Showdown in the Seventh Chamber
The Unmasking of the Red Death, Part Four of Four:
“Showdown in the Seventh Chamber”
[See also parts one, two, and three.]
(Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s beloved classic short story “Masque of the Red Death” and the television series The Masked Singer.)
~~Sage Nikita Shellanze~~
Nicolae’s face was hardened, set, the only hint of softness coming from his reflective, brown eyes, which surely had tears hiding, building up pressure, just beneath the surface.
Sage Nikita Shellanze figured as much, because she held her tears there herself. “Nicolae, what are we to do?”
Nicolae, Nikita, Kenneth, and Robert stood in a rough circle in the count’s study. The sun was only just dawning, and most of the blissful partiers were still asleep and unaware of the night’s tragedy.
Nicolae looked at Kenneth. “Doctor, is there any way we’re not all already infected?”
He sighed. “From what I can tell, the duchess is an isolated case. Most people in this house are wearing masks, so I don’t think it’ll be spreading quickly. But if it doesn’t get contained, mark my words, we will all die. No mask can keep it at bay forever.”
Nicolae nodded.
Nikita said, “I just…I can’t believe Jemma’s gone.”
Nicolae said, “We need to stop this now. For Jemma. We’ll gather everyone around, yank their masks off, and be done with it.”
Robert said, “No, Count, I don’t think that’s a good idea. We need to finish the game.”
Kenneth yelled, “This isn’t a game, Minstrel. Our friend is dead.”
“I know that,” Robert said. “I also know that a riot is still a very real possibility, and if we can’t maintain control of the crowd…” He laughed. “This little quarantine masquerade party? It’ll be for nothing.”
Count Nicolae said, “Fine, we’ll finish the competition. But it ends tonight.”
Nikita said, “I don’t know how fun it will even be, without Jemma there. Her shadow will hang over the entire spectacle.”
“No, no it won’t,” Robert said, sounding almost excited. “We will not tell anyone about the duchess’s passing except for those who know about it already.”
“I don’t know if I can keep that secret,” Doctor Kenneth said.
“We have to,” Robert insisted. “Everyone must still have fun. We need to act. We need to convince them that we’re having fun, or else we will lose them. This is the only way to peacefully, non-chaotically trap the intruder.”
Nikita said, “To be honest, I’m not sure this is a good plan.”
Nicolae put a hand on her shoulder. “Sorry Sage, but Robert’s right. It’s the only plan we got.”
The rest of the morning proceeded as normal, but Nikita couldn’t get Jemma out of her head.
Gone. I can’t believe she’s gone. Reunited with her husband.
The brunch show started, and even when Wolf sang and threatened to melt her heart all over again, Jemma’s absence—and the literal empty chair beside Nikita—weighed down the sage’s thoughts unceasingly.
Through the show, Nikita realized just how clueless these partiers actually were. Nicolae makes up some story about Jemma having a severe hangover, and nobody bats an eye. Nobody questions the truth. They don’t care as long as they’re entertained.
At the end of the brunch show, Goose was eliminated and awarded sixth place—and Wolf was eliminated and awarded fifth place.
So preoccupied, Nikita had no new guesses for Wolf before his unmasking. She forced herself to get excited as all in the room chanted, “Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!”
Okay, mystery man. Who is this man is wolf’s clothing? Who is my secret lover, who dares tempt a sage?
Nicolae tore the mask off of Wolf, and the sight of the man’s face, Nikita forgot to breathe. Time slowed, and in the middle of the cheers, shrieks, and claps, Nikita felt as if she were alone, smothering—no, drowning—in the chaotic cacophony.
As the cheers continued, Nicolae announced, “Vassal Ambrose Beckkerton!”
She was hoping he’d say a different name. Hoping her eyes had deceived her.
Ambrose? Here?
She hadn’t seen him for at least five years, after his newly-appointed vassal-ship led him to the other side of the kingdom after his father’s death. Nikita was at least seven years older than him, and she first met him when he was only a boy, a merchant’s son who visited the king’s courts every so often.
Instantly, all the clues from his performances fit together perfectly. How did I not see this coming…how could I be so blind?
In his younger years, Ambrose had annoyed Nikita with his fawning. But as she looked a his face and her initial shock began to dissipate, she had to wonder…is his love genuine? Did he grow up and mature to be the kind of man I could love?
Count Nicolae finished wrapping up the brunch show.
“Remember! Tonight, we will see the final unmasking of our remaining four contestants!”
The crowd began to disperse, and Ambrose beelined to Nikita.
“My sage,” he began, and then he grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. “It is such a pleasure to see you again, finally face to face. Can we talk?”
She forced a smile and tried holding her composure. “Yes, Ambrose. We can talk. Meet me in the blue room in an hour.”
She took some time to relieve herself, freshen up, and gather her thoughts, and after an hour, Nikita found Ambrose waiting for her by the blue fireplace.
She noted his figure—more toned and refined than when she’d last seen him, his smile more confident, more sure.
“Hello, Nikita. Thank you for agreeing to talk. I’ve been nervously awaiting this moment since I first entered this castle.”
“Ambrose, this is…a lot to take in.”
“I know, my sage. I—”
“I never knew you could sing so well.”
He smiled. “Thank you. It was all for you. I put everything into those songs.”
“I could feel that. Your singing isn’t just good. It’s…visceral.”
“And I meant it,” Ambrose said. He tilted his head and leaned close to Nikita, inches from her face. “Every word.”
Nikita pulled her head away slightly. “Ambrose…I can’t.”
“Do you not feel the same? I thought…I’m sorry, Nikita, but I saw your face when I sang. I could feel the light of your smile, the heat in your blush.”
Nikita put a finger on his lips. “Shhhh. My smile and my blush were genuine. Are genuine…” She covered her mouth for a second, suppressing a giggle.
“But…”
“…but I’m not ready, Ambrose. The Red Death is a real threat. It’s ravaged the kingdom, and I cannot help but think Count Nicolae’s impenetrable villa is next. I’m scared.”
“I’m scared too, but is that truly a reason to wait? Does that not signal us to accelerate?”
“Not to me. The Red Death needs to be contained. I can’t think clear enough to love when death hangs over this whole manor, taunting us.”
“But what does your heart tell you? Love goes beyond thought, I think. Thinking clear is not a prerequisite. Not thinking clear might mean you’re actually on the right track.”
“No, Ambrose. That’s not my understanding of love at all. I have to help Nicolae keep this castle safe. When it’s all over, then we can talk romance. But only if you respect me enough to let me love you in my own way, in my own time.”
He dipped his head. “I understand and respect your wishes. I’ll be waiting for you, Nikita.”
“Good.” She laughed. “You’re lucky I’m considering you at all, Ambrose. I never liked you romantically before I heard you sing…before I heard your heart.”
“And now?”
“Now, I might. But for now, we wait.”
“I’ll always wait for you, my love.” He kissed her cheek.
She simply giggled and walked away.
~~Count Nicolae Kane~~
Nicolae ordered the guards to be ready.
Once the intruder was unmasked, he would be thrown out immediately. The audience would still get their winner, and the partiers would keep on masquerading until word could reach Nicolae that the danger had passed…but first, they had to get through tonight.
Jemma didn’t make it through last night. Doctor Johns confirmed the cause of death. If she could get infected, could the entire castle? Maybe it’s too late. No. I can’t think that way. Sure, we are still unsure how the disease is transmitted, but that’s only reason to be extra careful, not reason to panic.
The crowd gathered after the nine o’clock bell tolled, reverberating through the ballrooms from the black chamber. Nicolae introduced the final four contestants, and the orchestra accompanied them, two songs for each singer.
In the end, Minotaur was unmasked in fourth place and Albatross in third place. The crowd’s palpable excitement intermingled with Nicolae and the judges’ anxiety, creating an aura of delighted unease.
After a singing face-off and a final vote from Nikita, Robert, and Kenneth, the results were official: Bat in second place, and Leviathan was crowned the champion.
The crowd screamed wildly, ready for the last unmaskings. Nicolae was ready too.
He had narrowed down the possibilities and after confirming all who were present, Nicolae knew that only one invitee had not been accounted for: Vicroy Collinsworth of the Easternlands.
Either the viceroy was the Bat and the intruder the Leviathan, or the intruder the Bat and the viceroy the Leviathan.
Is a bat the cause of my worries? Nicolae thought as the panelists finished their guesses and Bat prepared to remove his mask.
After more chanting and cheering, the mask was off and Viceroy Collinsworth was revealed.
Leviathan returned to the stage.
Nicolae looked at his guards and nodded. “Now we have one final unmasking!” he announced. “Any last guesses?”
Sage Nikita shrugged.
Doctor Kenneth said, “I was sure you were Collinsworth and Bat was someone else.”
Robert said, “I have a suspicion…but I would hate to ruin the surprise.”
The revelers started their chant: “Take it off! Take it off! Take it off! Take it—”
Dooooooooong! the clocked chimed, eleven times.
Between the ringing’s reverberation, silence permeated the muted crowd, frozen in time. When the clock stopped, Nicolae giggled, and everyone laughed along with him, just as always when the clock surprised them.
Count Nicolae said, “Okay, Leviathan. You’ve had your fun, and you’ve kept us in suspense…it’s time. Take it off.”
Leviathan turned to the count and seemed to stare directly though the mask into Nicolae’s soul.
“Take it off,” Nicolae said again, conversationally. Then, a whisper: “Take it off. There’s nowhere to go. No place to run. No place to hide. Take it off.”
Leviathan stepped closer to Nicolae. “You take it off.”
Nicolae laughed. “I don’t have time for games. Just take it off.”
Leviathan stood there, silent, his mask similar to Dragon’s, only his was sharper, darker, and more menacing.
Count Nicolae stomped and screamed. “Take it off! Now!”
Nicolae lunged forward and yanked the mask from Leviathan’s head, and the room gasped.
For a moment, Leviathan’s head looked like a globe of water, a dark face of primordial chaos. The next moment, the reflective liquid formed into a face—Nicolae’s face.
Nicolae’s face covered in red spots with bloodshot eyes, crusted blood ringing his nostrils, and red stained teeth.
“What trickery is this?” Nicolae said, and then he screamed, “What witchcraft! Guards!”
Nobody, not even the guards, moved a muscle. Nicolae’s face on the costumed man winked, and then he burst out laughing.
“Count, Count, Count,” the man said with Nicolae’s voice. “It is the eleventh hour, and time is almost up. The dawn is long dead, dusk long faded, the stars high and hiding above the clouds. You should’ve seen me coming, Count. I never cease.”
“Guards!” Nicolae called again, looking at each of his fearful soldiers, each of them stepping back, trembling. Count Nicolae faced the man and yelled, “Get out! You are not welcome here. Not now, not ever.”
“Do you know from whence I came?” Leviathan yelled. He pulled a crown from his costume’s hidden pocket—the king’s crown—and he placed it on his own head.
The crowd gasped and fell silent.
Nicolae said, “You…you were there? You killed the king?”
He shrugged. “I also killed the kingdom. However, my final throne, my final task is right here, in this very castle.”
“In this castle, I’m king. Guards! Escort this thing outside.”
The guards were frozen.
The man said, “I think they know who’s really in charge.”
He hopped off the short stage and started walking towards the door to the orange room.
“Stop him! Somebody stop him!”
Instead of heeding his words, the throng parted for the man, almost involuntarily.
Nicolae marched after him. “Where do you think you’re going? Who do you think you are?”
The man laughed and slipped through the door. Before following, Count Nicolae looked frantically around the green room as all eyes turned to him and started to follow.
Nicolae yelled, “He must be stopped!” He ran to the green suit of armor that stood adjacent to the door and he yanked a sword out of the sheath.
Robert, Kenneth, and Nikita pushed through the crowd just as Nicolae turned to pursue the invader.
Doctor Kenneth yelled, “That sword was real the whole time?”
“For emergencies, Doctor. Stay back, everyone. I must defend my home.”
Nicolae rushed into the orange ballroom just as the intruder sauntered through the far door to the white room. Nicolae sprinted through the room, and as he did, he could hear a stampede behind him.
He finally caught up to his infected doppelgänger at the small hallway between the violet and black chambers. The man stopped, and Nicolae pulled up, extended his sword, and set its tip on the back of the man’s neck.
Count Nicolae shouted, “You will not infect me or my friends. I don’t care who you look like or who you think you are.”
The man spun around and drilled Nicolae with a twitchy grin. “You should care, Count. I am the Red Death. Welcome to my throne room.”
He backed into the seventh chamber, and Nicolae lowered his sword only slightly, his hand shaking.
The unmasked leviathan stood beside the giant clock under the soft red moonlight shining from the stained glass window. The fire from the fireplace lit most of the room in a way that only increased the shadows, causing them to dance.
Count Nicolae stepped into the black room, each step careful, deliberate. The mob of partiers filtered into the room as well. Kenneth, Nikita, and Robert stood in the doorway, and Robert was laughing.
What does he think is so funny?
Nicolae faced Leviathan, staring down his own distorted, disease-ridden visage.
The man—the “Red Death”—with Nicolae’s voice, said, “Shall I sing one last song? A lullaby, perhaps, to usher the remainder of this kingdom’s pathetic nobility to their graves?”
Nicolae screamed, “No more songs, no more games! This is my manor, my masquerade, my world. I am untouchable here.”
Nicolae charged and slashed, and his sword stuck in the torso of the Red Death’s leviathan costume—and blood sprayed through the tear and the wound, showering Nicolae.
Count Nicolae dropped the sword, lurched back, and found a mirror on the wall, and in his reflection, he saw red dots appear all over his skin, and as he blinked, he realized blood leaked from his eyes.
He screamed, “What have you done?”
Leviathan picked up Nicolae’s sword and said, “No one in the land of the living can escape death’s disease—no matter how powerful.”
Nicolae coughed blood into his hands, but before the disease could kill him, Leviathan sliced his neck.
~~Doctor Kenneth Johns~~
Doctor Kenneth gasped in horror as Nicolae’s body hit the ground, a fountain of blood spurting from his neck.
Sage Nikita shrieked, but the minstrel Robert Thissler clapped and laughed.
Kenneth faced Robert and clenched his fists. “What do you think you’re laughing at?”
Robert gestured towards the carnage. “Enjoying the show. Isn’t in perfect? The beauty, the raw justice, the unrelenting, crashing waves of death’s ocean…”
Nikita slapped him and yelled, “What are you talking about? People are dying!”
“Watch,” Robert said.
For a few minutes, their eyes were transfixed on Leviathan. After Nicolae’s fall, Leviathan’s face twisted into a reflective mass of twisting liquid. Then, when he looked at the nearest to him, the face reformed into an infected version of his victim’s face.
One by one, every reveler was being unmasked and infected, and in moments, each lay dead on the floor, blood leaking from every pore.
Kenneth and Nikita backed into he doorway. The doctor said, “It’s heinous. How can we stop this?”
“You can’t!” Robert exclaimed with a clap. He picked up his lyre and started playing again. “There is no stopping this. I figured it out days ago. The decor, from the arrangement of this room to the runes carved on the side of the clock, gave it away. Nicolae’s decorator and designer knew that the Red Death would come inevitably, so he gave us clues to follow.”
Sage Nikita said, “Why don’t we ask the designer ourselves about it after we get out of here?”
Robert laughed again. “There’s no way out. I discovered the designer’s dead, bleeding, infested corpse before Jemma even died. This whole room—no, this whole series of ballrooms is a monument to death. As we entered life in birth through he blue room, and through every phase of life, this room here is the end all must face.”
Kenneth, forcing his eyes away from the carnage of piling bodies and vacant masks, glared at Robert and screamed, “You evil…Why didn’t you warn us?”
“I did, my friend. I warned you all through song. A wise sage once said, ‘Artists and poets are the first to see the truth behind the veil.’”
Nikita said, “You are taking me out of context. If you told it to us straight, most of us could’ve escaped.”
Robert said, “The disease ravaged the entire kingdom. Even if you could’ve ran, you would never have escaped.”
Kenneth said, “Nikita, he’s lying. We can still escape. Let’s go, quick.”
She nodded, paused, and said, “Where’s Ambrose?”
As she scanned the crowd, Robert slipped behind them.
The doctor said, “Okay, let’s find him, but then we have to go. It’s too late for most of—”
Robert’s sharp whisper at Kenneth’s ear: “It’s too late for you.”
Kenneth felt Robert shove his back, and he and Nikita fell forward and tripped, stumbling towards Leviathan. They helped each other stand, but once on their feet, Nikita screamed, and Kenneth saw Leviathan’s face transform into Nikita’s.
“No!” the doctor yelled. “Take me!” He tried pulling Nikita, but Leviathan’s arm stretched and shoved Kenneth back towards Robert.
Leviathan lurched to close the distance between him and Nikita, but as Kenneth sprinted to try and grab Nikita, Ambrose leapt from out of sight and tackled Leviathan.
While Leviathan’s face shifted, Ambrose turned to Kenneth. “Get her out alive, Doctor. She’s the only patient we both care about.”
Leviathan’s face became Ambrose’s, and Leviathan coughed blood, baptizing the former Wolf in the Red Death. Kenneth turned around and grabbed Nikita’s hand just as Ambrose cried out in pain.
“Don’t look back, Sage. Just run. We can still make it.”
Ambrose’s cry cut off abruptly, and Nikita started sobbing as she and Kenneth entered the short hallway to the violet room.
Keep going, keep going, Kenneth thought. We can mourn later. We—
His thought cut short at the sight of Robert in the violet doorway.
“Going somewhere?” he asked, smirking and plucking on his lyre. “Embrace the poetry. Death is unrelenting. It’s—” Robert’s eyes gaped. “No, no, not me. Not yet.”
Kenneth turned around just in time to see Leviathan’s face form into Robert’s, and Leviathan’s lithe, elongated arm reached between Nikita and Kenneth. Leviathan grabbed Robert by the throat and jerked him back into the seventh chamber.
Kenneth yelled, “Hurry, Sage! Now’s our chance!”
Behind them in the black room, a crash boomed and echoed. Then, the clock chimed one last time, but it was a continuous ring. Kenneth covered his ears and doubled over as the noise attacked his eardrums.
The chime finally stopped, but the echoes’ reverberations continued, along with screams behind them.
As the dissonance faded, Nikita grabbed Kenneth’s hand and said, “Looks like time’s up. Come on. You helped me this far, and I am not leaving you behind!”
Kenneth and Nikita ran through each of the chambers, and as they did, Kenneth absently noticed that they were the only ones running, and all the rooms had somehow turned violet.
“Look!” Nikita yelled. Kenneth saw what she pointed at: Black cracks and shadows, like vines and tendrils, crawled along the walls. Villa Apsconditum began to quake.
“The whole house is infected,” Kenneth said.
Finally, they escaped through the front door, and at one end of the courtyard, they found a stable with two already-saddled horses.
In minutes, they were off, riding far away from the dying castle.
After riding for awhile in silence, Nikita said, “Doctor, I’m afraid I don’t know where we’re going.”
“Neither do I, but I think we just got lucky.” Doctor Kenneth pointed. “Look there, in the hills. You see that stone tower? It appears to be one of the king’s former border watchtowers.”
“Oh, oh, I see it! How could I not see it before? Do you think there’ll be anyone there?”
Kenneth shook his head but still changed course and rode directly toward the stone tower, Nikita in tow. He said, “I thought I’d heard they’d all been abandoned after the Red Death’s initial outbreak. But at least it’s a shelter where we can spend the night.”
They arrived at the tower, climbed the stairs, and found it empty as expected. Nikita made a fire while Kenneth inspected the rest of the castle. He wheeled a wagon filled with straw to over by the fire.
“This’ll have to work as a bed,” he said.
Then, for a while, they simply sat at the fire and didn’t say anything, each content to cry quietly.
Kenneth broke the silence. “I’m sorry about Ambrose. He was a good man.”
Nikita nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. “He saved me. He didn’t deserve that. I should’ve loved him, right? Given him at least half a day of joy?”
Kenneth crossed his arms. “No…true love cannot be owed. He loved you, yes, but you owe him nothing.”
“I owe him my life.”
“You owe him gratitude I suppose. If anything, I owe him. I owe him and you an apology for how I acted the other night.”
She smiled and patted his arm. “It’s okay, Doctor. You were only looking out for me.”
“I was being jealous for no reason. It all seems so distant, so trivial. Were we really betting our lives on a singing competition?”
They both laughed.
After an awkward silence, Kenneth said, “Sage, though I didn’t realize it before, I think I do love you. I didn’t really know what I was feeling until I heard Wolf try to woo you. Suddenly, I wanted it to be me. ‘A sage would be better off with a doctor,’ I thought. I know, stupid.”
“Not stupid. Just honesty in the midst of confusion. It was all fun and games…only Robert really understood that we were playing with death.”
The doctor shook his head. “Robert lost his mind because of it.”
Nikita said, “Maybe so, be he saw more clearly than I did. What kind of sage would think Nicolae’s plan was a good idea?”
“It wasn’t about the idea being good. It was about the fact that over half of the unaffected noble class of an entire kingdom were scared enough to try it anyway.”
“Well, Doctor, do you think we’re truly the only survivors?”
He breathed in to answer, but froze, noticing blood in the corner of Nikita’s eye.
Kenneth stuttered, “I-I, I think so.” He sniffed, nose runny. Kenneth wiped the bottom of his nose and noticed a small streak of blood on top of his hand.
Nikita paused mid breath, and Kenneth could see her eye on his hand. Her gaze diverted to his face. The sage forced a smile. She put a hand on his shoulder.
“My doctor…my friend. What happens next?”
Kenneth could feel a sneeze coming on, but he suppressed the urge and wiped his nose again.
“Well, my sage, wisdom dictates that we shouldn’t speculate on the unknown tomorrow.”
“Agreed,” Nikita said. She absently scratched a rash on her neck. “Tomorrow is unknown. What shall we do in the meantime?”
Doctor Kenneth grabbed her free hand and said, “The hour is late. There is little we can do but wait and sleep.”
She nodded. “When tomorrow becomes today, we’ll deal with it.”
Kenneth yawned and realized he tasted blood mixed his saliva. “Indeed. For now, we sleep.”
“We will find out what’s next when we wake.” A droplet of blood trailed from Nikita’s eye down her cheek, like a tear.
Kenneth smiled. “Will we wake?”
“We will,” she said. “I can promise you that. That’s not the uncertain part.”
Kenneth brought a hand up to stroke his chin. “If that’s not the uncertain part, what is?”
Nikita said, “The uncertain part is where we find ourselves when we wake. If we’re lucky, we could very well still be here.”
“Unlikely.”
She continued, “We may very well wake up…elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere?”
“Wherever we do wake,” the sage said, “let’s pray we remain far from Robert, Nicolae, and the others.”
Kenneth agreed, but after that they talked little for the remainder of the night. They fell asleep in the wagon, warm by the straw and each other’s body heat.
And to Kenneth’s surprise, they did wake up…
Somewhere.
