Edge of End (26 page)

I noticed movements in the dark.
Something was out there, approaching. Malcolm waved his hand
meaning to hide, and I leaned against the wall, with one eye
following the disturbed darkness.

Elizabeth took my hand into hers,
brought her mouth to my ear and said in a hiss:

“
I’m happy we met,
Jonathan. Thank you for everything.”

I left the window and glanced in her
sad eyes. She probably thought this was the end of everything, we
were discovered. I caressed her cheek and pressed my forehead
against hers. I wanted to say her I was happy too, and she had
lightened my dire afterlife in the town. My lips didn’t move to let
out a word, instead they found Elizabeth’s.

As the kiss was over, I looked into
her eyes once again sadness still attached to them, but they also
twinkled, I carefully peeked out the window and saw Mangaliny some
steps away. I gave Malcolm a questioning look and he
shrugged.

“
What is it?” Elizabeth
asked.

“
The barwoman,” I
answered. “Now we know where the door in the café leads to,” I said
with a slight smile, though nobody saw it.

Even in the night Mangaliny looked
humanly except her hair; if in the café they were dirty and
unattractive, here they gleamed in the dark like thousands of
diamond threads. She was clad in black dress that was wriggling in
the wind in slow motion.

She kept staring ahead as if expecting
someone, and we watched her in silence. After a while a soul-eater
came into my view that glided over the ground to her. Malcolm and I
exchange a look.

The demon came to a halt before
Mangaliny and the next moment the silence was broken by its wail.
Two demons started talking in alien language, rather gurgling than
speaking. Then, all of a sudden, Mangaliny turned her gaze towards
us. Both Malcolm and I jerked down but before she saw us. I was
sure of that and was waiting two demons on us any moment. Nothing
happened the next some seconds, the gurgling went on.

Malcolm dared another look the first.
I followed him and peeked out to see them talking, Mangaliny
showing something by her hand and indicating ahead. What were they
talking about?

Another soul-eater came out of the
dark and joined them. I felt a flatter in my stomach and looked at
Elizabeth who hadn’t clue what was going outside. I thought of
against keeping her informed. Any sound may spoil
everything.

Mangaliny lowered her hand to her
side, and the three demons started off widening the distance
between us. Before she was out of my sight into the darkness she
stole a last glance at as, a quick one.

“
She buys time for us,”
Malcolm guessed. “She’s taking them away.”

“
You should definitely
marry her,” I teased.

“
What’s going on?”
Elizabeth asked and I told her about Mangaliny shortly.

“
Okay, we can go now,” I
said. “Can you manage it?”

Elizabeth exhaled and nodded. I cupped
her face with my icy hands.

“
You’re on the lead,” I
told her then glanced at Malcolm. “Ready?”

“
Let’s go,” he
replied.

Within seconds we were running again,
first slowly as our legs were frozen.

I guessed we covered another mile when
I finally spoke.

“
Elizabeth,” I called to
her.

“
We’re almost there,” she
didn’t let me to finish.

I looked at Malcolm running right next
to me expecting to see him out of breath but the old solder seemed
to be better runner than any of us.

Abruptly Elizabeth halted and I had to
swerve not to run into her back.

“
What is it?” I asked but
Elizabeth didn’t respond as the answer was lying at our feet. It
was me or rather the other me. A man like we’d seen before who’d
been fleeing from shadow was lying unconscious, the skin on his
face ruffling. The ground could be seen through him, he seemed
unreal, and if I reached him I’d only touch the air.

“
This’s not right,” I
found myself mumbling. “My soul couldn’t be torn apart, can
it?”

“
Maybe this is something
else,” Elizabeth spoke.

“
Meaning?” I asked
impatiently.

“
This is so familiar to
me,” she said slowly, thoughtful. “I saw you like this before.
You’re going to keel over right now.”

As she finished the ghostly me opened
its eyes and turned over onto his stomach. He didn’t heed us, he
looked aside. I followed his gaze and saw a woman lying three steps
far from us.

“
Elizabeth,” I
whispered.

“
I know. That’s me,” she
responded. Not really her, though. Like the man she was transparent
and raffling–a hologram.

My ghost said something to the woman,
his eyebrows arched in agony, and Elizabeth’s answered. The real
Elizabeth wheeled around curtly and jerked aside. As I looked back
I saw the humanoid monster’s hologram, the one that had attacked us
in Elizabeth’s house, coming right into me. I stepped back. It
walked past me and grabbed the man lifting him up.

“
This is us at your
house,” I said perplexed.

“
Yes. We see what
happened, we see the past,” Elizabeth said. “They don’t exist, they
are fragments of us.”

“
I’m starting to like her
more than you Jonathan,” Malcolm said jokingly. “She does have
meaning.”

“
Did something like this
happen in town?” I asked Malcolm.

“
Never,” he was
short.

“
He’s choking you,”
Elizabeth brought my eyes back at the monster holding me in the
air. I glance back hoping to see the bright light piercing its way
through the grey sky as I had seen in the town. Nothing.

When my gaze returned to the monster,
my ghost was lying on the ground, Elizabeth at my side on her
knees. Malcolm’s ghost was fighting the monster off.

“
Let’s go,” I said. “We
don’t have much time to watch the movie of our past.”

“
Maybe this is the key to
the door out of here?” Malcolm stopped me.

“
This only attracts the
demons. The key is Elizabeth’s house,” I said.

“
What if it
isn’t?”

“
Then we’re done. I trust
her feelings, so I’m with her.”

Elizabeth’s eyes gleamed. “Malcolm, I
don’t know how it works but somehow I feel the exit is nearer than
ever.”

At that very moment a wail thundered
the air, its powerful wave hitting me in the chest and sending
chills over my body. I was right, the demonstration of our past got
too much attention.

“
Go!” Malcolm ordered
dryly.

We let the movie of our past went on
and set off at a run. The wind now blew against us slowing us down.
My ears were frozen and I thought if I touched them, they’d crack
and split into pieces.

Wails followed each other now closer
and closer coming from every direction. The demons were around us
everywhere, encircling us.

“
We’re almost there. I can
feel it,” Elizabeth cried out over her shoulder. And then a
soul-eater’s hideous face appeared in front of us blocking our
way.

Elizabeth skidded to a stop and stared
at the demon immobilized. I couldn’t see her face but I could sense
the horror overwhelming her. The soul-eater didn’t hesitate, the
next moment with great speed rushed onto her. I reached her from
behind wrapping my hand around her and tossed ourselves aside. The
demon missed and rushed past us.

Elizabeth and I fell down to the
ground, rolling over it and finally stopped. I coughed out dust and
quickly glanced at the demon. I expected some help from Malcolm,
but the old man stood rooted to the spot watching us struggle
against the soul-eater like watching a horror movie.

I peered back–there was a
half-standing building from twenty to thirty steps away.

“
Get up,” I grabbed
Elizabeth’s arm and pulled her into her feet. “Run!”

I pointed to the building, and we
sprinted toward it. The demon set off as we were on the
half-way.

“
Quick!” I cried
out.

I would reach the building faster than
Elizabeth but I didn’t want to widen the distance between us.
Keeping a step ahead I ran and glanced back–the soul-eater was
approaching much faster.

I reached the building and winded in
through the doorway, Elizabeth on my tail. Before entering I dared
a glance back finding out the demon right behind us. As we were in,
my eyes scanned the surroundings in a second. There was a corridor
to my left where I headed grabbing Elizabeth’s arm. As we veered
the demon entered the building through a wall as if it didn’t even
exist.

Elizabeth’s hand in mine we darted
along the corridor and through darkness. There was a staircase in
the end. The demon let out a wail that filled into my head and rang
my brain.

“
Go on,” I told Elizabeth
as we reached the stair, and she started climbing them. I stole the
last look at the demon and followed her climbing the stairs two at
a time. “Don’t stop! Go!”

I was between two floors when the
demon appeared right behind me, the next moment ready to catch my
poor soul and suck it entirely. I was a lost soul already, I
wouldn’t manage my way to the next floor. I wished my soul would
slow down the demon and give Elizabeth some time to flee, but then
what would be good if she reached the town. The light would be gone
with me and she’d found herself in the threshold of hell without
any chance to go back and reunite with her body.

I couldn’t do anything, I was weak and
slow. I expected a prickle from behind followed by an unbearable
pain when the soul-eater started sucking me, instead the stairs
under my feet didn’t stand my weight and fell taking me with them
through the hole, Elizabeth’s shout crying my name ringing in my
ears. With a thud I hit the ground floor rolling over it the ruined
pieces raining over me. I shielded my head with my hands until the
rain stopped, and then opened my eyes. I could see nothing through
the dark and dust. I didn’t know where the demon had gone–after
Elizabeth or it had turned back and climbed down–however, it hadn’t
jumped into the hole on the staircase.

I crawled over the floor until I was
out of dusty cloud. There was an empty room. The demon’s wail came
right behind the wall to my right and I realized it was coming
after me.

I looked about hoping to come up with
an idea that would help me flee from the soul-eater. The only
salvation was the hole on the wall across the room. I sprang to my
feet and sprinted to it. Just at the very end I unlatched myself
from the floor and flew head-first through the hole.

I acknowledged that a soul-eater
couldn’t see through walls while it could easily walk through them.
I had leaned against the wall and with out of the corner of my eye
looked into the next room. The demon glided in and regarded the
room, its long ears strained to any sound. If it saw me it’d rush
to me in less than a second, but it stood to the spot,
searching.

Also I came to the realization that a
soul-eater couldn’t jump, it needed steady ground to glide over it
or its wings needed storm to fly. Weak wind wouldn’t unlatch it
from the ground. It needed light to become transparent, night had
removed the curtain off it and my eyes could see it smoking in slow
motion.

Amongst all its extraordinary skills
it had two weaknesses that now I was aware of. The question was how
to use them against this demon and find Elizabeth.

It wouldn’t be difficult to understand
where I was lurking, because the only way out the room was through
hole, or the other way was up, where the roof absented and I should
have magical wings which would fly me up another two
floors.

The mystical light that was spread
over the night city, like it was a full moon night, let me
acknowledge the room I was now. Behind me there was a doorway, and
I darted to it finding myself in the beginning of the corridor
again. I could turn back and get out of the building through the
way Elizabeth and I had come, but I took the way leading to the
broken staircase.

The demon wailed savagely. I didn’t
slow down, I kept running in my full speed. As I was at the
staircase the soul-eater came into the corridor walking out through
the wall to my right. I guessed it hadn’t expected me in the
building at all, as it rushed past me and got out of the building
through the other wall. It had probably thought I had fled from the
ruined house.

I took my chance and started climbing
the stairs. Now I knew that the soul-eater wouldn’t jump over the
hole on the staircase. If I could manage to reach it I’d be safe.
Without a glance back I tossed myself over the hole. Next moment I
was on all my fours and kept moving ahead.

Reaching the next floor I shot to my
feet and peeked back. The demon had leaned against the wall and was
edging up rounding the ruin on the staircase. My plan didn’t work
entirely. I winded into the room shouting Elizabeth’s name and saw
her at the farthest wall.