Edge of End (15 page)

I looked in awe at her. Where did such
ideas enter her head from?

“
And you tell me we aren’t
dead,” I smirked.

“
I’m just saying,” a
slight smile appeared on her face. “If she’s really demon that’s
exactly what you’re going to find out behind the door.”

“
And if she isn’t? I
asked.

She thought for a moment. “It may be
just another room, that’s all. You saw her flaming hand. We’d
rather not to push her.” She trailed off, putting her hand on her
chest.

“
What is it?” I ask
worriedly.

She looked at me with her eyes
magnified, fear twinkling in them. I asked her again what was
wrong.

“
I can feel it, Jonathan,”
she said with mysterious voice.

“
Feel what?”

“
My house,” she paused to
look at me again then tilted her head. “It’s calling
me.”

“
I don’t follow–” I was
interrupted by Elizabeth weak and short squeak. Her mouth open, she
looked at me in horror, the muscles of her neck wrinkling in agony.
“What is it? Elizabeth!” I held her by shoulders and shook her. A
moment ago I had wanted her away, alone I’d reach the light easier,
but, you know how human reaction works, you see someone in trouble
and you hurry to hold out a helping hand. Wouldn’t you do that? I
did. I shook her body while she was staring through me at the empty
spot, her breath stopped in her throat.

“
Elizabeth,” I repeated
her name. “Can you hear me?” Then I glanced at Malcolm hoping to
have his help, but the old man was still on the floor
motionless.

Then, all of a sudden, Elizabeth
sucked a huge gulp of the air, and I knew she was back.

“
What did you see?” I
asked. “Elizabeth, what did happen?”

“
Jonathan,” she whispered
her voice barely audible. She blinked, her eyes were darker than
usual.

“
I’m here, I’m with you,”
I said exhaling in relief. “What did you see?” I asked again. I
knew her vision may be useful.

“
The same glade,” she
answered this time her voice clearer. “I was engulfed in green
again, alone. I don’t want to go back to my house. I hate
loneliness. Why does it keep calling me, Jonathan?” As she said she
rested her head on my chest, and her scent vaporized filling my
nose. I inhaled deeply enjoying her sweet smell as I closed my
eyes. For a split second, I felt alive again, but just for a
second. “I dread staying alone again,” she murmured desperately. “I
might survive here if you were with me, but you’ve got a chance,
and you have to leave.” I had no words to reply; I was holding her
in my arms, my chin resting on her head. “I just… I don’t know,
Jonathan. This is unjust, this place is very wrong. Why me? What
have I done, tell me?”

Yes, really, what could
she have done wrong in real life? Elizabeth was different from
Malcolm and I; she was a warm and sensitive woman and didn’t fit in
this
town
. She
definitely wasn’t a remorseless and rigid person like Malcolm, or
even me.

I winced at those thoughts
trying desperately to push them away from my head.
You don’t know who she is,
my mind told me.

Elizabeth detached herself from me,
her face appearing right in front of mine, and she looked at me
affectionately, tracing her finger over my cheek and
lips.

I realized she didn’t need
any words from me. She didn’t urge me to answer as she realized
that a part of me–the one that reasoned wisely–was going to leave
her in the
town
and find his way out of here. But still her that look–it
didn’t blame me for what I was going to do. Her eyes watched me
affectionately.

What had she found in me?
Now she definitely knew what kind of person I was, so what could it
be that attracted her to me?
Was it only
my power, my ability to find the exit?

Elizabeth leant in closely, her
trembling lips brushing upon mine. That kiss wasn’t a kiss that
normal humans experienced. No, it was a kiss between our
souls.

Every single feeling she
possessed was transmitted to me. I felt her fear wash over me; her
fear of losing me; her fear of staying alone in her ghostly home;
her fear of being stuck here, held prisoner in this damned
town
.

When we kissed, I saw a little girl.
It wasn’t Melissa, but the girl I had seen in the photo album lying
open on the coffee table in Elizabeth’s house. She was there,
defenseless as a leaf against high wind.

Blackness entered my mind; the girl
disappeared into the darkness leaving me utterly alone in
nothingness.

I let go of Elizabeth and stood up
looking out at nothing, all my feelings leaving me. For a moment or
two it felt like the world was against me.

For some time I remained gazing into
blank space; the smoky clouds obscuring my view. I was still
perplexed and paralyzed, watching the smoke grow, and then found
myself staring out the café window without focusing my gaze
anywhere in particular.

The storm outside had gone. I blinked,
exhaled deeply and flexed my fingers recognizing I was back
again.

“
Jonathan,” Malcolm’s
voice rang in my ears. My eyes jerked. He was sitting in front of
me, his expression serious. “Time to go, get up! The storm has
faded; you’re losing time.”

I howled. My body (in a figurative
sense only–my real body was lying somewhere on Earth) felt
weary.

“
What happened?” I
asked.

“
The power of the town,”
Malcolm replied. “It’s natural here. You fell into some kind of
trance.”

I arched my eyebrows trying to recall
the last thing my eyes had registered in my head. It was Elizabeth,
her beautiful face, her good tasting lips on mine. I recalled I had
felt what she had. Could those feelings of hers be
false?

Look what the town is
doing to you. It squeezes your soul, it plays with your feelings
and uses them against you,
my wit told me.
I ignored it.

“
Where is Elizabeth?” I
asked crossly, my eyes widening with a sudden panic. There was
nobody in the café apart from Malcolm and myself.

“
She left,” Malcolm
offered flatly. “Forget about her, Jonathan. You know she’d only
slow you down. With her in tow, you’ll miss your
chance.”

“
What have you done to
her?” I demanded.

“
I did nothing,” he
interrupted me crossly. “I told her the truth and she strode off
her own free will.”

“
What kind of
truth?”

“
You know the truth. Stop
playing with me,” he raised his voice angrily. “She’s too weak to
make such a trip. Do you really think those doglike creatures and
those humanoid monsters outside are the only things waiting for you
out there? The town itself will rise in defense if you decide to
take her. Taking someone who has entered its house is against the
rules. This is not a game Jonathan; this is the threshold of
hell.”

I jolted up from the chair instantly,
knocking it backwards. It fell noisily to the floor behind me. I
threw a wicked glance towards Malcolm and hurried out of the
café.

“
Jonathan,” he called
after me, but I ignored him.

I paused on the café steps
momentarily. Gazing from left to right, I carefully inspected my
surroundings. I was well aware of the monsters and demons that
might cross my path but surprisingly, the queer-looking street
stood empty and abandoned, just as it had been before the
storm.

To my left there was the Godly light,
my salvation, my destination, my passage to my real body. It cut
through the gray skies and reflected off the solid ground. I stared
at it admiringly; it was lucid, very bright, almost
blinding.

“
Jonathan,” Malcolm was
behind me standing at the café door. “I did you a favor, a second
favor. Get a grip and get out of this town. You still have a chance
to change your life; don’t lose it for a woman. I know she’s nice,
she’s sexy, but you’ll find many more just like her, in
reality.”

My wit was desperately
convincing me to listen to Malcolm and head for the light alone,
but I decided to trust my instincts. While I was looking at Malcolm
I realized that Elizabeth had been a sign given by Melissa. The
little girl hadn’t dragged me into the house supposed for me, she
had showed me the path leading to Elizabeth. I didn’t know who
Melissa was to me, and my instincts told me to listen to her. If I
wanted to start a new me, I must do it right away. If I didn’t want
me back in this
town
after I went back to Earth, this was the right moment to
change myself. The
town
itself, without realizing it, had given me a good
opportunity.

If I left Elizabeth I’d be
the same heartless, monstrous guy who did deserve the
town
. I’d add up another
sin to my long list.

I raised my thoughtful eyes on the old
man.

“
Fuck you and your favors,
Malcolm,” I cried angrily. “Nobody here would do a favor for
nothing. You think I’m so stupid as to believe you’re willing to
help me?” I raised my forefinger into the air and jabbed it towards
him. “You’re an old son of a bitch, who wants to get out of here
using my ability, aren’t you? Nobody appears here accidentally. We
are all monsters here, and monsters can’t be any good. We are
monsters even after life is over. You do a favor for a
favor.”

“
You don’t know what kind
of favor I want you to do for me yet,” Malcolm cut me off sternly
and stepped closer to me. “I don’t need to get out of here; it’s
too late for me.”

“
What else would you want
other than that, Malcolm?” I laughed out loud. “There is nothing
else.”

“
You know nothing about
this place,” he spoke those words solemnly. “You’ve only spent
several miserable moments in the town; you have only understood a
few things, and that was with my help. It would’ve taken you a very
long time to try and figure these things out by yourself. It’s
completely natural that you want to leave, but your leaving will
turn out to be a temporary one. You’ll die one day and come back to
this hell again. People like us never change, even if we’ve passed
through hell and back.” He said matter-of-factly.

“
You don’t know
me-”

“
You don’t know yourself,”
Malcolm chuckled.

“
Yes, that’s my weapon
against my previous life,” I realized. “I don’t want to know the
former me. I choose to get to know the new me.”

Malcolm gazed at me attentively.
“We’re on a tight schedule. The light won’t stay around and wait
for you to reach it. Your power grows fast, but the light is fading
at the same time.”

“
So I have to run that
risk. If I leave Elizabeth here and hurry back into my body, I will
become the same monster I was all my life.”

“
But you won’t go back
with her either. You’ll just remain here and you’ll be the same
monster that you were, or even worse.”

Worse? I thought. The real me was the
worst in me, and I wanted to leave it behind.

I needed Elizabeth. I had thought she
had just been using me, but after the kiss I had realized I had
been sent to help her.

I wheeled around curtly and set
off.

“
What an idiot,” Malcolm
said after me.

“
Fuck off,” I said back
over my shoulder.

Malcolm didn’t follow me, just watched
me walk until I was completely out of sight.

The storm had come and
gone. It had cleaned the
town,
and then just like that it had left, appearing to
have taken nothing with it. The houses remained unharmed though
they were covered in thick blankets of dust. The demons of the
storm–soul-eaters–might’ve taken some poor souls though. I hoped
Elizabeth wasn’t among them and that she had left the café after
the storm.

I reached Elizabeth’s house. The
remains of the torn fence lay scattered in the yard. The white
front door of the house was missing, and the only reminder of it
was the pieces of wood that were strewn across the dry
lawn.

Clenching my fists tightly, I stepped
into the yard. As I had expected, an eerie dog appeared. We stared
into each other’s eyes while two streams of saliva dribbled down
its long fangs and dripped to the ground.

I felt the corner of my eyes twitch.
“Come on,” I challenged, but the dog stood its ground, not
stirring.

Taking a step closer to the house and
then bravely taking another one, and another, I moved on, but the
dog didn’t dare attack me. For my surprise it slowly moved back
until finally it disappeared behind the house.

I ran my eyes over my right palm
curiously trying to make sense of my invisible power. How strong
had I become?

I was right in front of the entrance
to the house. Breathing deeply, I hurried in. Next I was in the
same corridor leading to the living room. Carefully, but hastily I
entered the room. Nothing had changed; the same atmosphere as
before hung in the air. Even the album on the table remained
untouched.