Chapter 16: Elise Marvels at the Tangible

Fri, October 23, 2074 11:02 pm: 88 Wilkins Ave.-- Camden, Pleasantview



The dream had not dissipated. After three month's worth of frustrating sleep, Elise had finally arrived behind the castle doors and what she found there gave her the peculiar sensation that she had mistakenly wandered into someone else's dream.



Time again ran forwards. An old fashioned love song was suspended in the stale ether above her. People in strange dress were talking and laughing. This must have been some kind of party. Knowing that she had not been invited, Elise thought to turn and go but something attracted her attention.



There was a jagged old man mauling a young girl on the sofa at the center of the room. His liverspotted hands traveled the length and breadth her body. The girl hung limply beneath him as though she had long ago given up on struggling. It was unimaginably disgusting.

Looking around for something else to rest her eyes on, Elise saw that many of the women in the room were wearing nothing more than their undergarments. This was not a party. It was a brothel. Elise was more determined than ever to leave. She was making an about-face when a hand landed firmly on her left shoulder. The shock caused her to shriek.



"What a sweet little poppet it is!" A large woman with curly brown hair was descending upon Elise. She had expressive eyes like a doe and the predatory grin of a shark. Terrified, Elise flattened herself against the door and began trying the handle. It was stuck. The woman laughed. "Can we keep it, Mary? I would so like to keep it." The woman called Mary leaned in towards Elise's assailant, whispering urgently.

"She's one of Vincent's charges." With this, the brunette backed away from Elise, aghast. Elise thought to herself that there was no one in the world less frightening than her brother Vince but she was grateful that this had somehow done the trick. After both women had walked off, Elise tried the door again. It was still stuck.



Elise peeked into the room to her left, searching for an alternative exit. A man with a dark moustache was seated at a hookah along with several scantily clad girls. Elise placed her hand on the doorframe. It was surprisingly solid and cool to the touch. She marveled at the tangibility of it, running her fingers against its wooden ridges. The doorframe seemed, for all intents and purposes, real. Startled, Elise pulled her hand away. A quick glance around the room satisfied her that there were no doors to the outside. She retreated back into the drawing room.



On the sofa, the old man and the young woman were watching Elise intently. Elise intuited that the old man knew who she was and he was evaluating her.



The girl whispered something in the old man's ear as Elise passed by the sofa. He responded with a rich, baritone laugh that resonated throughout the room. Elise's body wavered. Either she was shuddering or the floor was quaking.



Around the corner, Mary was entertaining a guest. A woman in white re-entered the room through what appeared to be a basement door. That exit had seemed to be Elise's last hope for escape. Her only remaining option was to ask someone how to get out.



Elise spotted a couple rubbing noses and cooing at one another just behind Mary. She came closer to them and cleared her throat. The woman took note of her.



"Ki, I think we have a visitor," the woman giggled.

"Oh really? Well if she's as pretty as you are, then she is more than welcome to join us." The man called that last bit over his shoulder. The woman squealed in mock indignation and playfully tried to evade the man's grasp. He only held her tighter.

"She's a child, you old lecher," the woman exclaimed.

"A child?" The man's tone suddenly became very serious. He turned around to look at Elise.



"Excuse me, I'm looking for the way out," Elise said. The man buried his face in the woman's shoulder and sighed deeply. Embarrassed, Elise had the feeling that she had said the wrong thing.



"The way is barred at the moment," the woman said gently. "Now you run along upstairs with the other kids. There's a good girl."



The man took the woman's face in his hands and kissed her tenderly. She began giggling again as if Elise had never interrupted them. The man took this as an invitation to do more. He tipped the woman over and climbed on top of her.



Elise trudged up the steps, thinking that if she had to stay in this place for a while, she should at least be in the company of other children.



The music heard downstairs could not be heard on the second floor. In its place were a somber piano and the soft creaking of Elise's bare feet on the floorboards. She pressed her ear to each door that she came across, trying to locate the source of the music. Candelabras mounted to the walls ignited as Elise crept by. When she found the door she sought, she raised her fist to knock and the door opened of its own accord.