The Grand Ball

They dragged him into the Golden Hall.

It was midnight. The room was filled with the eccentric guests, all wearing masks now. Golden masks.

They stood in a circle around the center of the room.

Sebastian stood in the middle, wearing a suit of gold brocade.

"Bring the Guest of Honor!" Sebastian announced.

The butler and maid threw Elias onto the polished floor. He hit with a sound like a dropped anvil. He couldn't move his legs at all. He could barely turn his head. His skin was hard, cold, and gleaming yellow under the chandeliers.

"The time has come," Sebastian chanted, raising his hands. "The debt is called. The interest is due."

The floor beneath Elias began to tremble. The tiles retracted, revealing a pit.

It wasn't a dark pit. It was glowing.

Ten feet down, a pool of molten gold swirled like water. And rising from the liquid was a figure.

The Gilded Man.

It was a skeleton, stripped of flesh, coated in dripping, liquid gold. It had jewels for eyes and a crown of thorns made of platinum.

It reached up with a skeletal hand.

"Accept the offering!" the guests chanted.

Elias felt his right arm stiffen. He had one moment left of mobility in his left hand.

He reached into his jacket. He didn't have his gun. But he had the flask he’d stolen from Arthur’s desk. It was heavy silver.

"Go to hell," Elias rasped, his voice sounding like grinding gears.

He threw the flask.

It wasn't much of a weapon. It hit Sebastian in the forehead.

Sebastian stumbled back, a cut opening on his brow. He looked at the blood on his hand. He looked at Elias with pure, unadulterated rage.

"Burn him," Sebastian commanded.

The Gilded Man reached out and grabbed Elias’s ankle.

The heat was instantaneous. It wasn't fire; it was fusion. Elias felt his blood boiling, turning to vapor, replaced by the molten metal.

He was pulled toward the pit.

He tried to scream, but his jaw locked. The gold sealed his lips.

He looked at Sebastian one last time. He saw the hollowness in the man’s eyes. He realized then that Sebastian was just as trapped as the statues. He was the curator of a graveyard.

Elias slid over the edge.