Drowned Silence

Part 3

Dylan jumped backward, eager to put some distance between him and the shattered glass and crackle of flame. For the first time since the disaster had started, he was glad to be standing ankle-deep in water in a weird girl's old-fashioned bedroom. He watched with relief as the water extinguished the flame, smoking upward and...

A hiss. Not just the hiss at the death of the flame, but something more. Dylan was sure he'd heard an animal hiss. A person hiss.

He looked up at Kelsey. She stared down at the broken lamp on the floor pooling with water. This hiss died as it faded into silence. He didn't see her lips move.

He shook his head and gestured toward Kelsey. "Come on already," he said.

"No." Kelsey wouldn't stop staring at the floor.

Dylan held out his arms, which were rather thin and probably going to get a bit sore at what he was about to offer, but there seemed to be no other way to get the weird girl moving. "I'll carry you."

Kelsey tore her eyes from the ground slowly to look at Dylan's outstretched arms. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Dylan stomped a foot into the puddle. "Now."

Kelsey's eyes moved between the floor and Dylan's arms. At last she bent down and climbed cautiously into his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck.

Dylan felt utterly ridiculous, supporting the oddly-dressed girl in his arms, one arm slid under her knees and the other wrapped around her back. Her frilly dress ruffled outward, her little hat jammed against his shoulder. His muscles burned a little, but there was no time to change his mind. He wasn't going to convince her to walk through the muck, so he did.

Each step he took was frighteningly cold, sending what felt like a bucket of ice cubes up his legs and to his spine. And it wasn't just water, either. There was something slimy. Old, decayed leaves and muck. In a bedroom on the second floor. If this was Kelsey's idea of a joke...

"Why is there even a water pipe running under a bedroom floor?" he asked Kelsey, who'd reached out for the handle on her door.

She froze and looked up at him. He noticed for the first time just how dark and round her irises were, although he couldn't be sure of the color in the dark. They were like black spots in a pale face. In a pale, bloated...

Kelsey's lips moved slowly. "There isn't." She grabbed the door handle, turned and pulled.

The boom, boom thrum of the music from the floor below stopped.

Dylan felt the sharp ice of the water vanish from his feet, leaving only squishy shoes and clammy skin behind. He looked down, expecting to see more water having leaked through under the doorway or at least once out once the door opened. There was nothing. Just a normal, dry hallway. His sneakers were the only thing dripping water onto the hardwood floor. He turned around to check the floor behind him, and he'd just seen what looked to be like solid wall out of the corner of his eye.

"Don't." Kelsey let one of her hands fall from behind his neck and cupped his cheek. Startled, Dylan stopped turning and looked into her eyes. They were dark, but they seemed more alive in the hallway. But he still couldn't see clearly, not without lights.

Dylan looked toward the stairway for some hint of the glowing colored lights from the lower floor. There was nothing. He listened. There was no laughter. No talking. No music.

"What happened to the party?" asked Dylan slowly, quietly, afraid to intrude on the silence.

Kelsey swung her feet toward the ground and Dylan bent to let her stand. She stood no higher than his shoulders. Her hand around his neck was the last thing to fall, severing the contact between her and Dylan.