The Oak Hotel - Watty Awards 2013 Finalist

Chapter Eighteen - Descent

Chapter Eighteen

Descent

Although they had the compass David left behind, they never took it out for reference. The further they traveled through the forest, the more pronounced the path became. Eventually, when it was nearly noon, the trail grew quite narrow, then opened up onto the back lot of the Cinema. The rear of the building was completely in shadow. The only sound they heard was the disquieting chirp of a lone cricket.

Moving cautiously around to the front, they looked down the familiar overgrown road to a multitude of small, ominous cottages.

“Man, even during the day this place is creepy,” Lincoln said.

Kayleigh turned back to the façade of the Cinema and the row of movie posters. “Let’s just get inside,” she said quickly.

Everything within was exactly as Lincoln remembered it. There was even the soft, muted snap of popping corn and the aroma of butter. The man they sought sat on a red velvet couch on the left hand side of the lobby.

“I had a feeling I’d be seeing you two sooner or later,” said Shipmaster Creek. He wore dark blues and greens. A long, grey cloak darkened his frame further.

When neither Kayleigh nor Lincoln spoke, he stood and moved toward the main counter.

“It wasn’t you we met the last time we were here,” Lincoln said.

“No, son, that wasn’t me. Stitch had me tucked away.”

The old man walked around the concession counter and pulled open the glass door of the popcorn caddy. He pulled a wax-lined tub from under the counter and, using a large metal scoop, filled it with popcorn.

“Kafír is dead,” Kayleigh said flatly.

Creek set the tub on the glass counter and sighed.

“I know, though don’t ask me how ‘cause I couldn’t begin to tell you. Some part of me just knew when it happened earlier today. Are Sheenie and David gone? Did Kafír let them through?”

Kayleigh was silent, so Lincoln answered, “They’re both gone. Kafír said she was infected by Ka Tolerates through the portal she opened for us.”

“I figured it had something to do with that. When you two first arrived, Truman locked me up. When he left, Sheenie set me free. She told me what happened and where you’d gone.”

Kayleigh walked over to one of the red loungers and sat. “Sheenie said that you’d have answers for us.”

Taking Kayleigh’s lead, Lincoln sat down beside her and asked, “You knew my father?”

Creek sighed again, put a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Leaning on the counter, he began:

“Your father and I were good friends, Lincoln. Maybe best friends, at least by my reckoning. The night we met, I was mending sails on the northeastern docks in Ceca Hebona. It was a cloudy night and there was deep thunder out over the Eastern Sea. It was the thunder that masked the sound of his ship when it fell from the sky. I looked out over the waves and watched this curved thing hover over the water, then race eastward. Packing up my sails, I launched my swiftest boat and took off after it, knowing how crazy I was.

“I found you and your family on one of the many unnamed islands out there. Another man, Sagan Rideau, joined our odd party. Those first few weeks, I ferried food and other supplies from the mainland to Khan. That was your Dad’s name, Lincoln. Khan Fetrig Insoullsi’Grey.”

“What was my mother’s name?” Lincoln interrupted.

“Roquet Meneh,” Creek said softly. “They loved you all so very much. While I helped your father build your home, basically a reinforced entrance to a cave in the center of the island, he told me about the Applewhite Regime on their planet, Atoth, and how they were trying to gain total power by silencing all religious and scientific voices.”