#FreakshowFriday

Chapter 27: Behind the Mask

October 18, 2023

The abandoned house doesn't have much going for it in terms of docking space. In fact, canal water comes up as far as the doorway; had the water level been just a little higher, the Doctor would've had himself an indoor swimming pool. Venice is a city slowly sinking and this building is one of many proving as much.

Nathan thinks it's a good thing nobody alive is currently living there, as a back entrance leading straight into a canal seems to him neither useful nor safe. It would be like stepping out of your house and onto the freeway immediately. Just with less crashing and more drowning.

He waits until he no longer feels eyes prying into his back and fastens the boat to the iron bars in a window. Not classy, definitely not deserving of Gino's seal of approval, but it will hold. The waters are calm and gentle today.

Nathan takes a deep breath. He needs to be like those waters and keep his head above them. Be calm, cool, collected.

He can do this.

Axe in hand, he climbs out of the boat, through the doorway and into the dark. No exclamations of shock or surprise greet or chase him. Nathan is a stealth master today, a goddamn ninja. One with the shadows, ready to kick ass.

The air he breathes inside is saline, tinged with a rotten mildew scent. Moisture clings to his clothes, burrowing into his shirt. Although he attempts to keep his footfalls quiet, he sloshes through puddles on a worn stone floor—the last flood's souvenirs. Fucking hell. Nathan wasn't counting on doing this undead murder with wet socks. But no pain, no gain.

He doesn't want to turn on a flashlight and draw too much attention to himself, so he stays close to the windows and lets his eyes get used to the dark first. He soon concludes the Doctor isn't down here with him. Safe for algae-covered planks, plaster, crumbled rock and a decaying, eyeless fish in a corner, he is entirely alone.

The second floor must be where the Doctor prefers to hang.

Nathan makes his way up an open stone staircase he trusts to hold him about as much as he did the stairs in Poveglia's asylum, which is to say not at all. The one advantage to stone stairs, he tells himself, is that they don't creak. He sidesteps more debris, remnants of a wooden barricade that must've served to keep reckless teenagers or the homeless out before the authorities started to neglect this effort. His scar prickles more with every step advancing the climb.

He's getting closer.

No sound from outside seems able to penetrate the smothering silence. Nathan's own breathing comes too loud for his comfort. When he reaches the second floor, he doesn't even dare blink too often, lest he misses something important that could make a difference between life and death.

More light makes its way onto the second floor than the first. The sun's rays sneak in past the half-opened window shutters, dust particles dancing in their beams. But the Doctor, if Nathan's theory is correct, doesn't thrive on sunlight. What Nathan thus seeks is the darkest corner of all.

And he finds what he's looking for fast.

The Doctor sits curled up in a corner with its back against the wall, unmoving, not making a sound. Its black outfit blends with the shadows better than Nathan ever could. If it weren't for the discoloured white mask sticking out like a sore thumb, the Doctor could have been invisible to anyone unaware a revenant dwells in the house. The creature faces the staircase Nathan ascended as if keeping watch, but with the mask covering the face underneath, Nathan can't tell if it's asleep.

It isn't reacting to Nathan's presence. If it was awake, it could've already struck hard five times over. Then again, Nathan can't ignore the possibility of this being a trap. Maybe the Doctor is watching him now, willing him to come closer before launching a surprise attack. So he waits while his heart rate increases, determined to see if the revenant will lose patience and pounce.