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Ardy presented the door to Elliot as if gifting her an exotic gem from a far off land. She stood next to the nondescript industrial door, her hands behind her back. They stood outside, south of the waterfront, out of the way of the meager foot traffic, whoever was out this late.
Elliot held a cup of coffee from Cassie’s. She stood in front of the door, where Ardy had positioned her. She bit her tongue. Ardy looked so proud, and the climax of all of this was so… not there. Her instinct was to mock, to say something sarcastic and defensive. Elliot didn’t want to spurn her new companion.
“I… I don’t get it?” Elliot said slowly, her ears dropping on her head. “It’s a door.”
“It’s a door!” Ardy said. “But you forget that doors go somewhere.”
“Generally, yeah…” Crap. Get it together, dude.
“So there is another part to this.” Ardy pulled a key card from her pocket. “Never mind how I got this. But this will open that door.”
Elliot took the key and held it in her hand. It said STP on one side in a boring corporate typeface. Where had she heard that before? She flipped it over, as if to reveal its secrets, but it taught her nothing.
“So… I just…?” Elliot asked.
“Are you not curious?” Ardy said. She tilted her head just a little. “Do you not want to know what’s inside?”
Elliot’s ears dropped on her head. “Like, if I go in, am I going to come out? Is it… is it a door to Hell?”
Ardy laughed. “I promise you will not be hurt.”
“Okay, but how do I know that?”
“Because I’m here,” Ardy said.
Elliot clenched her jaw. She reached out to the sensor next to the door and tapped the card on it. The light on the sensor flashed green, and the door clicked open. Ardy grabbed the handle and pushed it open, just a little, sensing Elliot’s hesitation. Elliot looked to Ardy, and then the door. She reached out and pushed the door open. Ardy ushered her in and the door closed behind them.
Beyond the door was a corridor, sparse and concrete. Utility pipes ran along the side, and lights were arranged in a line along the ceiling. On the wall, green exit signs pointed back towards the door. Ahead, the corridor began to slope downwards.
Ardy watched Elliot expectantly, her hands behind her back.
“We’re in the Exit Corridor,” Elliot said softly.
“We are in the Exit Corridor,” Ardy said, nearly beaming.
Elliot felt her face flushing. She looked down the corridor, taking a few steps forward. She had had dreams about this, about what Mitchell Locke had seen before he disappeared. As in any other dream, it was always so detailed, and when she woke up, always so formless and distant. And now, here she was. She pulled out her phone.
“It’s probably not the best idea to document your trespassing,” Ardy said.
“Yeah, but…” She turned back to the demon. Ardy kept her human disguise, but she was now dressed in proper work clothes. She wore a pair of tough looking pants, work boots, a flannel shirt, over which she wore a safety orange reflective vest, and a hardhat with STP on it. Seattle Tunnel Partners, Elliot thought. Of course.
“Should I have a disguise?” Elliot asked. “When did you change? What the hell?”
Ardy started forward. “You can make people not see you. I will have to make do with this.”
Elliot trotted to keep up with Ardy. She wanted to take everything in, but she knew every minute they were in the tunnel was a minute they were being watched, or discovered, or arrested. Again. Though, idly, Elliot wondered what that experience would be like with Ardy by her side.
As they went deeper into the tunnels, Elliot could hear road noise from the tunnel, just ten feet away, a wall between them and the road. Every so often, they passed an emergency door, but not THE door. They were marked, little signs next to the doors, and Elliot was counting, trying to remember the door number closest to Locke. 33? 32? They were still at 9.
“Are you still with me back there?” Ardy asked. She slowed so that Elliot could catch up, and when they were side by side, she looped her arm through Elliot’s. Elliot smiled a little.
“Sorry, I’m trying to take in everything.” She looked around. “I want to make sure I don’t miss anything, but I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
Ardy nodded. “When this has been picked over with a fine-tooth comb like you all have, what else is there?”
“Yeah,” Elliot said. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
“But, there must be something.”
“I know there must be.” Elliot watched one of the exit doors as they passed, a lull in traffic bringing silence to the tunnel. It was well after midnight, and traffic was sparse at best. She sniffed the air. Just a hint of exhaust and… something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Sandalwood?
Down the tunnel, a metallic clank rang out. Elliot’s ears perked, her tail poofing out. A second later, she went unseen. Ardy squared her shoulders, focusing on the corridor ahead. She started forward again, Elliot following.
Distant voices seemed to be arguing, or at least chastising. Another clang, and more arguing. Elliot strained to hear what they were saying. Ardy pressed forward, like she was on the job. They walked until they could start making out individual voices. There were three or four. They spoke sharply, three voices against one.
As they moved forward, the air in the tunnel changed. It felt thicker, harder to breathe, almost like they could slice it up with a knife. That smell was there too: sandalwood for sure, but also a mix of spices Elliot couldn’t quite put her fingers on.
And out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. She stopped, turning her head a few times, making sure she had seen what she had seen. Ardy stopped too, turning to look back. She tilted her head quizzically.
“Lines,” Elliot said as quietly as she could. “They start back there,” she pointed to a spot ten feet behind them, “and the go all the way down.”
“Lines?” Ardy asked.
“I’ve seen them before. On the body Meryl showed me, on Locke’s car. I think…” She stopped because it felt silly. “I think it’s a deception spell.”
“To keep us from… what?” Ardy looked around.
Elliot pointed down the corridor, down to where the voices were coming from.
Ardy watched Elliot carefully. “Do you want to go back?”
Elliot bit her lip. She looked down the corridor. “Yes,” she said. “But when will we get to do this again?”
Ardy nodded. “As soon as you want to turn back, you tell me.”
They pressed further into the corridor, moving further down into the Earth. The voices had stopped. It sounded like someone was carefully working, but there was no more discussion. They must have settled their argument.
Where the corridor flattened out, a figure emerged. Elliot hesitated. Could they see her? They must have been able to see Ardy. Elliot grabbed Ardy’s arm and pulled her back. She could hear the figure talk, and another figure rushed forward. Was that…?
The figure at the end of the of the corridor waved their hand in the air, drawing a triangle out. It glowed bright, and one by one, the lights in the corridor went out, the darkness rushing at them.
“Shit,” Ardy said. She started back, pulling Elliot with her. Elliot held her hand low, feeling like Meryl had taught her, letting magic pool in her palm.
There was movement after them, rushing up the corridor. Elliot thought about what she wanted to magic in her hand to be, and she threw the ball roughly in the direction she thought was the most down the corridor. It bounced off a wall but toward their pursuer enough, throwing off sparks like an angry bottle rocket. The pursuer deflected the magic like swatting a fly away.
In the flash of light, Elliot caught a glimpse of the figure. Dog, glasses, wearing a coat, with a bandana around his neck. Of course, Elliot though. Of course it was. Who the fuck else would it be?
Suddenly, the Nerd was almost behind them, covering hundreds of feet in a second. Elliot cried out. The Nerd drew another figure in the air.
“You need to get out of here!” He pushed the spell forward, and Elliot and Ardy tumbled forward, thrown another hundred feet away. The Nerd slowed, drawing out another spell. Elliot caught his expression in the glow of his own magic, and she mentally stumbled. He watched them not with anger or malice, but with fear, concern.
“Hang on tight!” Ardy said. Elliot looked back. Ardy’s disguise was gone, and she stared hard at the Nerd, her eyes glowing red. She said something in an ancient, unknowable language, and suddenly Elliot was falling.
The world around her changed so quickly that for a moment, everything was just… red. They were still falling. Elliot slowly focused, and the red gave way to a horizon, a division of a field of dark maroon grain, a rust colored sky. There was a river of lava, and stone bridges that crossed it like it was any other river. She could see people, they must have been people, but they were so far away. They moved across the bridges, going about their day. The bridges carried roads, and the roads wandered to a walled city in the distance, surrounding stone towers and buildings, red and black and silver and white.
Ardy shifted her weight turning to fall head first. Elliot went with her, and suddenly they were slowing, until they plunged through another hole in the fabric of the universe. They rose up, the weight of gravity returning, and Ardy gracefully put her foot down on solid floor. She steadied Elliot on the floor, and the hole sealed itself, the sound of paper being torn back together.
Ardy looked Elliot over. “Are you-”
Elliot let out the scream she had been holding in.
[g]