I stayed where I was until I was sure the creature had left, then went to pick up my sputtering touch. When I straightened, crazy-man was once again too close to me. He studied my face as I pointedly examined the length of the torch.
“Beauty like none other. Kissed by the sun and sky.”
He breathed in deeply. His face remained fuzzily vague beyond the torch, but I had the impression he’d closed his eyes like I had when eating the bread.
“I burn,” he whispered. “I suffer. There is no pity. No respite. Endless torment for the memory of a sweet smile.”
I turned away from him and started for the next door while my mind raced.
“My treasure. Lost. Gone forever.”
What had he meant by endless torment for a smile? I thought back to how I’d found him, chained to the wall with a woman on the bed like a sleeping princess. This was Hell. The man in the room with the food had been chained to the wall to prevent him from eating. All he could do was smell and hunger for the food he stared at. That seemed to have been his torment..
So what was crazy-man’s torment? He’d been chained to the wall to prevent him from touching the woman? Only that one or any woman? A sick feeling settled into my stomach. Since breaking free, he hadn’t stopped talking about my skin. But what if his fasciation wasn’t due to a physical hunger like I’d assumed? What if he wanted me for a completely different reason?
I made a pained face. He was a creature. There was no doubt about that. And I knew some creatures craved humans for sexual energy, but those creatures didn’t have the abilities the one following me possessed. Regenerating skin. Making food and drink appear. Lighting a torch with a thought. I wished I knew what type of creature I was dealing with.
While my thoughts churned, I pressed my ear to the door.
“Look at her,” he whispered.
Working to ignore the rest of his muttering, I let myself into the room and almost squealed at the sight of another chained body. This one looked up at us at the sound of the door opening. Long hair hung over its features, and the cloth draping its body made it impossible to tell if it was a man or woman.
“Please,” it begged.
I backed up a step.
“A plea will fall to the side, unheard,” crazy-man said firmly. “Silence is better.”
He reached around me and shut the door, again leaving me with more confusion. Hadn’t he said that anything was better than silence? Even suffering and pain.
I shook my head.
Why was I trying to understand the logic of someone who was obviously insane? Maybe the slow descent into madness was Hell’s party trick, and I’d been here long enough for a taste of it.
A yawn took me by surprise, and I covered my mouth as my jaw cracked.
“She is weary. Soothe her. Help her. Think. Game, game, game. Choose well.”
His words struck a familiar note as a door opened ahead, seemingly all on its own. It reminded me of what he’d done when he’d heard my stomach rumble. Since I hadn’t died from what I’d eaten, I looked inside the door instead of walking by it.
Rich, golden fabrics hid the stone walls, and coarse rugs covered the floor. A plush lounge beckoned from the back wall, and an ornate bed draped with heavy material waited beside the door. The space even had a table with a brush and vials filled with oils.
The fact that he’d replicated the room where I’d found him scared the crap out of me. Was that what had happened to the woman whose remains I’d found? He’d lured her into a room with a bed, and she’d what? Fallen asleep and had never woken up?
I recalled her bones and shuddered, scrambling back several steps. There was no way I was sleeping in there.
“Wrong. All wrong,” he mourned behind me. “Not the gold. She hates my bounty.”
He strode past me and flung open another door down the hall.
“I suffer for her pleasure. I must,” he said savagely. “I will be worthy.”
He disappeared inside.
How long would it take him to find me if I ran the other way? I had the torch and could get farther now. Yet, if I left him, what would keep the other creatures away? I couldn’t decide which was worse. Staying with him or risking the creatures?
My gut still said I was safer with him. So, giving in, I wearily shuffled forward and looked into the room.
