The Ghost of the Hindenburg (The Tes Simms Anthology, Book 1)

The Rabbit

I've never witnessed a more heartbroken scream in my life. The sound that leaves Holly's mouth is akin to someone's soul being ripped from their chest. She drops to her knees, unable to muster the strength to do anything but cry.

The noises outside the room are getting louder and closer. As horrifying and wrenching as it was to watch him die like that, we don't have time to mourn him.

The door handle to the smoky room starts to turn.

I hang the lamp in the hand attached to my broken wrist, wincing at the pain it causes, and reach to pull Holly away again.

"No!" she yells viciously. "No! Cody!"

She shoves my arm away, and I grab for her again.

"Let go of me!"

"No!"

We both recoil from my outburst. That was... shocking. I've stunned her long enough to get a good grip on her upper arm, so I force her out of the room. We stare down the long hallway. On the opposite end are two glistening knives and a gun swaying back and forth.

The metal door swings open, releasing the fog with it.

There's one option left.

With her still trying to piece the traumatic experience together, I lead us through the doorway right across from the one we exited, which reveals, unsurprisingly, a new hallway. No time to check doors.

A bead of sweat streaks down my face from the exertion of running, dragging her along, and carrying the lamp in my wounded arm, but I press on. Safety has to be nearby.

The hallway splits off into three sections, each with their own offshoots and entryways. It's anyone's guess which is the best option. I decide the best way to lose the ghouls is to keep branching and winding, so we take a right.

Aside from the sluggish tapping of her feet against the ground, the only noise Holly makes is the occasional sniffle. I'd better search for a place for her to process her emotions in.

I stop at the first room down the next branching hallway and carefully open it. It's a massive bedroom with some inner doors that are likely for a closet and bathroom and such.

As much as I'd like to go to the bed, Holly plops down in the entryway. I softly close the door, sealing us away in the suite. A horrifying shuffling noise moves past the door. Whatever was chasing us went right by.

Finally, with a sense of security established, she wails her somber tune.

I set the lamp on the floor and sit down in front of her, offering my arms. She reaches and grabs me, pulling me in for a hug.

Tears are pouring out of her eyes and onto my sandy, dusty shirt. "Cody, no, please no. He can't be dead. Please, no."

She squeezes me. Although it hurts, I squeeze back. I can feel my anxiety meds wearing off. A twinge of panic tickles my brain.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

"Well, I suppose I forgive you," a voice with an English accent says from somewhere in the room. "Although, to be quite honest, I'm not sure what for."

We break our hug and hold eye contact with wide, terrified eyes.

"Don't be shy. Come. Reveal yourselves to me. Why are you in my bedroom?"

I stand and round the corner in the room, immediately noticing two things: a dapper-looking man sitting on a rocking chair and a robotic rabbit locked in a cage. Both have the same dark-blue tentacles of smoke outlining their figure that I saw on the chef earlier.

"Ah ha. You're but a girl. What are you doing here?"

Holly also gets up to peek, standing quietly past the corner.

"There's two of you? You must be fans. Of course you are!"

"Who... who are you?" Holly asks, wiping away a tear.

"Who am I? Why, I'm the Amazing Alvera Anderson! Surely you're aware of me. I travel the world with my inventions."

"Can't say I am," Holly replies.

"My reputation has yet to grow in America, obviously. Have a seat, you two." He gestures towards the king-sized bed. We walk over to it and sit down. It feels good against my tired legs.

"Tell me, if you wouldn't mind, what year is it? I've lost count after so many days and so many nights trapped away in this lousy place."

"1973," Holly answers. "What exactly is this lousy place?"

"Why, this is the Hindenburg, the finest of German engineering. Can't you tell?"

"What's an Englishman like you doing in the Hindenburg?"

"I was on a tour in Poland when the Nazis invaded. They kidnapped me and kept me for their twisted enjoyment. Serves them right that they're all dead."

"What happened here?"

"Oh, heavens, I've no idea. We were fine one second, and then we weren't. And now I have this ghostly glow around me and can't go further than this room. Eating is a thing of the past, though, so it's not all bad."

I gesture to the mechanical rabbit in the cage.

"Ah, yes, one of my many inventions. I call it 'Aurora, the Amazing Automaton,' or just Aurora. It behaves like a real living being. Although, I'm afraid it's quite stuck. I don't have the strength to open the cage with this half-body."

I crouch down in front of the cage. The rabbit approaches me and sniffs the air.

"Tell you what, if you can free it, you can keep it. It's no use to the world locked up where nobody can see it."

I tug at the enclosure, hoping to rip the front off. Holly joins me, and together, we bend the rusted metal for the rabbit to escape. It stretches its legs and hops to the man, but goes right through him.

"It appears I am not physically here," he says.

I reach for the rabbit and touch it. Why is it touchable and not the man?

"There you go. Aurora, say hello to your new owners. You two are welcome to stay as long as you'd like. From the sounds of it, things aren't quite good."

"As tempting as that is, we need to get moving," Holly says. "We have to fetch water for... for Stacy..." She's on the verge of tears again. "You wouldn't happen to know where we could find any? We've searched the whole floor, basically."

"I may have a few canteens in the kitchenette. Other than that, maybe the storage room on the second floor."

"Where is that?"

"There're stairs in a nearby hall. Then go all the way down and to the right."

I enter his kitchenette area. On the counter sit three canteens. I weigh each. One has water in it.

I pour half into one of the two empty containers and hand it to Holly.

Mine is finished in four seconds. Hers doesn't last much longer.

"Thank you for everything," Holly says. "Come on, Aurora. You're joining us on our trip."

The rabbit hops our way, following closely behind me.

As we get further away, the man vanishes. "Good luck, girls!"

Lord knows we need it.