Shooting a glance at Lucas one last time to double-check that he understood that he was to wait here, I drifted out of the water and began lifting myself upward—all the while keeping close to the shadowy walls—until I was almost level with the ghouls. I was deliberately traveling slowly, and sticking to the edges of the cavern, because I did not want to attract their attention just yet. I wanted to get to the furthest corner away from the vortex first; I needed them to focus their attention as far away from the portal as possible. But since I was traveling in the open now, I was only halfway across the cave toward my destination corner when a ghoul spotted me. He shrieked, while another cackled, as though they took delight in seeing me here. Delight no doubt in envisaging the torture that would soon follow… if I let them.
Improvise. Improvise! The task had seemed simpler when we were still in the safety of the lake. Now that I was here in the open, my mind froze and I didn’t have the first clue what to do. So I stopped thinking, and just started doing. I began spinning in circles as two of the dozen ghouls began approaching me.
Thankfully, they appeared to be in no particular hurry, and as I zoomed around in circles, doing somersaults in the air, they slowed their pace, almost seeming to be enjoying my display. This gave me the encouragement I needed—desperately needed. I began moving faster and tried to execute other kinds of acrobatics in the air—most of which I was sure looked rather pathetic, but the ghouls were still watching me. And that was all that mattered. Now… these ghouls just needed to keep their distance from me for long enough…
I dared not avert my eyes even for a moment toward Kailyn. I was dying to see where she was now—whether she might have even dared to start approaching the portal—but I couldn’t risk drawing the ghouls’ attention to her. I kept my gaze firmly away from her corner of the cavern and continued to put on my display of bizarre acrobatics.
My heart plummeted as the ghouls began to move forward again. They were seeing through me; I was nothing but a one-trick pony. I had to mix things up a bit. I racked my mind frantically for my next move. Movement and speech were the only two things I had. I could use my voice next. But say what? Again, I silenced my thoughts and just did the first thing that came to me, discarding any semblance of dignity I still had left in the process.
I began to sing, even as I mocked myself. I was a musician, but I’d never been fond of singing. I didn’t think I had a particularly bad voice, but it was an unpracticed one. And the first thing that spurted from my mouth? A country song. I don’t even listen to country music. The strange things that surfaced in times of desperation…
At least the ghouls seemed to take delight in their frolicking monkey again. They stopped approaching so quickly and paused, hovering in the air. Then they began to clap. Ugh. I shuddered at the creepy gleam in their eyes. It reminded me of that of a dog owner after seeing his beloved pet perform a trick. I was half expecting them to throw me a treat. Their beady eyes were filled with admiration, almost pride.
My “song” went downhill fast. I ran out of words and manically tried to scrape together some made-up lyrics in my head, making the tune sound all the more horrendous. But the ghouls were still watching my train wreck, so I would keep it going. I ended up resorting to non-words, but they didn’t seem to like the adjustment. I had to change things up again. I changed song, to one I knew a bit better—soft rock, this time. But to my disdain, my audience didn’t appreciate rock as much as country music. They began approaching again. They were now discomfortingly close, barely ten feet away.
Still not daring to track Kailyn with my eyes, I looked directly past the ghouls closest to me to those still waiting near the portal. They had been watching me before, but I was beginning to lose their attention, too. Dammit. Now would be a good time for Uncle Lucas to join the act…
Soon after I’d had the thought, he did. I caught sight of his form, zooming up to the ceiling—a good distance away from the whirlpool—where he began to spin around and around, in a similar manner to what I’d done. More mirthful cackling and clapping ensued, their eyes now drawn to Lucas—the new object of their creepy affection.
Come on, Kailyn.
Where are you?
I didn’t even know yet whether or not she had escaped. Lucas and I just had to keep this circus going as long as we possibly could until they eventually got bored and snatched us. I hoped against hope that by then, Kailyn would be gone.
I quickly shifted to another act, causing some of the ghouls a mild confusion as to which of their pets to observe. I started doing a weird kind of star dance in midair, while Lucas also switched up his act, going from spinning in circles to gliding up and down with the smoothness of waves.
Then the hope that had been rising in my chest sank into the pit of my stomach.
Kailyn yelped.
No. No!
For the first time, I allowed my eyes to trace her… only to see her in the clutches of a ghoul. She was so close to the entrance, perhaps six feet away. But one of the ghouls hovering near it just had not been distracted enough by us. These ghouls were sharper than we had hoped they would be. Maybe a group of ghosts had even tried this sort of stupid attempt at distraction before.
Whatever the case, they’d caught Kailyn.
The game was over.
The rest of the ghouls, previously distracted and being entertained by Lucas and me, soon put two and two together and realized that Kailyn had been making a move to escape. They knew now that it had all been a trick, not some show of playful reciprocity from their doting dependents.