Sarah turned towards her unexpected guest, her face hotter than ever, and growled. "Leave this table at once, Mr. Adams. You were not invited."
Jude smiled. "Well, actually, I was invited, but then Mr. Jack the Butler over here pulled some magic on me and tried to..."
"Jude!" Sarah yelled, surprised at her own volume. If Emmanual's nephew had been prepped properly, she wouldn't have cared, but confusing the boy right now would cause more harm than good. Though from the look on Emmit's face, she doubted anything would bother him much. There was something about him that put Sarah off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Emmit snorted as he leaned back in his chair, lifting the front legs off the ground. "Ooh, drama!" he giggled like a schoolgirl.
"Shush, boy!" his uncle hissed.
Emmit rolled his eyes at his uncle and cross his arms, in a mock pout.
Jack placed a soft hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Let's take this out into the hall, shall we?" he whispered.
She nodded and stood up from her chair.
Jude stayed seated. "I'm fine right where I'm at."
Sarah reached out to rip him out of his chair, but Jack stopped her. "Please, you and I have something to discuss first, before we involve him."
Sarah's hands started to shake, but Jack steadied them with his own. Something he was very good at was calming her down. Well, that, and about a billion other things he did for her. But then again, that was his job. Though the amount of time they've known each other, she hoped he saw them as more than workmates, but as friends. She followed him into the hall to discuss this new predicament.
"What? What could you possibly have to say to me that doesn't involve throwing that boy out into the night where he belongs? He will ruin everything, you know!" Her voice was quiet but angry enough to be louder than she expected.
Jack closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's Emmit, ma'am. I think he needs to be the one to leave."
Sarah covered her mouth to keep from screaming. "And do what? Keep Jude? We already know what that room does to him. We already know how he reacts. How can we in good faith send him back in there knowing that?"
The butler shrugged. "I don't know. But it's better than letting Emmit try, having no idea what's going on. That for sure will backfire on us."
"And Jude won't?"
"Not necessarily." He walked over to the doors and peeked into the dining room to make sure Jude wasn't upsetting anyone. To his surprise, it was dead quiet.
"How so?"
"Well, for one, Jude has been in the room. Several times. And each time I erase his memory, it gets harder and harder. And this morning? It kept rewriting itself. That isn't normal."
"And? So what? Maybe he just has a brain that reluctant to suggestion?"
Jack rubbed his hands together. "No. That's not what it means. What it means is that the room is causing it to happen. Somehow, the room has chosen him to remember. Erasing memories is easy. You know that."
Sarah nodded. "But why?" She started to pace the hall as she thought.
"Because. He is the boy."
"Ha!" Sarah laughed, unable to keep that one in. "You saw what happened to him in the car, did you not? You saw the beginnings of his insanity. The same thing happened to Nathanial and look what happened to him!"
Jack's face softened. "I know you miss him, Sarah. But what happened to him wasn't your fault."
"The hell it wasn't," she snapped back. "It was my responsibility to make sure everything went exactly right and I messed it up and while my brother at least didn't pay with his life, he did pay with his sanity. I can't fix that for him. There is no way to help him."
He lowered his eyes to the diamond-patterned wood floors. He remembered when they installed these back when the house was being built. He had chosen the pattern as it had reminded him of home. "It was a learning experience. We learned from our mistakes. And that never happened again, did it? We learned to do better."
Tears welled up in Sarah's eyes, and a few escaped from under her glasses. "So, Nate was just a learning experience. Glad to know that, Jack. Glad to know my last living flesh and blood was just something to teach us how to get things right. And in the meantime, I have to live with the fact that learning experience was my fault."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way." Jack knew Sarah was the way she was because of that fateful night. All her obsessive-compulsive issues, all of her anxiety, all of her neuroses. All of it. She caused her brother Nathanial to lose his mind to the point of having to be sedated for the rest of his life. He had warned her not to bring him in. Not her only living family member. He wasn't ready and Jack knew it. But she didn't listen. Which was the usual for her back then. She used to be reckless. She never listened to any of his guidance. But after that night, she never questioned him again. Jack doesn't blame her for Nathanial's accident.
Back when he was a gatekeeper instead of a guide, he had lost his own disciple. But instead of just going insane, his disciple was killed. It had taken him many eons to get over that one, as his death was not only horribly gruesome, but he had only been the equivalent of seven earth years old at the time. Killing children was not how he wanted to spend his life, so from that day on he never allowed a child to be part of the ritual again. And he required consent from each and every man involved. Knowing what you're getting yourself into and going through the tests (that Jack devised himself) was a surefire way to stop anything negative from ever happening again. Well, until Nathanial. But then again, that wasn't strictly his fault. Guides do not have say-so over who gets to participate in the ritual. That's the job of the gatekeeper.
"We can postpone until next month. Give Jude another thirty days to figure this out, if you like. But I am telling you, the room chose him for a reason. I've never been wrong yet, have I? Not when it comes to a future gatekeeper."
Sarah sighed and wiped her face. "No. You haven't. And letting Emmit come here was a rash idea on my part. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson with rash ideas," she scoffed. "But I don't think we should wait. It's not that I want to throw Jude into that room and let it have its way with him, but its the eighth month of the year. Next month's three-day full moon period will not be as strong as this one. Tonight is guaranteed to work. Well, if everything with our fileman goes right. But every other month could fail. And we'd have to wait a year for this moon to come again. I can't stay here for another year. Not alone. And not without you." She reached over and squeezed his hand.
Jack sighed. He realized that she would have to spend the next year alone if they didn't get this done tonight. They needed this to go right so she could become the next gatekeeper's guide. Otherwise, Jack would move on, and Sarah would be left as the gatekeeper with no guide. And finding the next gatekeeper would be left to her, and her alone. Jack couldn't do that to her. "You'll be without me anyways, ma'am. You know that, right? I still have to leave on the thirty-first no matter what."
Sarah swallowed. "I know that. But we'll all be leaving here. Together. To go back home. Our time here is done. So while you won't be my guide anymore, you'll still be in my life."
Jack smiled at his coworker and was happy to know she still planned on having him be around even after he retires. "So, let's get on with it then."
Sarah chewed her lip in thought. "Well. First thing's first. Let's go ask Emmit to leave."
Jack let out a chuckle. "I think that might prove more difficult as that boy is a little more rebellious for my liking."
The lady of the house turned to face him. "Don't worry. I have an idea."
Sarah entered the room with a frown. "I am sorry to inform you gentlemen, but tonight's festivities are canceled after dinner. Please, feast upon the deliciousness that Jack has provided for you, but I am sorry to say that after we're done, we will have to cut the night short."
The room broke out in confused faces, yet nobody said a word. Jude kept quiet himself in order to survey who was at the table around him. Who were these men and what were they all doing there? And what did this all have to with what that strange room? He looked at the nameplates as he surveyed his fellow guests. To his left was Clyde Cook, a banker who owned the largest chain of banks in the tri-state area, Cook Regional, which was a division of Oculus Holdings, LLC. How Jude knew that was a mystery, but found that he realized he knew most everyone at the table, though he couldn't remember how or why. To his right was Winston Maltby, who owned the locally famous racetrack, Sapphire Downs. The next on the right at the head of the table was their host Sarah's seat. Then Emmanual Buchannan, who owned Equinox Brewers, who's beer was distributed all over the world. Across from Jude was a young man around his own age that he didn't recognize, but instantly didn't like. But then came Harry Robson, who owned Western Garden Resort and Spa on Seventh Street. Then Eric Delagney, who owned Orbit Stadium, which was located downtown and housed the Macaws, the Superbowl CLII champions (a game Jude had lost a lot of money on the previous year). On the opposite end of Sarah was Benjamin Scott, who was the director and CEO of Redwood Meadows, the ritziest old folk's home in town. And last but not least, on the other side of Clyde was Logan Curtis, real estate developer extraordinaire. His construction company had just recently built Orchard Plaza, home to a slew of new shoppes but most notably The Hibiscus House, where his wife had frequented quite often during her pregnancy (she had strong cravings for their caffeine-free teas).
He realized quite quickly that these men, these seven men (minus the one he didn't recognize who looked like a spoiled man-child, dressed with the silliest looking ascot he'd seen since he'd seen Fred wearing one on Scooby-Doo in the library's archives as a child...who dressed like that in real life?) were the most powerful men in their city. All of a sudden, a thought came through his blocked brain: they were the benefactors. They were the reason that Cunningham Manor could operate. They funded everything. And everyone. Without them, none of this could happen. But how did he know that? He looked up from his thoughts to see the young man across him getting fidgety in his seat.
"Aww man, I was just getting into the idea of a fight between you and, what was your name again?" Emmitt joked as he looked straight at him.
"Jude," the fileman replied. He hated this man-child even more now. What was this guy's problem? He turned his attention to his host. "And I need to know what's going on, Mrs. Foster. I..."
But before he could finish his sentence, Sarah called out to her butler. "Yes, Mr. Willowby? Can you please set a spot for Mr. Adams here. He will also be feasting with us tonight."
"Yes ma'am," Jack answered as he left to go fetch the extra table setting. "Mr. Adams, can you escort me, please, I am elderly and cannot carry everything myself."
Jude wanted to ask more questions, but thought better of it looking across the table at the annoying man sitting in his seat staring at home. So instead, he looked to Jack and nodded. "Sure," he replied, but waited to rise from his seat.
"And no, Mr. Matthews, there will be no drama here tonight. Mr. Adams is a guest, just as you are. I had just forgotten I'd invited him."
Jude tried to remember if he had been invited. Maybe? Possibly? But after Jack started pulling his memories, some things were still not quite there yet.
"Damn. Two disappointments in a row. No drama. And no festivities." Emmit shoveled a spoon of clam chowder into his mouth. "What were we going to do, anyway? Have an eight-on-one orgy?"
Collective choking sounds came from all around the room. Emmit's uncle kicked him under the table, in which a loud "ow" came from Emmit's mouth. "Just kidding. Geezus. You guys have no sense of humor."
Mr. Robson, who had been behaving himself all evening so far, gave Sarah a sly look, before taking another bite of soup. Sarah rolled her eyes back at him and sighed. Emmitt noticed and snorted.
Jude saw all of this. He couldn't figure out why anyone invited the immature horse's ass to the party, but assumed it hadn't been planned. Everyone there was a somebody. The guy sitting across from him seemed he was related to a somebody, but not a somebody on his own.
"Mr. Adams, are you coming?" came the butler's voice beside him.
He looked up to see Jack's soft blue eyes on him. "Yes sir," he replied as he stood up and replaced his chair at the table to follow the man into the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Jude eyed Jack suspiciously. "So, old man, tell me what's going on here. Like, what's really going on here."
Jack was rustling through the cabinets for plates and bowls as he spoke. "What do you remember?"
"Well, everything. I wrote it all down. Went back to sleep, and when I woke up, I looked at my notebook and everything came back to me. The funny room with the funny name. Your boss hiring me to get her files for her. You. All of it. And then I had a crazy thought."
Jack's back was still to Jude as he rummaged around in the drawers now, looking for silverware. They'd never had this many guests before and he was having a hard time finding enough for a place setting. "Which was?"
"I've done all of it before. It's not deja vu either. I know it. I did all of this. More than once."
"That you have, my boy, that you have," he replied as he scratched his head, wondering where he could find more spoons.
"I'm not hungry, by the way. So you don't have to get me anything."
Jack sighed. The boy could have said this before he started looking for all of it. "Okay then. Well, let's get down to business, shall we?" He gestured to the small kitchen table with two chairs, which was covered in books.
Jude seemed to notice that the book covers were written in various languages he didn't recognize. "What are these?" He picked up on with a deep red cover, which was tinted in gold.
Jack continued putting the plates away without turning around, as though knowing exactly what Jude was talking about. "You'll find out soon. Well, within a few days. You'll be able to read them."
The young man crinkled his nose. "So, this has all been a rouse to teach me a foreign language?" he joked.
"Yes. And it's also been a rouse to get you into the Sextury. Those books are ancient Kama Sutra manuals." He clinked the silverware back into their places in the drawer and shut it.
Jude laughed. "It was funnier when Mrs. Adams said it. No offense, old man, but the idea of hanging out in a sex dungeon with you doesn't sound like my cup of tea."
"No offense taken. You're not my type either," Jack winked and plunked the cup he was carrying back into the cabinet. Although he joked, he knew that Jude wasn't attracted to Sarah, thank goodness. Unlike Harry, who was not only a womanizer, but also a deviant pervert who liked to 'employ' illegal sex workers (read: unpaid sex slaves) at his hotel and spa, something Sarah wasn't aware of. He wished that he could just eliminate Harry from the ritual altogether, but they needed him, unfortunately.
"These," Jude pointed at the text on the front, "are not any language that exists today. Just how ancient are these books?"
The old man walked up and smoothed one of the covers with his wrinkled hand. It reminded him of home. "Not ancient. Otherworldly." He stopped and thought for a moment. "Yes, they're still ancient. But not in any form you could comprehend. Well, until after the ritual. Then you'll understand everything."
Jude smoothed his hair back and tried not to look worried but didn't hide it very well. "Ritual?"
"Yes, my boy. The ritual. The entire reason you showed up tonight."
"No, I came because of this," he pulled out his notebook and showed it to the butler.
The old man inspected the pages for a moment. "Your memories were the catalyst for you showing up here tonight, true, but did you stop to think why you have these memories? Obviously, you remember me trying to erase these memories, do you not?"
Jude nodded.
"So, think about it, what do you think made you remember? People just don't remember erased memories. Not the way we erase them. Something made you remember." Jack looked at Jude's face, as though willing him to understand.
"The Octury," he whispered.
A smile spread wide across Jack's face. The boy was getting it. He was the right choice. "Yes, my boy. The Octury. And I see that you remembering the Octury doesn't make you feel crazy anymore, does it? Like it did in the car?"
"No, actually, it makes me feel..."
"Complete?"
"Yes. A strange word to describe a feeling, but that's exactly how it feels. Complete."
Jack rubbed his hands together in excitement. He knew that Jude was the right boy. He knew it from the start. Sometimes the room is a little much to handle at first, but Jack knew that this boy would soon come around, given enough time. "I thought as much. I knew you were special. I pushed for you because I knew the room wanted you. I knew this because it always made you remember. It never let you forget."
Jude's face looked screw up in thought. "But, how can a room make me remember something?"
"Not something. It made you remember it. The room is alive, my boy. You are to be the new gatekeeper. It chose you. That doesn't happen very often. Most times the current gatekeeper chooses. And even then, it can fail. Over and over again. There must be something very, very special about you, Jude. Something that makes you like no other."
Jude looked up at Jack, bewildered. "Gatekeeper? What's a gatekeeper"
"We are the keepers of the portals to everywhere, my boy. There are eight dimensions. Some gatekeepers are from here, on this plane, like you. And others are from...elsewhere. You'll understand after the ritual." Jack started picking up the books and scurrying about the room. "We have work to do, let's hop to it!" A sound of glee emanated from the old man's mouth.
Jude put his hand on his forehead. "Wait, wait wait...Jack! Wait! Listen to me! Stop for a second."
Jack stopped bustling about the room, apparently exasperated at Jude's objections. "What? We don't have time to waste, my boy, the full moon starts in two hours!"
"Oh my god, old man," Jude put his fingers to his temples and rubbed them slowly. "I have no idea what on earth you're even talking about. A room that is alive that has eight doorways to different planes of existence? Do you even know how crazy that sounds? And what is this ritual? And what does a gatekeeper do? Could you please just try to actually explain something here??"
The old man put the books on the table and took a deep breath. "Listen. A gatekeeper is the person in charge of the Octury. Think of the Octury like a person. A person who holds all knowledge to the universe and beyond. And you, the gatekeeper, are its bodyguard. But not really. You don't have to protect it. You have to feed it."
Jude's eyes snapped open in horror. "What the fuck? Feed it? What the hell do you mean feed it? Like souls or something?"
"Oh my goodness, boy," Jack rolled his eyes and started laughing hard enough to activate his reoccurring cough. "You watch too many horror movies! No, you don't feed it souls, you weirdo. You feed it knowledge. Each of these seven other people is here, of their own volition, by the way, knowing full well what they're here for, to feed the Octury their vast amounts of varying knowledge." He picked up the books and headed out into the hall. "Except Emmit. I don't even know what he's doing here. He was to be your replacement, but he's a freaking idiot."
As Jude followed Jack down the hallway, he still wasn't convinced that all of this wasn't something out of a horror movie. The idea of feeding a room something was insane. Although, he did feel connected to it in a strange, possibly horror movie sort of way. "What happens after you feed it your knowledge?"
"Nothing. You go home and live out your life, knowing you've contributed to the most important thing you can do with your life."
Jude shook his head. Marrying his wife two years ago was the most important thing he could do with his life. Having their baby boy in three months time will eventually be the most important thing he could do with his life. Participating in some goofy ritual for a room that is supposedly alive didn't sound as much important, as it did insane. "Sounds a bit dramatic, don't you think?
He turned to look at Jude square in the face, so close he could smell the clam chowder on his breath. "You don't understand, my boy. If nobody feeds the Octury, everyone dies. Everywhere. Here, and all the other planes as well. Yes, I'm being very dramatic here, because everyone dying everywhere is dramatic. The Octury, and all the other seven Octuries on each plane, are the batteries in which our existence, well, exist. Without them, all matter would evaporate into nothingness. We wouldn't just die, it would be like we never existed. Your baby boy would never grow up, but more than that, he'd never have had the ability to have been alive in the first place."
Did this guy read his mind or something? "How did you know I was going to be a father?"
Jack shuffled out the door with his massive stack of books. "How do you think we picked you to be our fileman? We did our homework, my boy. C'mon, let's go."
Jack watched the old man head down the hall towards this elusive room that was supposed to be alive and wasn't sure he wanted to follow him. What was going to happen if he let this room feed on his knowledge? He didn't know much of anything of value that some room would want to know about. He barely had a high school education. The only thing he had of any value was back at home eating dinner by herself because he told her he had to go deliver some more files for the person that hired him. He had the sudden urge to run the opposite way, towards the front door and head home. But if he did that, he'd never know what secrets that room held for him. His answers would never be answered. And if the old man wasn't lying to him, he could be at fault for unraveling existence as a whole. But more than that, because the idea of unraveling existence sounded like an overreaching made-up movie plot, he felt a compulsion to be in that room. Something drew him there. He remembered becoming obsessed with it whenever he was away from it, even after the old man erased his memories this last time. Which was why he came back tonight. He wondered it if was the same for everyone here. Except for Emmitt. Apparently, Emmit had no idea what was going on that night, even less than he did.
"Jude?" came Jack's voice from the hall.
And without really thinking about it, he headed out the door and down the hall, leaving behind any rational second thoughts he might have had. "Here," he answered as he knocked the door of the Octury.
Check out Part 1: The Octury Here!
Check out Part 2: The Dinner Here!
Check out Part 4: The Ritual Here!
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