Edge of End (27 page)

“
Jonathan,” she said. “I
thought the demon had you.”

“
It’s here.
Go!”

She looked about absently as if asking
where to go.

“
The window,” I pointed
ahead.

She climbed onto the windowsill and
stopped for a second peeking out, and then she jumped out. I ran
across the room, my heart pumping, my blood rushing in my veins.
Every moment could be my last. As soon as the soul-eater rounded
the hole it’d rush after me in light speed.

I reached the window and without a
glance out jumped. Next moment I found myself rolling over the
black ground, my arms hitting stones of ruined houses. Pain found
every ounce of my body. I stopped rolling and lay there motionless,
my eyes stared on the dark sky until I exhaled a painful breath and
tried to look at the window. The soul-eater stood by it with
menacing eyes regarding me.

“
Get up!” Elizabeth
grabbed me and pulled me up. “They are everywhere.”

With fearful eyes I looked around at
my surroundings. My mind refused to take the picture in front of me
steadily. Everything swayed.

“
Malcolm,” I heard
Elizabeth crying. “Help me.”

I felt another pair of hands on me
that lifted me up and helped me to widen the distance between the
soul-eater that had been chasing me.

“
They can’t see through
walls,” I said in a whisper.

Malcolm contemplated around. “That
way,” he indicated to the left.

I followed him, Elizabeth running next
to me. At first I limped, but then my legs felt surprisingly strong
for a man who had just fallen from three metres height.

We entered a ruined house and veered
to the right, then left, then out of the building. As soon as we
were out into the night Malcolm rushed towards the nearest
building, or maneuvered walls that would cover us from the
soul-eaters’ sight.

“
Aren’t we there yet?” I
asked Elizabeth.

“
Almost,” she threw back
over her shoulder.

I hated that word.

We were running along a passage the
long wall blocking our view of the pursuing demons. I felt myself
in a maze from one passage rushing into the other one, or into a
room, then again. Malcolm was on the lead, then Elizabeth and me on
his trail. We had two ways to take at the end of the corridor.
Malcolm veered to the right.

“
Not that way,” Elizabeth
cried out as she took to the right.

I followed her with out of the corner
of my eye seeing Malcolm turning around. We were in the middle of
the next room when Elizabeth stopped abruptly.

“
What is it?” I
asked.

“
We’ve got to go through
this wall,” she said. “It’s right behind it. I can feel
it.”

I looked at the wall indignantly, then
ahead where a soul-eater appeared blocking our way.

“
We’re trapped,” I
said.

Malcolm run up behind us and at full
power hit the wall by his shoulder. Old bricks gave up easier than
I had expected, and the old man forced his way out the room
accompanied with dust and pieces of broken wall. I grabbed
Elizabeth’s hand and pulled her close to me and both we followed
Malcolm.

We were in another house, correctly in
a place surrounded by half-broken walls. I was the last running
again.

“
Which way?” Malcolm
asked, and I saw two doorways in front of us.

“
Right,” Elizabeth was
short.

Malcolm pressed on, Elizabeth on his
heels and me two steps behind. They managed to enter the next
passage but before I reached it a demon walked into the room
through the wall and stopped between me and the doorway. Without
hesitating any moment I took the next way.

Alone I passed another two houses. I
dreaded to call my friends as my voice would attract too many
demons, so I kept running ahead until I appeared in an opening.
Spotting nothing in the night I urged forward faster than I had
probably done in the storm back in the town.

I was too vulnerable in the opening. A
soul-eater spotted me and I was done. My only chance, if it could
be named so, was a doorway caved in a lone wall that stood in fifty
steps away.

Having no other option I sprinted to
it my heart full of doubts that I was going to survive the pursuit.
When I was in the middle of the opening, bright light hit the
ground just to my right that had appeared from the dark sky. I saw
a man–me, or ghostly me, standing at the light, his head tilted,
fingers laced together and close to his mouth as if he was praying.
In front of him, less then fifteen steps away, the humanoid monster
was hung in mid-air with its fists balled up and face wrinkled. It
closed the eyes, its body shaking thoroughly in agony. I was
experimenting another time traveling but the fragments I saw
weren’t familiar.

“
Jonathan, here!”
Elizabeth’s voice distracted me. She was at the doorway, Malcolm at
her side.

I gathered my last strength and darted
to her. Wails thundered the opening from every side, the light had
attracted too much attention. I didn’t stop, I ran faster than
wind, my destination the door. But it wasn’t the salvation either,
reaching it we wouldn’t have anywhere to go. I didn’t want to fall
and give my soul to the demons in opening, I longed to reach
Elizabeth and hug her for the last time.

Elizabeth stepped backward, watching
me struggle my way to her in horror. Her magnified and unblinking
eyes on me, her mouth twitched praying something under her
breath.

“
Come on,” Malcolm
beckoned me.

At the very end I jumped rushing
through the doorway head-first. As I was on the ground I quickly
peered back expecting hundreds soul-eaters on us. Elizabeth had
held out her hand toward the door and tilted her head. What was she
doing?

A high wind came in through the door
raffling her hair and picking up dust into the air and hovering
around us. The soul-eaters stopped abruptly, the air filled with
angry wails and gurgles. The ground quivered, the pieces of broken
wall rose and hang in mid-air. I looked around perplexed not fully
understanding what was going on.

The walls on my four sides revived,
being built by an invisible hand, the roof covered us with a thud,
the black ground beneath me vanished and was replaced by wooden
parquet. The night retreated like a living thing, taking dark
shadow off the walls, and daylight filled the room.

We were in Elizabeth house, in her
living-room, the open album still lying in the table. I’d never
thought before I’d be happy to see this room again and now my
muscles relaxed and I sighed.

I lay on the wooden floor, Malcolm
leaned against a wall a slight smile curling his lips. Elizabeth
collapsed to her knees cupping her face and breathing
rapidly.

“
Hey!” I called to her and
hurried into my feet, dust falling from my clothes. “You okay?” I
put my hands on my shoulder.

“
Yeah,” she murmured. She
looked at me her eyes gleaming. “We did it.”

“
Of course. I never
doubted in you,” I said with a broad smile.

Malcolm’s loud laugh
followed.

“
Amusing,” he cried out as
we looked at him uncomprehendingly.

“
What’s so funny,” I
asked.

“
Honestly, I didn’t think
we’d come out of the night,” he said with cheerful voice. “Don’t
you understand what we’ve just done? We went into the demons’ world
and came back from the dark. Nobody before has done something like
this.”

In a matter of fact he was
right.

“
It’s Elizabeth who
brought us back,” I said.

“
It’s her who took us
there too,” he reminded then quickly added. “Don’t get me wrong,
Elizabeth, I do start liking you and the way both you struggle
against the town.” He let out a long breath. “God, it’s been a long
time I last have fun.”

“
Depends what you call
fun,” I put in.

“
We were an inch from–”
she paused.

“
Sucked up,” I continued.
“What part of that do you find funny?”

“
You’re boring,” he tilted
his head disappointed. “I’ll make sure everyone in hell hears your
story. Believe me, you’ll be welcomed with open arms.”

“
Better we never find our
way to hell,” I muttered and rose, holding out my hand to aid
Elizabeth. “How did you do that?” I asked her. “How did you know
you’d be able to bring us back?”

“
I just know,” she
answered. “My house called my soul, it was ready to pull me out of
the night. I can’t convey these emotions, but I knew I could. It
was somehow planted in my head.”

“
So the night world was
the reflection of this town and the ruined houses were our houses,”
I started building a theory.

“
It was a place where our
past and present were mixed up,” Elizabeth said.

“
Time doesn’t have meaning
there,” Malcolm spoke tonelessly. He fished out his cigarette pack
and Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest, but soon realized that
it wasn’t her real home. Malcolm lit one and went on, “You live
ages in town which on Earth could be seconds. We don’t know how the
time we spent in night affected here. Time is much deeper
knowledge.”

“
That’s the sciences’
puzzle,” I said. My gaze dropped to my hands, my superhuman power
returning to me as if I’d been charging with power since night had
gone. “Let’s go and see what is outside. We still can reach the
light.”

I was about to turn around when a low
voice stopped me and I held my hand in the air.

“
Shhh,” I hissed. “You
hear that?”

It was coming from the bathroom as if
the tap was left open and water flew to the floor. We stared at the
door. Reddened water found its way into the room flowing over the
floor and with surprisingly speed it streamed towards
us.

“
This is not for our
good,” Elizabeth said.

“
Let’s get out of here,” I
reached for her and started ushering her toward the
corridor.

Malcolm tossed his cigarette to the
floor and followed us. As we were at the doorway where once had
been a white door and now broken to pieces by the humanoid monster,
Elizabeth abruptly halted collapsing to her knees and took her head
in her arms.

“
Elizabeth?” I called out
her name surprised.

She shriek in agony, then turned back
to look at the living-room.

“
Hey, can you hear me?” I
took her by shoulders. “What is it?”

“
No!” she cried
hysterically. “The girl!”

“
The house recognizes
her,” Malcolm said. “It wants her here.”

“
I’m not going to give her
to it,” I said determined.

“
We’ve got to carry her
out. She can’t hear you, her mind is blackened, a vision entered
her head.”

I wrapped my hands around her and
tried to usher her out, but she fought me off. Malcolm came to my
help grabbing her by shoulders and together we hauled her towards
the exit. She struggled against us, hit me into the face once, but
I kept carrying her. She cried and tried to hold on to the walls,
she was mighty in her house, but she couldn’t fight Malcolm and
me.

Finally we were out the house.
Elizabeth stopped yelling, her hands dropped to her sides and she
tilted her head gasping for air. I lay her on the ground and
brushed her hair off her face meeting her scared and glazed
eyes.

“
We need to give her a
minute,” I told more to myself than to Malcolm.

“
I’m not in a hurry,” the
old man murmured.

Within seconds her breath calmed down,
and she blinked.

“
How do you feel?” I asked
her.

Elizabeth gave me a wan smile and
struggled into a sitting position. “I saw that girl again, dead,
lying on the floor in the living-room and the man from the album
standing at her. He beckoned me. He said ‘take a look what you’ve
done’.”

“
It was just a vision,
Elizabeth,” I caressed her face making her to look me in the eye.
“Town tries to keep you inside.”

“
I know them–the girl and
the man. I just can’t remember who they are to me.”

I could tell her my theory but if she
knew she may lose the desire to go back to real life. If I tell her
she was a mother who had lost her daughter, she would give
up.

“
Get up!” Malcolm ordered
with a husky voice. I raised my eyes. The old man stared into the
mist. I had already forgotten the town was possessed by white and
dense cloud.

“
Can you walk?” I asked
Elizabeth.

She nodded and stood up.

“
The good news is we’re
about there where we left,” Malcolm said his back to us.

“
And the bad?” Elizabeth
asked.

“
The bad news is,
sweetheart, that your house had outrun the one you entered and took
us to the night.” He trailed off and the silence engulfed us. I
strained my ears to any sound recalling the flying demons in the
mist. I had to forget about the night and concentrate on my mission
in
town
. “Let’s
go,” Malcolm resumed and took a brave step out into the mist. He
paused for a moment and strained his ears trying to note anything
peculiar.