Dark Wood doesnae mean Ah doonae have access tae the ootside world, lass.”
“Wow,” I answered as my eyebrows reached for the ceiling to show my surprise. I faced the wall again and shook my head. “Nice artwork. Not exactly warm and fuzzy,” I scoffed before facing Tallis again, finding him infinitely more attractive than the paintings.
“Naethin’ in the Oonderground City is, lass,” Tallis answered. I eyed him, only to find him looking at me with a smirk and a drawn brow. As soon as I wondered what we were waiting for, or whom we were waiting on, one of the three wooden doors in the room opened, but there was no one on the other side. Tallis turned toward it and nodded at me to indicate that I should go ahead. I started forward, my heart lodged in my throat, and crossed the threshold into the next room, with Tallis just behind me.
This room was more along the lines of what one would find in a toy store. There were floor-to-ceiling shelves on all four walls and each shelf was overflowing with toys of every variety—from dolls to model airplanes to drum sets. The only problem was that all of the toys were broken, misshapen, or otherwise in disrepair. I felt like I’d just landed on the Island of Misfit Toys.
Although there were no windows to speak of, the wall farthest from me had a door, which I hoped would lead outside.
“Um,” I started while whisking Bill’s phone from my fanny pack. I needed to check Jason’s text to see exactly where the soul that needed retrieval could be found. When I flipped open the phone, the “soul app” was already pulled up on the screen. It showed a red dot, which represented the lost soul. The red dot was superimposed onto a map that was a 3-D representation of each room inside the Toy Store. Looking up at the room around me and then down at the phone again, I said, “Um, it looks like the soul we need to retrieve isn’t in here.” Then I faced Tallis in confusion. “The way the phone is showing it, it looks like the soul is behind this room, and down a long corridor. Does that sound right?”
Tallis was spared the chance to answer because the door to the room opened, this time, revealing a young woman. She looked like what you’d find next to the definition of “dominatrix.” Dressed in a black leather corset and matching black miniskirt, she wore black fishnet, thigh-high stockings that were held in place with garters. Her platform shoes were also black, although the backs of them were bright red. They had the highest heels I’d ever seen anyone wear—something bordering on eight or nine inches. Her hair, too, was black and straight, reaching down to her elbows. It was styled with longish layers and bangs that were cut straight across. She was very pretty with bright red lipstick, and her light brown eyes seemed to glow from within. She wore black gloves on both her hands and a small, black, top-hat fastener with a feather on the back of her head.
“What do you want?” she asked in an Eastern European accent. She faced me, and her eyes drilled into mine. I opened my mouth, but couldn’t force the words out.
“We are haur tae see Jenny, Elizaveta,” Tallis answered, striding up and standing behind me.
Apparently having failed to realize I wasn’t alone, Elizaveta turned her attention to Tallis for the first time since walking into the room. Her eyes glassed over with the briefest indication of recognition, although she didn’t smile.
“The bladesmith,” she said in greeting as she allowed her gaze to drop from Tallis’s face, to his impressive chest and farther still—down to his muscular thighs, which were halfway covered by his kilt. I couldn’t help but notice that she stared at his crotch a little too long. Irritated, I cleared my throat, but Elizaveta didn’t bother looking at me. Instead, she merely nodded to Tallis before she sashayed back through the door, her hips swaying in time with her gait. How she managed to walk in those heels was beyond me, but I had to admit I was impressed.
Looking back at Tallis only to find his gaze plastered on her ass, I frowned, but he just shrugged his immense shoulders and offered me an innocent expression. “Whit, lass?”
“Nice, Tallis, really nice,” I grumbled and shook my head.
“Ah am boot ah man,” he announced, his words settling inside of me like an anvil dropped from a fourth story. They were the same words I’d said to him when he’d lambasted himself for his sexual feelings for me. So it was okay for him to recognize his carnal feelings for Elizaveta but not for me? It was a paradox that didn’t sit well with me and one I had to abandon because I had more important things to think about, namely my survival …
I followed Elizaveta down the long corridor until we reached a door at the end of the hall. She opened the door and walked in, holding it for me as well as for Tallis. Well, it would probably be more fitting to say she held the door open for Tallis because as soon as he walked through it, she eyed his backside hungrily and then offered him a suggestive smile when he turned around to check on me. ’Course, for all I knew, maybe he was turning around to check on
her
.
Rolling my eyes, I took stock of my new surroundings. Even though we were inside the building, the Styx bisected the room, flowing through one wall and into the other. It was as if someone had deliberately built the structure around the river because the hardwood floors terminated at the sandy banks of the Styx. In the far corner of the room stood a large, golden throne, which was upholstered in red velvet. There were probably another five or more women who were dressed just like Elizaveta. They appeared to be making the rounds inside the room, and most of them were near the river. They all towered over me in their skyscraper shoes. All of them didn’t fail to notice Tallis and a few of them smiled at him … suggestively. Others, who were bolder, sashayed right up to him and ran their hands across his chest. Tallis did nothing but stand there, smiling at each one in turn, while I felt like throwing up.
“Nice of you to warn me that the Toy Store is full of the horniest women I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” I grumbled.
“Apologies, lass,” Tallis answered with a wide grin. “Boot Ah dae recall informin’ ye that we had naethin’ tae fear here?”
“Looks like you need to be afraid of getting raped,” I responded with a frown as a strikingly tall blond rubbed herself against him.
“’Tis ah fear Ah would gladly face, lass,” he answered with a wink.
“Yeah, yeah,” I responded and took another few steps inside the room, wanting to get a better picture of what the women were looking at in the river. As soon as I was close enough, I could see countless glowing souls submerged in the murky Styx. Most were stuck in the middle of the river, gurgling, and choking on the swampy water. Some attempted to crawl up the banks of the Styx, using others to pull themselves forward. But none managed to get very far because they would inevitably start biting and striking at one another, thusly falling back into the water again. And if they lingered too long on the banks of the river, one of the dominatrix women simply pushed them back into the river with the pointed toe of her outlandishly high shoes.
“Tallis Black, the only visitor I’m ever actually happy to see.” I heard the soft, feminine voice and turned around to find a very attractive woman with long, wavy, black hair approaching us. Even though she was dressed similarly to the other women in the room, i.e., tight black leather pants and a bright red leather corset top, she didn’t wear any shoes. Not that she needed any because she was so tall.
“JennyAnn,” Tallis greeted her with a genuine, broad smile.
The woman walked right over to him and threw her arms around him, making sure to kiss him on both of his cheeks, as well as his mouth. When she pulled away from him, she ran her index finger down the line of his scar, leaning in to him to kiss the jagged edge that ended at his jawline. Then she whispered something in his ear to which I wasn’t privy. He responded with a deep chuckle as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, giving her another hug.
I found myself in a sudden ill humor.
“You’ve come for your soul,” Jenny announced, not sparing me so much as a backward glance. She was extremely tall for a woman, maybe five foot eleven if I had to guess, and looked like she must’ve been in her mid- to late-twenties. I had to imagine, though, in Underground City years, she was much older if it were true that she’d been a resident of the original city, that is, before Alaire rebuilt it. Her green eyes and black hair, made her unfortunately, strikingly pretty.