Chapter 13
Back in the great hall, the children sitting before me and the fire that I stoked in the massive brick fireplace had expressions of wonder and amazement draped over their faces. I could feel the wheels turning and grinding in their brains as they thought of JT, Kali, and Michael walking into the mysterious room in the basement of Warhead Dale. The large Mahogany Door and its ornate jamb stood in front of them like an ancient monolith. The mammoth Billy in all of his gruesome, grotesque glory was to their right, eyeing each of their movements with his dreadful red eyes.
The children spied and followed the floor down the long corridors of the mansion. They knew the door’s room must still be in the house, hidden in its chamber in the bowels below us. They peered back to me, hoping I would lead them to it.
Without much hesitation and anticipating the question that they might have asked, I answered, “No. We can’t go to the basement.”
The expressions on the children’s faces morphed into disappointment, but I have to admit that I noticed some sighs of relief. I had to conclude that the possibility of facing Billy might be more than they could handle at the moment. I continued my story, hoping it would cool their desires, and I would not have to explain over and over again why we couldn’t venture to the lowest floor of the house.
“JT was the first to enter the room that had opened before them, and Kali and Michael followed. Their hearts skipped a beat and their eyes widened when they caught sight of Billy sitting in a huge, orange chair. He had taken the feathered headdress of lion skin off, which revealed in totality his still thick, matted, red dreadlocks. His face was still mired in an unrecognizable white, blue, and orange pattern with fat black lines streaking down his cheeks. Gritty grime dripped from his legs onto the filthy floor.
‘Welcome, my favorite people in the world. Welcome to my world now.’ Billy rose from the padded orange chair, his bones cracking and popping as he straightened to stand. JT, Kali, and Michael were nailed to the floor, but their rigid exterior shattered effortlessly as the creature walked toward them. ‘I constructed this little room myself. Not too bad I think. Hope you like it.’ The massive creature spread his arms out as to show off his creation.
The room was quite large - not as large as the dining room, though one might argue that the many objects and paraphernalia that occupied it made it appear smaller than it really was. Strange ornaments hung from the ceilings. Paintings of old forgotten buildings, shaggy forests, and strange alien symbols plastered the walls. There was a myriad of papers and books scattered over the floor covered by a thick layer of dust.
It is very hard to describe without standing there, and I apologize for my lack of description, but most if not all of the treasures in the room seemed out of place -- especially the large mirror with a dirty, golden frame that hung on the wall to their left, its cracks like many forked rivers on a map.
‘I made it for your own protection,’ explained Billy. ‘So people might not find this.’ Billy pointed at the Mahogany Door guiltlessly hanging in its jamb.
JT, Kali, and Michael’s thoughts scattered around like a swarm of bees. They couldn’t decide whether to engage the monster in conversation. It might have provoked him into unfavorable action. They remained still and silent.
‘I’m very tired,’ said Billy with a groaning, dull, deep voice. The intensity of his dark, bloodshot eyes were faded in comparison to what JT had remembered in his dream of their first encounter. ‘You have forgotten about me and I don’t like it,’ Billy’s voice cracked. The undefined lines on his face suddenly made him look somber. ‘Your carelessness forced me to seek you out and return you to this place; but I may have been too late.’
Michael’s look turned to confusion.
‘Hee, hee,’ snickered Billy. He peered at Michael who, after catching the dark, dreadful stare, shivered with fear. ‘You thought you could weasel your way back to Bruinduer. You tried to trick JT boy into making you steward. Ha!’ Billy shook his head.
JT flexed his chest out and stepped between Billy and Michael. He slammed his cane to the floor. He hated how Billy treated his long lost friend. ‘Tell us what this is all about. Why are we here? Why is Bruinduer collapsing?’ JT’s tone was demanding and he returned Billy’s awful, penetrating stare. He knew he had to go back through the Mahogany Door, and he remembered his grandfather telling him that Billy would give him answers. Kali and Michael looked at JT with shock, their bodies slouching and jaws dropped. They had no idea that Bruinduer was collapsing.
Billy jerked his neck back and tried to muster a smirk; he turned slowly from JT and lumbered back to the big, orange chair, plopping down in it. The floor shook.
‘Saw your grandfather did you?’ asked Billy. He let out a deep, bellowing moan.
‘Yeah, I did, and he said you would tell me what I needed to know,’ JT said. His temper and blood pressure surged and his face became flushed.
‘No need to get all heated, boy,’ Billy remarked in a calm, delayed tone. ‘We don’t have time for any games.’ Billy sat up the best he could. His back was losing strength. ‘I guess Kali girl and the little Rabbit know whatever their little minds might let them know, but I guess you, JT boy, have no idea about me and who I am,’ Billy grunted. His face gave way to pain.
The great monster sucked in air, and like the few before him during the last two precious days, he too told a tale. ‘I come from a place that has no rest for the weary.’ His breath was slow. ‘One day I was minding my own business and these Vryheid people started to call for me. I don’t know or want to know how they did it, and I don’t know how they picked me, but suddenly I became part of the world behind that door.’ Billy gestured toward the Mahogany Door. ‘The world these people called Bruinduer.
After numerous spells and enchantments, I found myself bound to do their bidding.’ Billy bowed his head. ‘I don’t take kindly to being bound.’
‘What are you?’ interrupted JT, ‘Some kinda genie or something?’
By the expression Billy returned to JT, JT knew he had upset him.
‘Boy, this is not some special school. I don’t give any kinds of lessons here. Now listen up.’ Billy crossed his arms. ‘I’m a little more than that.’
It only took a few days, but JT would finally get a straight answer.
‘I’m known as the Essence,’ said Billy. He looked melancholy. ‘I have been what I have always been.’ Billy shifted and slid his bottom closer to the edge of the large, orange chair. His torso straightened and he grew taller.
‘The Vryheid couldn’t have Bruinduer without me,’ he continued. ‘I gave the world what they wanted, what they needed: life. It is one thing to create a bird, but the real question becomes, can you make it sing? I don’t mean just a few little cheeps and squeaks. I mean, can you make it sing a song that will move a soul?’ Billy’s eyes blinked. ‘Man is too vain for that. The Vryheid wanted to create a world, a world they simply couldn’t control. It is a creation destined to fail.’ Billy’s dreadlocks dangled, their twists and matted orbs bouncing and dropping ooze.
However, what should appear to my wonderful eyes, but you three ready to fulfill that destiny. You three couldn’t follow rules if you tried or if you wanted. I told you those rules time and time again. Now I want back the control that was granted to me. I am still bound to Bruinduer. There is nowhere else for me to go. It’s mine. I want my power returned, and your carelessness and indifference has brought my world to ruin.’
Billy squirmed and jostled in the orange chair and stared at Michael jabbing him with his eyes. JT saw the monster was very uncomfortable. He noticed an unfamiliar emotion deep in the monster churning and then revealed in his face. It was fear - fear that he would be destroyed and forgotten forever.
‘But if Michael has control, can’t he just give it back to you?’ JT stepped up. He wanted to make sense of this. ‘We simply go back through the door, zip bam boom, there you go. Everybody’s happy.’
It seemed logical enough to him. He was the
steward of the key. All Billy needed really was for JT to unlock the door, Michael to step through it with no problem, relinquish all power he may have back to Billy, and to be done without all of the drama being displayed by everyone.
‘Him?’ Billy growled toward Michael. ‘That little Rabbit? He can’t even control himself. How can he possibly control Bruinduer?’
‘But Michael was the first one through the door way back the last time we were here. He told me: The first one through the door has control. They can shape Bruinduer, right?’ JT tried to persuade a now frustrated Billy.
‘That is true, he did have control - at least the control I gave the little skank.’ Billy raised his index finger. ‘Rule number one: The first into Bruinduer chooses Bruinduer - so yes, he needs to go back through the door first. Then you and then Kali girl, as usual, though none of you can follow the rules. You definitely forgot rule number six -- the most important rule.’
JT beamed at Michael and Kali with his eyes as though he needed help from them. He thought that they could possibly explain this further. Unfortunately, they stupidly shrugged their shoulders.
‘We can’t remember everything; besides, Billy just told you we could barely go by the rules anyway,’ Michael whispered. JT stared at his skinny friend and shook his head.
‘QUIET!’ Billy roared. ‘I told you. You forgot about me and I don’t like it.’ Billy launched to his feet. ‘Rule number six: Everybody who enters Bruinduer, leaves Bruinduer.’ Billy’s head dropped.
‘But Charlie died,’ Michael replied. ‘If you’re dead you can’t be expected to leave, right?’
‘Hee, hee!’ Billy chuckled. ‘You’re so idiotic and dumb. To think you could be trusted. The rule is clear.’
JT panned between Billy, Michael, and Kali. He replayed in his mind everything that had transpired to that point. He then figured if they could just go through the door and retrieve Charlie’s body, it might be enough to make this all go away. He then thought about Billy inferring that someone else besides Michael had control of Bruinduer, which only meant one thing. The solution to this problem would not be as easy as he had hoped.
JT’s eyes popped from his skull. He sucked in a deep breath; his lungs felt like they would explode. His heart pounded in his chest and his hands became wet. In a distinct, clear, excited voice, JT yelled out, ‘He’s alive! Charlie’s alive!’
Michael’s face went flush. Kali clasped her hands over her mouth. Billy’s laugh boomed and ricocheted throughout Warhead Dale.
‘How could that be?’ asked Michael. His voice quivered and his teeth rattled. ‘I saw him. He was dead. I grabbed his arm and the watch. He didn’t move.’ Billy’s laugh reverberated harder than before.
JT shook his head. He thought back to the little, black dog, Tuffy, that they had hit earlier. ‘No,’ began JT, ‘remember the dog we hit in that neighborhood tonight? We thought we killed it, but then, after a little time, it got up. It seems to reason that, just like that little pup, Charlie was unconscious, not dead.’
‘No!’ Michael yelled, his tone begging and his breath lagging. ‘I would’ve known. He was dead!’
Billy’s laugh halted. ‘No. Old boy wasn’t dead, and now he has control.’ The monster then peered back at Michael. ‘You have to make it right.’
‘I thought you got the door open for us to leave Bruinduer. We thought the task was over,’ Kali spoke up.
Billy sprang out of the orange chair and stomped toward Kali. He was very angry. Kali stood strong (or as strong as her legs would let her). Billy stopped as he came right up to Kali, his breath singeing her cheeks, the smell of his grotesque dreadlocks spiking her nose. He then reached around her head and delicately raked the back of Kali’s auburn hair. Chills of ice shot up her back as she felt the rough edges of Billy’s fingertips scrape the back of her skull.
‘I did get the door open. I felt your need, but you three just bounced on out and the door slammed shut. You yanked out the key; the lock broke; and the key was left on the floor. I was stuck.’ Billy flipped his head to Kali’s other cheek. ‘It took me a whole year to find out how to get through that itty-bitty hole. I found the cane lying on the floor and then I located JT boy lying in a hospital bed and returned it to him.’ Billy stood back from Kali and slowly focused on JT. ‘You are the steward of the key. It took me another year to get back to Bruinduer. While I was occupied trying to get out of Bruinduer and then looking for you, old boy Charlie took control of Bruinduer. Then I waited for you to return because your destiny had not been fulfilled and everyone who had entered Bruinduer had not left, but you forgot about me. I don’t like it. That’s when I found out that Charlie and his heathen followers left behind in Bruinduer have no belief. I tried for six of your world’s years to get my control and power back.’ Billy peered back to Michael. ‘But now, you gotta make it right.’
JT strolled over to the Mahogany Door, his cane tapping the floor. He put his hand on the massive wooden structure and rubbed his hand tenderly and nervously across the faded carving on its face. He only made out the outline of a pyramid. It was eerily familiar as the picture felt exactly like what he remembered scraping his hand across in the dream he had as he lay on the barn floor at the Shorts’ farm. He then set his gaze on the huge brass lock and door handle. The handle was crooked. The eyes in the skull and crossbones handle burst bright red as he lifted the cane toward the door. He attempted to insert the handle into the lock as he had done with the circle on the illuminated map of the outer wall. About a quarter of the way into the slot, the skull and crossbones stopped with a clank. JT pulled it back out and the ruby red eyes went perfectly dead. JT’s eyes widened. He had an idea why the cane did not insert correctly.
He knew the ebony cane with the ivory skull and crossbones like the back of his hand. He had studied it for hours on end at the farm wondering if it came from somewhere special. Now standing in front of the Mahogany Door, and after all that had transpired to him the last few days, he knew it did without any doubt. He remembered when he stood at the iron gate of Warhead Dale that Michael wanted him to unlock the structure with his cane. It didn’t work. Thinking back on those hours of study, he placed his fingers on the ivory skull and swiped them across the perfectly cracked groove that ran down its back. He had always wondered why that groove was out of place. JT shook his head.
The ruby eyes burned bright once again as he lifted the cane and gently placed the handle back into the brass lock. When the handle slid a quarter of the way in and clanked again, JT turned it ever so slightly with a little pressure and the groove caught on one of the lock’s tumbles. The handle then inserted the entire way. Billy was right. They had broken the lock when they escaped Bruinduer so many years ago. JT pulled the handle from the lock. The eyes on the cane went dark and he then walked back to Kali, Michael, and Billy.
JT recalled what was told to him earlier during his adventures to Athens Eden and he pieced it together. In his head, he finally told his own little tale. He felt very confident that he had figured out what had happened with him and his friends.”
“JT, Michael, and Kali had no idea of the immense power of trekking through the Mahogany Door. Before Old Captain Luke died and after he had told them all of his fanciful tales, he made JT the steward of the key. Shortly after that, the three probably decided to see Bruinduer for themselves. They most likely read through Captain Luke’s journal, deciphering all of the old man’s tales and figuring out how to manipulate the world on the other side of the massive wooden structure. JT was pretty convinced that he, Michael, and Kali had many grand adventures in the old sailor’s discovery.
The three must never have expected Billy and his power. What little information Ol’ Captain Luke must have told them didn’t do the Essence justice. JT was sure Billy wasn’t too accommodating to them at first either, but eventually and fortunately he became an ally and gave them the rules and boundaries of Bruinduer.
JT figured they may have been bystanders and minor players in
their previous exploits through the door trying to push and negotiate the limits of the new world they had entered. Over time, they became quite good at navigating their adventures, but Charlie Blackburn would change that. He wanted more. He wanted to join and create action in Bruinduer instead of playing innocent, trivial games or participating in harmless scenarios. Somehow, someway he convinced the naive Michael to give him what he wanted.
The way Michael was acting now, JT concluded that he also wanted more out of their journeys. Charlie probably pumped the frail, insecure, skinny kid with accolades and energy. He couldn’t be sure, but Charlie probably convinced Michael that Billy didn’t like him. He could use Michael after he entered Bruinduer first to manipulate him.
During ‘The Incident’, as Kali had put it, there transpired some sort of war involving an army that Michael conjured. Charlie must have seen this as his opportunity to join the fray, but his plans backfired; he was injured badly.
Michael, JT, and Kali were confused and frightened after seeing Charlie lying on the hot desert floor bleeding and unconscious. It would have been easy to presume Charlie had been killed. They naturally wanted out of Bruinduer. Billy, the Essence, the spirit of the world, must have felt this turmoil and fear from the trio and opened the Mahogany Door. The three plowed through the opening and jerked the cane from the brass lock, crashing to the inner room’s floor. They never realized the door had not been properly shut, leaving Billy and the unconscious Charlie inside of Bruinduer. JT, Michael, and Kali rolled past the inner room’s boundaries, and as a safeguard, the outer map wall shut, leaving the cane trapped. The trio absolutely ignored rule number six: Everybody who enters Bruinduer, leaves Bruinduer. They left and never returned.
The police and investigators of Charlie’s death could never have opened the wall of the inner room. They did not have the cane. JT thought it must have been hysterical to the investigators what he had tried to explain to them. He figured that it was a good bet that the men sent to investigate Charlie’s death probably felt the same way he did when the little blonde-haired boy, Willy, told him his insane story about a renegade tribe from Egypt called the Vryheid; he was crazy. It was easier for investigators and police to find a scapegoat for Charlie’s disappearance, and unfortunately, Michael would take that role and rip the three friends’ world apart.
It may also have explained why Bruinduer was collapsing. The rules were changing. The control that Billy had and was now losing was different now. His inability to control ‘his’ world was literally making Bruinduer and everything it had touched - the words on the placard over the iron gate, the words in his grandfather’s journal, the carving on the front of the Mahogany Door, and the spirit of his grandfather - fade away.
It was also obvious to JT that Billy was vanishing as well; the old worn-out body he displayed was like an old worn-out rag being tossed in the garbage. The spirit that lifted Bruinduer in the past was now broken, twisted, and decrepit -- lost hopelessly through the small hole of a broken, brass lock.
Billy became desperate in getting back the control of Bruinduer that he lost. At first he may have hated his circumstance by being bound to the land of the Vryheid, but Billy soon relished in the power bestowed upon him by his binders. He was wanted and needed by the Vryheid, despondent and reckless, looking to control its own destiny. Billy knew he could help.
He had to get Michael, JT, and Kali to return to make it right and secure the power that he felt was being stolen from him.
How Charlie had taken control of the spirit and life of Bruinduer was a mystery to JT. The most logical reason would be that Billy focused his energy while trying to escape Bruinduer and that the real world became connected through the broken, brass lock. That explained why Billy could enter their dreams from beyond the Mahogany Door and why Michael was the recipient of most of Billy’s wrath; he was first one through the door after all. In the time Billy was consumed, trying to get out of Bruinduer, Charlie must have done something. He must have used that weaselness Kali said he was famous for… but how?”
“Billy eyed JT as he walked toward him, Michael, and Kali. JT was dressed in an air of confidence. ‘You look like you got it all figured out there, JT boy,’ said Billy.
‘Maybe,’ JT answered. ‘There are still some questions though. Some things don’t make sense.’
‘Well then,’ groaned Billy, ‘maybe I can help.’
‘I still don’t know how this entirely works. Can you tell me?’ JT started. He probably had no business even asking the question. Even if he was answered fully, he was sure he wouldn’t understand. ‘It’s just all confusing. I mean, why Willy?’ JT still thought he would put his issues on the table. ‘Ever since we came back to Warhead Dale, I’ve been wondering about that little blonde headed boy that visited me at the farm in the horse barn. Michael told me that Willy was you. He said Billy - Willy, Willy - Billy, it doesn’t matter; they’re the same.’
‘Billy said he wasn’t up for games now,’ answered Kali, ‘but to him, everything that happened here was a game.’ Kali sensed Billy’s weakness and thought she would get in a verbal punch.
‘He used to turn into Willy before we would go through the Mahogany Door,’ Michael chimed in abruptly.
‘Why didn’t you tell me this when I asked back at the farm?’ JT asked Michael.
‘I was scared, tired, angry, excited -- JT, it didn’t matter. Willy is Billy.’ Michael still seemed out of kilter to JT. Something just wasn’t right with him. His distrust in him was complete. JT recalled his conversation with Kali on the circular staircase and her allusion that Michael had figured out the true power of Bruinduer from his grandfather’s journal. He had no earthly idea what Michael might be up to, and though his skinny friend seemed helpless and weak; his thoughts on what Michael may have planned turned sinister.
‘I have my reasons, boy,’ Billy spoke in his booming voice. ‘It ain’t just a game. The Vryheid created their world for their children, and the truth comes from the mouths of the young.’ Billy shook his head and snickered, ‘All you gotta do is say you’re ready to go. You’ll find your answers.’
Thoughts rattled around JT’s brain like someone was shaking a can of screws, with each screw a different length but he couldn’t tell the difference. He knew he had to go back to Bruinduer, and everyone he talked to kept telling him he would find any and all answers he was searching for if he just went back through the Mahogany Door.
He thought quickly about walking up to the door, inserting the cane, and locking it. That would quickly end this adventure. It dawned on him after a few seconds though that that would possibly and probably be catastrophic. He might disappear right in front of Michael and Kali, sealing his destruction. His heart wrenched. His breath suffered. His hands turned to water.
‘But why?’ kept running through JT’s mind, like a nervous gerbil on a training wheel in its cage. His head began to ache.
‘It’s easy boy,’ groaned Billy. His voice grew weaker and scratchy. ‘It’s time.’
JT peered at Michael, and Michael appeared as though he would jump through the door at any second. Kali was more reserved, though her eyes were saying to JT that since she had come this far, they might as well finish their trek and enter Bruinduer.
JT glanced behind his shoulder at the massive door hanging on the wall in its ornate jamb. It beckoned him. His hand throbbed as the skull eyes on the cane burst into a glowing red. It too wanted to fulfill its duty.
JT bowed his head and heaved in a mountain of air. ‘I hope to God this isn’t a mistake,’ he said and panned to the ceiling shutting his eyes. He was peaceful and alone for one second. He buried his head into his chest and then gaped up at Billy, who was smiling from ear to ear, his yellow teeth cracking. With a firm and deliberate voice, JT succumbed, ‘Let’s do it.’
Billy’s deep, dark laugh echoed through Warhead Dale and out into the cold, black night.”