Edge of End (21 page)

I was about to turn back when a wail
washed over us. The source was on the other side of the wall on my
right.

“
No!” I recognized
Elizabeth’s voice at once. “Get off me!”

She was in danger. She needed
me.

I forgot about the evil lurking in the
dark. My eyes glazed over, and my blood pounded around my body
crazily. Elizabeth was behind that wall, much closer than I had
expected. I had to make it through the stony wall that was
separating us.

Malcolm opened his mouth, but before
any words left his throat, I punched the sturdy wall with all my
might. It gave in instantly as my supernatural power travelled
along my arm and into my clenched fist.

With a roar, the wall exploded and
tumbled backwards. As it broke apart, the pieces of the demolished
wall froze in mid-air as if time had stopped. There was nothing but
darkness and emptiness behind the wall of suspended bricks. I could
have easily stretched out my hand and touched them.

If I were to fall through the hole I
had made, I would drop into a bottomless abyss. I would fall and
fall and never reach the ground.

The shape of a mystical
woman–Melissa’s mother–materialized from the black air, her wispy
black hair blowing behind her. She was suspended in mid-air,
staring intently into my eyes. Without really knowing or
understanding what was going on, I looked at her in disbelief,
unable to turn away from her. Her appearance had paralyzed my
limbs.

“
Jonathan
,” she whispered
ruefully.

As she spoke she breathed small puffs
of white clouds into the air that fused with the dark air. Beneath
the haze, I could see her twisted and distorted face.

The woman lifted her hand and drew her
palm closer to her mouth to blow delicate clouds into my face.
Suddenly the stream of cloud took the form of a devil. It became
alive, rising above my head and then it swooped down towards
me.

It was well beyond my understanding. I
stood motionless and watched so dazed and confused by the
strangeness that I had forgotten to breathe. My body was failing me
and disobeying my will.

The swooping cloud was an inch from me
and then it just disappeared. I found myself somehow lying on the
floor with Malcolm beside me. A huge gust of wind blew from the end
of the corridor and poured into the cavern in the wall; it
overwhelmed us and spread throughout the darkness. I felt myself
gliding over the floor. The flurry of wind picked me up and carried
me towards that monstrous mouth of nothing.

“
Hold on!” Malcolm cried
out, catching me by my arm.

He pulled me over backwards onto the
floor, both of us struggling against the strong wind. Malcolm
crawled along the corridor heading towards the two doors. I was
trying with all my might to follow and keep up. Digging my nails
into the old wooden floorboards, I tried to drag myself along.
Blood seeped through my nails and my fingers trembled in agonizing
pain.

Malcolm reached the doors
and threw himself into the next room. I was a few steps behind him
fighting for my
life
.

Elizabeth’s scream came from Malcolm’s
direction. “Don’t touch me!”

I told myself I had to survive–not
just for my sake, but for hers too. I reasoned with myself that
whatever had her at that moment, I had to free her and help her
escape its evil embrace. But first, I had to fight my way through
those deadly winds.

Gathering all my strength, I continued
crawling. Numb with pain and bright red from my own blood, my
fingers throbbed. Leaning against the damp walls, I pushed my
aching body towards Malcolm.

“
Come on, just a little
bit more,” he stretched out his hand to grab me and pull me
up.

Malcolm had known what lay
behind that wall. He had warned me against demolishing it, but as
always my mind was on Elizabeth and I had hurried to her without
giving too much thought to the evil and the games the
town
had planned for me.
It was Malcolm who had saved me from falling into the bottomless
abyss. He had remained in control and managed to push me away from
the huge mouth of darkness when my mind had been fully occupied by
the powerful vision that the darkness had brainwashed me with.
Although I could clearly see the anger in his expression, he still
hadn’t left me and that spoke volumes.

I stretched out my hand, and he was
able to catch it. He pulled me up through the high crazy winds. I
used my legs to help him, but even my very own supernatural power
wasn’t enough to fight against the sucking maelstrom of the
darkness hiding behind the wall. The powerful evil had been lurking
there for some time, craving fresh souls, craving me, but I wasn’t
going to give in to it easily–no way!

With great difficulty we managed to
inch me closer to the doors. Malcolm moved back slightly giving me
enough room to grab onto the doorframe in front of me.

I had survived; I had managed to break
free from the nothingness. I sighed in relief. My muscles loosened
up and I looked at Malcolm smiling awkwardly.

He shook his head. “From now on never
touch anything without asking,” he said harshly.

I sat up and leaned against the side
of the door, tilting my head back and breathing rapidly. Malcolm
sat on a small step in front of me. I slowly became aware of the
room behind him–it was hazy and indecipherable.

Elizabeth’s screaming made me come to
my senses. Malcolm swung around. I was at the point of jumping to
my feet when a human’s hand came out from the fuzzy interior of the
room and grasped Malcolm’s shoulder.

“
Watch out,” I cried to
him, but before the old man could react, the hand had dragged him
out of my view.

“
Malcolm!” I shouted,
pushing myself quickly to my feet.

The crazy wind was still blowing, its
powerful force skirting around me and flying into the narrow
passage.

I balled my hands into fists, my
eyebrows arched, and darted after Malcolm and towards Elizabeth,
into the unknown.

I ran through the haze. It felt like I
was in a completely different time and place.

I threw myself into the dimly lit
room–large with two small windows to my left. A table stood between
them. Against the wall in front of me, there was a broken cupboard,
and Malcolm lying beside it, surrounded by broken pieces of glass
and plates. Whatever had snatched Malcolm had slammed him right
into the cupboard with a brutal force.

There in the furthest corner Elizabeth
was cowering, her legs up against her chest and her chin resting on
her knees. Her eyes lowered to the floor, she was shivering–she
paid me no heed.

Before I could turn my head to take a
look around and find out what had caused the disorder in there,
somebody or something had grabbed me from my left. I found myself
in the air, my feet kicking uselessly as I was pulled up off the
floor. My eyes fell on the creature holding me–its long and nasty
fingers gripped tightly around my neck.

It was a human, a robust-looking man
of about forty. His face was chubby, his skin worn and his long
straggly hair was filthy and hung carelessly over his shoulders.
With his bloody eyes he was trying to stare me out with his furious
look. I was certain he was ready to snap my neck or decapitate
me.

Without even thinking about it, I
raised my fist and punched him squarely in the face. My strike made
him lower me, but his nasty fingers remained where they
were.

He raised his evil looking eyes full
of malice and looked me dead in the eye. My stomach began to do
flips; I suddenly felt sick. Then he lifted me into the air again
and punched me right in my stomach.

I flew back slamming into the wall and
in slow motion I slid down the wall and fell in a heap on the
ground.

“
Jonathan!” Elizabeth’s
voice was distant. She was curled up in the corner.

All the air had left my lungs. I
choked and spluttered trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t seem to
get any air into my lungs, but when I did I sucked it in
greedily.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the
dimness. Malcolm was scrambling to his feet several feet away, and
then I turned my eyes to Elizabeth. She too had managed to find her
feet again.

There were heavy footsteps above my
head. Somebody grabbed a clump of my hair and pulled me up. A sharp
pain shot from my head down to my tail bone. I yelped in shock
unable to help myself get up again, and instinctively I grabbed a
hold of the hand that was hoisting me up.

“
Little prick,” he snarled
sarcastically as he watched in delight. I hopelessly tried to free
myself from his grasp.

“
Jonathan, no! Fight him!”
Elizabeth begged me as if I had had a chance, and had refused to
take it. Probably I had, but the unexpected attack had
disorientated me.

Malcolm came to help again. He lunged
at the man punching him in the face. With a single hit, he had made
him let go of my hair and driven him back. I was still on my knees
as I watched Malcolm fight furiously against the beefy man, but no
matter how strong and big your muscles were, they meant nothing in
this afterlife. It was only power that counted, and he was super
strong. Perhaps he was even mightier than Malcolm; it was his
house, his territory after all.

I recalled Malcolm saying that each
resident was at its peak in terms of strength in its own house. We
were just guests; we had become significantly weaker when we had
crossed the house’s threshold.

As I had expected, Malcolm was unable
to defeat the owner with ease. He was tossed back against the wall,
and he fell to the floor right next to me.

“
Fuckin’ guy is too
strong,” he said coughing up blood.

“
That means we are too
close to the light,” I remarked.

“
If we can ever leave this
house.” A playful smile appeared on his face. Again the game. “Your
power is different. It doesn’t depend on your house.”

I rose. It was my turn to test my
strength.

“
Jonathan,” Elizabeth
called out with a sobbing voice. “What should I do?”

“
Help Malcolm,” I replied
and faced the man. “Come on,” I roared, balling my right hand into
a fist, my nails digging deep into my palm.

He smiled, his eyes twinkling with
pleasure. Probably he was imagining squashing me like a butterfly
and crushing my bones. With a heavy slap, he interlocked his
fingers and then spread his arms wide, welcoming me into his deadly
embrace. But I remained put. I was going to let him attack
first.

He read me like a book and immediately
charged towards me. I remained still, my fists clenched and ready
to do what they could.

From just one step away, he took a
strike. It was meant for my face, but I ducked just in time,
punching back right into his gut, like he had previously done to
me. With that one hit, his feet left the floor and he landed a foot
away.

I saw surprise register in his eyes.
With a roar, I launched myself towards him grabbing his neck and
punching him hard in the face with every ounce of my power. He
tumbled to the floor and spat out two of his bloodied teeth. I was
possessed, and I continued kicking him maliciously, sending him to
sliding across the wooden floorboards, finally smashing against the
table.

I glanced back at Malcolm. Elizabeth
was knelt beside him, helping the old man to stand up.

“
Are you okay?” I asked
Elizabeth.

“
I guess so,” she said.
“I’m sorry Jonathan. I had nowhere to run. That beast was behind
me, I panicked and–”

“
It’s okay Elizabeth,” I
interrupted gently. “You’re safe with me now.”

The man let out an almighty howl,
attracting my attention away from Elizabeth. He was on all-fours,
struggling to his feet.

“
I’ll be right back,” I
said over my shoulder. I approached the man calmly and snatched his
right arm, and twisting it back. The crack of his bone echoed
through the air, followed quickly by his scream of pain. I let him
go, and he crashed to the floor.

When I swung around Malcolm was
already standing up. I threw him a brief look of thanks and hurried
towards Elizabeth. She threw her arms around my neck in
relief.

“
I thought I had lost
you,” she whispered in my ear. “I was running without really
thinking. I didn’t look back, and I threw myself into darkness
without even considering what kind of danger was dwelling here,”
she explained.

“
You’re with me now,
you’ll be okay,” I reassured her.

“
Yes, and we’d better get
moving,” Malcolm interrupted.

I ran my eyes over his excited
face.

“
The wall’s cracking,” he
pointed behind him. It was splitting as though a huge force on the
other side was pushing the wall to get through. “Jonathan, you know
what is behind the wall, don’t you?”

Nothingness–sucking souls to imprison
them in the darkness forever. What would happen to us if it broke
free?