The Mortal Fringe (29 page)

"You are crazy" I whisper with the
little breath I have.

"I'm not, I can assure you that" she
squeezes my neck harder.

I can hear the people celebrating
under my feet. It doesn't matter how hard I tried to scream for
help, no one would hear me now. And if they did, I cannot imagine
what the reaction might be.

"I must admit, Alexander, that I value
your honor" she looks at me in the most interesting way "why would
you put your life forward for someone who wants you
dead?"

"You know nothing."

"You are wrong, I know everything."
she squeezes even harder. "You must be so important, to put on all
this performance for your protection. Did you really think that
going away with that useless girl would help at all? I would have
not advised you to leave her taking care of your dear
mother."

I lose control when she mentions them.
When she mentions my mother. I start to make hard and dangerous
movements and shout as hard as I can.

"What have you done to them?" I
scream.

"Dear boy, you will see them
soon."

I scream again. But she puts her hand
on top of my head and I go suddenly silent. I can't talk, nor move.
I can only stare at her.

"Do you know what you are?"

"Nothing?" I ask with my voice as
quietly and relaxed as I can, she is doing this to me. I can't
control what I feel or say.

"No" She gets closer to me, I can
sense here lips touching my ears as she whispers. "You are my
trigger, and I thank you for that."

I don't understand what she means, but
I can't ask. Her hand is still on me, and the other is still
pressing my neck.

"I'll say hello to her for
you."

"Don't..." I can hardly make out the
words. It comes out being less than a whisper.

She moves me away from her and starts
to open her hand.

"Just the way I like it" she looks
down and then back at me, smiling with malice "You really thought
that being around so many people would make me back up? How nice of
you" she jokes "Let them watch."

She opens her hand, and I
fall.

CHAPTER 42

Nothing. That's what I feel as I fall
down from the upper darkness of the sky. Far away from here I can
hear Mal's laughter, but I don't care. It is finally over, this
nightmare has been going on for too long.

Suddenly, the screaming of those in
the stands that have noticed something falling from the sky. Me.
The cold and wet weather feels different as I get closer to the
ground. I close my eyes to welcome my finale. Scarcely before
smashing myself into the mud someone holds me, I am not falling
alone anymore. I open my eyes.

"Did you miss me, buddy?"

"Jay!" I can barely move, I feel the
ground so close to me that I close my eyes again, and scream to the
top of my lungs.

We miss it. I am still alive. I open
my eyes again and I am in a familiar place. The room of the toast.
Back in the tower of London. I thought I would never be back here,
being here reminds me of that moment. Something I have been trying
to forget ever since.

Jay helps me stand up, my whole body
is shaking. The first thing I do is bring my hands to my neck and
make sure that it is still there, for some reason I still feel
Mal's hands on me, and it troubles me.

"Are you ok?" the worried voice does
not come from Jay. Elizabeth is standing in front of me and
although she is not moving, she does not take her eyes away from my
bruises. "I had to send him, I couldn't go... she wouldn't let me"
she bursts into tears.

I run towards her and hold her on my
arms for as long as her companion lets us. Constance attitude is
not welcoming, nor joyful. She is only there to complete the task
she has been working on for a thousand years. I step back, and look
at her. I open my arms.

"What happens now?" Jay asks, holding
my arm, protecting me.

"Now we face her off" I turn around so
I can put a face to the soft voice coming from my back. "Hello
Alex, I'm glad to see you are still alive."

"Emma, enough" Constance's low voice
is like a grudge to my ears.

"We can't let her win this!" she yells
out loud.

"Indeed we can't" the two figures once
introduced as Constance's fellow leaders join them "But we can't
play a part in this fight" Carol is the one talking.

Katherine rises her hand, ordering us
all to stop the talking.

"Let time help forget of the old
mistakes. Be safe within our power until the night
ends."

"No" Carol inquires. "The council
won't give aid to them. There's no place for those who go against
our ways." She turns to me and Elizabeth "There's nothing between
you two but the shadow of what you wish was real."

"I'll take my chances" Elizabeth
claims fearless of the power held in Carol's body.

Constance's eyes shut and quickly move
to meet the Leader.

"I am sorry, my dearest friend. They
can't stay."

Katherine does not move, her eyes
remain open, fixed on me. There is no smile on her face, nor a
pride look. The only thing I see is the eyes of a regretting
soul.

Emma grabs my other hand.

"I'll go with them. I won't let you
kill my sister."

Carol moves her hand and throws Emma
to the other end of the room.

"She killed herself" the woman looks
firmly at Elizabeth. "Summon the Council, Katherine."

Upon those words, Constance runs
towards us and with an agile movement she makes us disappear. I
don't let go of Jay's hand, and I clearly see Elizabeth in front of
me. When we hit land again, I know where we are, The
Atlas.

"You" Constance screams pointing at me
"you did this!" She raises her hand towards me, but I am not
scared.

"Go ahead" I say defiantly. I open my
arms and wait for her strike.

Elizabeth stands by my side and grabs
my hand. Constance looks away, to Jay, who is staring at us,
smiling.

Suddenly, a roaring.

All of us realize something is wrong
when the terrible noise ends. Right in front of us, Mal
materializes herself, holding Tristan's body, threatened by the
knife she used to take that guy's soul.

"Did I miss something?" she laughs "I
never thought you would be so stupid to come here and leave such a
beautiful trace for me to follow. Thank you."

Mal throws Tristan away from her, and
us. She stares at me and keeps smiling.

"I have to admit, you are funnier to
kill than I had anticipated.”

Constance puts herself between Mal and
us.

"You can't be here. This place is just
for Gods and Immortals."

"Can't you see how much I care?" Mal
throws Constance to the distant ground with anger and
fury.

Constance hits the floor so terribly
hard that she loses her notion instantly. Mal is about to repeat
her move when Elizabeth runs to the old woman unconsciously. I try
to do the same, no one deserves to die in that way, but Mal is
faster than me and she gets hold of me again.

"If you did not want me to find you,
the last thing you should do is go back to the most predictable
place. Don't you show them anything, mother?"

Mal looks around, first at Tristan's
motionless body, then at Jay and finally to the two women in front
of us.

"This is almost like a family reunion.
We even brought a meal."

Elizabeth stands up, so does
Constance, who is slowly coming back.

"Why are you doing this?" Elizabeth's
yells could be heard around the world.

My captor squeezes my body.

"Ask her. Tell her to tell you the
truth about me!"

"I know the truth!"

Constance stands forward.

"No, you don't" she whispers
shamefully.

"Oh, I like this!" Mal
screams.

Elizabeth grabs Constance's arm, and
demands an explanation for what's going on. The old woman,
reluctant at first, agrees to Elizabeth's petition, knowing by the
look on her face, that she is about to lose another female
Immortal.

"When your sister was supposed to
become a God, I was warned that she would be tyrannical beyond
reason, she would lack mercy to those inferior to her. She would
rule the underworld breaking the peace that we had so hardly
earned." Constance looks at Mal with tears in her eyes. "I refused
to believe it, I refused to believe my daughter was capable of such
evil, how could I believe that from my sweet girl. But then I saw
it."

"What did you see?" Mal is enjoying
the moment so much that she cannot even hide the
enthusiasm.

"I saw how you gathered a group of
young Immortals, still learning our ways, and slaughtered them all,
for no reason, just to prove your power."

"And what did you do?" The woman
behind me asks. I can't believe what Constance is
saying.

The leader murmurs something, but none
of us is able to hear her.

"What did you do?!" Mal repeats, this
time screaming.

"I killed her catalyst. I destroyed
the mortal fringe. "

Mal points the knife to my throat. She
is not smiling anymore. I can see fury tears dropping from her
green eyes. She is shaking, not out of sorrow, but from
rage.

"You said I was too powerful and
dangerous to become a God, but you made a terrible mistake when you
let me become the leader of the forgotten ones" she screams. "They
greeted me. Tartars showed me the mercy I had never received
before, and now I am finally going to make peace with myself." she
squeezes me harder "You should have crashed my soul when you had
the chance, old woman!" her anger is immeasurable.

"Stop this madness!" Constance yells
when she realizes that the knife is getting closer to my
throat.

"How is she going to turn out, I
wonder?"

"Elizabeth?"

Mal looks around, she shouts something
and suddenly a familiar face shows up. Jessica is in front of me,
but she looks different, more like a soldier.

"Grab him."

The young lady disappears and a second
later she is grabbing Jay by his arms.

"I would advise you not to move" she
says to him "Or I will break you."

Mal looks at the situation and then
she turns back to Constance.

"Malenie, my girl, don't do this"
Constance is begging her.

"No vengeance is ever simple, I am not
just going to hurt you. I am going to destroy you" she looks at
Jessica again and with a single gesture the redheaded woman moves
her arms quickly enough to break Jay's body, that falls to the
ground. Motionless

Elizabeth and I scream
hysterically.

Jessica bends over my friend's body
and smiles back at me with a sadistic and repugnant
smile.

"Stop it!" I can barely hear
Constance's words over Mal's inquiring laughter.

Elizabeth looks directly at me, hiding
all her feelings behind a curtain of tears and a forced
smile.

"
We only fall together
" She thinks, just for
me.

"Tell her everything will be ok, just
like you told me" Mal's rotten voice proofs that she has something
inside her that has kept her going on all these centuries, a
vengeance she will have at any cost.

"Please..."

"Tell her now!"

Constance closes her eyes and turns to
Elizabeth.

"Everything will be alright" she
murmurs.

Mal laughs.

"Welcome to my life, sweetheart. Look
closely, and remember this forever, just like me. Welcome to
Immortality."

She rises her arm and drops it so fast
that I can barely see the blade of the knife moving, I only feel it
breaking my body, my heart, my soul.

I always die in my
dreams.

But this is not a dream.

CHAPTER 43

I was lying dead on the mud when
she came and helped me.

That's what I've been told, or at
least what I think happened.

I open my eyes and I am in a familiar
place. A garden of dried roses. I feel my body, and I can move it
as if nothing had happened. I take a look around, Elizabeth is
sitting by my side. I try to stand up but something on my chest
stops me from doing it. I undo my shirt and I almost black out when
I see the skin ripped off. I try to concentrate on something else
and recover my senses. Then I look back at Elizabeth and I see she
is holding her hand, with a cut similar to mine on the
palm.

"What happened?"

"I took the knife out" she
says.

"But I don't understand, why am I
here, what happened to the others? Jay? Abigail? Tristan? Where are
they, what about my family?" I am hysterical, I can't stop moving
even though the pain kills me every time I do so.