Chapter Six

Headcrow stepped down from the statue.
“Does the Morlock like those word puzzle things?”
“Not a clue.” I shrugged. “But I know one of the software types was an absolute fiend for them, and she was about three seats away.”
Everyone looked at me.
“What!? You made it seem like it was a big deal that I was opposite James when the light happened, so I figured that was relevant.”
“Oh, it’s relevant.” The ghostly ringmaster agreed. “But …”
She paused and cocked her head, then looked at Headcrow and grinned.
“What?” Headcrow asked, looking around wildly, so that he was facing entirely the wrong direction when Jeff hurdled the maze and crashed into him.
“Headcrow! We found the other primary! And this here is the Something Else!” Jeff stood on top of Headcrow’s prone form, then looked around at us. “Why’s he lying down?”
“But positively identifying this site as being relevant to more than one arrival,” The ghostly ringmaster continued, gesturing to Yorick.
“Means the confusion should go away and tell us exactly where the other one is.” Said Yorick, somehow grinning hugely at Headcrow.
“OK, how are you doing that?” I demanded. “He can raise an eyebrow, you somehow grin … How does that even work?”
Headcrow spoke up as he pushed Jeff off of his chest.
“I’m more impressed that you watched someone with no internal organs or skin or flesh eat a s’more and thought nothing of it.”
“But … you ate one too?” Jeff looked back & forth between Headcrow and me. “Uhhh … Has nobody shown this guy a mirror?”
“Jeff?” Asked Headcrow. “Why are you here and not with the other one?”
Jeff helped him to his feet.
“He’s freaking out pretty bad; Screaming about the lights hurting him and refusing to come out of the vault.”
“Jeff?” Asked Yorick, in a tired voice. “Did you, at any point, call him a Morlock?”
“Maybe?” Jeff shrugged. “What’s a Morlock?”
“Think Gollum, or maybe a CHUD, but with tech skills.” Said the ghostly ringmaster. “Jeff; How on earth do you know a Hamlet reference, but not The Time Machine?”
“Worked in a video store; Was there a Time Machine movie?”
“There was that one with Jack The Ripper?” I offered. “Maybe another one, but that might have been a streaming thing.”
“Such a waste of a good idea.” Said the ghostly ringmaster and Jeff simultaneously, shaking their heads, then stared at each other in surprise.
Yorick cleared his throat.
“Perhaps what’s more important,” He suggested. “Is that there’s a deeply confused and frightened person in a stone box who needs some help.”

A minute later I was standing in a marble corridor, the walls covered with neat rows of gravestone plaques, leaning awkwardly beside an open hole in which two eyes dimly gleamed. Headcrow and Yorick were lurking down one end of the hall, and Jeff had positioned himself at the other and was making ‘get on with it’ motions at me.
“James?” I asked. “Can you hear me? Do you recognise my voice?”
A grunt.
“I was sitting across from you at the restaurant, and you were talking all about a VW van that your grandfather owned.” I saw Jeff roll his eyes, and I shrugged in agreement. “I’m not really sure what’s going on right now, and from what I’ve been told you’re not having a great time, but I don’t think we’re in any danger here.”
“This is just a nightmare.” Came a gurgling response. “Just a dream.”
Headcrow, Yorick, and Jeff simultaneously facepalmed.
“Maybe?” I replied. “Seems pretty real to me, but also makes absolutely no sense? They’ve said that there’s normally a proper welcome, but there’s something unusual, and people are still stuck. Like you were.”
Another grunt.
“And they have s’mores here, so it can’t be that bad.”
That got a snigger.
“The light hurts my eyes out there.”
I made eye contact with Jeff, and we winced at each other.
“That might be my fault.” I admitted. “I used the wrong phrase around someone who has a bit of a thing with names, and … I guess it stuck?”
“Don’t worry about it too much.” Headcrow called out from the end of the hall. “People change depending on what they do, so the Morlock thing won’t stick.”
He walked a bit closer.
“And from what I can tell, you’re something that moves in shadows and darkness, so …” Headcrow gathered his thoughts. “Try to drag it with you? That often works.”
A long-fingered clawed hand slowly emerged from the wall, somehow dragging shadow with it like a blanket.
“What’s a Morlock?” He asked.

A few minutes later we were standing at the entrance to the hallway, looking out at the boneyard. James was munching on a cracker and melted chocolate assemblage, having declined the marshmallows on the grounds of texture.
Yorick was scattering dust on a rough map he’d drawn on the floor, watching it drift into little piles, with three large clumps where James, the Monument, and I had been found. Headcrow squatted beside it, muttering as the pattern formed.
“… And the monument probably has something in it that relates to you, but it’ll need unlocking with that Wordle Puzzle thing.” Jeff was explaining. “But that can wait a while; Got people to find and rescue.”
Headcrow looked up at us.
“Looks like two big clusters, the Mansion and the more natural bit of the boneyard.” He pointed at James. “It looks like you’d be better in tunnels, so why don’t you & I head that way?”
“I’m guessing it’s easier now that we’re both out?” I said through a mouthful of s’more. “Jeff, why do you travel with what seems like an unlimited supply of snacks?”
Jeff stared blankly at me.
“Why wouldn’t I?” He asked. “Who doesn’t like snacks?”
I noticed that James the Morlock was staring at me, and tried wiping at my face.
“Do I have chocolate everywhere?” I asked. “How bad a mess is it?”
“It’s not that.” He replied. “I just wondered how you’re eating with your mouth sewn shut like that?”
There was a long silence, eventually broken by Jeff.
“Can we please show this guy a mirror?”