The Unlucky Man (22 page)

He leaned in to me, speaking low, "Everyone who touches the beast is affected. Millions will die. The whole world will tip, the whole world will burn." Horst leant in even closer, "And I will be one with the shadow, this he has promised. With him, I will be a god." He leant back, suddenly bored of me, it seemed.

"Awake," he said, "Go now, and remember before the end, know that you are the key to all this, that you have ended the world as we know it. I don’t imagine you will live through the experience, so be sure to enjoy it while it lasts." He smiled a cruel, cold smile. "Cut him loose," he said to the giant, who obligingly leant forwards and sliced the plastic bindings holding me in the chair before tossing them casually to the floor.

And then they were gone, leaving me to wake alone.

Loess and Whimsy were still above me, shouting their life and fear into the empty air. I had been manipulated to this point, by Horst and whatever malign consciousness dwelt in the swirling darkness. But it was too late to change my mind. Cards dealt, I let go of the ladder and let myself fall into the dark.

This wasn’t the end, I knew. Horst had misjudged that much at least, it was the beginning. The shadow swallowed me and I felt the world changing as it rushed from the pit that had been so long its prison to infect the whole of creation. The shadow in my mind uncurled joyfully. They always take something from you, Wychelo had said but he’d been wrong too: in my case it had given something back.

All around me the darkness was filled with roaring triumph. The world was about to shift: nothing was going to be the same again. I could feel the change coming. Let’s see what happens.

I was the Unlucky Man I thought, not for myself but for everyone else.

The shadow rushed around me, filling my mind with its victorious, jubilant roar, as it spilled from the well that had been its prison for so long to drown the world. I heard within the laughter of the beast.

I am the Unlucky Man and I have pulled the world into hell.

But this isn’t the end for me.

I’m coming back.

And I’ll set things right.

I’ll have my revenge.

Or die trying.