Dirty Eden (17 page)

I only wished that she had at least warned me first, or said a proper goodbye. Her roots and branches moaned and wound upward toward the dark ceiling. Vines crawled the walls, quickly covering them and gripping them into a collapse. And when the ceiling started to fall, sending stone pieces larger than the size of my head down all around me, I knew it was time to get out of there. I ran for the exit, dodging falling stone and rampant animals and dashed toward the first set of stairs I saw. But the stairs were crumbling under the weight of the queen’s crawling roots. The entire fortress was giving way and I was losing hope in getting out before it all came down on top of me. I dashed down several flights of crumbling stairs, glad I was able to run faster than the stairs could be destroyed, and I found my way back into the great hall. The people weren’t so calm and snooty anymore, but I didn’t have time to stop and gloat.

“What did you
do
?” shouted Sophia as she ran up wearing a new dress. She took my hand and dragged me to follow.

“Get us out of here! Which way? Sophia!”

“This way!” she shouted over the sound of the
thunderous, collapsing fortress and the screams of those that lived inside.

Sophia was strong as she dragged me along like a Pit Bull would a ten-year-old boy on the end of a leash. I thought she might succeed in ripping my arm off, and it was more difficult to keep up with her when I had a foreign object stuffed down the front of my pants. Blood from my busted nose steadily ran into my mouth, sweat into my eyes. Amid all the screams, I heard an array of shouts, but could only recall bits and pieces:

“The queen
—
”

“...an assassin must’ve got in!”

“The queen
—
”

“...a witch turned the queen into a tr
—
”

“Someone cursed
—
”

“We’re all doomed!”

“Run for yer lives!”

“Get out of my way!”

And while most did just that, a few used the opportunity to grab things that surely did not belong to them before joining the smart people and looking for a way out to avoid being flattened. Sophia and I made it to an exit and dashed outside. We kept running to get as far away from the fortress as we could. I hoped Tsaeb had done what he was told and went back to the tavern to wait for us.

People were frantic in the streets. The farther away Sophia and I got, I noticed people were stopping to watch, all of them looking upward toward the sky, as the Tree of Life grew taller than the fortress that once protected her. All signs of her human-like attributes were gone.

We were back where we started in Fiedel City, where Gorg’s carriage had left us. The ground was still thick with mud, the streets still thick with people, some of them clearly new, and this was a sight that I had a difficult time tearing my eyes away from. Such a decision. The Tree of Life and her beautiful destruction, or these people who clearly came from the Outside? They looked around as though lost, while others ran toward the winding black roads that led to the outskirts of the Field of Yesterday, trying to get away from an extraordinary sight that confused and terrified them. There was a woman holding an infant in a bloody blue blanket, the woman’s hair matted and sticky with something I did not want to know. Her face was bruised and her free arm dangled grotesquely at her side, broken. She cried out softly to passersby for help, but no one cared. “Please,” she said, “I don’t know where I am and this...baby looks sick.” And the woman, who clearly had already forgotten that it was her baby she held, disappeared into a thick crowd of onlookers.

They forget everything when they die.

It made me sad. I thought about myself, how I was clinging to life right now on the Outside. How long would I last? Would I too forget everything I had ever known once I was dead? I briefly hoped that perhaps I, being the one sent on The Task, would be exempt from that rule, but something deep down told me that was unlikely.

“In the Name of the queen!” shouted a greasy, toothless man as he jogged by. “What in Creation
happened
?” And he too disappeared into a crowd.

“I think she stopped growing,” said Sophia pointing.

I tore my eyes away from the new arrivals and looked up. The Tree of Life was as tall and thick as a skyscraper; her great limbs stretching for miles it seemed, snaking and winding perfectly to form a dome-like shelter for her massive trunk. The black mountain behind her served as a formidable wall; its height barely taller than her own, its thousands of trees like miniatures compared to the giant.

Fiedel city suddenly appeared calmer, brighter. It was still a city of filthy, wretched people, dark streets of murder and cannibalism, but from the Great Tree, a sort of new life spilled out over the city below. Nature slowly crept its way from the Tree in the form of fresh grass, animals, flowers and vines. The people in the streets noticed this, stopping to look at a patch of clovers and testing the feel of grass under their feet. It was like watching a child who grew up in a place that never saw snow, study the magic white dust with awe his very first time. Others were afraid to get too close, pulling their children away from flowers as if the flowers were evil and dangerous.

I saw from the corner of my eye a blond midget running toward us. Tsaeb pushed his way through people, carrying my backpack on his back.

“Stolen! All of it!” he growled. “The door was ripped off its one hinge and the room ransacked! All my gold, all my jewels, gone!” Tsaeb slung the backpack off and tossed it in the mud with a
splat
. I had never seen him look so distraught. “But they left your bag of crap
—
we still have plenty of
crap
!”

Tsaeb didn’t care much about what was going on with what used to be the great tree fortress. He didn’t care one bit that he was close and personal with the man that probably had everything to do with it. “Crap,” he added with a snarl. “What are we going to do with this stuff?” He kicked the backpack.

“It’s called survival,” I answered, too tired and mentally overwhelmed by what was going on to give in to Tsaeb’s belittling this time. I bent over and lifted the backpack out of the mud, adjusting one strap over my left shoulder. “We’ll get by.”

“Oh look,” said Sophia with a snarl, “it’s
you
.”

“Great! Just
great
!” Tsaeb shouted. “My shit gets stolen and to make my day worse, you still have the imp!” He threw his hands in the air. “Can we get rid of her now? I mean, seriously, Norman.”

“No,” I said simply while rummaging around in the backpack.

“
No
?” said Tsaeb.

“
No
?” said Sophia.

The two actually agreed on something. A fucking shock.

“That’s what I said,” I answered, looking up from the bag at my side, “and don’t ask why, let’s just go.”

“But
—
”

I threw one scolding glare at them both and they froze.

We went west, leaving the center of the city behind, and traveled through the valley at the base of the mountain. The Tree of Life could always be seen in the distance.

I knew I couldn’t go much further without taking the mirror out of my pants. My walk was awkward and the curious glances from my company just as much. I wanted my consultations with the mirror to remain a secret.

As we walked along the bank of a brook, I thought only about what the Tree of Life told me.
I’m dying? I’m lying somewhere right now half burnt to death?
I didn’t want to believe it.

Is it true?
I said to the Devil in my mind, hoping I would hear him respond.
Answer me, you bastard! Where are you?
But the Devil did not answer. I tried everything, even called him insulting names and taunted him with religious ramble, but there was nothing.

How could I be dying so young? I rarely drank except on special occasions and on Tuesdays when I’d go out with my best friend, Danny, to the bar. I was always careful with just about everything I did; always used my blinker when making a turn and never tried to beat the yellow light. I was as healthy as a newborn, did not smoke or take drugs, unless taking a whiff of the gas while filling up my car counted. I went to the gym...sometimes...when I would get a sudden fed-up with myself urge to do so, which usually lasted no more than a couple of months. Dying? It just couldn’t be true, but then again, that woman who lived next door to me in 52B was always smoking. She smoked so much that the entire fifth floor usually reeked of cigarettes. Once, I went over to ask if she would kindly turn her alarm clock off (it had been beeping for two hours) and when she cracked open the door, all I could see between it and the chain lock was a long, skinny cigarette poking out and a thin coil of smoke burning at the top of it. She let the long ashes fall to the floor without a thought.

She must have been the one,
I thought.
I bet anything that chain-smokin’ hag started the fire
—
I’m going to haunt her. I swear it; if I die, I’ll go back and haunt her.

I stopped and put my backpack on the ground. Then suddenly I started taking off my clothes.

“Oh, do spare us,” snorted Sophia. “Gross!” She turned away.

Tsaeb just shook his head.

“I can’t stand these itchy clothes anymore,” I said, tossing the wool tunic aside on a dead tree branch. I stripped down to my suit shirt and boxers; took the rest of my old clothes out of my backpack and eagerly put them on, feeling instant relief.

And when Tsaeb and Sophia saw Vanity’s Mirror as I moved it to the pocket of my trench coat, they knew better than to touch it. My threatening expression said everything that words did not have to. It was obvious it drove the both of them utterly mad not knowing exactly what it was and I had no intention in telling.

We slept there for the night, near the bank of the little brook under a few thin trees that lacked the leaves to cover them from the darkening sky above. And on this night there were stars, thousands of them animating the sky as though they had recently awoken from a dreadfully long slumber. And in my slumber, I did dream this time. I dreamt that I was back at home. My mother was there and she had fried for me two pieces of French toast, cut in triangles like she always did when I was a boy. I sat on the floor with my legs crossed and my plate in my lap in front of the box television with the crooked bunny ears on top. Saturday morning cartoons; I never missed them, and I sat down just in time for
The Flintstones
, still dressed in my
Transformers
pajamas that my Grandma Elouise bought me for Christmas the year before. I could hear my father typing away on a typewriter in the room next door, and outside the neighbor’s dog was barking behind the fence at the paperboy who liked to taunt it.

I was in heaven.

But then on the television, I saw the Devil wink at me with the Gerber baby’s eye. Then behind me, I heard my mother say to my father: “Your ribs are ready, dear.” And I turned around to see my father sitting at the kitchen table, a pool of blood glistening on the tacky linoleum floor all around him. His rib cage was on a giant plate in front of him. He was eager to pick the bones clean, a fork in one fisted hand and a knife in the other.

I awoke in a sweat, relieved for once that I was in Creation lying next to two sleeping, snoring demons that made me glad I never had kids of my own.

“MUST BE HAVING GOOD dreams; y’look peaceful laying there.”

My eyes popped open. At first, I saw only the daytime overcast sky, but then I turned promptly to investigate the unfamiliar voice that woke me.

“You,” said the enormous man with curved rams horns, “are quite alive, I believe. Not dead yet, but I smell it like it’s creeping up on you.”

A bit disoriented and not exactly awake, I lifted my head and rubbed my eyes firmly, blurring my vision. To the left of me, Sophia and Tsaeb slept soundly. The air smelled of roses and honeysuckle. The ground beneath me was blanketed by lush green grass, soft as pillow feathers, dotted by tiny white flowers that looked more like delicate little buttons. Clearly, this was not where we had fallen asleep. At least, I couldn’t remember it looking this way, so ethereal.

“You alright?” said the buffalo of a man.

“Still alive, if you want to call it that,” I said, slowly beginning to understand the man’s conversation. “How do you know about that
— a
bout me dying?” I lifted my back off the ground, dusting away the grass and leaves stuck to my shirt, and then I looked up, taking greater notice of the man. At least five feet taller than me, and certainly heavier, the man wore a coat made of several different kinds of fur. Just seeing him wear something so thick and heavy in a place so warm made me sweat. The strange man was clean-shaven, but his matted, dirty-blond locks were anything but clean, and so long they fell past his giant shoulders and stopped somewhere beyond his tree-trunk waist.

The question I had asked seemed less and less important as I looked about my surroundings more. I was still in the place I had fallen asleep, after all. Yes, I remembered the dead pear-shaped tree log to my left, and the brook that snaked along the base of the mountain, but also I could still see the Tree of Life and in the daylight, even part of Fiedel City in the distance through a sliver of trees.

“What happened here?” I said. Not so far deep down, I knew what had happened, that the same wonder that grew the Tree of Life so tall and what had made the filthy city sprout with color and fresh air was what
I
had done. The change was spreading, but by no means did I feel the need to take any credit for this. In fact, I was far from deciding whether it was a good or a terrible thing.

The horned giant bent over in a sort of bow and reached out his massive hand. “I’m Taurus,” he introduced himself, “and honestly, I’m not too sure what happened, but sure you had something to do with it, though.”

With a lot of hesitation, I accepted his help and went to my feet. It worried me how horrible Tsaeb was at being any kind of watchdog. Neither he, nor Sophia even, had stirred once, and the giant named Taurus had quite a booming voice even though he was not shouting.

“I take it you’re Taurus as in Taurus of the Zodiac?”

Taurus grinned wide. “The one and only—didn’t know I was famous, but I’m flattered.”

Taurus was Lucifer’s favorite until Scorpio came along....

I tensed suddenly, and then began to nudge Tsaeb with the heel of my shoe, but Tsaeb only moved with a grunt and faced the opposite direction.

“You should get a move on,” said Taurus.

“Why?”

Taurus laughed and his gargantuan shoulders bounced heavily. “Stay still in one spot for too long and you’ll end up like them.” He looked over once, toward the bank of the brook and then back at me.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to be looking at.

“Right there,” he said. “Probably came out of the city, but that was as far as they got—seen quite a number of people, maybe ten just in the last fifteen minutes.”

I walked closer to the brook. There were faces embedded in the trees, wide-eyed and wide-mouthed. I reached out my hand, touched what was once an eyebrow, and pulled away quickly with a hair-raising shiver. Then suddenly, it occurred to me. I went quickly back over to Tsaeb and Sophia, and just as expected they were both strapped to the forest bed by vines and tree roots. Sophia’s left hand had even disappeared up to her wrist under a healthy patch of bright green grass. A little black beetle scuttled into Tsaeb’s exposed nostril.

“Wake up!” I said, squatting next to them and shaking them vigorously. “Get up, now! Tsaeb! Sophia!”

Tsaeb jolted awake first, almost immediately followed by Sophia. A mixture of panic and annoyance set in when they realized they could barely move. Neither of them hesitated to rip away the overgrowth. Sophia’s face soured when she pulled the grass from the skin on her hand, as her skin happened to come off a little with it.

“And I was worried about wolves,” said Tsaeb, pulling a stubborn vine from the sleeve of his shirt. He reached up, pressed a finger firmly against one nostril and blew hard. The beetle shot out of his nose along with a nasty ball of demon snot.

“Fortunately,” said Taurus, “it seems to be slowing down. It might spread a few hundred more feet, but I doubt any further than that.”

“But what’s happening to these people?” I couldn’t help but scan the rest of the area while slipping my backpack on.

“Covered by the Light, o’course.”

“Oh, I should’ve known—better stay on your toes, you two,” I said, glancing over my shoulder. “I’m betting the blacker your soul, the more danger you’re in.”

Taurus nodded with a smile. “That’s right. S’why you don’t see me sitting down, though I’m not too worried. Last time this happened, the Light went after three of my sisters and my brother, Cancer, before it bothered fooling with me.” He threw his head back and laughed.

“OK, so we need to get moving pretty quickly then,” I said. I meant to leave as politely as I could without offending Taurus, or letting him think he could follow.

Taurus saw no harm in inviting himself.

“I sure do agree,” said Taurus, “Follow me and I’ll take you the quickest route out of here.”

“Thanks,” I said, “but I think we’ll be ok; besides, I have to go the way the—”

Taurus paused, listening. And he waited a few seconds longer until it was clear to him that I was strangely at the end of such an abrupt sentence.

“Yes?” Taurus inquired. “The way the
what
?”

“Oh yeah,” Tsaeb said from behind, “The uhhh, the way the guide told us to go back in the city.” Tsaeb knew immediately that I was trying to hide the fact that I was carrying Vanity’s Mirror. He had figured out what it was last night before we fell asleep.

Sophia laughed and stepped right up to the giant. She leaned her blond head back and looked up at his towering figure, which cast quite a large shadow over her. “Damn, mister, you sure are tall. I ain’t never seen anyone so friggin’ huge; and those horns. Do they get in the way?”

Taurus creased his brows and looked down upon her, his great hands resting upon his hips. “Get in the way of what?”

“I ‘unno, like anything.”

Taurus brought up his hand and scratched the side of his face in thought. “Nope.” And then he took Sophia under the arm and lifted her several feet off the ground. At first, she shrieked, but then saw how Tsaeb was looking at her and she decided to stop giving him reason to call her any number of things closely related to the definition of ‘wuss’.

“Hey! What gives?” she shouted.

Taurus smiled so hugely that it looked as though he could take her whole head off in one bite. He tossed her with ease over onto his left horn, where she sat comfortably in its curve. He patted her on the head. “Just lookin’ out for yah, kid.” He pointed to the spot where she had been standing and a tree root was snaking up from the black soil.

The Light was on the move again.

I turned around to face them all. I had been using the time Taurus took with Sophia to turn my back slightly and catch a glimpse of Vanity’s Mirror, which was still tucked safely down the front of my slacks. It was easier to see down there than in my coat pocket. How awkward it might’ve looked to Taurus if he had noticed me looking down the front of my pants with the other hand holding the mirror inside of them.

Unfortunately, the mirror didn’t reveal anything but my reflection, the only thing it had revealed at all since the Tree of Life had given it to me.

“You two coming, or what?”

I looked up and saw that Taurus was walking away with Sophia sitting on his horn, a spiteful, almost gloating smile on her face as she looked back at us. Tsaeb gave me a now-what-do-we-do sort of look, while I did the only thing that seemed right: I followed.

We walked for hours until Taurus was confident enough that we were all out of harm’s way. The landscape failed to blackness again. It was a strange disappointment to be fleeing something so beautiful, but I knew too that not even I was safe from the Light.

“So,” said Taurus, sitting down on a rock barely large enough to hold him, “when are you going to pull out that mirror of yours and put it to use?” He passed me a knowing wink, and I froze. Tsaeb looked back and forth between me and Taurus who wore the same surprised expression that I wore.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you do!” Taurus laughed. “I don’t know what’s funnier, you thinkin’ you can lie about it with that rat’s tail hangin’ out of your mouth, or the way you look when you’re tryin’ to walk, like you got something’ stuck up that skinny butt of yours.”

Sophia jumped down from Taurus’ horn giggling; her effort to hold it back was as fake as her demeanor.

“How much do you know, anyway?” I said, leery and worried.

“I know just about everything.”

“Well,” I said, “I’m listening.”

Taurus cleared his throat and made a gesture with his hand. “You’re half alive, half dead, half in Creation, half in that delusional world of yours influenced by my dear ol’ dad. And I smell...” he stopped and leaned over sniffing the air around me, “...middle-aged man who was molested by his father at the age of ten.” Then he sniffed my right arm. “Hmmm, interesting, a gladiator slave, killed by a Senator after the slave was caught servicing the Senator’s wife. And the other arm...the Senator!” Taurus laughed and shook his head. “The irony!”

I was about to speak, but Taurus stopped me. “Now wait just a minute and let me finish.” He took my hands into his and turned my palms up. “Wow, very delicate; a soft, young woman that loved to sew, but the irony in that is
she
was recycled with the hands of a man who murdered sixteen people because violent death got him off—you must masturbate a lot.” Taurus leaned back up and seemed finished with being so investigative. “The rest of you, nothing interesting at all.”

What I had wanted to say before was that my father never molested me, but it soon became obvious that Taurus was only revealing what sorts of people I had been recycled with.

I refused to comment about the masturbation.

“I know exactly why you’re here,” Taurus went on, “and what you’re supposed to do, so it would be wise to take out that mirror and let it tell you which way to go because you need to get there.”

“Whose side are you on?” I said.

“I wouldn’t trust him,” said Tsaeb from behind. “I wouldn’t trust any of the Zodiac, Norman.”

“Taurus is nice!” growled Sophia.

Tsaeb snarled at her, but did not give her the argument she probably wanted.

“I’m not the one of my brothers and sisters you should worry about.”

“Who should I worry about, then?”

Taurus smiled. “All of them...well, except maybe for Aquarius. He and my sister Virgo are more like myself and want you to succeed, but Virgo can be easily swayed. Mum’s probably already working on her now, knowing you’ve made it as far as you have. But Aquarius, he hates mum and would kill her if he had the opportunity.”

My mind was spinning. I thought about my own sign for a moment and wondered if being a Sagittarian had anything to do with, well anything at all, though I wasn’t sure how even to inquire.