Chapter 14

  Ginny was hit with a smell that was somehow familiar, even though she’d never set foot in a bowling alley in her short life, or movie life before that. She knew what a bowling alley was, in the same way she knew and recognized a lot of things she’d never seen before, in a way that she’d so far been putting off examining in any depth. But beyond that, the combination of cheap beer, fried food, and the cleaner used on both bowling balls and shoes, came together to form a not unpleasant scent that managed to feel familiar.

  Shaking her head, she scanned the expanse of the bowling alley. The idea of the bowling alley as a rallying point for the whole town, where the majority had gathered to huddle together against the night’s chaos, was somewhat undercut by the reality. There were a few dozen people scattered across the lanes and food court. A small group of three older men and one woman had actually started up a game on the furthest lane from the door, bowling with a quiet intensity that either indicated underlying anxiety with the situation, or a love of bowling that expressed itself in treating the game like a serious matter at all times.

  The majority of the remaining people were clustered around the food court and bar, many of them being served plastic cups of cheap beer by a heavyset and balding man behind the bar. Ginny caught sight of the familiar figure of Brendon over by the small food court and started making her way over there. He was sitting at a table across from Mark and an older man, presumably the absent Amos Miller. Brendon caught sight of her as she approached, and gestured in her direction, making Mark and his father turn in an amusingly similar way. Getting her first good look at the older member of the Miller family, Ginny discovered that Mark took after his father, Amos looking like a stretched out version of Mark whose face had been weathered and worn by a combination of years, rough work, and, based on the red flush of his cheeks matching what looked like a permanent red tint to his nose, a regular and heavy alcohol intake.

  The man’s face split into a wide grin, and he stretched his arms out wide, barely missing elbowing his son in the face without noticing.

  “There she is, my little princess!” Pushing himself up from the table quickly, he strode over toward Ginny and Norah, his step faltering when he took in how bloodied Ginny was, then picking up speed, quickly grabbing the little girl and pulling her away from Ginny into a hug. “Oh baby, you’re a mess.” The man looked over Ginny, and nodded in appreciation, even as he took a step back from her. “Brendon told me about you finding my kids out along the road. Thanks for walking them into town, especially when you look like you’ve had, uh… troubles of your own?” He trailed off somewhat uncertainly, shooting a nervous glance over her appearance. Having been transferred from being held on Ginny’s hip to her father, Norah frowned at him, shaking her head.

  “Daddy!” Norah said in the long-suffering tone reserved for children addressing parents that were embarrassing them. “I’m not a princess. I’m a scary girl! Boo!” Norah said the last proudly, raising her voice on the last word, then giggling at her father, who smiled back at her indulgently.

  “Well, you’re my princess, baby.” Norah crossed her arms in annoyance, smearing a long red stain across her father’s shirt as she did. The older Miller winced slightly, then laughed. “Let’s get you cleaned up. Then you can be a scary princess!” He nodded his thanks at Ginny again as he turned and started making his way to a set of restrooms on the other side of the bowling alley, Norah still considering whether being a scary princess was acceptable.

  Ginny was ready to follow them and try to finally get herself cleaned up somewhat, since while a public restroom sink in a small town bowling alley wasn’t exactly as good as a hot shower or a long soak in a bath, it was definitely better than nothing. Before she could start that way though, Brendon walked up to her, smiling tiredly.

  “Glad you made it; I was starting to get worried when you weren’t here. Deputy Doug insisted on taking this long and winding route to get here, something about not letting anyone follow us.” He paused, glanced over at the deputy in question, who had met up with the sheriff and other deputy, the three of them talking quietly but intensely with the heavyset man behind the counter serving beers, and lowered his voice. “He started going weird again. The deputy, I mean. Not as bad as he was in the station before Greg showed up, no one got shot this time.” He glanced down at her bandaged side briefly. “But he started muttering to himself again, kept shooting me these looks. Sarah nearly shot him when he tried to sneak around the side of the building and ‘get the drop on her’.”

  Ginny glanced over at the law enforcement group and activated Analyze a few times in quick succession, wanting to confirm something before mentioning it to Brendon.

  Name: Douglas Dearns

  Race: Human

  Age: 39

  Conditions: Tired, Jittery, Scared, Resolve of the Blue, Scent of Stale Nachos

  Name: Sarah Williams

  Race: Human

  Age: 26

  Conditions: Alert, Resolve of the Blue, Scent of Stale Nachos

  Name: Gregory Turms

  Race: Human

  Age: 44

  Once again, the sheriff was the only one whose conditions were hidden from. In addition, the other two deputies had picked up another condition, which made her stop and stare for a moment. What? She focused on the Scent of Stale Nachos condition.

  Scent of Stale Nachos: There’s something universally nostalgic about the scent of stale food, cheap beer, sweat, and cleaning chemicals associated with places of leisure like arcades, sporting venues, and bowling alleys. While in such a location attached to a sufficiently influential proprietor, you are receiving a small bonus to your resistance to fear and anxiety-based effects and general mood.

  Ginny shook her head, relaying the conditions she found to Brendon. “I think it’s that condition on him. The Resolve of the Blue one, not the nachos one. It’s blocking whatever’s making him freak out.” Brendon raised an eyebrow and looked at her skeptically. “Scent of Stale Nachos?” His eyes took on that glazed expression of someone checking a Depths screen, and he blinked. “Huh, I have it too. Not the Resolve of the Blue one, though.”

  Ginny checked her own character sheet, seeing that she also had the Scent of Stale Nachos condition, but not Resolve of the Blue. She was also reminded that she had four unallocated stat points sitting around but quickly pushed that to the back of her mind, behind the current conversation and her plans to finally get some of the gore off of herself.

  “Same. I assume Resolve of the Blue is for police officers, or maybe just members of the sheriff’s office. I can’t see the sheriff’s conditions, but I’m assuming he’s the source of it.” Brendon frowned, and she quickly continued. “I can’t see your conditions either.” Brendon considered that, then shrugged uncertainly. “Maybe you can’t see as much about people who have picked a Path? Like, they’re somewhat defended against it?”

  Ginny nodded uncertainly, and Brendon nodded along, continuing with more confidence. “Yeah! The sheriff was talking about gaining a level in his First-Aid skill, so he must have picked a Path to be able to see his skills. And I picked a Path back in the woods before we even met.”

  Ginny turned to the bulk of the people clustered near the bar, and started activating Analyze rapidly. A steady flood of blue screens listing names, races, and ages flashed by her.

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  Analyze has leveled up! Now level 4!

  She received the not unexpected notification about her Analyze ability leveling up most of the way through using it on everyone in the bowling alley, although she didn’t notice any additional information being offered on the remaining few individuals she Analyzed after leveling up. Dismissing the notification, she turned back to Brendon with a grim expression on her face. “If that’s the case, we’re in trouble. I could see the conditions on the majority of the people here just now, which would mean most of them don’t have paths.” The only exceptions had been an older woman with an eyepatch and a face creased with laugh lines sitting near the center of the bar, the heavyset man serving drinks, and surprisingly, all four of the active bowlers.

  Brendon shrugged. “Maybe that melon didn’t know what he was talking about. This seems like it’s a safe area, with nothing seems to be trying to come in here, and even if they do, this place only has an emergency exit out back, and the front doors there, so it’s better than being outside.”

  Ginny shook her head, chewing on her lower lip. “Do you really want to count on Rinaxis being wrong, or just making up everything he said?”

  Brendon stared back at her. “Do I want to count on the word of a talking melon man who was getting as drunk as he physically could while telling us all this?” He sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping. “No, but…alright, fine.” He turned to survey the crowd of people, crossing his arms over his chest next to Ginny.

  “So, what do we do then?”

  Ginny watched an older man sitting at the bar shoot her a suspicious look, eyes lingering on her bloodstained everything, and the harpoon she was still carrying. “Now, I try to clean some of this blood off in the bathroom, and then we ask around if anyone’s seen a Depths Door that we can use to get back to Rinaxis’ shop and take the cops with us.”

  Ginny pushed off the table she’d leaned back against while they talked, leaving a smudge of gore behind. “That melon has more answers we need.”

  ***

  They ended up doing things in a slightly different order, since Ginny had to walk right by the huddled discussion the Hope Falls sheriff’s department was having with the heavyset man behind the bar, who Brendon told her was Ernie Garrett, the owner of the bowling alley. That, combined with him being one of the individuals who her Analyze ability couldn’t scan as much information from, indicated that he both had a path, and was like the source of the Scent of Stale Nachos condition she’d seen earlier.

  The decision to poke her head in and ask if anyone of them had seen a glowing green portal around the town, before moving on to get cleaned up, was one she immediately regretted, when Ernie scowled at her and nodded.

  “Yeah. Yeah! There’s a big glowing whatsit like that just appeared in the back, where I keep the shoes. Right in the middle of things, gotta squeeze around it just to get to the office. Damn aliens.” The man had a face like a bulldog, heavy jowls and wrinkles abounding, and the loose skin around his face wobbled slightly as he shook his head in disgust.

  Ginny shot the distant restroom doors and their promise of cleanliness a disappointed look, then turned fully to Ernie and the assembled sheriff’s department, who were staring at her with expressions that ranged from curious, to suspicious, to utterly unreadable.

  “I need to see it.”

  “What is it?” The sheriff chimed in, his expression still unreadable, a second before Ernie added, “Whatsit doing in my damn shoe room?”

  Ginny let out an annoyed huff of breath before responding. “It’s a Depths Door. They’re like… magic doors that take you to other places. Brendon and I found one on the way into town that led to someone who knew a lot about what was going on and could answer some questions for all of us.” She turned to Ernie and shrugged. “And I have no idea why it’s in your shoe room. The guy I was talking about doesn’t even have feet, I’m pretty sure.”

  The two deputies and Ernie stared at her like she was as insane as a teenager covered in blood and carrying a harpoon looked, while the sheriff maintained his neutral expression. “Would you care to explain that?” The sheriff offered, and Ginny shook her head in response.

  “Honestly, no. The explanation wouldn’t help with the looks most of you were giving me, trust me.” Ginny reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, gritting her teeth as she ground partially dry gore into her skin.

  “Look, the person in there can answer any questions about all of this a LOT better than I can. I’ll introduce you to him, and then you all can stare at him suspiciously while I get some of the literal layers of gore off of me.”

  Ernie frowned at her, looked over his shoulder at the doors to his restrooms across the way, and opened his mouth like he was going to say something. The sheriff cut him off quickly, placing a firm hand on his shoulder and nodding at Ginny. “That’s fine. Show us this person who knows more about what’s going on, and then Deputy Williams can go with you to help you get cleaned up.” Ginny frowned at him, sensing there was more left unsaid in that statement, which was immediately confirmed when the sheriff continued with a shrug. “And to make sure you don’t slip off. Not saying you were planning on doing that, but like I said back at the station, you and I need to have a talk.”

  Ginny continued to frown at him. “I feel like that last part was the kind of thing you weren’t supposed to say out loud. You know, just… leave it as a subtle implication, but we all would have known what you meant?”

  The sheriff shrugged again in response. “No point in not saying it out loud and being clear then, is there?” When Ginny didn’t respond to that, he turned to Ernie and jerked his head over to a door behind a different counter on the other side of the alley. “Can you let us into the back, Ernie?”

  The heavyset bowling alley owner scowled and nodded. “Right. Come on then.” He flipped up a section of the bar, and squeezed out from behind it, the sheriff, two deputies, Ginny, and Brendon falling in behind him.

  “It’s cause he’s a melon man.” Brendon offered cheerfully as they walked across the bowling alley. The two deputies and Ernie both turned to stare at him, Ernie stopping as he did until the sheriff, who hadn’t turned back in response, prodded him gently and he resumed walking.

  Brendon grinned widely. “That’s why he’s got no feet, and why Ginny said it wouldn’t make any more sense if she explained it. Cause ya know. He’s a melon.”

  Deputy Williams snorted at him. “You’re a melon.” Brendon grinned back at her as they arrived at the door to the back room of the bowling alley and waited while Ernie fished a tangle of keys out of his pocket and started fiddling with the door. “You’ll see.”

  Ginny shook her head, idly wondering why the pain from the steady ache of the headache she was developing stood out so much more than getting one of her arms nearly torn off earlier, or getting shot.

  “I don’t care what kind of fruit he is, you all tell him to move his big goddamn glowing door out of my goddamn shoe room.” Ernie grunted back at them as he found the correct key and unlocked the door, pushing it open and leading them all into a narrow hallway cluttered with banners and signs advertising various special events and holiday specials at the bowling alley that were propped against the walls haphazardly. He turned a corner at the end of the hall and Ginny briefly lost sight of him, even as he called back to them in the disgruntled tone that she was starting to suspect was his default.

  “Right there, you see that? Big as all buggery, and smack dab in the middle of my shelves.”

  Ginny rolled her eyes, while Brendon narrowed his eyes, glancing over at her and mouthed the words ‘big as all buggery’ with a questioning expression on his face. She shook her head and shrugged as they followed the deputies around the corner, and stopped short, the banter falling away as they both froze in place.

  “Oh, there’s no way that’s good.” Brendon said, staring at the glowing portal, that was, as described, smack dab in the middle of a wider room lined with racks full of bowling shoes in various sizes.

  Ginny nodded silently in agreement, her grip tightening on the harpoon in her hands.

  The Depths Door that led to Rinaxis’ shop back on the road into town, and the one that Venn’Dar had appeared out of in the woods, had both been the same bright, emerald-green color.

  This one was a deep and angry looking shade of red.

  “Ernie… get away from there.” Ginny whispered urgently, as Brendon looked at her uncertainly. The bowling alley owner was standing directly next to the Depths Door, while the sheriff and two deputies were a few steps back, staring at the glowing magical portal all goggle-eyed.

  “What’s that?” Ernie turned back to look at her, one hand still raised to point accusingly at the magic glowing door that had invaded his shoe storage room. Ginny quickly activated Analyze, and Survivor’s Will went into overdrive repressing the wave of fear that tried to roll over her mind.

  “Get away from it!” She shouted this time.

  Depths Door: This is a portal used by those who are fully incorporated into the Depths System. Open portals may be freely used by any individual who has incorporated the minimum amount of Depths corruption. Closed portals may only be used by designated individuals, or those fully incorporated into the Depths System.

  This Door Leads to: The Abattoir of The Gullet

  This portal is: Open.

  Ginny stepped forward, the hand not clutching at the harpoon tightly reaching out to grab Ernie and pull him back, the memory of Venn’Dar’s massive hand shooting out of a portal and stopping just short of grabbing her by the skull running through her mind. However, no massive hand reached out of this portal.

  Instead, the first thing she saw was teeth. Unsettlingly human like but massive, each tooth the size of her hand, perfectly even and gleaming, as a massive human mouth, lips peeled back from wide open teeth, pushed out of the portal.

  Directly around Ernie’s outstretched arm. They snapped shut with a loud and echoing click. Surprisingly, the expected sound of bone snapping and flesh tearing didn’t accompany it. Ernie’s arm was cleanly cut off at the elbow, its owner stumbling back from the door in shock, staring at the stub of his arm even as blood started fountaining out of it, coating the floor and the massive mouth, which chewed slowly. Slowly, more of the head attached to the massive mouth appeared out of the portal, revealing a twisted parody of a normal if obese human face. Beady eyes lost beneath rolls of flab flicked around the room, before settling on Ernie still staring at his bloody stump. Rolls of flesh that obscured even the hint of a chin wobbled as the massive mouth opened again, a bit of drool dripping out of one side to sizzle ominously against the floor. As a resounding and echoing growl of an empty stomach echoed out from the black pit of an open mouth, Ginny activated Analyze again, getting a familiar red screen that confirmed her fears.

  Analyze failed. You do not have sufficient corruption.

  A Ravager.

  And in the shocked stillness of the room, Ernie started to scream.

  everyone the munchies. In this new post-Depths world, things tend to get worse... before they get even worse. The good times are really getting started in earnest now that the Grace Period has ended.