Edge of End (22 page)

“
What is there?” Elizabeth
asked worriedly.

“
It’s better you never
find out,” I replied releasing her from my hug.

“
We can’t leave the same
way we entered,” Malcolm mused his eyes lowered as if he was deep
in thought. “We can check for a back door somewhere.”

“
I’ve got a better plan,”
I announced as I moved towards the man who was lying on the
floor.

Elizabeth and Malcolm’s eyes followed
me. I hoisted that beefy man with great ease, as simple as picking
up an apple off the ground. Taking him to the window, I tossed him
out. He fell accompanied by a shower of broken glass, and through
the gap the misty cloud seeped quickly into the room encircling me,
and reaching towards Elizabeth.

I turned around and held my hand out,
“Come!”

Elizabeth shuffled towards me and took
my hand. She looked at me in confusion with narrowed eyes. With no
hesitation, I pulled her into my arms and jumped onto the
windowsill.

“
We can’t be sure there is
ground down there Jonathan,” Malcolm said coming up to the window.
He brushed back his graying hair from his eye and surveyed the area
in search of any sign of ground outside. “The mist covers
everything.”

“
At least this is better
than the darkness.”

“
Who knows?” Malcolm
forced a thin smile and looked at me.

He was right. Who knew? By making the
jump I might never reach the ground. But I had already made my
decision.

“
Do you trust me?” I
asked, smiling affectionately at Elizabeth.

“
Yes,” she nodded.
“Wherever you go, I’ll follow.”

“
Then here we go,” I
teased and jumped into nothingness.

The mist outside hid the
ground from my view. I had thrown myself into its arms without
having any clue where it would take me. We had been on the ground
floor, but who knew where the dark corridor and the haze had taken
us. If I had found myself at the beginning of the
town
again, I wouldn’t
have been so shocked.

We fell and fell through a cloudy mist
a cold wind biting into my face. I contemplated the drop in awe; we
were encircled by whiteness blanketing everything from our
sight.

I looked down into Elizabeth’s
frightened eyes. She was in my arms, her hold onto my neck
tightening.

Had I been wrong? This fall seemed to
be carrying on for an eternity. Elizabeth said nothing, she just
looked at me.

Then the cloud beneath us began
darkening.

“
I think there is
something there,” I said hopefully.

But Elizabeth kept staring at me like
she had stopped believing in me anymore.

“
Elizabeth, are you okay?”
I asked, my voice leaving my lungs with difficulty.

“
You set me up, Jonathan,”
she accused.

“
What?” I cried out taken
aback.

Before she could say anything, I was
enveloped in the darkness beneath my dangling feet. My eyes
couldn’t see anything, but I could still felt the wind rushing past
my face.

Suddenly the weight in my arms was
gone.

“
Elizabeth?” I called out
to her. There was no answer.

As the darkness faded away
momentarily, I hit the ground hard and rolled over, overcome by
dust. I lay there winded for a moment or two. Finally catching my
breath, I struggled into my feet.

The heavy mist let me see about five
metres in any direction.

From nowhere, with an unexpected clap,
a chunky man appeared sitting in an armchair, a hole made by a
bullet in his forehead and his face covered with blood. I stared at
him uncomprehendingly.

Melissa’s voice washed over me, again
with the promise to kill me as soon as she grew up. I looked about,
her voice floating in the mist and echoing in my ears.

“
Elizabeth, where are
you?” I called out.

As the last word left my mouth, she
appeared standing right in front of me.

“
Elizabeth,” my jaw
dropped. She was unharmed, and she looked beautiful but her
expression was lifeless.

“
Look who you are,
Jonathan,” her lips moved, letting out those words
regretfully.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
I thought you weren’t
like the other residents,” she went on, her eyes pinned on me.
“Your mask was very good, though. But you’re as much a monster
within as the others. Nobody gets to this town by mistake. Even
me,” she added.

“
What came over you?” I
raised my eyebrows. “Are you all right? I know, I’m not perfect,
nor are you, but we’re going to change that. Take my hand, please.
We’re going to make ourselves better people.”

“
Only one can get into the
passage,” she said tonelessly. “You can’t take me with you. Am I
worthy enough to be saved instead of you?”

“
We’ll do it together,” I
insisted as before. “Trust me.”

“
Only one,” she
said.

I regarded her for a long moment. She
wasn’t like herself. Something was talking to me through
her.

And then I whispered, “Yes, you’re
worthy enough to be saved instead of me. You’re better than
me.”

“
You barely know her,” the
voice coming from her mouth was now creepy and devilish.
Elizabeth’s own dulcet and soft voice was no longer there. “What
makes you believe she’s better?”

I bravely faced the monster inhabiting
Elizabeth’s form. “Despite you, I can feel. I trust my
instinct.”

She laughed with monster’s voice, her
eyes widening and becoming green. With a broad and wicked smile on
her face she suddenly dashed towards me.

I had no time to react. Reaching me,
she slapped me in the face, hard. I closed my eyes in
pain.

When I opened them again the mist had
gone. I was again in the gloomy room where I had just brought the
wicked man down. Elizabeth, the one I knew, the real one, was knelt
beside me, my head on her knees. I felt another slap to my
face.

“
What the...?” I cried
out. “Will you stop hitting me?”

“
Oh, Jonathan,” she hugged
me. “You’re back.”

“
What happened? Where are
we?”

“
We’re in that damned
house. Remember, the flying demons lured me here. You came to
rescue me.”

“
Yeah, I remember that,” I
screwed up my eyes. “But I fought that man, and then the wall
cracked and we jumped out through the window.”

“
No we didn’t,” she
interrupted me, her hands still on my face. “You knocked that man
out, then turned to me and just collapsed to the floor
unconscious.”

“
What? But?” I trailed
off. The fall, the chunky man and the devil in Elizabeth’s form had
been a vision. “Where is Malcolm?” I asked taking a huge
breath.

“
He’s lying over there,”
she indicated the cracked wall. “Both of you fell simultaneously.
You had glazed eyes. I don’t know what was wrong,
Jonathan.”

“
And you decided to slap
me? Again?”

“
At least I know that way
worked on you,” she smirked, then placed a quick kiss on my
forehead.

“
Never thought I would
thank anybody who slapped me,” I muttered, displeasure in my
voice.

“
Never mind. You can thank
me next time.”

“
There won’t be a next
time,” I grumbled as I tried to sit up.

Elizabeth helped me. I felt weak, all
my strength had been sucked out of me. I leaned my back against the
wall and looked up at the broken window. The mist seeped in slowly
and fell onto me.

My eyes traveled over the room and
came to a stop at the cracked wall. Through the hundreds of cracks
black liquid oozed down onto the floor. Streams of it stretched
towards Malcolm who lay unconscious just to the side.

“
Stay here. I’ll get
Malcolm,” Elizabeth told me.

“
Hey,” I called to her.
“Look,” raising my hand I indicated the wall.

“
What the hell is it?” she
stopped stunned.

I guessed it was the nothingness
behind the wall, and taking the form of liquid, it was working its
way towards us.

“
Whatever it is, don’t
touch it,” I said. “I guess that was what caused Malcolm and I to
black out. But it hasn’t had any influence on you. Don’t touch
it.”

“
It does have some sort of
effect on me,” Elizabeth told me as she knelt down beside
Malcolm.

“
It weakened us in the
corridor,” I thought aloud. “The second time its hand blocked our
consciousness successfully.”

“
Ah!,” Elizabeth cried out
in agony. She cupped her head and fell on her side still shrieking
loudly.

“
Elizabeth!” I bawled.
Trying to stand up I aggravated my situation and I found myself
facedown on the floor.

“
It’s in my head!” she
screamed. “Jonathan, it’s in my head!”

“
Leave Malcolm there and
crawl to me,” I told her. “You can’t help him. You’re too close to
that stuff.”

She managed to look me in the eyes. I
didn’t see any weakness in them. I saw a strong and determined
woman there. Howling she pushed herself back up with difficulty.
The pain was still in her head, but no scream escaped her mouth. I
saw her hands tremble, whatever was carried by the black liquid, it
had managed to get into her and affect her whole body.

Elizabeth grabbed Malcolm’s coat and
began dragging him to me.

“
He’s surprisingly heavy
for such a short and old man,” she muttered.

I watched her struggling with Malcolm
and was unable to help her. On the contrary, I still needed her
aid. I wondered why she cared about saving him at all. Malcolm was
the one who hadn’t wanted her around. He had seen her as being weak
and useless.

Elizabeth dragged him closer and let
him go, leaning him against the wall beside me and gasping for air.
We looked at each other and grinned awkwardly.

“
We’ve got to get out of
here,” she murmured.

“
Maybe the window isn’t
the best option?” I said.

“
Maybe. But it’s all we
have.” Then she added, “Don’t even think that. I’m not going to
carry both you and Malcolm to the door we came through.”

She struggled to her feet and peered
out the window. Then she took a deep breath and lifted Malcolm onto
the windowsill. With a kick she managed to get him out.

“
I know you don’t like
him, but he won’t remember your kick as he wakes up,” I smirked
looking weakly at her.

“
It’s a pity,” was her
quizzical remark. “But I’ll learn to live with it. Come on,” she
reached down to help me.

I threw my arm around her shoulder
and, gathering the last of my strength pulled myself up. Feeling
pain in my legs I leaned on the windowsill. Outside the dense mist
floated, covering everything. I looked for Malcolm but to no
avail.

“
I’m going to kick you
out, too,” she said in my ear. “Ready?”

I laughed. “You promise to follow
me?”

“
I’ll be right after you,”
a thin smile curled her lips.

“
Then go on.”

She pushed me and I fell
down, the fear of dropping endlessly causing a rapid pumping of my
heart. Despite my fears, I landed fast and found myself on
the
musty smelling ground. The effects of
the black oily liquid wore off instantly and I keeled over
backward.

Elizabeth landed next to me. Both of
us lay there for a long while, catching our breaths and gazing at
each other.

“
Thank you,” I murmured
tracing my finger over her cheek.

She grinned at me affectionately and,
closing in, we kissed. The taste of her lips mixed with the ground
dust coating my tongue as our lips met.

Malcolm’s howl, unfortunately,
interrupted us.

The old man had come back from his
dreamlike state and now, regaining his senses, tried to sit
up.

“
What the fuck happened
here?” he asked as his eyes worked their way to us.

Elizabeth giggled, pulling herself off
me. Feeling better now, I stood up with ease. During the next few
minutes I told Malcolm how Elizabeth had saved us from the
monstrous mouth of the nothingness. The old man didn’t thank her by
words, his look at her was enough.

“
Where are we?” she asked
then. She scanned the new surroundings. The mist covered everything
making it difficult to see anything.

“
At least we’re out of
that hellish house,” I noted. I took a quick look at my palms. My
power was seemingly gone. I felt weak, like an average
human.

“
Jonathan,” Elizabeth said
with fearful voice. I looked at her worriedly. “The mist,” she
said, “It’s retreating.”

The dense cloud that had come over the
town was clearing away in a great speed. Within seconds my view
cleared and I could see a mile away.