He held the door open for us.I pushed Brother Al’s chair over the threshold with a thump and a shake, and Nagi followed close behind me.I watched out the front window as John Jacques pulled his black hood back up and set off the way Eddie and Vic went.
The lobby was… well, interesting, to say the least.The décor in the room was almost like a Sunday school’s.Major walls were green, and doors leading to the east and west were bright blue.Comfortable patterned-fabric chairs were placed here and there against the edges of the room like it was a sitting room, and someone had propped up an old age-beaten black counter by a red door.An extremely old computer, complete with Cathode Ray tube monitor, beamed a slight bit of light against the red door.Nagi grabbed a magazine from a side table and sat, cross-legged, as he paged through it.It was about fishing.I could barely make out the title in the gloom.
“Did you smell goat?”Brother Al asked.“There was a splash of goat’s blood on that mime’s shoe from earlier.He had the stench of disinfectant on his fingers.”
“I didn’t want to say anything,” Nagi said idly.“But this is a farm, Brother Al.”
“That clock says it’s nearly midnight,” Brother Al said.“Who kills a goat at midnight?That smelled fresh to me.”
“People with reasons, I assume,” Nagi said.“Have you ever worked as a butcher?”
This seemed to take the wind out of Al’s sails.
“No,” he said.“I had men for that, in the old days.I think.”
“Let’s say you have a flock of animals,” Nagi said.“And in the day they’re allowed to live their life.You are their benefactor, yes?You grow to care for them, even knowing their true fate.You do your best to reduce any additional agony for them.So you wait, until it’s dark.And you hide your face—you cloak yourself in shadows, and you lead one of your flock away.While the rest slumber, you slaughter it, so its screams disturb them not.When they awaken.There’s simply one who may have wandered away in the night.”
“Enough,” Brother Al said.“I am reminded too much of my early days.”
“Spare us the details,” Nagi said.He folded the magazine up and sat it down.“We have company.”
‘Company’ was a little girl, maybe all of twelve years old.She looked extremely sleepy.Her hair was dishwater blonde in braids that hung halfway down her back.
“You looking for a room?”she asked.“Did you hear from Uncle JJ?”
“He escorted us inside,” Nagi said, voice gentle.“We need lodgings for five people.In your darkest room.”
“I don’t know about darkest,” the little girl said.
“Are you Carol Anne?”I asked.
She nodded.
“Your Uncle JJ—he’s the one with the Mime makeup, right?”
Carol Anne nodded.
“He went to find a few of our friends that wandered off,” I said.
Her face grew wary.
“I hope they didn’t wander too far,” she said.“Hang on.I think we have some empty rooms.Let me check the books.”
She moved the mouse on the old computer and then nodded.
“Come on,” she said.“You guys want some privacy, right?We have some space in an old room we just cleared out.No windows.Sound okay?”
“I might prefer somewhere with a view,” Brother Al said.
“Brother Aleister,” Nagi said.“Are you certain?”
“Don’t question my judgement,” Brother Al snapped, voice a grumble.
“It’s only… ah…” Nagi fell silent for a moment.“Little girl.Perhaps we can make a compromise.Brother Al requires a view.I, on the other hand, require a place at least capable of complete darkness for some period of time.Do you perhaps have extra thick curtains?I’m an analog photographer, you see.I require a dark room to process my photographs.”
“Where’s your camera?”she asked.
“Back in the van,” Nagi said.
