Pagewalker (33 page)

“SARAH GO!” I screamed at her pushing her
back, I bolted towards the giant pig faced brute. I could see a
grin appearing from underneath his mask. He must have been tracking
me for days. But how? It didn’t really matter now, he was about to
get his prize. If he could catch it. I turned hard to my left, only
seconds before we met. Ducking under his hand I skidded on my knees
for a moment then pushed myself up again. Almost directly behind
him now. The brute tripped over his own legs as he tried to reach
out to grab me. His arm reaching out and missing what he grabbed
at. Now listen, I’ve said it before, I am no athlete, I have a good
beer belly and plenty of spare weight. I may lift some heavy
weights from time to time but this guy looked like he could bench
press trucks! Banging out sets of ten at fifty reps per set. So
yea, that’s a lot! Any way, getting side tracked. Yea the chase. So
I just managed to miss his grasp. He toppled, if only for a second.
Looking back at his body face down on the ground I could see Sarah
and Tessa standing behind on the far side of the clearing. Fear on
both of their faces. I winked at Sarah then turned and ran. The big
guy had pushed himself to his feet now. He slammed his fists on the
cobbled floor and let out a clattering roar as he perused me. Like
something from a computer game. If it were a computer game then
this guy was the end boss and I had no restarts or extra lives. He
may have been slow as he chased me but nothing slowed him any
further like a cargo ship blasting through ice. I kept toppling
things behind me hoping to slow him down but nothing. He pushed
through tables and stalls like a 747 through white clouds.

“THEY ALL TRIED TO LIE FOR YOU” he continued
to shout at me as we ran.

“THEY TRIED TO PROTECT YOU, BUT I BROKE THEM”
he laughed as he got closer. Who was he talking about? Who tried to
lie? Who tried to protect me?

We reached a fork road near the bottom of the street.
I hesitated for a second too long while looking both ways. I felt
fingers around my shirt. Fingers that tried to pull me back. I
ducked and let the cape be ripped from my body. I bolted left.
Downhill again and heard yet another roar coming from just behind
me.

“I GROUND THEM ALL DOWN” he shouted at me. I
was really worried now. Not only were the streets getting wider and
less crowded but the words he spoke were carrying gravity. Gravity
that was slowing me down. The road was leading me out of the town
now. Still he was in pursuit. Like a more brutal and faster
re-enactment of our last encounter in Renir.

That’s when it happened, the thing that you
scream at the cinema screen over. The moment popcorn falls from
your hand and you sit back again exhausted in your chair. The part
when the skinny blonde is getting chased by the masked slasher, the
moment she trips on her heel and falls face first, giving the
killer enough time to loom over the top of her. Yea, that happened
to me. I lost my footing and tripped over a slightly raised cobble
stone. I fell face first and landed on my chest with a winding
thud. All breath left my body and time slowed down. I didn’t have
time to breath before I felt the weight on my chest. Two massive
hands were wrapped around my throat. Squeezing they lifted to my
feet then up even higher. I was slammed back into a wall. My feel
kicking and dangling inches from the ground. He had my pinned and
was tightening his grip. He leaned forward, putting his face less
than an inch from mine.

“Now, now I am going to watch the life drain
from your eyes.” He said in a whisper. I know it is a strange thing
to notice when you are being strangled to death but the stench of
fish from his breath was enough to kill me as it was!

“It will not be quick like it you stabbed him
in the eye, you ended his life in seconds. I will end yours much
slower. Watch me, this face is the last you will see.” Without
loosening the grip he removed one hand fro my neck. Still pinning
me in place, and lifted the mask from his face. It was just as
horrid underneath. His eyes sat deep into his head. A Neanderthal
like forehead stuck forward as did his chin. A short, raggedy beard
was patchy over his pock-marked, scarred skin. One of his eyes was
a milky white. No pupil or iris just a cloudy film over it. His
other was so dark and void of colour. He leant in close once more.
Both my hands were squeezing around his massive forearm, trying to
get some sort of leverage. I could feel myself getting weak, heavy,
tired.

“I have been hunting you since Renir. I
followed you past the rebels rest, then to the forest, past the
circus and into the altars. I followed you here. Everyone tried to
throw me off but they all ground under my boot.” He whispered in my
ear. My heart sank. My face must have shown it. I tried to kick out
but I had no energy.

“Everyone in the guild tried to lie, they
were very troublesome. It took loosing a hand before that little
girl even spoke. I killed them one by one until I got my answers.”
the smile widened on his toothless grin. “Then I turned those
cavers into an oven. They cooked in those halls. Stone warms with
heat you know. The smell was amazing to say the least.” He took a
deep breath in and blew slowly into my face as he exhaled. My eyes
turned in my head and I felt myself drifting off. Until the slap
came and then the sudden fall. I hit the ground hard. Gasping to
get any breath I could between the kicks that were raining down on
my back. I held a hand up in surrender but it was slapped away and
I was thrown onto the far side of the alley we had ended up in.

My eyes were seeing nothing but grey fuzz
like an old tv with no signal. Trying to focus I was lifted once
more off the ground and slammed into the wall several times before
he spoke to me once more.

“They told me you were heading with the guild
leader to find your wife and bring back a fugitive, but YOU are the
only fugitive I care about!” He laughed. I tried to spit out some
words but all that came out was a croak and a whimper.

“They told me that you had come from the
Rebels Rest, the day before? So I paid them a visit also.” Tears
welled up in my face as he continued his boast.

“They were the easiest. No honour, just weak
drunken fools. They cried together as they told me everything. They
didn’t not even try to hide things from me. They opened up like
whores on happy hour! Spilling all kinds of information about you.
How you were looking for your wife?” My eyes cleared then. I caught
his eye there. My senses returned suddenly, like a shot to the
brain. He saw that too.

“Aaahhh, so it is true. Your wife is here.
You found her then? Ah it all makes sense now. She is the one who
saved you from those luchorpán? I watched that all unfold from a
distance. Very entertaining by the way!” He commented, his grip
loosened, just slightly but enough for me to get another
breath.

“She is the one you were with in the square
just now? Agh haha. I see what you are trying to do. You are trying
to get home then eh?” My head turned slightly. How did he know? How
could he know? Did he know?

“You think me a fool? I know why you are
here!” My heart broke as he spoke. All of this time I had been
followed, and now that I am so close to returning with Sarah and
Tessa it has all gone tits up! I preyed he did not know the
answer.

“You are here to collect the bounty on that
man you travel with ain’t you? That man that escaped the prison in
Renir? Well I’m afraid it is my bounty now.” He laughed. “...And
that wife? Yes, she will do for my play thing for a while. But I do
believe I will enjoy killing her more than screwing her.” He winked
at me, his last form of torture before the kill. I always wondered
why villains always lay out their plans before they try to kill the
hero? Stupid really isn’t it? Besides part of me wanted to see how
he would get on using Sarah as a 'play thing' She would be the
hardest work he ever came across. The woman would kick seven shades
out of him without even so much as a second thought.

“So, before I get my reward, both of them, it
is time to get the vengeance I have been seeking for so long.” he
lifted a shard from his back pocket. It had a familiar design. A
similar design to the staff Shaw had given me in the Rebels rest.
The brute held it to my face and aimed it to my eye. “Recognise
this?” he said, I did now. It was another part from the staff I had
killed his brother with. I was not ready for death. I don’t think I
ever really will, I’m quite fond of being alive, but then, maybe it
was the starvation from oxygen or the tiredness I felt acceptance.
Actually scratch that, that’s all match bull shit. It had nothing
to do with that. It was the voice I heard behind the brute right
before the shoved a 5 inch shard of metal into my eye. A voice that
dripped with cold and malice to anyone willing to harm her
family.

“your play thing? Mate I'm too much for you
to handle” The brute turned to his left to see Sarah standing only
inches from his face. He had no time to react or reply because as
soon as his eyes met hers Tessa has sunk her teeth deep into his
calf muscle. He screamed with pain, as he did so his grip loosened
on my neck. I had enough room to wriggle loose and kick myself of
him as I did so. Now Sarah prides herself on being lazy as hell as
soon as her bum hits our sofa, but holy shit, could that girl move
when she wanted to. Within milliseconds Sarah was on the back of
the brute. She had the leather lead we had made for Tessa wrapped
several times around the brutes neck and was pulling so tight. Like
Leia strangling Jabba. Her feet were on the top of his back as he
fell to his knees. She was leaning back with all her might. The
brute was thrashing and flailing his arms but was forced down from
her weights and her pull on his neck. I made my way to my feet and
punch deep into his ribs. My firsts hurt, I could hear ribs
cracking as I did so. My energy was returning and the anger was
taking over. For a moment I saw myself back in school. Back in that
corridor beating the stuffing out of Ryan on the floor, the loss of
control.

I punched and punched until I could hardly
lift my arms. Finally he gave up the struggle and fell forwards.
His body flopping into a heap in front of both of us. Exhausted we
scrambled for the shard he was holding and prised it from his
fingers. We stood above the body of the brute.

A crowd had gathered around us now. I had no
idea how long they had been there but no one came to stop me as I
stood over a seven foot tall brick house with a sharp blade pointed
towards him. I'm sure they saw and heard enough to know it was self
defence.

“Don’t do it babe” Sarah said in her most
calming of voices.

She put her hand on my arm, the one holding
the blade and pushed it down to my side. “Don’t kill him, its too
easy, be better than him, Jeez, he deserves it like, but be the
bigger person love, yea?” my hand was gripping the blade so tight.
All I could see were the burnt bodies of the thieves guild in
Renir, the blood bath at the Rebels Rest, all those patrons lying
dead, all because I once visited the Inn. All those innocent
people, dead, because of me.

“He needs to die.” I said in a deep voice, a
voice of focus and drive.

“I know, but its not your call love, he needs
to answer for all his crimes. Besides, you would have done the same
to avenge me, or your brother, wouldn’t you?” she said. She was
right. He was acting the same way I would have acted in his
situation. I killed his brother, I needed to answer for my crimes
too. I was a murderer as well. Shit, I am a murderer! It still
makes me sick to think of how all this has happened. Im not an
innocent victim. I am a bringer of death and sadness to his family.
To them I am the villain. It was in that moment my heart changed.
Everything came into focus. Not just Northland but Earth, my home,
Ireland. It took me to go to the most extremes of my emotion to see
what vengeance results in. You don’t see it in the movies or read
it in books. You are always following the protagonist, the hero.
You read or watch them, being wronged, hunted and route for them to
triumph under the feet of those who oppose them. Its not even in
fiction. It is in business. The larger corporations muscling the
other giants out of the way. Little is thought of the independent
book seller, or the newsagent, the little pub owner or the
tradesman. You don’t see the other side of the coin. I saw the
typical, grumpy, retired old man shouting at the children who
walked on his garden or slamming the door in the face of the
salesman. I saw the other side of those situations, clear as day. I
saw the old man replanting the seeds form a plant he and his late
wife received on their wedding day. I see the old man hanging up
the phone from and insurance agency turning down an overdue 40 year
life plan policy that has come to maturity, before answering the
door to yet another insurance salesman. Most shocking and most
surprising, I saw Ryan. The bully from my high school. He made my
life hell, I hated him but I was seeing things through his eyes. I
saw our group of friends playing hunt in the forest. He had just
moved to the area and him and a friend came to play a game of hunt.
One of my group turned them away after I said there were too many
people playing and teams would be uneven. I saw him spotting me and
feeling that I didn't want him there. I saw him going home and
crying. His dad getting drunk, laughing and making fun of him for
the tears in his eyes, throwing an empty beer bottle and him and
telling him to 'Man up.'

I saw him walking into school and spotting
me. I saw him trying to talk to me and I pushed past him and
ignored him after I was confronted by the fifth year I bumped into
on the first day. I saw the anger in his heart. The hatred he felt
for me for how I had wronged him. I felt embarrassed at how I
treated him in that moment. I then drift to visions of Northland.
Of the family who sold their life’s possessions to afford more rent
in the house they reside in only to have it stolen by the thieves
guild the evening before it is due. I see the trader who I
encountered in Renir. He is handing out profits from his business
to other struggling sellers in order to keep economy turning. I see
the fight we had there, when once of the thieves guild robed him of
his possessions, and gifts given to him by his wife and family. My
vision snaps back into the moment. A tear falls from my cheek,
caught only on the back of my hand. The one holding the blade
again. I leant down, low, to bring my face close to his. I put the
blade under his chin by the flat end. I lifted his head back to he
was facing me. He stirred slightly and groaned. His eyelids
flickered and slowly opened. I wanted my eyes to be the first thing
that he saw. They rolled for a while then found me. Narrowed then
winded as the realisation of his situation sank in.