Hell's Army

Chapter Twenty-two- Revelations

"So, what are we looking for, again?" Katie asked as they passed another identical dollhouse room.

"Anything unusual," Follows said.

She rolled her eyes. "You mean besides the wallpaper?" She glanced at Zadrian. "So, how do you guys know each other?"

"We're business partners... sort of," Follows said.

"On a mission from God," Zadrian added.

"Right," she said slowly. Zadrian was a strange man. And no the usual kind of strange, either. No, he was a strange kind of strange.

Follows stopped, stared into one of the rooms.

"Follows? What's wrong?"

He pointed. "What do you notice about this room?"

She frowned. It was just like all the others- pink wallpaper, green chairs, a little vase on the bedside table. "Nothing."

"Look at the table."

She did. "It's a table."

"Look at what's on the table," he said.

"Sugar, coffee, pepper. It's just normal stuff."

"What isn't there?" he pressed.

"I dunno," she said irritably.

"Salt. There's no salt. Why would there be pepper and no salt?"

"Maybe they forgot it."

"In every room?"

She paused, ducked into the other room. No salt.

"Why would they take away all the salt?" she asked, walking back.

"I'm not sure."

Something crashed down the hall.

"Did you hear that?" she murmured.

Slowly, Follows picked up one of the vases and held it in front of himself threateningly. They crept to the door labelled 'Sitting Room'. Katie braced herself to either run or punch whatever was on the other side really, really hard. Follows pried the door open.

"Hi," Daniel said.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Follows hissed.

He shrugged. "Sam kept poking me. Thought I'd hang with you guys."

"This is dangerous, Daniel," he said.

"Any more dangerous than staying down there?"

Katie glanced at Follows. He had a point.

Follows sighed. "Stick with me. Do not make a sound, understand?"

"Why?" Daniel asked fearfully. "Will they hear us?"

"No. The sound of your voice annoys me." He waved his hand. "Come on."

They continued down the hall and up to the third level, thankfully not running into any more of their emotionless little friends. When they got to the stop of the stairs, the floor split in two, winding around the walls so you could see all the way down. Katie looked at the stairs spiralling below them. If this place weren't run by evil maniacs, it actually would be pretty nice.

"Zadrian," Follows said, "you and Katie go that way. Daniel and I will search the corridor."

Zadrian nodded in that quiet little way of his, and without another word, made his way down the hall. Katie hurried after him.

"So, what's your deal?" Katie asked after a while.

He frowned. "My deal?"

"Yeah, you know. Like, your story. How you started doing all this."