I drew the Eldritch Knife and began to scrape the bark off the trees in front of me. In that sense, they behaved just like trees. The bark peeled off, revealing supple naked wood underneath. I kept at it, scraping a circle. Not too big, just enough to place the palm of my hand inside.
Stabbing my knife into the circle, I whispered, “Eldritch,” feeding the barest amount of energy I could into the working.
A small purple flame the size of a candle flickered to life where the blade was embedded into the tree. I reached out with my Sight, observing the process. It was like I had put a small hole in a dam, and the pressure was breaking the whole thing down from the inside out. The Lovecraftian flame was made of pain and dread. And as much as this door was well-made, it was just that: a structure that had been built with reason. There was an order to it. Not just that, the trees had once been human fear.
Pain got rid of those things.Pain overwrote fear.It erases thoughts from your head.Humans are especially susceptible to it.
I focused on the pain part of the eldritch flame, coaxing it to life.
The trees went up in flames.
Hidebehind snarled in surprise. “Little shaman burned the door down?”
“I’ll huff and puff and…. Never mind,” I said and hobbled through.
The walls were still made of gnarled trees twisting around each other to create the semblance of a room. A humongous flat screen TV took up the entirety of the wall on one side, its screen shattered like someone had taken a bat to it. An expensive leather couch set in the middle, a desk with a gaming computer, a sound system, some posters, and gaming rigs… this wasn’t just a room. It was a mancave.
And the carpet was soaked with blood.
Lying on the floor was everyone I was looking for: Mina, Abigail, Wol, Hwari… and then some adults, a few of whom I recognized. Greg’s parents and Ashley’s mom. I saw them in passing before at school.
Most of them…
I tried not to look too close at their chests, whether it was rising and falling… or not.
A pair of eyes was tracking my every move from under the couch.
Just eyes. Nothing else. I tried to peer closer, but the angle was all wrong. It was like the space it occupied was darker, designed not to be seen. And just by looking at it, I started imagining all sorts of horrible things it could be. I sliced a hand through the air, halting those thoughts.
Underthebed.
“Hey,” I said.
An angry blinking followed.
Great. This one didn’t even speak.
But he was powerful. I could see why Hidebehind said this one was the oldest.
There was a certain weight to Underthebed, as if the floors around him sank deeper into the earth. A sinkhole, or the beginning of one. I knew it wasn’t real, just a manifestation of the preternatural’s power in this temporary Lost Place. But it didn’t bode well that Hidebehind hadn’t exhibited that sort of strength, and this one clearly did.
Abigail whimpered, her voice pained.
No time to waste.
I took a step forward. “I know your name. Underthebed. The oldest of the three I’ve encountered so far. I’m here to reclaim those who are mine.”
While talking, I looked around the room. The branches of the Mother Tree. If I could find them, then—
There. They were stowed by the corner, leaning against a broken arcade machine. Quite a few of them. Thirteen. Thirteen branches for the thirteen Wickermen who burned down the Mother Tree. Branches meant to become staff so they could move up within the organization. Shit. Had they been throwing a coup against the Wickerman and his closest lieutenants?
I almost missed the series of rapid blinking from under the couch. A sort of coldness began to radiate, and I blinked.
I was on my knees.
Holy shit, I’d fallen asleep.
How long? Only a second or two. I’d dozed.
Just from him blinking.
I immediately closed my eyes and crawled away from the couch, back towards the treeline where the forest started.
Shit. Was it the cold he radiated, or the fact that I saw him blinking? It could have been either, or a combination of both. But now, I had to be careful of what I saw, as well as the distance I kept between us. The fact that he tried to lie some sleep working on me meant he wasn’t friendly. At least, I got that much.
I stabbed my knife into the floor in front of me. It still had the traces of the spell I’d just done to get the door open. Pain and dread should keep me awake. It was only a theory, but it made sense to me, and I think that mattered just as much—if not more—than the actual relationship between sleep and the two forces.
Finally, Underthebed spoke. It spoke directly into my mind, not unlike Hwari often did.
‘Why?’
“Why not?” I quipped before I could stop myself. Shit.
And surprisingly, I heard chortling coming from under the bed. Not a spiritual message, but a real audible sound that came through my ears.
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‘Broke my door,’ it said again. There was no anger in it. Just curiosity.
I thought carefully. “I knocked first.”
This time, it spoke through feelings. It felt a lot like amusement. Mild amusement. It changed topics. ‘Friends?’ I could imagine a ghastly arm spreading itself out over the bodies.
“Not all of them. The two girls, the cat, and the koi fish. Yes. Friends,” I answered.
The tone changed. ‘Want them back?’
I nodded slowly.
It pretended to consider. ‘No,’ it said, and shot another wave of coldness at me.
But I’d been prepared, keeping my eyes closed the entire time. Not only that, I had the eldritch knife on the ground in front of me. I felt the frosty gust hit the knife and split apart into strands. Small breezes that made me tired, but didn’t cause me to doze off like before.
Damn. Maybe keeping my eyes had nothing to do with his blinking. My eyes were already closed, and if Underthebed's ability was connected to falling asleep and forcing his victim’s eyes closed was a part of that, even this small action was enough to dampen the effects.
“My eyes are closed,”I said out loud.
‘Closed? Why matter? Dreams when eyes are closed. Nightmares. Closests. Eyes. Hands. Teeth. Scary things in dreams.’
“Yeah, except I’m not alone,” I said. “Hidebehind, flip over the couch.”
Brute force to subtlety. It felt fucking good to have another card to play other than wit and guessing games.
There was a huge crash and the shattering of glass.
“I’m opening my eyes now,” I said, then opened them three seconds later.
Just like I guessed, Hidebehind couldn’t act while I was looking. He had to stay hidden. But if I closed my eyes, there was definitely a place he’d be drawn to, and it was behind the Underthebed’s hiding place: the couch. Not only had Hidebehind thrown the couch into the TV, but he’d also added some extra flair. Claw marks had torn the inner foam, leaving the leather torn and shredded. The couch had landed upside down, most of the cushions having been scattered all about. There was a small spot of darkness where the armrest and the head cushion created a triangle with the floor, and a pair of eyes resided in them.
If my body were in working order, I could have baseball-slided across the floor and grabbed my friends. Maybe drag Wol and Hwari out, gain distance outside of the preternatural’s influence and come back better prepared to rescue the others. But my body wasn’t in any state for strenuous activity. I was barely managing to stand.
“You have two options before you,” I said, putting a false air of bravado in the words. “One, I play hardball. It looks like you’re confined to that couch, and I’m guessing because it’s the closest thing to a bed in this place. I draw a circle over that couch, and I bind you.” I picked up my knife while saying it.
The amusement in the thing’s voice was back. ’Two?’
“Two,” I said, dragging myself a little towards my friends. “You wake up everyone here, then I leave this place with them.”
The sensation of contemplation reached me. Not a moment later, it said, ‘Three?’
“There is no option three,” I said.
‘Three.’ It said adamantly.
“What do you mean three? There’s—”
“I-I think he wants to come with us.”
I nearly fucking jumped out of my skin.
The voice came right next to me, and at the same time, something grabbed my hand.
“O-older brother wants to c-come with us. Isn’t that right?” Tagalong said again.
“Tagalong,” I gasped out, turning my head to see him. “When the hell did you—”
“Eep! Don’t look at me!”
I immediately closed my eyes again. “Eyes closed.”
Tagalong inhaled then exhaled, sounding like someone trying to calm themselves. He repeated it a few more times. “W-well, you were walking with H-Hidebehind… and well, two’s a company. So I decided to tag along. Three’s a crowd.”
“Jesus, you scared me.”
“I’m s-sorry,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I-I think Underthebed wants to tag along! With us!”
“Us?”
“O-oh, sorry. Did you not… I thought you invited…”
“No, I did,” I said. I tried to talk in the general direction of the couch. “Is that true, Underthebed? You want to come with? That’s the third option?”
A cold approval confirmed my choice.
“Why?” I asked and opened my eyes a sliver of an inch to look in Underthebed’s direction.
The eyes curved into smiles. Abso-fucking-lutely creepy, given that the eyes were still humanoid.
‘You smell of nightmares.’
The tattoo on my left wrist felt cold. Hooo boy, now there was an omen if I ever saw one.
Ok Jain, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You can fix that with a contract.
“Are you willing to make a temporary contract, just like Hidebehind did?”
Approval. It spoke in feeling as much as thought.
“And Tagalong, you too?”
“Y-Yes! If my scary brothers are coming… I… I want to come too. But I’m scared…”
Hidebehind growled somewhere behind us, and Tagalong yelped.
“Tagalong, I will take a verbal contract with you. But you, Underthebed, I’m going to need to bind you.”
Disapproval this time. But I wasn’t going to budge.
“I don’t have a couch or a bed that I can carry with me. I don’t know how you travel, but I’m also not going to let you travel freely around me after you literally called me a snack.”
‘Promise.’ It said.
“Three moons,” Hidebehind chimed in. “Three moons for all us brothers.”
“It’s going to be different from you, Hidebehind, because I beat you in a game. And a lasting contract with you was my boon.”
A full-on bright warmth came from Underthebed. It took a moment for me to realize he was making fun of Hidebehind.
“If you’re willing to be bound, I will release you in three moons. No circles, no permanent bindings to trap you upon release. Then, we can renegotiate a more permanent contract. But while under the binding, you act like my summon. No harm to me and mine, explicit, implicit, or working against my goals. I can also give you tasks. Of course, you can demand a price if the task I ask of you is too difficult. Can I ask you to agree in good faith?”
‘Agree.’
“W-what about me?”
“Same thing. You can tag along for three moons, but treated like a summon. After three moons, you are free to go wherever. But after three moons, I’m going to want a permanent contract if you’re going to stick around.”
“O-ok,” Tagalong said easily.
That was the easy part.
I looked around the place for something that might work as a binding tool for Underthebed, trying to think of what I remembered about binding. The thing was, the only book I read on binding was Infernal Contracts, and Prerequisites hadn’t been the most informative on that subject. Precisely because a standard book for practitioners wouldn’t go into detail about the different specialties.
In the end, I found a—would you believe it— a freaking teddy bear. Probably from the shop where you build a bear. When I squeezed it, a garbled message played out. The speechbox was too old.
“Fitting,” I said. “Underthebed, can I approach with expectation for no harm?”
‘My word.’
I walked over to the couch, and set the teddy bear in front of the creepy eyes in the darkness. They smiled at me.
Next, I reached in my bag and began taking out more things. Chalk and duct tape. I used the tape to tie up the teddy bear. I tied up his little arms handcuff style, then connected them to ankle cuffs. I ripped some more tape to put a collar around the thing when there was a flash of anger from Underthebed’s direction.
“No collars. Got it.”
It abated.
While I was finishing up doing duct tape BDSM on the teddy bear, Abigail and Mina made some more pained sounds in their sleep, along with the adults. One of the men started screaming out of the blue, which scared the living fuck out of me.
“What’re you doing?”
‘Will be hungry inside. Feeding.’
“What does that entail?”
‘More dreams. Nightmares. Stronger. Deeper. Baser.’
I shot him a scowl. “…Stop that.”
He sent me a flash of annoyance. But the sleeping people stopped squirming.
I finished and set the bear face down on the floor, creating a little alcove. “Ready?”
A streak of shadow darted from under the couch to the small gap between the bear and the floor.
I drew the circle.
“Underthebed, I bind you.”
A binding wasn’t a contract. It’s usually done against a preternatural’s will. It’s also one of the most powerful tools in a conjurer’s arsenal.
“Underthebed, I bind you, on the condition of releasing you in three moons, without intent to harm or capture you afterwards.”
“Underthebed,” I swallowed, trying to think of the words that might give Underthebed a peace of mind while it was bound. “I bind you, knowing that you will serve me for a price for those three moons, and that I will take care of you to the best of my capabilities.”
‘Accept.’
Underthebed disappeared as my chalk circle faded, eating itself away from one end to the other. The duct tape bindings tightened up on the bear, creasing its puffy little arms and legs. I picked it up, reaching out and feeling the quiet presence of Underthebed within.
The people finally began to awaken.